Novel Writing
In March 1988, Gabaldon decided to "write a novel for practice, in order to learn how." At the time, she did not intend to share it with anyone, or to try to get it published. While "casting about for an appealing time and place" for the novel, she happened to see an old Doctor Who rerun on PBS, titled "War Games." One of the Doctor's companions was a Scot from around 1745, a young man about 17 years old named Jamie MacCrimmon, who provided the initial inspiration for her main male character, James Fraser, and for her novel's mid-18th century setting. Gabaldon decided to have "an Englishwoman to play off all these kilted Scotsmen," but her female character "took over the story and began telling it herself, making smart-ass modern remarks about everything." To explain the character's modern behavior and attitudes, Gabaldon chose to use time travel.
Later in 1988, Gabaldon posted a short excerpt of her novel on the CompuServe Literary Forum, which led to her introduction to the literary agent Perry Knowlton by author John E. Stith. Knowlton represented her based on an unfinished first novel, tentatively titled Cross Stitch. Her first book deal was for a trilogy, the first novel plus two then-unwritten sequels. The first book's title was changed before release to Outlander in the United States, but remained unchanged in the U.K. According to Gabaldon,Cross Stitch," a play on "a stitch in time", was liked by the British publishers; however, the American publisher said that it "sounded too much like embroidery" and wanted a more "adventurous" title.
The Outlander series presently comprises seven published novels, with the eighth installment, Written In My Own Heart's Blood, scheduled to be published in 2013. Gabaldon has also published The Exile (An Outlander Graphic Novel) (2010). The novels center on Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser and James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser, and are set in Scotland, France, the West Indies, England, and America. The Lord John Series is a spin-off from the Outlander books, centering on a secondary character from the original series.
Read more about this topic: Diana Gabaldon
Famous quotes containing the word writing:
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