Ladies of Lallybroch Chat, June 2000

The following is an abridged transcript of a Ladies of Lallybroch chat from June 2000. Be forewarned that there may be Spoilers for upcoming books in the interview. You may find that some of the information is outdated. Updates on the publication of books, tours, etc. are more current on the pages of this site that are devoted to those topics.

Question Remember someone bought the movie rights to Outlander? Have there been any developments on that since last Fall? Anything you can tell us about it? Like what major BABE might be playing Jamie? :-)
Dgabaldon Well, the rights haven’t been officially sold yet, but they’re sort of working on it. IF and when, you’ll know as much as I do. (G) But the bottom line is that nobody’s said a word to me about casting, and all I said to them was that I didn’t want Tom Cruise.

Question We’ve learned a lot about Jamie’s childhood through the books. Will we learn more about Claire’s and what can you tell us about it?
Dgabaldon Hm. Well, I can’t tell you anything about it right now, because I don’t know anything in particular yet. But yes, you may find out a little more about Claire’s life pre-Frank (and/or in the intervals of Frank--i.e., the War). Probably not ‘til the sixth book, though. Well, except the War stuff. I’m pretty sure that’s in FC. (g) I’m very fond of Uncle Lamb, myself. Claire isn’t one to look backward, though, as you may have noticed.

Question What were your favorite books when you were a teenager.
Dgabaldon Geez, I read everything in the Flagstaff Public Library when I was a teenager! You name it. War and Peace, Maneaters of Tsavo, Five Little Peppers, all the Oz books (I read those a lot earlier, but reread them periodically)..Crime and Punishment, all of DH Lawrence, all of Lawrence Durrell... I can’t think of any specific book--I just liked lots of books! Oh, and Quo Vadis. I remember that one, because my oldest daughter just read it and loved it.

Question Do you have to be in a certain “zone” to write or are you a sit-down-anytime-of-the-day writer? I can’t imagine with a dh and children, house, and everyday hassles that you could focus on the books every time you sit down to write. And...how do you get to this “zone” (if you have one) *G* I could use some zone time myself!
Dgabaldon As for the question...well, see, I’m a professional. Do you have to be in the mood to get up and go to your office--or out to the wheat field? (g) Naturally, some times are more conducive than others, but it isn’t only a matter of time of day--it’s what’s going on in my head at any given point.
Question So...the ideas flow all the time?
Dgabaldon No, it isn’t that ideas flow all the time--though there’s usually something going on in the back room (g). It’s that if you sit down and work anyway, then things happen. I don’t know any professional (aka published) writers who only write when they’re in the mood. They may have different working patterns--one person I know just thinks about the book for days and weeks and has it all figured out, then sits down and writes nonstop in a huge burst; others work day by day, regular office-type hours. But it’s not only a job; it’s a calling. This isn’t something you can do just when you’re in the mood; you live with it. Since you live with husband and children and all that, too (g) naturally you need to make accommodations and set priorities and rejigger things all the time--but people who work regular jobs have those constraints too. A writer in fact has much more flexibility--which can be both curse or blessing. But generally speaking, I have times of day that I’m in the habit of working--and people are in the habit of letting me (g) so it’s often easier to work then--late at night, or mid-morning. But when a book is going well, I can and do work all hours.

Question Is there any relation between geillis and bonnett? both having such striking green eyes makes one wonder.....
Dgabaldon I don’t think there’s a connection. Bonnet’s eyes aren’t the striking moss-green of Roger’s and Geillis’s, anyway--they’re a light, cat-like green. But you never know, do you? (g)
Comment That would be interesting... it would mean Roger and Stephen were related too
Dgabaldon Well, they would be, if Geilis had anything to do with Bonnet. As it is, though, we do know that she did have a child--who isn’t Bonnet, but might just play a part in the story.

Question My question has 3 linked parts. I will pause for your comments in between. - 1. On various occasions you have described how your characters develop lives of their own while enduring the writing process. They lead you to them rather than you inventing them. Can we assume that this would have a significant effect on the story? -
Dgabaldon Well, sure. I find out things that I didn’t know, and naturally that affects the plot. I also discover incidents happening right in front of me that I didn’t plan--just last night, Jamie and Brianna came across one of the River Run maids, dead drunk on top of a manure heap in the kitchen gardens, and now I have this fascinating thing going on where none of us knows whether it was only drink, or was it laudanum, and if it was laudanum (Jamie thinks so, but isn’t sure, and they can’t ask Claire because she’s in the stables with Philip Wylie), then who was it meant for, or did the maid steal it? And if she did, was she trying to commit suicide (Brianna thinks so, Jamie doesn’t), or was she just a recreational user? See, that sort of thing happens all the time. (g) But I wasn’t expecting to find the maid there in the first place!
Question 2.Is there a plot line you had intended to develop but had to change because the characters were moving in a different direction than you?
Dgabaldon Not usually. I don’t really have “lines” as such. I will often know about certain events that I know or think will happen, and often I see those vividly--but just as often. I only know the vague outline, and the actual sequence of events won’t come clear to me until later. But the “lines” sort of develop as I go along, and as the bits and pieces start to stick together, rather than being something I’ve invented ahead of time.
Question 3. If this did happen can you tell us which plot line was involved and if you are happy with the characters’ choice over your own intentions?
Dgabaldon Well, I sort of wasn’t expecting Rupert to die at Falkirk. I was very upset! There he was, though, dead as a doornail. (shaking head dolefully) I really hated for Murtagh to die at Culloden, too, but there wasn’t really a choice about it--that’s just what happened, so I had to write it.
Comment Hated to see both of those guys go, I did!
Dgabaldon Yeah--but think about it; if we didn’t lose real people, wars wouldn’t seem as serious as they are.

Question Now that Bree is an adult, will we see her get a more realistic perspective on Frank, ie his affairs, etc., or will she still keep her idealized version of “Daddy”? Thank you.
Dgabaldon Oh, I reckon Bree will come to a more adult view of Frank--especially as she becomes aware of a few things....for instance, she asks herself, why would a 20th century history professor teach his daughter to shoot, and to ride, when he hadn’t had any previous interest in those sports himself?
Comment Interesting question...which might lead to others
Dgabaldon Besides, being married oneself usually casts a more mature light on one’s parents relationship, since you begin to appreciate the things that are involved.

Question One of the best things about your books is the sense of reality amid unreality--that is, you cause us to suspend our disbelief by making the impossible come to life. I wonder, might we see Jamie and Claire interact with any historical characters of the American Revolution in the upcoming books? Thanks for your answer--and I hope to make it to Surrey in October to hear you, as I consider you my unmet writing mentor!
Dgabaldon Boy, I think it’d be hard to write about anything very interesting during the Revolution without encountering some of the historical people involved. (g) Yes, I imagine we’ll meet several--I really want to have Claire meet Benedict Arnold (g), but I’ll have to see what his timeline looks like, and where he was when and all that.

Question You have told us you will write Brian and Ellen’s story. We know from The Books when they meet and when Willie and Ellen die. My question is: Where do you plan to start and end Brian and Ellen’s story?
Dgabaldon Oddly enough, I do know that. (g) That story starts during the tynchal (boarhunt) held as part of Red Jacob’s funeral. And it ends when James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser is about three months old. It’s actually sort of strange for me to know that much about a book I haven’t written yet--but I’ve been thinking about it for awhile, and I’ve “seen” both beginning and end. Nope, none of Jamie’s childhood, I’m afraid. If the e-publishing stuff works out, though, we may do short pieces from time to time that fill in blanks in the overall story. (g)

Question In the excerpt, Surgeon’s Steel, Claire amputates Jamie’s finger; one of the fingers injured at Wentworth. All through the books, you have used those two stiff fingers tapping against his thigh (usually) to show agitation. Now you up and remove one of them. I would like to know if you are going to continue to give Jamie a means to express deep thought and/or nervousness with the use of part of that right hand drumming against his thigh? I would really miss it. Silly, eh?
Dgabaldon I’m sure I’ll give him some means of expressing agitation, but I’m not sure what it will be. He might be reluctant to use a badly-injured hand in the same way he was accustomed to previously--that would break a habit, I’d think. But he might. Or he might revert to shrugging his shoulders as though his shirt is too tight--you notice he doesn’t do that as much as he did when he was younger? He isn’t as self-conscious about the scars on his back. But that could change....

Question Will we see more of Fergus and Marsali and will they learn Claire, Bree & Rogers secret?
Dgabaldon Yes, and maybe. (g)

Question Murtagh, Jenny and Ian were the most important people in Jamie’s life besides Claire. In Outlander, when Jamie is wanting to send Claire back to the stones, he tells her that he has told Murtagh ‘everything’. Did he really tell Murtagh ‘everything’? Also, since he trusted Jenny and Ian with almost everything, even confiding with Ian about the rape, why did Jamie never tell them the truth about Claire?
Dgabaldon He didn’t tell them about Claire, because a) he didn’t want to talk about her at all, thinking she was gone forever, and b) the odds were enormous that Ian and Jenny would simply have thought he’d lost his mind from the trauma of being wounded and losing his wife. No point, see--and Jamie’s a practical man. (g) As for Murtagh...he told him everything, because he wanted to insure that someone would be able to take Claire back to the stones if something happened to him that prevented it. We don’t know whether Murtagh believed him, though.
Question So Jamie didn’t tell Murtagh when he was sending Claire with him back to the stones?
Dgabaldon No, not then. I don’t think. (I’d have to go check; I don’t remember closely enough to say for sure.)

Question Are there any minor character in the books that you wanted to develop further but couldn’t because they really didn’t fit in the story line?
Dgabaldon Hmm. thinking ... Well, I don’t think so she says dubiously. See, if any characters want to develop, I just let them. (g) That’s where the story line comes from!

Question How will Claire handle menopause? Emotionally, medically, in her relationship? From what I’ve heard there’s a lot of good raw material!
Dgabaldon Well, that’s a good question--but the answer to it is woven all through the book (I mean, menopause kind of takes a long time!), so it’s difficult to give a brief answer here. She goes on evolving, I guess, is the best I can say--like she always has. She has a great capacity for change, you know. (g)

Question If you, Diana are describing Jamie, how do you describe him? Is he the perfect man? Is he a moral man, a good man, what makes him so appealing? Would Jamie be your friend if he suddenly materialized in the flesh, or would you marry him (or did you?)
Dgabaldon Oh. Well, let’s see. He’s an intelligent man, and a funny one (g)--with an iron sense of honor, whether it’s his or his wife’s. By which I mean, he honors her as he does himself, which is why he accepts her as she is. A very important thing for a man to do! Oh--and he likes sex, and he talks in bed, both of which are good, too. Would I marry him? Of course. (g)

Question You have mentioned in the past that in the course of writing, your characters tend to grow and change in ways you don’t expect, to become who they want to become. My question is, which character has surprised you the most and why?
Dgabaldon Colum, I guess. I really didn’t expect him to be deformed, but he was.

Question The Rev. Wakefield’s boxes...a subject of much speculation. What, if anything, is in them which will help reveal what Frank knew about Jamie Fraser and kept from Claire?
Dgabaldon Oh, the Reverend’s boxes. (g) Well, I don’t know what-all is in them. Which is not to say that I don’t know one thing that’s in them, (g) but it doesn’t have anything to do with Frank.

Question What books did you read to your kids when they were small? Have you read any of the Harry Potter books yet? What do you think of all the controversy surrounding them? I mean, lots of the characters in your books think Claire is a witch (g) and Geillis definitely is so what is all the fuss over these books. Which, by the way I have read and think they are Great. Not in the same class as yours,
Dgabaldon Boy, I don’t know what the fuss is, but then I’m not a fundamentalist Christian, either. (wry g) I read my kids lots of Richard Scarry and Dr. Suess, then Robert Louis Stevenson, Mother Goose, Oz books, etc. The last thing I remember reading to one of them was A Tale of Two Cities. I haven’t read the Harry Potter books myself, but my youngest daughter devoured all three last summer. The other two kids think they’re too old for them.

Question When you ever finish all books related things Outlandish (i.e. 2 more in this series and is it 3 contracted for Ellen’s series?) do you intend to keep writing? Has all this sparked any interest in other stories not related to Outlander? Of course you have already mentioned e stories tonight and more of them would be great! Although I for one would be perfectly happy if you just kept on telling stories that related to Jamie. I think you have enough material there to last all our lifetimes!
Dgabaldon Yes, to both. I always wanted to be a writer, and fortunately, I still do. (g) After all, I wrote Outlander for practice! (No, there aren’t three books in Ellen’s story--it’s three novellas, which will form a single volume.) I plan to tell Master Raymond’s story later--that will be multiple volumes--and we’ll see about the shorter pieces, like Hellfire.

Question Claire found a skull in America that she determined must have travelled back in time. Where is the portal this man came through?
Dgabaldon I think he probably came through the portal that Roger found--the one marked with the same spiral glyph that was on the opal buried with him. We’ll learn a lot more about him in this book.