On June 11th, OHSOGRAY and diehard fans crowded into the ballroom at the Pasadena Hilton to hear author Diana Gabaldon discuss her newest novel, the eighth in the Outlander series, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood and the upcoming August 9th premiere of Outlander on Starz.
For those who are unfamiliar with Gabaldon’s best selling novels, they tell the story of Claire Randall, an English nurse who is transported from 1946 to 1743 after stepping into a stone circle while vacationing with her husband in the Scottish highlands. Unfortunately for her husband, she makes her journey alone and quickly falls into the arms of virile Scot, Jamie Fraser.
Gabaldon is a surprisingly charming, former science professor who genuinely seems to appreciate the enthusiasm of her fans. She has good reason to. Prior to its release, demand for Written In My Own Heart’s Blood sent it back to press three times, and on only in its second day of release, the publisher went back again for a fourth printing of 50,000 copies.
While Outlander series readers may not be surprised by the extent of Gabaldon’s success, her path to becoming a best selling author is the stuff of fantasy for aspiring writers. She explains that she knew at 8 years old that she was supposed to be a novelist. But, coming from a conservative family, she found herself venturing into the sciences and academia. She doesn’t recall this career choice negatively; to the contrary, she says that she liked science and was good at it.
However, on her 36th birthday, Gabaldon decided to write a novel. As she describes it, she decided to do it for practice – she wouldn’t show it to anyone and wouldn’t tell anyone about it. She just promised herself that she would do her best every day and her only goal was to finish it.
She initially contemplated writing a mystery novel, but thought it would be too difficult since mysteries were plot driven. She thought a historical novel would be good since she had strong research skills from her years working at a university. Yet, she had no background in history and wasn’t quite sure what era she should focus on. One night, she was watching TV and an old episode of Dr. Who came on. The Doctor picked up a young Scot from 1745 who looked handsome in his kilt. That was all the inspiration she needed. Gabaldon settled on 18th century Scotland for the setting of her novel.
In discussing the transition of her stories from page to screen, Gabaldon described, “It’s been an extremely interesting journey.” Past efforts to adapt Outlander into a feature film never panned out, despite many attempts. Gabaldon explained that Outlander was optioned four times. The first three times, the optioners couldn’t figure out how to adapt it into a movie. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for an author – yes, the movie doesn’t get made, but at the end of the option period, you keep the option fee and retain the rights to your story. But, Gabaldon explained this process is “like Russian Roulette.”
Many others had attempted to secure option rights, but Gabaldon’s concerns, among other reasons, prevented these from reaching fruition. Part of her trepidations arose from comments that suggested the proposed optioners did not understand the characters or the story. Gabaldon emphasized that she was looking for someone who not only had actually made movies, but who had read and understood the books. This devotion to the heart of her story led her to reject one proposal that would have transformed Claire into an American.
The person who obtained the fourth option of Outlander, Jim Kohlberg, had to work hard for the prize. He read the book 4 times before approaching her. He eventually convinced her that he understood the characters and wanted to do the story justice. Unfortunately, he fell into the same trap of trying to adapt a voluminous, complex story into a 2-hour running time. It simply wouldn’t work.
Luckily, Ron Moore, who did an epic job rebooting the Battlestar Galactica franchise, was a fan of the book series and reached out to Jim. After several years of negotiations, the details were worked out and Outlander the series was greenlighted.
Gabaldon couldn’t be more delighted with the support Starz has shown the show. At lunch one day with her friend and Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, he asked her how many episodes Outlander had been given. When Gabaldon told him 16, Martin replied, “What?! They only give me 10!” While a second season has not been confirmed, if the show continues on, the idea is to do one book per season until they get to Voyager, the third book in the series, which may need to be spread out into two seasons.
At the end of the Q&A, Gabaldon spent hours signing books and taking photographs with fans. By the end of the evening, she had signed somewhere around 1800 books. The strength of Outlander’s fan base combined with Gabaldon’s passion for her creation should give the new show a strong foundation for success.
Outlander premieres on Starz on August 9, 2014. Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, the eighth book in the Outlander series, is available now. For more information about Diana Gabaldon check out her website, www.dianagabaldon.com.