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People now and then ask me what I do to celebrate finishing a book. Do I have a special spa ritual, a nice restaurant I go to, do I buy champagne? In fact, I buy towels.
It takes me about three years to write one of the big books of the main OUTLANDER series, and that’s just about how long it takes for most of the towels around here to be worn out, destroyed in the wash, or taken away by Persons Unnamed to be used to wrap greasy engine parts in. So when a new book is finished, I ceremonially buy new towels for the household.
Back in the day when we had three kids (well, usually more like six, as our kids would bring home friends who liked living at our house more than theirs) and four dogs in the house, and the Person Unnamed would use good towels to wipe up Substances That Any Normal Person Would Use a Paper Towel For (if not a trowel and a blowtorch), I used to buy a special nice fluffy towel, (always red) which I would keep in my closet, hanging concealed inside my bathrobe, just so I could be sure of having something reasonably sanitary and findable, with which to take a shower.
Anyway, when I finished AN ECHO IN THE BONE, the household was down to three rather ratty towels. But I’d finished the book a mere five weeks prior to the publication date (you could hear the poor Production people screaming, all the way from New York, without a phone), and thus the next three weeks were a blinding flurry of last-minute copy-edits, galley proofs, corrections, etc. (which is why I have a brief “Errata” listing for that book, which will be along on the website soon. [cough] All books have errata, alas. And you’re right, Ian couldn’t have made it from Ticonderoga to the Dismal Swamp in the time apparent—but he could if “June 12″ had been properly corrected to “June 1″. We did instigate all the corrections in time for the trade paperback, which will be out this summer, they tell me.)
Once that was done, I had to race around like a mad thing, doing what I could of all the urgent stuff that I hadn’t been doing for the last three months while finishing the book, and doing all the urgent stuff one has to do before leaving on a two-month, four country, two-continent tour (I didn’t even try to count the cities. There were a lot of them, that’s all I can tell you).
So I never managed to buy towels.
Well, then, I arrived back from Australia right into the teeth of Thanksgiving (see post on the delights of turkey sandwiches….ahhhh. We ate all the turkey in three days, but there’s still plenty of white wine left; luckily, it goes really well with Chicken and Mushrooms in Orange Sauce on Noodles). So it was that I only this week got around to finally buying The New Towels.
And these are the towels I bought (I can’t think why anyone would care, but people always ask, so just in case you do care [g]). In Graphite and Cajun Blue. They are in fact delightfully soft, very absorbent, and so far have not been used to swab down muddy dogs nor conscripted into a game of tug-o-war. So, the book is finished, the touring is Done (until mid-January, at least), I’m back in the heart of my household, and the cycle of creation is complete. [g]
[I've not yet figured out how to do captions with photos. The picture at the top there is Homer, hunting lizards in the backyard, while the bottom one is of Homer and his brother JJ playing Tug-o-War with their friend Ranger. (My husband just came in, glanced at the picture and remarked, "You know, _you_ can double-dog dare somebody, and back it up!") Photos courtesy of Ranger's mistress, Susan Butler. Thanks, Susan!]
Mrs Mac–
I knew I had seen that recipe. Googled "Gabaldon chicken mushrooms orange" and came up with only Diana's post from last January with a list of her favorite recipes…names only. But I knew I'd seen it somewhere in conjunction with Diana, not just on a recipe site.
Where could it have been?
Finally, inspiration struck.
It's on page 289 of The Outlandish Companion.
Diana, please, whenever you do Companion II, can it include a comprehensive index?
And, as long as I'm here, months ago, you promised to write something about Dana Stabenow, another of my favorites. I realize you've been busy, but I'd love to see what you have to say.
Please thank whoever had the brilliant idea of having fans give away copies of Outlander. I was one of the lucky recipients of a case of books, and was that fun!
Although when I told my book group that I had copies to give away, I had to say, "No it's really not suitable for us." (We're a synagogue group, focused on "books by Jewish authors and/or of Jewish interest." Which led to me recounting the Mayer Rothschild scene.)
Anyhow, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and a happy, healthy New Year to all.
Arlene
There's no place like home.
Thank you for coming to Dayton (specifically Beavercreek), Ohio. I was one of the first in line and it was a pleasure to meet you!
About adding captions – I add them first, then upload the pictures. Once they show up at the top I click and drag them to where I want them to go. Sometimes I cut and paste them, but if this doesn't go correctly then I lose the picture and have to upload them again. (Annoying.)
I was wondering about that tug-of-war picture with the dogs… please tell me that's not a cat that they're tugging on.
Dear Diana,
I love the pictures of your dogs – they sure are cute. I can sympathize with your towel story. My husband is constantly using mine for things I would rather that he didn't. I have one special towel I keep for myself to have something nice to dry off with!
I'm glad you made it home safe and sound from your travels. I LOVED An Echo in the Bone. I've introduced my sister to the series and she is a bit upset that I've kept it secret for so many years.
I did a recent poll on my blog for most romantic hero and Jamie Fraser won with Mr. Rochester #2 and Mr. Darcy #3. This caused a lot of comment on my blog and on facebook. I think it's safe to say that Mr. Fraser makes a lot of female hearts flutter!
Just a final note – thanks for having Brianna be a strong female engineer. I'm an engineer myself and there are very few engineers in literature, and a female engineer is almost nonexistant. It's nice to have that out there that women can do it and be scientists and engineers!
Laura
I love buying new towels as well-they have so many beautiful colors (although I usually decide I have to do the bathroom completely over in order to match the new towels!). There is nothing like a soft, cozy towel to snuggle up with after a warm shower. One of the simpler pleasures!
And I love the pictures of the pups! Such joy!
Actually, the Golden Retreiver, Ranger, is mine and Homer & JJ were invited for a sleep-over while Diana was in Scotland.
And no, the tug-o-war victim is not a cat…well, not real anyway. It's a stuffed canvas pet toy called "the Big Mean Kitty," and Ranger was happy to have two such worthy opponents for a friendly game. Unfortunately, the toy didn't survive the melee – a tiny puncture eroded into a larger hole while all THREE dogs took turns disembowling it, resulting in fluffy-stuff all over my living room floor!
Ranger wants to know when The Guys will be coming back to play again…
diana, i personally have made the switch to turkish towels and waffle towels. LOVE THEM. you may want to consider them after book 8.
What a fun post to read, Diana!
I participated in NaNoWriMo this year…uploaded 85K+ words to "win" (only required 50K)…of course it's not done yet.
I'm sure it's mostly awful, but at least I can now say, "I wrote a really crappy novel!"
We had a really nice snowstorm up here in Flagstaff yesterday. We ended up with about 26 inches of the white stuff in our yard (we live down in KV). It's really beautiful this morning, a winter wonderland out there!
Thanks for your nice posts, they are always fun to read.
I can sympathize entirely in having the towels used to wrap greasy engine parts in. In my house we have white towels for women and dark brown towels for men.
I'll second Kaylen on her suggestion for photo comments. There is no separate function to add photo comments in blogger – you have to type your own text in the body of the post. I usually italicize the caption and choose a smaller font for it, and then center-align it under the photo.
I also like to be fancy and add a :: on each end of the caption too, but I'm just fussy. You can see examples on either of my blogs.
Thank-you for posting the chicken/mushroom/orange recipe – I think that's dinner tomorrow!
Welcome home, Diana! Thank you for all of it – your stories, your time, and your generosity with both. Have a Very Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Year's!
Cheers ~
Emily
I'm glad for your return to the "norm", so to speak. I'd like to take a moment, while everything is calm (calmish, maybe?), and thank you not only for this Book (Echo, I mean specifically), but for the accuracy and diligent research. As an amatuer genealogist who's been spending a good deal of time researching the ancestor who was a Fusilier of the Hesse-Cassel Erbprinz regiment. I know it's a lot of blahblah to most, but reading some of the battle scenes that you wrote, kind of seemed to bring home the humanity of this one fella, who left Germany at 18, never to go back (He instead, went to Kentucky and had a ton of children. *smile*).
Bah, anyway, seriously, thank you. As my ten year old would say, "You are chock full of awesome." *laugh*
I am loving the lizard hunting photo! Too cute! I am glad you are able to return to the tedium of it all, bet it feels pretty good.
Just noted an “errata” in Echo, and only because the scenes were both so riveting their contradicions stood out for me:
Ch 60: (p 749 pb) Jamie and Ian are watching the British camp. Jamie sees William and contemplates: “It was twilight, but they were by now no more than fifty yards away; there was no mistaking it. He hadn’t seen the boy since he was close to twelve, but he had memorized every moment they’d spent in each other’s presence: the way he carried himself…”
This reference would negate the exquisite and endearingly heart wrenching scene in the ABOSAA chapter Regret. “He realized suddenly that every fragment of Fraser’s being was focused on the scene outside. Of course; he had not seen Willie since the boy was twelve. And to see the two together–his daughter and the son he could never speak to or acknowledge.”
Dear Maureen–
Yes, I know. The words “close to” are misplaced; it should read, “He hadn’t seen the boy close to since he was twelve.”
Best,
–Diana