Happy New Year – 2024!


2024-01-01-Happy-New-YearHappy New Year to one and all!

‘Tis the season for new resolutions and perhaps the odd spot of bibulousness….

So it’s New Year’s Eve— a time to sit down and breathe, sip something to aid contemplation (be that hot tea or cold gin…) and let the peaceful night surround you. (Unless you’re a party animal, in which case I don’t need to suggest anything to you…) Do you look to the past and see what the last year has held—and what you did or thought about it? Or to the future, with hopes and dreams—and possibly a few more concrete plans?

My own list for the New Year is fairly short:

Take care of husband, family, dogs, friends, etc.

Prune deadwood from the four citrus trees that didn’t get done last winter. Fertilize ALL the citrus, as well as the ancient pomegranate tree out back (I did manage to saw all the dead limbs off that one over the last two or three months. Vide previous replies to questions about why we have an Enormous Dumpster (from a conversation on my official Facebook page)… we can’t burn outdoors inside the city limits, and only rarely indoors).

Pull out the big California laurel tree and VERY thorny ex-rose-bush that perished during the Hotspell from Hell last summer. (It stayed over 115 degrees EVERY DAY for nearly two months.) Contemplate what the heck to do with the ex-grapevines, which have grown through and pulled over the chunk of iron fence they’d been using to climb on before they became ex (died of old age, aided by heat-stroke). (I need either an ax or a small, maneuverable chain-saw… I’d just dig up the stumps, but I can’t get near enough to do so, as the collapsed/entangled fence is in the way.)

Work on Book Ten. (NO, it’s not going to be finished this coming year (let us not be ridiculous…), but I think we’ll get a good deal further. It’s in a good place.)

Finish writing first Prequel Novel. (These will be about the size of one of the Lord John novels; those, I can finish within 9-10 months, so we hope for the best.)

Consult on Prequel show.

Consult on Season Eight.

(Consulting basically means reading all the iterations (average 6-8) of each script, plus—when filming starts—watching the dailies.)

Write script for Prequel show.

Write script for Season Eight.

(FYI – writing a script takes me roughly three weeks (not counting revisions, which tend to be quick). Writing one of the Big Books takes a minimum of three years.)

Do public appearances (VERY limited this year!).

Make curtain (FINALLY) for kitchen in old family house (I’ve had the fabric for the last fifteen years… a print of tiny Highlanders and Redcoats on a white background).

So that’s me in 2024. <g> How about you?

(If you like, please share your plans and thoughts in a web comment below. Note that due to ever-present robotic web spam clogging up the works, my Webmistress or I have to go through and approve each comment to make sure it’s written by a human being. Spam filters don’t catch everything. So it takes time, sometimes a few few minutes, sometimes a few days, for your comment to appear, unlike Social Media.)

47 Responses »

  1. Thanks for all you do and all you write… The Outlander world is amazing. God has blessed you with a very creative mind, thank you for sharing it with all of us.

  2. Pruning by handsaw is very satisfying. My wife gifted me with a small electric saw for my last birthday. I recommend the electric saw for speed and very smooth cuts. You will like it. It’s also very fast!
    Best Wishes,
    Mark

    • Enjoy your new electric saw, Mark! And, yes, pruning by handsaw can be very satisfying. Can work out frustrations by wrestling with and conquering tangles and such.

      Happy New Year to you and your wife!

  3. I gave up making New Year’s resolutions a long time ago but here are a few things I would like to accomplish short term. Clean out closets and drawers. Stop hanging on to things I “might” someday wear or use. They’ve hung around way too long as is. And here is the truly hard part…once de-cluttering has been accomplished, try to keep that way! Finish my umpteenth re-reading of the Outlander series (on Echo In The Bone right now). Lastly, try to make my 71 trip around sun a good one. I’m a fellow Capricorn Diana! January 2, 1953.

  4. Happy New Year, Diana!
    I’ve enjoyed your voice in print since 1999 (I was a freshman in high school) and I wonder if your books have shaped my literary tastes since the tender age of 15. I will say Claire has brought about a healthy interest in plants (both medicinal and decorative) and a beautifully strong and delightful penchant for aggressively-charming (or that’s,at least, my interpretation of the effect I have on others- let’s hope it’s true) expletives.
    My list for the year always starts the same:
    1. That I may grow in Love and learn through prayer and action how best to give and receive the most vital nutrient humanity needs.
    2. Be nice to the hubby. (I mostly adore him, so not tough to do.)
    3. Delight in my 3 small children (one boy, two very feisty girls) and hold all their big emotions without shaming, responding in temper (brought on by deep, deep exhaustion), or sudden evacuations -screaming towards the Montana mountains.
    4. Continue designing and planting gardens to shape environments where people feel safe and at peace.
    5. Learn to write like Diana! I read between 40-50 books a year (unless, of course, I’ve chosen to reread several of your Lord John and Outlander novels, in which case the number becomes significantly less), but I’ve never actually tried to make that transition between reader and writer. After spending the last year reading (and not finishing because I’ve finally given myself permission to cherish time as a resource) terrible writing, I’ve decided that I can do it better, or at the very least, I’ll learn that I can’t and be more forgiving and empathetic towards all those authors* whom I’ve felt have let me down.

    * Please don’t share this next bit as I would never want to put something that might tug a little downward at a person’s good mood (unless you have no uncomfortable emotions emerge and you think other people might benefit from your response.): You have never let me down in your writing and your stories, but I have wondered, since the day after Go Tell the Bees came out, as to why Jamie would tell Claire to leave with anyone who can go back through the stones (pg 903), but if poor (or lucky, perhaps) Davy is unable to make it (and Jamie thinks this is a good possibility), I have a hard time imagining he would give this advice. He knows the cost of a severed family.

    You are a delight to know through your words.
    Cara

    • Some great plans for the new year! Um, I think you should learn to write like Cara, in your own voice. As I point out in the webpages of my Writer’s Corner, you have to write and keep writing to learn how to do it. And don’t stop. It’s a process and takes work. See:

      https://dianagabaldon.com/wordpress/resources/what-i-do/

      It’s often helpful to join a discussion group such as those on TheLitForum.com. Lots of discussions there about writing and how to do it among aspiring authors.

      As to happenings in BEES that you mentioned, everyone has to make tough decisions sometimes whether a real person or a fictional character. And risk much to survive and, hopefully, thrive.

      Have a very blessed and happy 2024! And enjoy your writing…

      • Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. That was very kind and considerate. Of course, I will gladly take your advice and sprint, trudge, leap and mosey along with it.
        Blessings!

  5. This year my husband and I will finish a remodel of our mid century 1953 ranch tract house addressing a number of horrible remodels from previous homeowners and bad electric and hvac problems and turn our garage into a studio/ Accessory Dwelling Unit. This is addressing all the structural problems we experienced during the pandemic with our home. We hope to also travel towards the end of the year.

    I enjoy your books, as well as many others while sewing and gardening and thinking about the colors inside my home and in my garden. It also helps to think about how the way people live in other parts of the world in the process. I had a true appreciation for your two first books. Structural building has evolved significantly, with changes in heating and cooling and with labor saving devices like mangles were at a certain point or drying racks in kitchens in England. What a difference it makes to have a hot water heater, clean water security, not to have to carry wood or coal or other combustibles in to specific rooms for heating or build homes to consider cooling factors in humid environments. (Consider a/c in a high humidity area versus using an evaporative cooling system in an arid zone).

    I lived in my parents’ guest house in my late 20s and was told not to use the heat pump for ac or heat. This just outside Washington DC in Maryland, a high humidity zone. It had a tiny wood stove. In the summer, the windows remained open for cross ventilation and the ceiling fan ran. I was used to the temperature, it didn’t bother me. I had to put a sweater on for a/c and found it uncomfortable. In the Fall, Winter and Spring when it was cooler, I’d run the stove with a pot of water for humidity. It had to be refilled with wood every 6 hours. My parents became tired of it, because they would sleep with their window cracked and they could tell when it started up again (it belched smoke). It was replaced with a stove that had a catalytic converter that would run for 12 hours). I loved that stove. I could sleep all night with that one. I was never really sick living that way. It did require some work but it as mostly stacking wood, emptying ashes, being very careful with the ashes, and appreciating my living situation. My parents loved having their family with them. When my father passed, my mother didn’t know what to do. I told her I would help. It meant that I wouldn’t necessarily be able to fix the problem myself but would find the answer somewhere. We did it together.

    Surprisingly, my sisters and I are all within 10 to 15 minutes of each other and two of us have remodeling interests. The 3rd not so much. She likes to redecorate (paint, wallpaper). Growing up our home was never finished – always being changed. My daughter hates it when there are changes, but once they are complete appreciates them.

    My daughter will have something similar, but I can’t put a wood stove in the studio unfortunately. I wish I could, but it would take up too much space with masonry. Instead, it will be a bit more civilized with a laundry, kitchenette, Murphy bed and bathroom and walkout to the driveway with a 25 minute commute to work, slightly longer than mine used to be. She just started as a dog handler at the Department of Energy after working bomb detection for FedEx. She is very good with the dogs she works with and makes it look like magic. Her personal working dog can do all kinds of tricks and skills beyond bomb detection. The dogs are wonderful and so intelligent. Her personal working dog is a Dutch shepherd. The company dog is a Lab. Both are high energy.

    So while we are on vacation, we automatically have a house sitter built in for us. I would like for us to visit sites I read about in books I listened to while quilting, crafting and sewing, like Scotland, and the.British Isles, all of France, Brussels, Luxembourg, return to Switzerland and Italy and Spain and Morocco. Then Egypt and Greece and Turkey.

    I thought it was very interesting that you had Hugh Munro in Outlander. Europeans were kidnapped on a regular basis at that time for the slave trade and that you had him escape even after he suffered so much indicated that he was a strong character. I also give Thomas Jefferson a lot of credit for recognizing the negative impact to American shipping by Algerian and other Muslim pirates that still plague us to this day. The slave trade still exists as well.

    • Living near a desert city, the concrete and human activity (including lawn watering) makes it more humid. So folks usually have A/C as well as evaporative (“swamp”) coolers for the more humid days.

      Happy New Year to you and your family, and may your latest remodeling efforts go as planned.

  6. I’m finally going to have my shoulder surgery on Valentine’s Day, that I should have had months ago – the surgeon says it won’t be a repair job, but more of a salvage job. I had my spine surgery last February which was more important, so the shoulder had to wait. I’ll probably read the outlander series again, and/or watch the series again. I’d like to plant more, paint more, and get back into wood carving – we’ll see. Recovery from the shoulder surgery is going to take a good while. But I’m retiring in May, so I’ll have plenty of time soon. And thinking about our short trip to Northwestern PA to watch the total eclipse in April. Ever so grateful for the Outlander books – looking forward anxiously for the next one! Take care.

  7. Thank you for all your hard work, Diana. I have read the Outlander series several times and get more from each successive reading. That’s good writing!

    As the new year rolls around again, I am anxiously awaiting the birth of my first grandson. He is due 4-24-24. I hope he arrives that day because I think it would be the coolest birthday imaginable.

    I look forward to book 10. I can’t wait to see what happens to some of my favorite people.

  8. Like it has for all the others, your writing has given me much pleasure over the years. i’m re-reading “Go tell the bees that I have gone,” and have found it so helpful to have something to read as I recover from an injury.

    My goals are many: de-clutter my home, donate those things that others will find useful and try to enjoy each moment as it comes. And, as a gardener, I will spend time next month pruning and fertilizing in the yard and, later, fill in empty spots with the herbs and flowers that do well in our area. We also had the summer from hell here in Central Texas and so will focus on planting natives and very tough adapted plants.

    My best to you and your family.

    • Hope you get well soon and recover from your injury.

      I especially love it that you plan to “enjoy each moment as it comes.” Sage advice there.

      My best to you and yours, also. Happy New Year!

  9. Dearest Lady,

    I know you do not respond to unknowns. I just cannot thank you enough for bringing the joy of Outlander, into my life. I am new to the series only started in 2023 when my husband gave me Starz. I am looking forward to anything more your wonderful creative mind graces us all with.

    • Er, I do my best to respond to readers that I don’t personally know, if that’s what you mean by “unknowns.” <g> I love to hear from readers and viewers of the tv series.

      Glad you are enjoying the Outlander tv series. A lot of people have told me that they read my Outlander novels after enjoying the tv series. Sony and Starz have announced a prequel tv series about Jamie’s parents is in the works, too.

      Thank you for your kind words, Doris, and I hope you and yours have a blessed new year.

  10. OMG! I just finished reading “Bees” and I think it is possibly your best book yet. I mean I have loved them all, but all the storylines in this book are so riveting that I really couldn’t put the book down and read it in 3 days! Thank you for this story of Jamie and Claire and all the other important characters. Now I will have to wait patiently for book 10.

    • Thanks, Kelly! Glad you enjoyed BEES. May you have a very happy 2024…

      • I know that they say 8 is the last season, but Bees is the perfect for season 9, don’t you think?

      • It was officially announced that the Outlander TV show will end with Season 8. In the beginning, they covered about one Outlander-series novel per season. Since there will be at least ten books in the Outlander series, including the one Diana is writing now, and there won’t be ten seasons of the show… we’ll just have to wait and see what’s in season 8. :-)

        And look forward to the prequel novel and tv series!

  11. This year I am hoping garden better, if that makes sense- to grow (some of) what we eat and preserve it well. I am just finishing Joan Wolf‘s book, “Born of the Sun,” (published 1989, available now in ebook format), and it reminded me some of your writing (though I believe she writes in third person). Have you heard of or read her books? I enjoyed the interplay between neighboring tribes/bands in Britain, as well as the personal lives of the characters over many years. Thanks for your amazing books, and looking forward to the next one!

  12. Happy New Year! Some of my things this year are…
    1. Reorganizing the medicine drawer
    2. Get house ready foeg writing a puppy
    3. Pine away for book 10 ;)
    4. Finish purging all baby items
    5. Keep working on health/fitness goals!
    6. Rewatch seasons 1-7 in preparation for 8

    :)

  13. In your prequels, would you consider a Randel, Reverend, and Claire’s Uncle- “How much did they know” Book/ series?

    - All of the main characters seem to have been prepared unknowingly for their adventures in the past. I would love to read something like this alongside the big books.

    It is mainly because these side characters are often more interesting than the main ones. Questions like did Clare’s uncle- and maybe even her parents know, so that is why he studied the past? Did they-her parents- get caught by the funny buggers?

    Maybe you have plans to address topics like this in the big books, but if not, please consider writing an Outer-side of Outlander book/series.

    Not this year- you have curtains to make or commission. But if you had a brain block and a moment of whimsy, I’d be happy to see the outcome, even if it was a one-off small short story.

    All the best and wishing you rest this year.

    Michelle Rose Cusack

  14. I completed my first real novel last year for Nano and this year I plan to do that and more. I have three novels in the idea stage, spread out over the year, as well as plans to knock out a gazzillion short stories. I managed 350K words last year almost all on my own. (I’m used to writing with a partner but she somehow got a LIFE. What’s up with that???)

    The plan is to figure out what MY voice is, what stories I NEED to tell. We’ll see how I do.

    I read Outlander in a reviewer copy before it was actually published so I’ve been a fan since, well, FOREVER! You are one of two writing heroes, the other being Stephen King who I’ve been reading since I was much too young to be reading SK, frankly.

    You are my inspirations as a reader and more importantly as a writer. I can not thank you enough for sharing your gift with us. Going to your world with your characters has veen a comfort for me my entire adult life but no more so than right after my near fatal heart attack at the end of 2013. (YAY ten year survival!)

    So, in short, thank you so much for all you do! With all the love,
    Katherine

  15. Just a thought—in the event that the grapevines DO
    die: they can be cut and wound into circles. Then, decorate them with whatever you wish. Or, you can find an artsy friend that would like to use them. I did the wreath thing with some old grapevines on my folks’ property and they loved it!

  16. I’m watching constantly for the few appearances you may do. I will make my husband come with to meet you! Your books are my absolute favorite world to be in.

  17. Diana,

    Any chance you’d ever consider popping over to Cheyenne, Wyoming when you’re out this way visiting your daughter? Huge fan here who happens to be on the local library board and event committee!

  18. Dear Diana,
    It is my opinion that you are among the finest authors of the 20th-21st century.
    That being said, Diana, I am soon to be 86 years of age. P u l e a s e hurry up and get the 10th
    book of the Outlander series finished. I really would like to read it before
    going on to my ‘great reward (whatever the hecky darn that will be).
    I’ve read so many author’s works and consider you the Best of the Best.
    Thank you. You’ve given me many great hours entertainment in these past few years.
    If my comments seem a bit disjointed, that’s just the way it is at this age.
    Susan, B. Redd

  19. Hello Diana, I love your writing! I did not discover your books until 2001. But as soon as I started reading Outlander, it became a movie in my head! Your writing is so wonderfully descriptive! When the series came out on Starz…..I was blown away!!
    Happy belated birthday!! I’ll be hitting the 71 mark this year!! (My mind has decided to stay at 53!!lol)
    Maybe one day I’ll be able to meet you. It would be an honor.
    Thanks, Denise

  20. Hi Diana,
    Your books are my favorite series of all time! I am a bookseller, and your series is the only adult series that I recommend on repeat to my customers.

    Kindly,
    Darci Tracey,
    Prologue. Books & Wine

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