WELCOME to the All-New, Completely Redesigned, and—with luck—Totally Updated Diana Gabaldon Official Website!
Many, many thanks to the very talented Jeremy Tolbert of Clockpunk Studios (www.clockpunkstudios.com), who did the new design (and guided me through the maze of learning to work with WordPress).
And many thanks to the lovely Rosana Gatti, who designed (more than once {g}) the original Diana Gabaldon website, and has run it for more years than I care to count.
(Thinking especially of longevity these days, as a) it’s my birthday {g}, and b) OUTLANDER (the novel) was published twenty (yes, 2_0) years ago!)
Now, there will be a few spots where I’ll add new material, links, excerpts or whatever as we go on, but I think the new site is essentially complete.
(There will be a link to a Facebook page, for instance, but that’s not quite available yet.
And my blog will now be an integral feature of the website, as well.
I hope you enjoy exploring the new site!
Do please let me know—there’s a place for comments, below, and on other parts of the site—if you see anything that doesn’t work, or have suggestions for things we may not have thought of that you’d like to see.
(And you can use the “Follow” links to talk to me via Twitter, if you’d like.)
Thanks-Diana
Happy Birthday! Wishing you and your family health and happiness in this new year. I am enjoying the new website.
-Patti
Thanks for the updates on new books. As previous posts have said it’s addicting, your books are wonderful. My mom got both myself and my grandma, who is 85 hooked. My grandma keeps saying that she probably won’t be around for the next one’s arrival. I tell her she better, or she’ll be wondering into the hereafter what happened! I’m going tomorrow to find the new one about Roger’s parents!
Stacy
Love it!!!!!
Diana, it’s lovely!! Awaiting the Facebook page too.
Btw, can’t believe my friend Erika got the first comment in! Lucky girl! lol I’m sure you here this all the time, but Outlander is awesome.
Here is my Outlander story:
When I first got married, I was 20 years old and I had to move from MD to NC because my husband was military. I have a large tight-knit family and it was a horrible transition for me! The first place I looked for was the local public library. Once there, I realized none of my favorite authors had out anything new so I asked a librarian. She recommended you immediately and helped me find Outlander. I was sucked in and couldn’t stop reading! Your books provided an escape during a trying time and you are one of the reasons why I keep trying to write, so thank you!
See you on Twitter!!
Lara
p.s. now I live in southern PA, when are you coming to visit us out here?? lol
Dear Lara–
Thanks! I’m glad the books could give you a little distraction when needed. {smile} As to southern PA….Random House hasn’t sent me there yet on a book-tour {g}, so your best bet would be a literary festival or conference of some kind. (I _am_ trying not to go anywhere much this year, though).
–Diana
I’ve just read all the Outlander series over the last 4 months (no small task I must say). I’ve truly enjoyed each of them. What an amazing writer you are, Diana. I’m researching my family history and have tracked many of my Scots family connections back to North Carolina mid-late 1700′s, so I found it just a small smile from the Universe while reading about Jamie and Claire in and around these same locations. Thank you for the excerpts of the next book that you’ve posted. I feel quite spoiled that I was able to read all the books back to back. Fortunately, that means I had 4 months of constant new Jamie and Claire at my finger tips. Unfortunately, that means I’ve not experienced the patience necessary to await the next book. Can a person actually suffer from Jamie withdrawals? YES!
I just wanted to say….WOW! The new website is amazing! I visit your site often to check for any new updates on your upcoming work, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the new layout:) It’s beautiful!
I am probably one of your biggest fans, and so in love with Jamie and Claire. I’m an avid reader, and have spent many years trying to find what I would consider, “the best love story ever written”, and finally after years of searching, I discovered “Outlander”. It is by far, beyond comparison, the best romance novel I had ever had the pleasure of setting my eyes upon! I can’t thank you enough for producing such a wonderful, well written love story. After reading about Jamie and Claire, nothing else seems worth reading. Mrs. Gabaldon, you have set the bar so high, I shutter to think of what your fellow authors must be dealing with when it comes to writing a romance novel, after reading yours.
Congrats to you, Jamie and Claire are still at the top after 20 years! I look forward to reading about their continued journey through true love in the next sequel to Echo In the Bone! Keep up the good work! Your fans are loyal, and they love you!
~Christine
Dear Christine–
Well, I really appreciate your good opinion! {smile} It’s not a romance novel, though–and neither are the next six in the series. {g} For one thing, romance novels don’t have sequels; they’re courtship stories, and when the two main characters come together, the story is over. With these people, it’s _just_ beginning!
–Diana
Whatever they are, they are great! I love every part of them, the characters, the history, and everything in between! Please keep them coming, we can’t get enough:)
~Christine
What good fortune! I just completed my second reading of “Drums of Autumn” and found your new web site which is great. I was refreshing my memory for the next book in the series, “The Fiery Cross”.
One cannot do justice to your books in a single reading. There is just too much to absorb in just one reading.
A suggestion: Please have your publisher list all your books in the Outlander series in order in each of your books.
After reading the comments I wonder if I am the only male reader who loves your books.
Your characters are so true to life, even the bad persons have a few good traits. A wonderful insight into human nature and foibles.
I look forward to the next book with great anticipation, but in the meantime will continue to reread the series.
Dear Wayne–
No, if you sift through this impressive mass of well-wishes, you’ll find several other gentlemen. {g} Owing to the publisher’s original marketing (and the stubborn stupidity of Barnes and Noble, who insisted on shoving the books into the Romance section for years, despite my protests), the initial readers were mostly women. I find an increasing number of male readers, though–and in fact, have a large number of male readers in the armed services, particularly. {g} Glad you’ve been enjoying the books!
–Diana
Diana, thank you for the new lovely website. I do have one question though, the night before this website went live I discovered the podcast section of the old website and started listening. They were really enjoyable. Unfortunately, I didn’t get through all of them, opened this site the next day and couldn’t find them! Are you going to import the podcasts from the old site over here, or are they lost to us now?
Thanks for all your hard work in not only writing delightful, addictive books, but in interacting with your fans. It’s incredibly gracious, and very appreciated.
Best, Karen
Dear Karen–
No, I’ll definitely get the podcasts over here, too; they’ll either be under “Resources” or possibly “Videos”–not sure which would be better. {g} I’ll be adding to the site gradually (and making small tweaks to add missing links, correct typos and whatever), but as I’m doing that along with the writing (and everything else), I have limited time to work on it. It’ll get done, though. {g}
–Diana
Diana:
Considering that your podcasts are (so far) audio only ….if you’re going to put them under VIDEOS (which is not a bad idea — the RESOURCES section already has a lot in it) then I would suggest changing the name of that section to VIDEOS AND PODCASTS or something similar.
As for typos and such….the most important one remaining to be fixed is the misspelling of Lord John’s surname in the menus and section headings under WRITING. Most of the other stuff seems to be pretty minor, but that one jumps out at me every time I visit the site. I’m sure it must bother you, too. Hope you can get it corrected soon!
I said it on Compuserve, but I’ll repeat it here: the new site is a vast, vast improvement over the old one! It looks beautiful, it’s easy to navigate, and information is presented in a way that makes sense. I like the Search button, in particular.
Karen
Dear Diana:
First, I am again enjoying the Outlander series, I find that when I get tired of library books, I haul out your books and read them slowly and savor them. I don’t keep track of how many times I have read a book, but it has been many times and each time I find something new to enjoy, faulty memory helps.
They are as good the x number of times as the first time. I am currently enjoying Brianna and Roger as much as Claire and Jamie. Praying that Roger stays whole through out the books, puleeze.
Since you do research, how about some on linen and cotton? You are driving me NUTS, linen and cotton burn rapidly, but not wool. Firemen carry wool blankets to put out fires. Get some scraps of wool, linen and cotton that you wouldn’t mind loosing, put them in a deep kitchen sink and light them to see how they burn. I have thrown mohair and wool fluff, taken from the loom room floor, in the wood stove and the fluff just sort of rolled around on top of the coals and took 4-5 minutes before starting to burn. During the fire from the ether Claire would have been burned to a crisp in seconds from those cotton and linen petticoats unless a wool skirt was protecting her.
A suggestion, there are Weavers and Spinners guilds now in Arizona, talk to the people who are still doing these crafts and stop reading the books written by noncraftsmen.
Right after The Fiery Cross was published I had it with me in the hospital and my surgeon mentioned that he listened and enjoyed very much the audiotapes of your books while driving to and from work.
Happy belated Birthday. Your website is easy on the eyes, thank you.
Dear Lois Anne–
Many thanks for the information! I’ll bear that in mind. {g}
–Diana
Congrats on the new website, Happy Birthday to you, and Happy Anniversary to Jamie and Claire!
Looks good! And happy belated birthday
I wanted to mention to you that I would love to be able to get a set of your books that are leather bound for a wedding present for a friend’s daughter. She suggested some books as a wedding present since the couple love to read and they met while working at Boarder’s book store. My husband and I both agreed that Jamie and Claire (as we call your series) would be a great gift for a new couple. I could only wish them to have the same passion, respect and honesty in their marriage as Jamie and Claire.
But, I could not find any place where I could buy all of the Jamie and Claire books in a set nor could I find them all in hardback (let alone leather).
Just wanted to mention it to you in case it is already available and I haven’t found the right place yet.
Thanks for bringing these characters to life!
Dear Charlie–
No, they aren’t available in a leather-bound set, I’m afraid (give it time! There will be a nice slip-cased luxury edition of OUTLANDER out in June, for the 20th anniversary of publication)–but you can certainly find them all in hardcover. Even a Barnes and Noble could order them for you (the fact that a book isn’t on their shelf doesn’t mean it’s out of print)–but if you’d like them promptly, and autographed, order them from the Poisoned Pen bookstore (there’s a link and contact information under the “Resources” tab). The Pen is my local independent bookshop, and I stop by there every other week or so to sign orders; they ship worldwide, and they keep all of my books in stock all of the time, in all the formats: hardcover, trade paperback, mass-market (the smaller paperbacks), and audiobook CD sets.
My best wishes to your friend’s daughter and her new husband!
–Diana
I have to tell you Diana, that I have turned one of my farms on Farm Town (via FaceBook), into my vision of Frazers Ridge………LOL, this is for those of us who have no life! Yes, its pitiful I know, but, its all in fun, and something to do while waiting……..well, you know what we are waiting for…..sigh.
As always,
Your Number One Fan.
love it !!!! maybe you could send a snapshot of your farm from Farmtown and send it to Diana, she could then put it up for all of us to enjoy.. I am sure you dont want 500,00 new FB friends just so we can look at the farm
Cheers Jo-Anne
oops, why this posted on here 3 times I don not know!
Dear Deborah–
That’s OK, I’ll get rid of a couple of them. {g}
–Diana
Happy belated birthday and congrats on the lovely website redesign. A friend turned me onto your books a few years ago and the rest is history. I have never been so addicted to a modern-day author and saga.
I am currently listening to a course on the English Novel through The Teaching Company. Very interesting that Sir Walter Scott’s “Waverly”–which centers on the battle of Culloden–is considered the first English historical novel. When I read I was amazed, but not entirely surprised, how close your details of the time were to Scott’s.
Lastly, a 20-year anniversary. The thought that immediately struck me was: Tha’t how long Claire and Jamie were separated after Culloden!
Thanks for helpig to enrich my semi-retirement.
Dear Frani–
Err…well, given that Sir Walter and I were both dealing with a very well-documented historical event, I suppose it’s not all that remarkable that the details are similar. {g} Really glad you enjoyed the books!
–Diana
I am a new Outlander fan. Just finishing up the fourth book. Just love them especially on a cold rainy day. I know this is probably a dumb question but what sequence should one read your books. I have one more to read The Firery Cross. Where do I go from there? Also the one thing that stands out in your books is the research that you must have done on the history and customs of Scotland for the times. I am finding this interesting since I am of Scottish decent (Grandmother a Hackworth from Edinbourgh) and married to a Brit who’s great great g-father’s on down where in the Queens Guard. How would one start to research ones own history not so much a family tree but lives and times? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also glad to hear there may be either a movie or mini series. Look forward to that as well.
Dear Lynelle–
The only dumb questions are the ones you don’t ask. {g} The next book after THE FIERY CROSS is A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES, and the latest of the main OUTLANDER novels is AN ECHO IN THE BONE. For further details, you might want to check out the tab that says “WRITING” on the home page: this lists (and describes) all of the OUTLANDER and Lord John novels (and gives the sequence for them, too).
–Diana
I just received the CD “Outlander, the Musical” I love your choice of vocalists for the characters! I love the website.
I do wish you had an edited version of Outlander for my 15 year old to read. She has fallen in love with the CD but there are portions of Outlander that she isn’t quite ready to read in such detail. The detail is great for me! I cannot wait for the next books!
The new website is so nice! Thanks for this lovely gift, and I wish you a belated happy birthday from Quebec!
Hello Diana,
I am so looking forward to Book 8 of the Outlander Series! I just finished the entire series, through book 7, for the fifth time! You write beautifully and each time I emerge myself into the series I am even more thrilled with the adventures of these beautiful crafted characters. Jamie, Claire and family are worth waiting a bit longer.
Patiently waiting in Elk Grove California.
Kathy
PS,
Congratulations on the Blog “facelift”! Your site is delightful.
And, wishing you a Happy Birthday to you and perfect 2011!