A couple of publishers asked me this week to write a brief bit of catalog copy for them, describing MOBY–so I did. For those of you wondering What to Expect from the eighth book in the OUTLANDER series:
WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART’S BLOOD is the eighth novel in the world-famous OUTLANDER series. In June of 1778, the world turns upside-down. The British army withdraws from Philadelphia, George Washington prepares to move from Valley Forge in pursuit, and Jamie Fraser comes back from the dead to discover that his best friend has married Jamie’s wife. The ninth Earl of Ellesmere discovers to his horror that he is in fact the illegitimate son of the newly-resurrected Jamie Fraser (a rebel _and_ a Scottish criminal!) and Jamie’s nephew Ian Murray discovers that his new-found cousin has an eye for Ian’s Quaker betrothed.
Meanwhile, Claire Fraser deals with an asthmatic duke, Benedict Arnold, and the fear that one of her husbands may have murdered the other. And in the 20th century, Jamie and Claire’s daughter Brianna is thinking that things are probably easier in the 18th century: her son has been kidnapped, her husband has disappeared into the past, and she’s facing a vicious criminal with nothing but a stapler in her hand. Fortunately, her daughter has a miniature cricket bat and her mother’s pragmatism.
The best of historical fiction with a Moebius twist, WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART’S BLOOD weaves the fibers of a family’s life through the tapestry of historical drama.
NB: I’m still _writing_ this. With luck, it will be published in fall of 2013. (Update from the webmaster: This book will be released by the publisher on June 10, 2014, in the U.S.A.) Hope you enjoy it! (In the meantime, if you’re the sort of reader who likes to see bits and pieces as we go along, I do post brief snippets–from this book and other works in progress or coming up for release–most days, on both Twitter (my ID there is @Writer_DG) and Facebook.
NB2: I told my editor I want an octopus on the cover of this book. (There are eight main characters whose stories are told–and they’re all linked together.)
NB3: I call the book MOBY for short. My Own Heart’s Blood = MOHB = MOH-B = Moby. Geddit?
From the webmaster: Visit the MOBY home page for the latest information.
Just re-read An Echo in the Bone because I heard you were publishing a new sequel soon, please sooner than the fall of 2013! I love Ian and I love Rebecca and I hope that you don’t have Ian die, he’s such a great character and so is Rebecca. They add so much to the story and while clearly so different, they are also very similarly plain spoken and compelling as well. Great chemistry! Hope they have a starring role. Right now, I find them more riveting than Brianna and Roger. Please let Ian be happy and in love for a good long time. Slowly he has to come back to the world he left when he became a Mohawk. He has to find happiness that lasts. I like him much better than William who is really kind of an entitled twit.
I know you find Lord John really interesting and in some ways I do as well, but not compared to the relationship between Jamie and Claire. While a lasting marriage between Claire and Lord John has interesting possibilities the series cannot exist really without Jamie. They have to remain friends and surely Jamie will understand why Lord John married her. What I love about your writing, besides the history, is how intimately you feel you come to know the characters. I love learning their reactions to events, people, how they view their various roles in life and how personally you come to admire and love them. I also truly love the way Jamie and Claire have matured and changed and how their love is still deep and profound but also reflects their stage in life.
I can’t wait to see how Jenny reacts to the new world. I also love the way you show Roger’s struggles with what it means to be a man both in the 1700′s and present day Scotland. He has really begun to take charge of his life despite the enormous challenges he faces. Was there ever any doubt he would make that trip back through the stones to save his son?
Finally, as always, you write such intelligent, loving, physically and sexually strong women whom are so different from each other that I want to know them and wish they were my friends. But I suppose they are, re-reading your best loved books will do that for you.
Please hurry!
Dear Kathleen–
Er…Rachel, not Rebecca.
–Diana
Diana – you are a huge timewaster
each time a new book comes out I have to re-read them all to get my head back inside your world again, so I can tie things up.
I cannot even fathom how you are able to keep all your threads in mind when they drift apart then you cleverly gather them all up and bring them safely together. I am in awe!
Always in my mind is the image of Frank’s brush with a spirit, and it will break my heart when I see your vision in print as I suppose it will be either at or very near the end of the epic story.
I remember one of your blogs many years ago when you said you had attended a Latin Mass in Christchurch NZ (much to your amazement), you may be sad to know that the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Christchurch was irreparably damaged in the awful Christchurch earthquakes in 2011 & 12, and will be demolished. The power of earthquakes has been bought very close to home for us here in Canterbury, once you have felt them, you are always in fear, thankfully they have faded away for the moment (touch wood).
Happy and productive writing, and roll on 2013.
Dear Leanne–
I’m so sorry to hear about the cathedral–I hope it will be rebuilt!
–Diana
I am so impatient for this new book. I have just read book 7. Can I ask what is the delay in the book since there is clearly so much written and the plot spelled out already? It’s a testement to how good the books are, I miss the characters already!
Dear Jenna–
What on earth makes you think the plot is spelled out already? [laughing at thought] Let alone mostly written?
–Diana
Hi Diana
Just so’s you know, I only started keeping up a regular dusting regime with my bookcases since I got your 7 Outlander books!! Before that, I couldn’t have cared less if all my books were stoury!!
I’d just like to say these books are amazing and when I’m not reading them I actually miss the characters. I can’t wait for the next one to be released. When will there be anotherbook signing in Arizona?
Dear Michelle–
Late October, actually–a signing at The Poisoned Pen for A TRAIL OF FIRE. (This is a UK-published book that consists of four short(ish) pieces.)
–Diana
Can you tell us which four shortish pieces? And can we order it in USA?
Diana~
Thank you for these wonderful books! I have read them all( even LJG) several times and have them also down loaded on my iPad and listen to them. Davina Porter has done for them what Jim Dale did for Harry Potter. I am a Children’s Librarian and tell most parents your books are my grown up HP.
I am listening to them again as I have many summer chores and I just don’t seem to mind when Jamie and Claire are keeping me company. Keep up the good work, I never want them to end.
Trying to wait patiently,
Jodi Morrison Muller
P.S. I was so surprised at Culloden how well you described everything and to see all the flowers.
I hope that the books don’t turn into a movie or mini series or any other form. I like them in their place. where we met them. There is no way you can take those characters out and be that perfect story I am in love with. I would not watch it. I would not even want to know anything about it. You cannot make them leave the pages. Please.
My finding of your books coincided with my purchase of a kindle… Thank goodness because I do most of my reading when I travel and lugging around 800 page novels is tough! I usually read quickly and move on to the next interesting read. However for the past 2 years your novels have had me hooked and I have maybe read one other book in between. Now that I have finished Echo in the Bone and there is not another to follow for a year I’m just not sure what to do! Thank you for writing such beautiful, engaging and entertaining historical fiction. Thank you for taking the time to dive into the details and get it right. I was in Philadelphia recently and could imagine much of what I had read as I toured the city. The best to you and I look forward to.the next installment. I will have to find a way to fill
my kindle until then!
I have all the books (to date) but got distracted and haven’t read the last couple as it was getting hard to remember all the plot lines and so I decided to wait till there was enough for me to start again from the beginning (as I’ve done for the Wheel of Time books – last one coming soon).
Looking forward to next installment – and wondering if there is one or two books left.
When the book is finished, I sure hope you come through Houston on a book tour. I’ve gotten a book signed by another of my favorite authors (Dana Stabenow) and would love to get another signed by you!
Dear Janet–
I’m afraid the publisher has never sent me to Houston on a book tour. If you want a signed copy (of any of my books), it’s easy, though–just order one from The Poisoned Pen bookshop (www.poisonedpen.com), and tell them how you’d like it signed; they ship anywhere in the world.
–Diana
I just wanted to join in the praise for your fantastic writing, i have to confess i never would have picked up these books after reading the descriptions despite living just a few miles from culloden and knowing a lot of the places mentioned. My friend recommended them so i gave them a go and fell in love with claire and jamie, luckily for me i didnt have to wait for the next books and read all 7 in a row! Cant wait for MOBY i really want to know where their story will end. You really are a fantastic story teller, you most definately have the “gift of the gab”! How about a book signing in inverness when the new book comes out? Please please?
I was given Cross Stitch in 2001 when in New Zealand on holiday,by a Scot who lived there. I had run out of books by the second week! I couldn’t put it down…and when I got home to Scotland, tried to find more from the author. No luck anywhere, until in a bookshop about two years later, there was another on the shelf! I’ve read and re-read the lot and just miss my Jaime and Claire fix, when I stop.
Scotland is a beautiful country to live in and I live very close to where one of the battles took place. On my way to the supermarket I try and work out just where Claire and Jamie were exactly during the action! It feels so real and makes me appreciate my country and it’s history that created the characters like Jamie Fraser who went all over the world. He’s so noble, human, fun, primeval and just so damn sexy that every woman yearns for such a true “man”. You’ve got a lot to answer for Diana Gabaldon creating him…….21st Century man has a lot to live up to! But please keep writing, he brings a lot of joy to a lot of women. Thanks.
I just finished book 7, all on audio, and bravo Diana for an outstanding narrator! Your books came alive to me like no other book or books ever have! Long time King fan and you know stand up on your own to me! Great history, romance, drama, suspense, melancholy, beautiful writing…etc! Your talent does not go unnoticed. Thank you for sharing such wonderful stories! Now I’m headed out for all 7 in hardback!
Diana, I am thrilled with the Outlander series! I recommend it to everyone I can. I am now reading the Scottish Prisoner, as I can not get enough of Jamie and Lord John! And i will continue to real ALL companion pieces until the Fall of 2013. However i will NOT read any excerpts that are posted because it will spoil the surprise..LOL… CAN’T WAIT…and please keep up the good work.
Three quick notes:
1. Your books have inspired a romantic streak in my husband – I get a Christmas present every year labelled “To Claire, From Jamie”
2. Our office manager gave me a raise after I gave her a copy of your first novel!
3. I’m hoping I’ll be on vacation when MOBY comes out – otherwise I’ll get nothing done at work.
Thank you for bringing these wonderful people into my life!
C
i have the books over and over. i also have the books in audio book , all seven books. i also listen to them over and over. i glad to hear that there may be tv series on cable. believe you me, that i will be waiting for to come out.
Dear Diana,
My copy of Drums of Autumn has a gremlin in it. The page numbering is a bit crazy. The book reads well until p. 564 then jumps p. 613. Then at p. 660 jumps back to p.613 and then follows on correctly till the end.
Its obviously a printing error and have never really cared but I was wondering have I missed any vital information in the 49 pages that I have completely missed?
Kind regards,
Velyne
By the way! I absolutely love the series. Can’t get enough and I also re-read the series over and over again.
I would really like to read ” The Scottish Prisoner “. Is it your opinion Diana, that I should be able to read this book having not read the “Lord John” series without being lost? Is it a stand-alone novel not requiring the back
story from the LJ series? BTW, I have all the ” Outlander” books and am very familiar with all the characters.
Regards, Robin
Dear Robin,
Sorry, I’m not Diana, but I’m a huge fan of her work, probably as you
This is my humble recomandation :
You do not have to read all the Lord John serie to enjoy “The Scottish prisoner (and you’ll enjoy it, believe me !), but it would be a shame not to start with “Lord John and the Brotherhood of the blade” because there are several references to this book in “The Scottish”. Many things happen in the life of Jamie and John in “Brotherhood” with influence in “Scottish”, to my opinion, the lecture is more comfortable in that order.
Anyway, reading “The Scottish prisoner” will make you want to read the others, so as to start immediately!
I wish you a good lecture
I stumbled across your Outlander series quite by accident. I was in a Costco and saw Echo in the Bone on sale and thought it would be cool to read something about Scotland, as I have Scots ancestry,(along with German, Irish and English). When I finally started reading it, I felt I had come in in the middle of a movie and had missed the important who, where’s, when’s and why’s, and stopped reading about 50 or so pages in. It took a while before I got to a proper book store and found the beginning of the series and bought all of them, (seeing as I had bought the last one published to start) hoping they would be good, they were more than good, I found them to be excellant and am now hooked! I read them all in about 3 weeks time, and I am not normally a fast reader, but gobbled them up I did! (For me that is very fast)
I now await the next installment, like most posting here, most eagerly. While I was in the book store I had seen the Lord John books, and now knowing they are a sort of parallel to Outlander, I will get them next time I can. I thought I had found a discrepancy reguarding Clair’s necklace, but will have to re-read the books to see if I can find it again, I was too hungry to keep reading to stop and go back and see if I could find it again. And re-read I will, as I enjoyed them all the first time around (not just to find a small error, to be sure!).
Is there anything that can describe how some of the gaelic in your books might be pronounced? As I read the gaelic accent I hear in my head the voices from the movie “Braveheart” and see the beautiful landscape of Scotland from that movie in your books. I also see in my head some scenes from the movie “The Patriot”, even though it is set in a different state and different battles. It helps with my ‘seeing’ what you have written so well.
Thank you,
Dolly