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    —ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
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    —Jackie Cantor, Diana's first editor

Jamie, or John?

Oookay, then!

Sorry to be so late in getting this post up; I’ve been in New Mexico for the last week, and the internet connection there was Just Abysmal; could barely keep it open long enough to tweet, let alone upload anything longer.
First things first: Upcoming appearances.

I’m flying to New York on Monday, and will be appearing (briefly) at the RWA convention, held at the Marriott Marquis. Appearances will be:

The Literacy Signing, where most of the published authors taking part will be available to sell/sign books—this is from 5:30-7:30 on June 28th, at the Marriott Marquis. This event _is_ open to the public, and I _believe_ that you’re allowed to bring in up to three of your own books from home to be signed, if you like.
The opening panel of the convention, where I’ll be taking part in a discussion with two other Random House authors, Steve Berry and Tess Gerritsen. This is part of the convention and open only to convention attendees. It’ll be from 8:30-10:00 AM on June 29th.

Then on July 5th—publication date for the cool new 20th-anniversary OUTLANDER edition!—I fly to Laramie Wyoming, where I’ll be doing the keynote speech for the Sir Walter Scott conference at the University of Wyoming. The conference program is here http://www.uwyo.edu/scottconf2011/program.html , but I don’t yet have a detailed personal schedule. I _will_ be doing at least one public book-signing, though; will post time and place as soon as I get them.

On July 8th, I fly _back_ to New York, for ThrillerFest, at the Hyatt. There, I’ll be doing a Livestream event with James Rollins (Powell’s Books is supplying books to be sold during this event—and I certainly _hope_ they’ll have the 20th-anniversary edition!) from 2-4:00 PM on July 8th.

On the evening of July 8th, I’ll be doing a joint signing with several other authors for a collaborative mystery novel called NO REST FOR THE DEAD. (This is one of those for-charity efforts—proceeds for this one go to cancer research—where a number of well-known authors take turns writing chapters, and the editor then goes through and kind of smooths things out so the story is coherent. Or so we hope, anyway.)

The signing will be held at 7:00 PM at the Center for Fiction, (17 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017), and authors attending will include Peter James, Marcia Talley, John Lescroart, RL Stine, Diana Gabaldon,Jeffery Deaver, Gayle Lynds and Andrew Gulli. (Just for my own part, I’m fine with people bringing their own books to be signed, too.) This is open to the public.

Aaaand, on July 9th, I’ll do a Spotlight Interview (at the Hyatt) for ThrillerFest, Kathleen Antrim being the interviewer. That’s from 1:00-1:50 PM. And then I’ll do a book-signing for the convention (open only to convention attendees) from 5:00-6:00 PM at the convention bookstore in the hotel.

Then I rush home on the 10th {g}, and do the Official Launch Party for the 20th-anniversary OUTLANDER on July 11th, at The Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale. 7:00 PM!

Righto. Now, I had promised to show you the two openings I have for SCOTTISH PRISONER. As it stands, I’m opening the book with Jamie’s point of view—but I _could_ open with Lord John’s first chapter instead, and do Jamie’s second.  I did it this way because I’d like people to realize right away that this is Jamie’s book, as much as Lord John’s—but it _is_ a Rather Unusual {cough} way to open a book.

So—those of you who don’t read excerpts should stop Right Here.

Those of you who _do_…here you go, and hope you enjoy them! Let me know what you think: Jamie first, or Lord John?

THE SCOTTISH PRISONER
(Copyright 2011 Diana Gabaldon)
Chapter 1:

Helwater, the Lake District
April 1, 1760

It was so cold out, he thought his cock might break off in his hand. If he could find it. The thought passed through his sleep-mazed mind like one of the small, icy drafts that darted through the loft, making him open his eyes.
He could find it now; had waked with his fist wrapped round it and desire shuddering and twitching over his skin like a cloud of midges. The dream was wrapped just as tightly round his mind, but he knew it would fray in seconds, shredded by the snores and farts of the other grooms. He needed her, needed to spill himself with the feel of her touch still on him.
Hanks stirred in his sleep, chuckled loudly, said something incoherent, and fell back into the void, murmuring, “Bugger, bugger, bugger…”
Jamie said something similar under his breath in the Gaelic, and flung back his blanket. Damn the cold.
He made his way down the ladder into the half-warm, horse-smelling fug of the barn, nearly falling in his haste, ignoring a splinter in his bare foot. He hesitated in the dark, still urgent. The horses wouldn’t care, but if they noticed him, they’d make enough noise, perhaps, to wake the others.

Wind struck the barn and went booming round the roof. A strong chilly draft with a scent of snow stirred the somnolence, and two or three of the horses shifted, grunting and whickering. Overhead, a murmured “‘ugger” drifted down, accompanied by the sound of someone turning over and pulling the blanket up round his ears, defying reality.

Claire was still with him, vivid in his mind, solid in his hands. He could imagine that he smelled her hair in the scent of fresh hay. The memory of her mouth, those sharp white teeth …he rubbed his nipple, hard and itching beneath his shirt, and swallowed.

His eyes were long accustomed to the dark; he found the vacant loose-box at the end of the row and leaned against its boards, cock already in his fist, body and mind yearning for his wife.
He’d have made it last if he could, but he was fearful lest the dream go altogether and he surged into the memory, groaning. His knees gave way in the aftermath and he slid slowly down the boards of the box into the loose piled hay, shirt rucked round his thighs and his heart pounding like a kettle drum.

[end section]

(more stuff in this chapter, of course)

Chapter 2: The Fate of Fuses

London
Argus House

Lord John Grey eyed the ribbon-tied packet on his knee as though it were a bomb. In fact, it couldn’t have been more explosive had it been filled with black powder and equipped with a fuse.
His attitude as he handed it to his brother must have reflected this knowledge, for Hal fixed him with a gimlet eye and raised one brow. He said nothing, though, flicking loose both ribbon and wrapping with an impatient gesture and bending his head at once over the thick sheaf of densely-written sheets that emerged.

Grey couldn’t stand to watch him read through Charles Carruthers’s post-mortem denunciation, recalling each damning page as Hal read it. He stood up and went to the window of the study that looked out into the back garden of Argus House, ignoring the swish of turning pages and the occasional blasphemous mutterings behind him.

Hal’s three boys were playing a game of tigers and hunters, leaping out at each other from behind the shrubbery with shrill roars, followed by shrieks of delight and yells of “Bang! Take that, you striped son of a bitch!”

The nurse seated on the edge of the fish-pool, keeping a tight grip on baby Dottie’s gown, looked up at this, but merely rolled her eyes with a martyred expression. Flesh and blood has its limits, her expression said clearly, and she resumed paddling a hand in the water, luring one of the big goldfish close so that Dottie could drop bits of bread to it.

John longed to be down there with them. It was a rare day for early April, and he felt the pulse of it in his blood, urging him to be outside, running bare-foot through young grass. Running naked down into the water… The sun was high, flooding warm through the glass of the French windows, and he closed his eyes and turned his face up to it.

Siverly. The name floated in the darkness behind his eyes, pasted across the blank face of an imagined cartoon major, drawn in uniform, an outsized sword brandished in his hand, and bags of money stuffed into the back of his breeches, obscene bulges under the skirt of his coat. One or two had fallen to the ground, bursting open so that you could see the contents–coin in one, the other filled with what looked like poppets, small wooden doll-like things. Each one with a tiny knife through its heart.

Hal swore in German behind him. He must have reached the part about the rifles; German oaths were reserved for the most stringent occasions, French being used for minor things like a burnt dinner, and Latin for formal insults committed to paper. Minnie wouldn’t let either Hal or John swear in English in the house, not wanting the boys to acquire low habits. John could have told her it was too late for such caution, but didn’t.

He turned round to see Hal on his feet, pale with rage, a sheet of paper crumpled in one hand.

“How dare he? How dare he?”

A small knot he hadn’t known was there dissolved under John’s ribs.

“You believe Carruthers, then?”

Hal glared at him.

“Don’t you? You knew the man.”

He had known Charles Carruthers–in more than one sense.

“Yes, I believed him when he told me about Siverly in Canada–and that–” he nodded at the papers, thrown in a sprawl across Hal’s desk, “–is even more convincing. You’d think he’d been a lawyer.”
He could still see Carruthers’s face, pale in the dimness of his attic room in [town], drawn with ill-health but set with grim determination to live long enough to see justice done. Charlie hadn’t lived that long, but long enough to write down every detail of the case against Major Gerald Siverly, and to entrust it to him.

He was the fuse that would detonate this particular bomb. And he was all too familiar with what happened to fuses, once lit.

[end section]

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364 Responses »

  1. I think Jamie’s prisoner status underscores the title and invites new readers in, I like the contrast with the family environment later.

  2. I have to go with Lord John’s beginning too. It sets a familiar tone for the book like the other Lord John books. Then… it would be exciting to jump into Jamie’s point of view!

  3. OOOOOH so hard to pick!!! I like both, love the Jamie part – has me in fits!!! And the LJG is intriguing…I must say having not really warmed to him in the outlander series, until the last one…. I have come to like him much more having read his own series. So stronger vote for Jamie but the other would do just as good and then we, the early readers at least, know what is coming next!

  4. A comment on your RWA appearance – Another fav writer of mine, Lauren Willig, will be at the conference and posted something fun on her blog: A quirky guide to New York. I thought the caffeine and food tips might be especially appreciated :) http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/1310716-lauren-s-guide-to-new-york

    ~Rach

    Oh, and as much as I’m a Jamie fan, and in fact have only read 1 LJ book, I still lean to opening the book with his chapter as it does seem to be the logical opening for people who have been following his series and are expecting to continue on. Since Jamie is a guest in his book (though I do realize an intrinsic one) it makes sense for the plot element to be introduced first and the human interest to come second. Though I don’t think you can go wrong either way!

  5. Haha, i love the “naughty” Jamie scene – i vote for that one!! What a crazy way to open a book, but you can DEFINITELY pull it off. LJG has the entire series focused on him, so giving Jamie the spotlight in the opening chapter is a nice way to bring in the readers who might not be sold on the LJG series (but they should be, it’s great!).

  6. I’d start with Jaime.

  7. Jamies! If the book is about him then it should start with him… And it’s a rather gripping **ahem** start to the book I think, plenty of time to get the nitty gritty later. But of course I will love it either way because you wrote it, so no matter.

  8. Start with Lord John. I agree with the opinions of the other readers.

  9. Hi I agree that John’s gives more indication of the plot, whereas Jamie’s invokes a much more emotional response. Me, I go for the emotion every time, so I vote for Jamie!

  10. I vote for opening with Jamie. I love the Outlander series and the Lord John Gray series, but I’m sorely yearning for some Jamie/Claire bits.

  11. As one who is already a big fan of Jamie and John both, I think either opening is fantastic–but I sincerely believe Jamie’s opening is where it’s at. So curious about the details behind John and Charlie…and everything!

    *sigh* What amazing, intriguing characters, all of them–bravo, Diana, on such MARVELOUS storytelling!!

    ~~

  12. Jamies! It caught my attention!

  13. I loved them both and I’m torn between the two for a response. Having Jamie at the beginning will get readers attention as they are not use to seeing his perspective in the LJ series and maybe pick up a few readers from the Outlander series, but the LJ chapter does lead into the mystery to come. Its your book, I’m sure you will make the best decision. Either way, I’ll be buying for my nook as soon as it comes available. Safe travels.
    Susan

  14. Jamie for sure! It tells us right away where we are in space and time. Jamie’s at Helwater and Claire is back in her time. With the time travel in your books, we need that frame of reference.

    But maybe I’ve got to re-read the Lord John books, since I don’t recall anything about Carruthers (if that is an exiting story line?)

  15. Jamie.

    I do love Lord John, but I think you had the right choice by putting Jamie first.

    Can’t wait!

  16. Lord John makes sense. We will get Jaimie anyways later, but LJ makes a better start.
    Dalma

  17. I must cast my vote for Lord John. Several reasons, all stated by previous posters. I do love Jamie, but I don’t really care to start off a Lord John book with Jamie masturbating. (Nor a Jamie and Claire book, for that matter.)

  18. Jamie, Jamie, Jamie, it’s the Scottish Prisoner, start there. Love Jamie, not such a fan of LJG, so go w/ Jamie!

  19. It seems to make more sense to open a “Lord John and ______” with Lord John, but I could go either way as long as it is all in there! Can’t wait to read it all.

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