See the note below—this post is from July 6, 2014 and is a bit outdated…
I’m about to head back out in a few hours, to do my _last_ US/Canadian book-tour event in Traverse City, MI. But thought I might grab an hour to do a bit of updating before I absquatulate again…
First—I’m delighted that so many of you like MOBY!* Thank you so much for all your kind words.
As for the next book(s), I have no idea.** I finished writing MOBY on April 15th (having stayed up 36 hours straight to do it), spent the rest of April working 16 hours a day to finish the copyedits and galley proofs, then spent most of May dealing with everything (including stuff associated with the TV show) that was pushed out of the way during the Final Frenzy of MOBY. And on June 7th, all hell broke loose and I’ve essentially been on the road for a solid month, with three brief touchdowns at home (ranging from 12 hours to a whole day-and-a-half). So far, I’ve signed roughly 38,000 copies of MOBY and will undoubtedly hit between 40-50,000 by the end of summer. (No, I don’t have carpal-tunnel syndrome, but thank you for your concern.)
Now, I realize that it’s difficult to know what to say to a writer at a book-signing; I’d be tongue-tied myself, in the presence of someone I admired but didn’t know. It’s always great to hear, "I loved this book!" or "I love your books and I’m really looking forward to reading this one!" if you need a default. "WHEN WILL BOOK NINE BE OUT?!?" is possibly a little less welcome.
But I do appreciate the enthusiasm/impatience that spawn this question, so here’s what my immediate writing future looks like (assuming I survive the rest of the summer):
At the moment, there are only scraps of Book Nine—plus a useful "What I Know" document that I wrote right after finishing MOBY, about the "shelf-hung" subplots (those are bits that are kind of folded back on themselves, but not left as cliffhangers—like where William is going or what will happen to Lord John next).
I haven’t even formally sifted MOBY’s Mfile (the regularly updated list of files written for a specific book) and moved the remnant files to JAMIE9 (the directory/folder for Book Nine) yet (that’s a two-day job in itself). The next thing I do is to go through my major reference shelves, cleaning and tidying, and in the process, assemble the "core" shelf for Book 9–for any book, no matter how many references I consult along the way, there will end up being maybe five books that are _very_ helpful/relevant and that I use a lot, and maybe 5-10 more that I want to keep close to hand, for more limited but still important stuff. I keep one shelf for that core reference stuff, and refurbish it when I start serious work on a new novel. adding new sources as I come across them. Then I read through the relevant portions of ALMANAC OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, a _very_ useful book that gives brief notes on everything happening everywhere <g> on a given day, that had any importance in the Revolution. This is my first pass at a historical timeline (which lives in my head and evolves constantly over the course of a book). I’ll probably write bits and pieces while I’m doing these necessary chores, but it’s pretty random and nothing like the sustained effort that comes as I move fully into a book.
In other words, you’re not likely to see #DailyLines from Book Nine for awhile.
Now, there’s a _lot_ of THE OUTLANDISH COMPANION, Volume 2 in existence. I’ve been messing about with that on the side for the last 2-3 years, and most of it is _there_, if not yet tidied into its final form. There are a few chunks of original writing still to be done for that–the detailed synopsis for MOBY is the first that springs to mind, though I’ll also need to add commentary to a largish excerpt section (specialized excerpts), and a few other bits to be collected or contracted (i.e., I may have to get someone to produce things like maps or floor-plans, as I can’t do better than crude sketches on my own). But IF I move OC2 to the top of the work pile (not as the main focus, but as the main side-project), it _might_ be ready for delivery to the publisher around January, and thus might be in print sometime in the first half of 2015, which would be nice. (I also need to do slight updates to OC1, removing obsolete material and maybe improving the Gaelic Pronunciation Guide—that sort of thing.)
Then there’s the HOW TO (AND HOW _NOT_ TO) WRITE SEX-SCENES ebook. That’s actually complete, but I finished it right before both the show and MOBY hit high gear, so I now need to read it through again and do final fiddles (and maybe include a few scenes from MOBY), then run it past my agent for response and suggestions (if any). Ebooks can be produced _very_ fast, though, so once we’re happy with it, it could be out within a couple of months–I’d kind of like to have it out this fall, but that’s a matter for discussion with agents, publishers, etc.
And more or less on the same level with Book Nine (in terms of how eager I am to work on them) are the prequel volume about Jamie’s parents (for which I have only fragments at the moment) and the first contemporary crime novel. I think I have about half of that, and it’s "live" for me–but will take a good bit of intensive work, both in terms of research and writing. On the other hand, it’s short by comparison with everything else on my menu.
And on the outskirts of my mind are the germs of what might eventually be novellas, but I haven’t had the time even to _look_ at those with any attention. They _are_ brief, though, and I might well pick one up to get back into my regular routine–come September. I’ll be traveling/working most of July and August, and won’t have anything like peace and quiet ’til Labor Day. (No, I’m not going to Dragon Con this year, unless Starz decides they want to have a presence there for the show, and at the moment, they don’t.)
In the meantime, any eager soul who foolishly asks me, "When will Book Nine be out?" will be politely ignored. Or bonked on the head with the copy of MOBY they just asked me to sign, depending…
*(And for those few who complained that the ending of MOBY was a cliffhanger….go back and read the end of AN ECHO IN THE BONE, to see what one actually looks like. <g> If you just wanted to "see" what happened next in MOBY…feel free to fill in your own version of "OMG! OMG! OMG! <hughughug> <weep tears of joy> OMG! OMG! OMG! <broken endearments> OMG? OMG? OMG? <hopping up and down> OMG!" I have complete faith in my readers’ intelligence and imagination, and I don’t tell y’all things I know you can figure out for yourselves.)
**Webmistress’s Note on August 28, 2015: A lot has changed in the year since Diana posted the blog above on July 6, 2014:
- See Diana’s Book Nine webpage for excerpts (aka "Daily Lines") and current information.
- The revised, updated and expanded version of THE OUTLANDISH COMPANION, VOLUME ONE, was published on March 31, 2015 in the U.S.A. This ultimate guide to the OUTLANDER series covers the first four major novels: OUTLANDER, DRAGONFLY IN AMBER, VOYAGER, and DRUMS OF AUTUMN. (The original OC was published in 1999. The U.K. edition of this guide was titled THROUGH THE STONES.)
- THE OUTLANDISH COMPANION, VOLUME TWO will be published in the U.S.A. on October 27, 2015. OC II is the guide to the second four major novels in the OUTLANDER series: THE FIERY CROSS, A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES, AN ECHO IN THE BONE, and WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART’S BLOOD (aka "MOBY").
Hi Diana. I just wondered if in your pile of ideas for What’s Next? there is a kernel about Claire’s parents? She obviously got the time travel gene from someone. I’ve been wondering about them for a while.
I finished MOBY 2 weeks after I got it. I tried to make it last, truly I did! I loved the way you ended it in a comfortable place so we poor addicted fans won’t have to agonize over Jemmy in the tunnel for a couple of years.
I loved the book, and will probably re-read again in a few weeks.
Also loving the Starz TV series. The cast & crew have done a wonderful job of bringing your writing to life. This is the first time I have ever paid for a premium cable channel!
Enjoy your time off and recharge your batteries! There are a pile of hard cover books awaiting your signature at the Poisoned Pen when you return.
I have read the whole series, and have now just bought the complete Outlander set for my wife in Polish (she does not read English).
In Poland each book is publishdd in two parts, so that made 14 books, as book 8 is not out in Polish as yet.
we now both started to watch the series an like those as well.
Please keep up the good work.
OK, so my mom has been reading your books pretty much since I was little, I just started reading them a couple years ago and I must say that I LOVE these books and I can’t wait until book 9. Sadly we can’t watch the TV show because we don’t have stars
I have done work as a genealogist and a family historian so I know the hours and volumes of historical data you must have searched, and I fully understand the laborious amount of time you must have spent on each character and background information to male them come alive in every readers imagination. I have read many books and many books in series by many good authors but I must say no one has made the whole series come to life in my mind as you have topping off with a TV series. You have made my day. Thank You
Peter
Ms. Gabaldon I ABSOLUTELY loved MOBY! A lot of people just like me want to know about the next one. Since it is a less welcome question I won’t ask. But I’m definitely looking forward to it. I donate all my books after reading them either to the public library or most recently to the library at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital where I go for treatment. Your other books went to the 39th Brigade when they went to Iraq. I wanted to ask if there were possibly a discount place where I could get copies of your other OUTLANDER books. I have MOBY. I’d like to get the entire series for the library so that the men & women who are in house, or in-patient, can have something truly EXCELLENT to read while they are in treatment. Alcohol & drug treatment can be very hard, & they can really use a break. If I can find a good enough discount I’d like to send your books to a ship’s crew I adopted for the holidays last year. I couldn’t afford to get the sunglasses &tough gloves they needed. Your books would would be great for them. They handle ammo & stuff, & they need the entertainment. If you know of a discount place please let me know. If I can afford it this year I’d like to give them your books for Christmas. Thank you in advance if you know of such a place. If not, thank you for ALL your excellent books. When I read them I forget about the pain I’m in due to my disability. That, stress, & anything negative just goes away. Thank you for that. This is one disabled vet who is very grateful to you.
Dear Debi–
Pleased send me an email about this at dgabaldon@aol.com. I’m sure we can work something out in order to get books for your hospital library and ship’s crew.
Best,
–Diana
Thank you for your service. I do the same with my local VAMC WHC. USA (ODS/ODS)
Lord, this breaks my heart. I would be happy to donate a set of books. As it is, I must have bought these books a dozen times already, what with gifts and lending them to people who just can’t bring themselves to return them. What’s one more?:) Just post where you would like them to go. Debbie
Hi Diana,
Thank you so much for the years of enjoyment for this wonderful series. I received my Outlander book from a friend during my maternity leave in 1997. He is not 17 1/2 years old and I still love the Jamie and Claire books. As so many others have expressed, to see them visually on screen is AMAZING. I hadn’t had cable for a decade. Unfortunately, that couldn’t continue when news of the series being made came out. We have not been disappointed at all.
Thank you ever so much,
Kim
I haven’t quite finished MOBY but this book was well worth the wait as the ninth will be, also.
When I sit down to read one of the books in the series (which I have done approx. 6 times) I become part of the book and the characters become like family.
When I began to ready MOBY it was like taking a vacation from real life and visiting good friends that I hadn’t seen for many years.
This has been one of the few series of book that I have read that will actually make me laugh, chuckle or cry out loud.
The hours of pleasure that you provide for your loyal readers are welcomed and appreciated.
Móran taing.
Hi Diana,
Here goes, I am not a reader, never have been. A friend from Arizona, whom you know, Cheryl DeVita Atwood, told me I should read this series called Outlander. That was March 2014 and I read through all seven books and finished just as In My Own Heart’s Blood was released, so I read that right away. I never had to wait in between books! So now . . . I have read all of the Lord John books as well! Simply put, I love your work.
I have to say, at the end of In My Own Heart’s Blood, I could just picture Jenny meeting Roger – and her remembering him coming to her home when she was a teen, she would surely have believe that Claire and the others did time travel. I can’t wait to read about their reunion and for Brianna to tell Jamie how she was able to see her namesake, his father Brian!
Thank you!
I really enjoyed MOBY, and know I must patiently wait for book 9. Although it didn’t have a cliff hanger, it did make me wonder…. So many questions but not sure that this is the forum in which to ask. To ease my Outlander withdrawal, I also read “A Trail of Fire.” Which, unfortuately, just added to my speculation and wondering. Thank you Diana for creating so vividly such interesting characters and letting us glimpse into their world. Take a well deserved rest and I will patiently wait for your next project.
Thank you for all your hard work and joy you have brought to you ever-growing fan base.
I am hoping that you have plans to release an anniversary copy of each of your books (example the beautifully bound Outlander with the excerpt for MOBY). I would love to have a collection for my shelves, for reading, rereading, and of course digital (and soon DVD’s!). I cherish this series and sadly they fall apart after you read them over and over (I never put them down!).
Again….thank you for the years of cheers, tears, separations and reunions. And of course….beautiful men in kilts and examples of strong smart woman!
Diana, I have to confess that I had never read any of the Outlander series until I heard about the upcoming tv series. I have seen the books on the shelf but for some reason, probably the time period of the beginning of the story, my interest wasn’t captured. However, after hearing the story described in relation to the tv series, I read the first book. Followed immediately by the following seven. Just finished MOBY ten minutes ago and am already excited to read the next. Thanks for the enjoyable reads, take some time for yourself and know that this fan will wait for the next installment with great anticipation.
Hi Diana,
Read and reading all the books
Love the Stars show also !! You were great in your cameo, nice accent 
Would love to see an alternative universe book of what Jamie and Claire would have experienced had she been able to bring him through the stone into the future to escape Scotland
Hugs,
betsy
Dear Betsy–
_That’s_ not happening. [g] But glad you’re enjoying the books as they are!
Best,
–Diana
Hahaha- just read your response – and shared it with my husband we cracked up at the space between the Thats – and NOT Happening – we keep asking eachother what he would think of the modern world, I couldn’t resist asking you
I also want to tell you as an over 40 girl I love that Jamie and Claire still have the hots for each other into their 50′s and 60′s !!! We have a little viewing party with our best buds over here on Sat. nights and drink Riesling ( our version of Rhenish )
Best to you doll, too !
I was wandering around the public library of the little country town I lived in twenty-six years ago. As nothing was jumping off the shelf to me, I asked the librarian for suggestions. Without hesitation she told me about this new book and author that I absolutely must read. She didn’t lie…hooked ever since.
MOBY was awesome. Couldn’t put it down but didn’t want it to end. Speaking of which…the ending is perfect!!!
Hi Diana – I am so thrilled you are planning a ninth book – the end of MOBY left me going ‘But…. what… how… ?????’. I loved it
I read Crosstitch (Outlander) for the first time in high school 16 years ago, and my girlfriends and I fell head over heels in love with Jamie. Until I’d seen the Outlander preview I will confess not giving much though to poor Frank, but the way Tobias Menzies plays him brings him alive as a character for me. Waiting (im)patiently for Outlander to be picked up by a UK channel now! As I’m a fast reader, I read the series probably once a year, and love that I always find new things or new connections each time. I’ll be delving into the Lord John series and rereading Trail of Fire and OC1 while I wait (im)patiently for book #9. Thanks Diana for a wonderful series.
Hello,
I don’t know what the average age of your readers is, but your series came to my attention when I was just barely a teen, I think maybe thirteen, lol. Needless to say I “grew up” reading the Outlander series
In preparation for MOBY, I reread the series and realized just how much more I can appreciate now, as a woman of what you’ve had Claire & Jamie go through.
So here’s to you and a series which will no doubt only get better the older I get.
P.S. I sincerely hope if Book 9 is to be the last one, that it might tie up all the loose ends with the major characters, I know we’re supposed to imagine, but I buy the books to find out what tale your imagination might tell
Dear Angela–
I actually have no idea what the readers’ demographic looks like. The youngest person to have written me a fan letter was a ten-year-old boy; the oldest was a 96-year-old woman. I’m kind of assuming they got different things out of the books [g], but that _is_ why the books can be re-read so frequently; you really do experience them differently at different stages of life, as your perspective changes. Glad you’re enjoying them, and I hope you continue!
Best,
–DIana
Have read all the books and am almost through with MOBY. As anxious as I am for #9, I want Companion #2 more since I am missing links in the stories through the passage of time (pun intended) . For instance, I forgot how Roger and Buck met, and the details of Ian with the Mohawks, etc.
Helloooooo,
I just have one question that still baffled me up to the last book (MOBY). In the “Drums of Autum”, chapter 22, it was stated that the notice about the fire on Jan 21st was printed on Feb 13, 1776, but the actual fire was actually happened on Dec 21st 1776 ? So how could the notice was printed on Feb while the actual fire was happened on Dec?
Dear Elly–
It was a printer’s error. Read the Epilogue.
Best,
–Diana
Hi Diana,
Thank you for the explanation
I am from Indonesia, so as you can tell, English is not my main language. On my senior year in high school, my English teacher gave us an assignment to make a summary on a book, kind of a reading assignment, well it was a common knowledge that she will give you an A if you chose the thickest book for that assignment. So in the book store, I searched for the thickest book on sale there and … boom ….. I found “Outlander” ….. 850 pages
I was prepared at that time, to just read 2 or 3 first chapters and skip to the last few chapters (considering I have to read it with a heavy dictionary on my lap ………. not fun at all) but that never happened. I was so engrossed in reading it
I laughed and cried together with Jamie and Claire !
Once again, thank you for giving us beautiful stories
BTW, I keep on telling people that you are my English and Gaelic teacher (though I still can’t pronounce Gaelic words anyway, but at least I know the meaning of the words !)
Well, I’ve read the series through book 7 four times and twice for MOBY. It is amazing how fresh the books are each time I read them. I’m addicted the relationship between Claire and Jamie.
I just have to say I am so grateful that you brought Bree, Roger and the kids to the Ridge. I was afraid we’d have to wait…
I can’t tell you the joy the books have brought in Nov of 2013 I asked a friend for a good book to read and that’s how it began. I have tried to savor the latest one but I also enjoy trying to imagine where the next one will lead. I’m 49 have read a lot in my time enjoy every aspect from the history to the characters. All I can say is thank you !!!!!
I know exactly what to say to a stranger who has just introduced me to an entire new world: Thank you! I”m only 20 years behind everyone else who follows you and your wonderful clansmen et al. Deep in, loyal fan now, fealty sworn.
Dear Ellen–
You’re most welcome! [smile]
Best,
–Diana