HAPPY 11th of January!
Aside from the (no doubt) universal rejoicing at the fact that it’s my birthday <cough>—Penguin Random House would like to announce a couple of Really Entertaining new items. To wit:
THE OUTLANDER COCKTAILS BOOK – I wasn’t sure what this would be like, but it’s really gorgeous; the photography is fabulous! (The editor emailed me in great excitement, saying, “The cover looks so great I want a drink, and it’s only 9 AM!!”)
I agree, and I really only drink wine…. well, and the occasional wee snort of whisky, for medicinal purposes…
Whether you enjoy cocktails yourself, entertain a lot, or just know people who might enjoy a drink called “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash” before dinner—this is the perfect followup to a Dry January.*
https://bit.ly/outlandercocktails
And what is the perfect thing to accompany a great cocktail? <think, think, think…> Why, OUTLANDER TRIVIA, of course! (I’m not saying you can’t play this game sober, but it might be even more entertaining after a round of inventive drinks, whether alcoholic or not (I believe OUTLANDER COCKTAILS does include some non-alcoholic treats, as well).)
https://bit.ly/outlandertriviagame
* This is not (repeat NOT) messing with or insulting people who choose not to imbibe alcoholic beverages, for whatever reason. (I personally didn’t drink At All until I was forty. As it was, I started drinking because of Outlander, but that’s another story (which you’ll find in the Foreword to OUTLANDER COCKTAILS).)
Bliadhna mhath ùr! (“HAPPY NEW YEAR!” in Gaelic)
Arby’s Ears
A number of people have commented on Arby’s ears (as well they might…). My husband refers to them as the Very Large Array—this being a U.S. government installation of a quantity of linked radio telescopes (gigantic radio telescopes) that we pass whenever we go to New Mexico by the northern route, through Socorro.
If you don’t live in that neck of the woods, I figured y’all might not ever have heard of the VLA, and might be interested. It’s Deeply Surreal to come across on that deserted desert plain….
https://public.nrao.edu/telescopes/vla/
“My shield and buckler…”
Today I also released a new excerpt for Book Ten, “My shield and buckler…”
These posts also appeared on my official Facebook page on Thursday, January 11, 2024.
If you like, please share your thoughts about this blog post by submitting a public web comment in the “Leave a Response” form 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 individually to make sure it’s written by a human being. Spam filters don’t catch everything. So it will take time, sometimes a few minutes, sometimes a few days, for your comment to appear, unlike social media.
Who wouldn’t love a drink named “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash” ?! And, Outlander Trivia ?!? I’m In!! So excited for this so I can crush everyone with my Outlander knowledge
(Link deleted to a story about a man who used a crowbar to find a “fort” from the Revolutionary War era in the walls of the historic Byrnside-Beirne-Johnson House in West Virginia.)
Don’t know if you’ve seen this,but I thought of you right away!
Hi, Jade,
Diana’s Webmistress here. I am the nerd who maintains Diana’s busy website on the programming end.
Note that I haven’t discussed the Byrnside-Beirne-Johnson House with Diana yet, so the text below is my personal opinion only.
The story in the link you shared says a man, described as an amateur archaeologist and lawyer, bought an ’1850s plantation house’ in about 2019, then TOOK A CROWBAR to the walls (!!) to uncover a log structure underneath from the 1700s. It was already known that an 1700s structure likely existed within the walls of the oldest part of the house, according to the National Register of Historic places form from 1993, submitted by a local committee for preservation of history in the area.
So it was well known that the structure was historically significant when the current owner bought it.
My opinion is that amateurs should not be excavating nor ‘renovating’ a known historically significant site without (at least) advice and cooperation of professional archaeologists. (Amateurs should not be doing brain surgery, either, IMO.)
Log houses that were reinforced and could be used for protection when under attack were usually called ‘blockhouses,’ or ‘fortified houses’. Often multiple local families might gather at a local blockhouse when under threat, unlike a military fort or garrison with regular troops. It is named a ‘fortified house’ in the National Register of Historic Places.
For lots of tasty history, read the 1993 form yourself submitted to National Register of Historic Places for the Byrnside-Beirne-Johnson House:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_WV/93001358.pdf
The listing at the National Register’s database for the Byrnside-Beirne-Johnson House is ID number 93001358 at:
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/
Loretta McKibben
webmaster@dianagabaldon.com
Arby looks very much like s/he might be part Belgian Malinois. My Malinois has ears very much like Arby’s. I hadn’t considered the VLA aspect though. Molly can hear things that I am totally unaware of.
Outlander trivia — Yay!!
Just a heads up… As of today, 2/18/24, the Trivia game is not yet available for pre-order from Amazon. I was, however, able to pre-order it from Walmart. It has a delivery date of August 14.