Gabaldon was born on January 11, 1952,[5] in Williams, Arizona, United States, the daughter of Jacqueline Sykes and Tony Gabaldon (1930–1998), an Arizona state senator from Flagstaff for sixteen years and later a supervisor of Coconino County.[6][7][8] Her father was of Mexican ancestry, and her mother was of English descent.[9][10]
Gabaldon was the founding editor of Science Software Quarterly in 1984 while employed at the Center for Environmental Studies at Arizona State University.[12] During the 1980s, Gabaldon wrote software reviews and technical articles for computer publications such as a review of Full Impact,[13] as well as popular-science articles and Disney comics.[11] She was a professor with an expertise in scientific computation at ASU for 12 years before leaving to write full-time.[11][14]
In 1988, Gabaldon decided to write a novel for "practice, just to learn how", and with no intention to show it to anyone.[15] As a research professor, she decided that a historical novel would be easiest to research and write,[15] but she had no background in history and initially no particular time period in mind.[9] Gabaldon happened to see a rerun episode of the Doctor Who science fiction TV series titled "The War Games".[16] One of the Doctor's companions was a Scot from around 1745, a young man about 17 years old named Jamie McCrimmon, who provided the initial inspiration for her main male character, James Fraser, and for her novel's mid-18th century Scotland setting.[9][15][16] 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."[15]
To explain the character's modern behavior and attitudes, Gabaldon chose to use time travel.[15] Writing the novel at a time "when the World Wide Web didn't exist", she did her research "the old-fashioned way, by herself, through books."[9]
Later, Gabaldon posted a short excerpt of her novel on the CompuServe Literary Forum, where author John E. Stith introduced her to literary agent Perry Knowlton.[15][17] 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. Her US publishers changed the first book's title to Outlander, but the title remained unchanged in the UK. According to Gabaldon, her British publishers liked the title Cross Stitch, a play on "a stitch in time"; however, the American publisher said it "sounded too much like embroidery" and wanted a more "adventurous" title.[15] When her second book was finished, Gabaldon resigned her faculty position at Arizona State University to become a full-time author.[11]
As of 2021[update], the Outlander series comprises nine published novels. The ninth installment, Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone, was published on November 23, 2021.[18] Gabaldon also published The Exile (An Outlander Graphic Novel) in 2010. The Lord John series are additional books in the Outlander series rather than a spin-off series,[19] centering on a secondary character from the original series. Gabaldon announced in September 2021 that she is working on the tenth Outlander series book, which is possibly the last.[20]
Personal life
Gabaldon lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with her husband Doug Watkins, with whom she has three adult children.[10][14] Her son, Sam Sykes, is also a fantasy writer.
"Past Prologue" (2017), a short story written with Steve Berry and published in the anthology MatchUp. The story acts as a crossover between the Outlander franchise and Berry's Cotton Malone series, featuring the characters Cotton Malone and Jamie Fraser.
A Fugitive Green (2017), a novella published in the Gabaldon collection Seven Stones to Stand or Fall.
Related
The Outlandish Companion (1999), a guide to the Outlander series containing synopses, a character guide, and other notes and information; revised and updated as The Outlandish Companion (Volume One) (2015)[35]
The Lord John series is a sequence of novels and shorter works that center on Lord John Grey, a recurring secondary character in Gabaldon's Outlander series. The spin-off series currently consists of five novellas and three novels, which all take place between 1756 and 1761, during the events of Gabaldon's Voyager.[41][42] They can be generally categorized as historical mysteries, and the three novels are shorter and focus on fewer plot threads than the main Outlander books.[42]
Lord John and the Hand of Devils (2007), collection of three novellas (Lord John and the Hellfire Club, Lord John and the Succubus and Lord John and the Haunted Soldier)
The Outlander series has been released in unabridged (read by Davina Porter) and abridged (read by Geraldine James) audiobooks. Several of the Lord John books have been released in audiobook form, read by Jeff Woodman.
Gabaldon's Outlander won the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award for Best Romance of 1991.[51]A Breath of Snow and Ashes (2005) debuted at #1 on The New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best-Seller List[52][53] and won the Quill Award for Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror.[54] In 2007, The Montreal Gazette noted that Gabaldon's books "are in demand in 24 countries in 19 languages", and that the author "continues to churn out one bestseller after another."[11] By 2012 her novels had been published in 27 countries and 24 languages.[6]
She has since gone on to win numerous awards for both her writing and her contributions to the UK, one of which was from the National Trust for Scotland's "Great Scot" award,[55] rarely given to a non-Scot. Also, Gabaldon received the St. Andrew's Society of Los Angeles & Southern California "Robert Burns Lifetime Achievement Award." Gabaldon continues to be recognized and given accolades the world over.
Lord John and the Private Matter reached No. 8 on The New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best-Seller List in 2003.[56] In 2007, Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade debuted at #1,[57] and the Hand of Devils collection reached No. 24 on The New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best-Seller List.[58]The Scottish Prisoner debuted at #6 on The New York Times E-Book Fiction Best-Seller List in 2011,[59] and the novella A Plague of Zombies was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America for the “Best Short Mystery Story” the same year.[60] Reviewing the Lord John series, Publishers Weekly said that "Gabaldon's prose is crisply elegant"[61] and that she "brings an effusive joy to her fiction that proves infectious even for readers unfamiliar with her work or the period."[62]
References
^"How is Gabaldon pronounced?". DianaGabaldon.com. 1990. Retrieved December 10, 2018. My name is pronounced GAB-uhl-dohn (long o).
^"Interview: Diana Gabaldon". Lightspeed. September 2014. Retrieved November 27, 2014. ...I try to avoid describing myself by any sort of label, so to speak. I'm a Roman Catholic and a Libertarian, but that's as far as I'd go in description
^Martin, George R. R. (January 23, 2013). "Not A Blog: A Dangerous Delivery". GRRM.livejournal.com. Archived from the original on January 25, 2013. Retrieved January 23, 2013. For those who like to lose themselves in long stories, the Brandon Sanderson story, the Diana Gabaldon story, the Caroline Spector story, and my Princess and Queen are novellas.
