Diana Gabaldon

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Diana Jean Gabaldon Watkins

Diana Gabaldon at a book signing in August, 2007.
Born January 11, 1952 (1952-01-11) (age 57)
Arizona (U.S.)
Pen name Diana Gabaldon
Occupation novelist
Nationality America
Writing period 1991 - present
Genres Fiction, Time Travel, Speculative Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Adventure
Official website

Diana Jean Gabaldon Watkins (b. January 11, 1952 in Arizona) is an American author of Mexican-American and English ancestry. Diana Gabaldon is her maiden name, and the one she uses professionally. Gabaldon is the author of the best-selling Outlander Series. Her books are difficult to classify by genre, since they contain elements of romantic fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction (in the form of time travel). Her books have so far been sold in 23 countries, and translated into 19 languages.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Diana Jean Gabaldon born on January 11, 1952 in Arizona, (U.S.A.). Her father was from New Mexico and her mother's family from Yorkshire (England); her great-grandfather immigrated to Arizona from England in the 1860s.

Gabaldon grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona. She has received three degrees from two different institutions: B.S. in Zoology from Northern Arizona University, 1970-1973; M.S. in Marine Biology from the University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1973-1975. Her research topic was, "Agonistic Interactions of Hermit Crabs." and Ph.D in Ecology from Northern Arizona University, 1975-1978. Dissertation: "Nest Site Selection in Pinyon Jays, Gymnorhynchus cyanocephalus)." She has also received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Northern Arizona University, in 2007. In addition, Gabaldon Hall, a dormitory on the campus of Northern Arizona University, is named after her father, Tony Gabaldon. Gabaldon currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with her husband, Doug Watkins; they have three adult children.

Gabaldon's first fiction efforts were posted on the CompuServe literary forum, a hangout for people who like books (the forum is still extant, but now called The Compuserve Books and Writers Community www.community.compuserve.com/Books. She was an active member of this book-discussion community, and posted parts of her unfinished novel, Outlander, to strengthen her points in an argument with another poster regarding what it feels like to be pregnant. One of the people who read her post was a science fiction writer. He was impressed, and introduced her to his agent.[1] The agent, Perry Knowlton, took her on, on the basis of an unfinished first novel. When it was finished, he sent it to five editors, and within four days, three of them had made offers on it. There are presently seven novels in the main OUTLANDER series, including AN ECHO IN THE BONE, released on Sept. 22, 2009. The stories center around a time-travelling 20th-century English nurse (Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser) and her 18th-century Scottish husband (James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser), and are located in Scotland, France, the West Indies, England, and America. The Lord John Series is a spin-off from the Outlander books, as it centers on a secondary character from the original series, but is also part of the main series.

Note: Diana did not take her husband's name after they married, "My husband was mildly put out that I refused to take his name when we got married. I told him, though, that I'd been spelling "Gabaldon" for people for twenty-five years, and I was attached to it."

[edit] Writing Process

Gerri Russell interviewed Diana Gabaldon surrounding the release of An Echo in the Bone for the November 2009 issue of RT Book Reviews Magazine[2] In the article, Gabaldon revealed she creates individual scenes out of sequence and brings them together to create her completed work. She also advised aspiring authors to "...read anything and everything. Write. That is, unfortunately, the only way of learning how. And don't stop."


[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Outlander Series

[edit] Lord John Series

[edit] Other Works

  • The Outlandish Companion[2] (Through The Stones in the UK.) (1999), A guide to the Outlander series containing synopses, a character guide, and other notes and information.
  • Naked Came the Phoenix (2001)[3], a collaboration with twelve other authors.
  • Phoenix Noir (2009) [4], a short story collection with fifteen other authors. It is a departure for Gabaldon, as the character she writes about is a far cry from her Outlander series characters.

[edit] Audiobooks

The Outlander series has been released in unabridged audiobooks (read by Davina Porter) and abridged audiobooks (read by Geraldine James). The licenses for the abridged books have not been renewed and the unabridged versions, which Diana Gabaldon prefers, will be the only ones available when the licenses expire. Several of the Lord John books have been released in audiobook form, read by Jeff Woodman.

Because of a non-compete clause in the abridged-audio contract, the unabridged versions cannot be sold in retail outlets (including bookstores and audible.com) until the license of the corresponding abridged book has expired. For this reason, THE FIERY CROSS and A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES are not yet available on audible.com, but will be as soon as those licenses expire. In the meantime, unabridged recordings of these books are available from Recorded Books, Inc. www.recordedbooks.com.

As a brief illustration of relative length, the abridged version of A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES contains nine CD's. The unabridged version of this book includes 48.

[edit] Awards

  • July, 1992 Diana Gabaldon received the RITA Award given by the Romance Writers of America in the category Best Book of 1991 for the novel Outlander.[3]
  • September 24, 2006 Diana Gabaldon received the International Corine Book Award 2006 in the category Weltbild Readers Award, which was determined by a public vote on the web page of the German publisher.
  • October 10, 2006 Diana Gabaldon received the Quill Book Award in 2006 in the category Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror, which was determined by a public vote on the Internet. In order to receive the nomination the author was required to meet one of several possible criteria, such as an appearance on the best seller list of Borders Group Inc., or a starred review in Publishers Weekly.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hemmungs Wirten, Eva (1998), "Global Infatuation: Explorations in Transnational Publishing and Texts. The Case of Harlequin Enterprises and Sweden" (PDF), Section for Sociology of Literature at the Department of Literature, Number 38 (Uppsala University): p. 56, ISBN 97-85178-28-4, http://www.abm.uu.se/evahw/Global_Infatuation.pdf, retrieved 2007-08-24 
  2. ^ Russell, Gerri (2009-11). "Echoes of the Past". RT Book Reviews. http://gerrirussell.net/articles/2009/09nov_RT_diana-gabaldon.php. Retrieved 2009-10-28. 
  3. ^ "RITA Awards: Past Winners". Romance Writers of America, Inc.. http://www.rwanational.org/cs/contests_and_awards/rita_awards/past_winners. Retrieved 2008-01-01. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Gabaldon"