Site Announcements 2008

This page archives the announcements that Diana sent in 2007, which were originally posted on the home page.

6 Mar 2008

Tour Update

March 8 - Fountain Hills, Arizona - 12:00PM

The Fountain Hills Book Festival
sponsored by the Fountain Hills Library Association.

I’ll be doing a presentation, speaking (perhaps reading) at the Fountain Hills main library, at noon, and will be signing books between 11 AM and 2 PM (when not speaking, of course).

A map and directions to the Book Festival is available at website. See you there!

21 Feb 2008

Graphic Novel Progress - Layout Pages

The script is the beginning of a graphic novel—but only the beginning. The artist—the estimable Hoang Nguyen, in this case—then sets about the difficult task of translating the script into artwork.

It works like this: I (the writer) lay out a script page in panels—anywhere from one to six of them on a page—and at the top of each panel, describe what the scene is, which characters are present, what they’re doing, how they look (in terms both of clothing and expression), and add any specific details that need to be present (for instance, a full moon, or brooding cliffs, or a white owl), as well as indicating the position of characters and objects (by specifying, for instance, that So-and-so is in the foreground of a panel, while Mr. X and Ms. Y are having a conversation in the background). Down below is a sample script page, so you can see what one looks like (the number in the upper left corner of the panel identifies each panel individually, for ease of reference among the editor, the artist, and the writer). A script includes standard abbreviations like FG = foreground, BG=background, CAP = caption, and so on.

The artist looks at all this, and then produces layout pages—quick pencil sketches, done without any great reference to character details, but laying out the composition of the scene, catching the major angles, perspectives, and elements. I can then look at these, to be sure we’re on the same page (literally [g]), before the artist invests a lot of time and energy in the actual painting of a panel, and let the artist know if I see anything that ought to be changed (see “Pictish cross” below).

Below is one of the layout pages from an early point in the story (the editor suggested that I not tell you what’s happening here [g], so this layout page does NOT match the sample script page, as you can see). This is great stuff-Hoang’s done a terrific job of translating the script, and catching the sense of movement and excitement going on here. Only one small correction to be made: the script says that Dougal and Jamie are riding downhill, past “a weathered Pictish cross.” But I hadn’t sent Hoang either a picture or a description of what a Pictish cross is, so he’s very reasonably rendered it here as a weathered wooden cross, rather than a stone one. Frankly, I think it looks good as is—but I have to consider whether leaving it as a wooden cross might raise questions—i.e., it looks like a grave marker, but there’s nothing about a grave in the story—and confuse people. So I’ll send photocopies from my reference library of several Pictish crosses, and Hoang can choose and adapt from those.

(Now, please don’t get all excited and start peppering my blog with complaints about Jamie looking too young, not slant-eyed enough, having elf-ears, or whatever. This is a S-K-E-T-C-H, not a finished panel. Ergo, the characters shown are just rough approximations and will look quite different when painted in the final version. Oh—and speaking of rough, the gent in the fourth panel is not Dougal MacKenzie, it’s one of his clansmen (and not one you know, either, so don’t start panicking about it not looking like you think Rupert looks).)

If you’d like to see more of Hoang’s artwork, there are lots of beautiful examples of his previous work on his website.

And thanks to Hoang, and to Betsy Mitchell, the Ballantine editor, for permission to post these!

Appearance Updates

Phoenix Highland Games

I’m sorry I won’t be able to attend the Phoenix Highland Games this year-I have a family thing in New Mexico that weekend-but I will be at the Arizona Highland Festival in Flagstaff in July.

March 3 - CAMEX convention, San Antonio, TX

OK, I forget (if I ever knew) what exactly CAMEX stands for, but it’s the trade association of college and university bookstores, and they’re having their annual convention in San Antonio (which is a lovely city), and for reasons best known to themselves, have invited me (and several other authors) to come and speak to them and sign books. I don’t know whether I will be doing an outside signing in San Antonio while I’m there, but if so, I’ll add those details later.

March 15 - Renaissance Faire, Apache Junction, AZ

I'm figuring most of you know what a Renaissance Faire is-for those who don't…the website will have details.

I’ll be doing two things at this year’s Festival: judging the Bonny Knees competition (it’s their special Celtic Weekend), and signing books at Ann Chamberlin’s bookshop (it’s the only one on the grounds, I think), both in the afternoon. And yes, I will go in costume. See you there!

May 23 - Friends of the Public Library, 11:30 AM

I think this is at the Burton Barr main library, but I'll check to be sure. I’ll be speaking and signing books, and I’d be kind of surprised if it wasn't open to the public, but I’ll check that, too.

July 19 - Arizona Highland Festival
Foxglenn Park, 4200 East Butler Avenue, Flagstaff, AZ 86004

I imagine I’ll be doing a talk and readings, and will certainly be signing books. No specific times as yet, but I’m usually there between about 10 AM and 4 PM.

July 25-27 - CONestoga

I’ll be Guest of Honor at this sf con in Tulsa, OK, and very honored indeed to be asked! No times or details of offsite signings yet, but I’ll add those as available. For details, see the website.

28 Jan 2008

Violent Wee Buggers

I don’t know what it is about Celtic writers, but they seem to have the simultaneous gifts of poetry and majorly gruesome imagination—which is, of course, a combination I personally find irresistible. [g] Here are some of my favorite crime writers—mostly Scots, with an Irishman thrown in, and one American who, whatever his ethnic heritage, has the gift of poetic grue, in spades.

Ian Rankin
Ian’s gotten to be very well-known in Scottish literary circles (and is a cover-boy for the National Trust of Scotland’s publications—yay, Ian!) for his series of crime novels starring Inspector John Rebus. These are police procedurals, set in Edinburgh (and invariably described as “gritty”). Like any good crime book, they deal not only with the solution of the crime, but with the detective’s personal life and how it’s affected by his/her pursuit of evil. Rebus is a fascinatingly flawed character, whose personal life outside his career is largely nonexistent—lonely, cranky, obsessed, alcoholic—but redeemed by his obstinacy, and by the friends who stick by him despite his flaws.

For best effect, the novels should be read in (rough) order, so you can follow the evolution (and convolutions) of Rebus’s private life. They can be read as stand-alones, though, since each novel is a well-structured and self-contained investigation.

Here’s the link to Ian Rankin’s novels on Amazon.com; you can get the reading order from the dates of publication—so far as I know, all the Rebus titles are in print and available.

Adrian McKinty
McKinty is the Irishman, with a stunning trilogy (the “Dead” trilogy—very accurate): Dead I Well May Be, The Dead Yard, and The Bloomsday Dead. All three books deal with the (grisly, hyperviolent, blood-soaked) adventures of a young Irish gangster who comes to New York, promptly runs into trouble—and stays in it. Not for the weak of stomach, but both characters and language are exquisite.

Val McDermid
Val does books which could best be described as thrillers (though they do have the structure of murder mysteries, for the most part), because they move a mile a minute. Most are standalones, though two or three have recurrent main characters. The outstanding feature of all of them is the absolutely horrible psychopathic villains she writes, and the ghastly things they do. She’s also written a series of much milder mysteries (the Kate Brannigan series), though I prefer (naturally) the grisly ones.

Stuart MacBride
A new find! Stuart MacBride’s Logan McRae series is set in Aberdeen, and besides having a wonderful sense of place, is grossly violent, blood-soaked-—and hilarious. He has the best characters, from the massive, candy-munching DI Inch to the cadaverous, chain-smoking lesbian DI who is the bane of McRae’s professional life. To say nothing of criminals given to snipping off people’s fingers joint by joint and forcing them to swallow the pieces… I really wasn’t kidding about the heading of this list. You Have Been Warned. Great stuff, though!

Don Winslow (honorary wee bugger)
Don Winslow is, I think, an American, and I strongly recommend all his books, from earlier titles like The Death and Life of Bobby Z, and the Neal Carey series (A Cool Breeze on the Underground, etc.) which are great but not unduly violent, up to the amazing California Fire and Life and The Power of the Dog—which are. Wonderful characters, plots, and writing—but not, repeat not, for the weak of stomach.

11 Jan 2008

Now, I’m trying Very Hard not to go anywhere this year, so that I can work on all the interesting things I have going on. Top of the list, as I said, is An Echo in the Bone. I do, though, usually work on more than one thing at a time, and among all the interesting projects on my desk is Something Completely Different—a graphic novel. (I told one of my friends about this; her reply was, “I thought your novels were already pretty graphic!” [cough]). For those of you who haven’t yet encountered graphic novels—they’re essentially sophisticated (and often beautiful) comic books for adults (well, they do do graphic novels for younger people too, but that’s not what I’m doing here).

Del Rey To Publish an original “outlander” Graphic Novel by diana gabaldon
NEW YORK, NY - December 10, 2007
Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, announced today that it will publish an original story set in the world of Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling Outlander series, written by Gabaldon herself and illustrated in full color by award-winning artist Hoang Nguyen. The project was acquired by Betsy Mitchell, editor in chief of Del Rey, in negotiations with Gabaldon’s literary agent Russell Galen.

The new story, starring Gabaldon’s beloved characters Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser, opens with Murtagh, Jamie’s godfather, awaiting the return of his godson to Scotland, and the fulfillment of a vow made years before. The graphic novel will be approximately 192 pages and will publish sometime in 2009. Gabaldon’s upcoming new Outlander novel, An Echo in the Bone, is expected to publish that year as well.

The #1 New York Times bestselling series—Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, and A Breath of Snow and Ashes—tells the story of Jamie Fraser, a Scottish Highlander from the 18th century, and his time-traveling wife, Claire. The series has 15 million copies in print, has been published in 19 languages, and has spawned huge worldwide online fan communities, as well as numerous online discussion groups. A major motion picture is in development.

The Outlander graphic novel will not be the first project Gabaldon has scripted. Early in her career she wrote numerous comic-book scripts for Walt Disney, among them the Scrooge McDuck series, and the award-winning “Nutrition Adventures with Orange Bird.”

“I’m thrilled to see the launch of such an exciting new project,” Gabaldon says. “I’ve been wanting to do a graphic novel story for years, and couldn’t ask for a better opportunity or more wonderful people to work with. I’m especially delighted to be working with such a magical artist as Hoang Nguyen. My agent and my husband have both fallen in love with his version of Claire—and I’m looking forward with great anticipation to seeing Jamie in ink.”

About the Creators
Diana Gabaldon is also the author of the nonfiction title The Outlandish Companion and two novels starring a character first introduced in Outlander: Lord John and the Private Matter and Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade. She holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology, a master’s degree in marine biology, and a Ph.D. in ecology and was a university professor before turning to writing full-time. Gabaldon lives with her family in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Hoang Nguyen’s previous work includes the Robocop movie adaptation for Dark Horse, Alien Legion graphic novels for Marvel Epic, Punisher: War Zone for Marvel and Warstrike for Malibu Comics. His original project Metal Militia was optioned by Dino De Laurentiis for feature film development. More recently he has worked in the video game industry, having contributed to such well-known titles as the Elder Scrolls series for Bethesda Softworks and Xena for Universal Studios. He was the lead artist and character designer on Dead to Rights for Namco and is currently a consultant for Namco Bandai Games. Nguyen lives in Santa Clara, California.

About Del Rey
Del Rey Books was founded in 1977 as an imprint of Ballantine Books, a division of the Random House Publishing Group, under the guidance of the renowned Judy-Lynn del Rey and her husband, Lester del Rey. Del Rey publishes the best of modern fantasy, science fiction, and alternate history. In 2004 it expanded by launching Del Rey Manga, which has grown to be a major force in the U.S. graphic-novel field.

_____________________

David Moench
Publicity Manager, Del Rey
Random House Publishing Group
1745 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
phone: (212) 782-8282

So this is Very Cool Beans, as my younger daughter is inclined to say. And yes, I can hear you all saying, “So what do Jamie and Claire look like!?!” Well, we’re in the early stages of the artwork (I’ve delivered approximately a third of the script so far), and still fiddling a bit with Jamie--but Hoang’s take on Claire (mind, this is an early, preliminary portrait, but it’s great) is close enough for me to show you.

Neat, huh? I’m very excited about the project--more and more, as I see Hoang’s emerging artwork. As we get further into the project, and refine the characters (Hoang paints them, and I say, “Too much jaw, and could the nose be a little longer?” and he very patiently repaints them), I’ll look forward to showing you more (I love his take on Murtagh!).

Comments?
I’d be very interested to hear what y’all think--about the graphic novel, the artwork, etc., but also about anything else. Click here to leave comments, ask questions, etc. I’ll try to keep up!

7 Jan 2008

Happy New Year!
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, featuring lots of excellent food and good company, plus the presence of your loved ones. All our kids came home for Christmas, Elder Daughter with Boyfriend in tow, Son with The Little Bad Dogs (they actually are quite nice dogs, Otis the Pug and Charlie the Corgi, but are young and rambunctious—to the disgruntlement of Gus the Fat Dachshund, whom you’ve met—and given to surreptitious peeing in corners, if not escorted firmly outside at regular intervals). Boyfriend is an estimable fellow, and does not pee in corners, I’m happy to report, even if left alone unsupervised for long periods. Younger Daughter arrived without an entourage, but is sufficiently vivacious as to give the impression that there are more of her than there really are. 

But now they’ve all gone home again (well, Sam and the LBD’s haven’t yet. See Otis the Christmas Pug, sporting a hoodie given to him by my sister), and it’s time to settle back to work (with occasional excursions round the block or on the treadmill, to counteract the effects of enchiladas, tamales, and the Family Christmas Fudge, which you’ve also heard about before (btw, my brother-in-law’s second thriller, Eyes of the World, is due out this spring, for those of you who’ve asked. A cover blurb by A Well-Known Author [cough] says: “A terrific read! The cold steel of high-stakes politics meets the fiery secret of a president’s past, in a blast of searing steam.” Excellent book, and I’m sure that my sister would be happy to oblige with the family recipe for enchiladas this time—or perhaps chocolate chocolate-chip cookies, if you prefer).

Book Seven — aka An Echo in the Bone
First thing up on the stack of waiting projects this year is, of course, An Echo in the Bone—the seventh (but NOT the last!) book in the story of Jamie and Claire. This book will, as I said, be done around the end of this year—and published reasonably soon thereafter (i.e., sometime in 2009), at the pleasure of Random House and assorted foreign publishers.

I’m getting all kinds of questions about what will be in this book:

Will we see Roger and Bree and Jemmy and Amanda again? (Yes.) 

Will they go back to the past? (I don’t know yet, but if I did, I probably wouldn’t tell you.) 

Will Jamie and Claire go back to Scotland? (Yes.) 

Why do they go back to Scotland? (Wait and see. It’s complicated.) 

Will Young Ian find love? (Well, he found it once before, and little good it did him.  He’s still got Issues with the ex-wife, you know.  Still, he’s a young man and he’s not dead (well we assume he’s not going to be dead....), so who knows?)  

Speaking of ex-wives, what about Laoghaire? (Oh, you’ll see her again.  But it’s probably not going to be what you expect. [g]) 

Will Roger get his voice back?  (Mm...don’t know, but I kind of don’t think that will be his main concern. He has much bigger things to worry about.)  

Will there be more sex? (Ahh...more sex than what?)

Will Ronnie Sinclair finally get a woman? (I hadn’t thought about it, but I don’t see why he shouldn’t.)

Will Jamie and Willie meet? (Oh, come on.  How can you think they won’t?)

What happens if/when they do meet? (Oh, well, now, that’s another matter entirely...i.e., I’m not about to tell you. Bet it’ll be interesting, though.)

Is Lord John in this book? (Sure. He’s Jamie’s friend and Willie’s father--where else would he be?)

Will we find out what happens with Phaedre, Jocasta, and Duncan? (Mm, don’t know that one. We’ll find out about a lot of other people you haven’t mentioned, though!)

Will either Jamie or Claire....[gulp]... die?   (Well, can’t say for sure, of course, but given that this is, in fact, NOT the last book, I kind of doubt it.  On the other hand, I’m invariably shocked and surprised when people do die.  You don’t think I plan this sort of thing, do you?  And I believe I did once say—in an interview—that a son who suddenly discovers the truth of his paternity might do anything to deny it...including murder.  But I guess you’ll have to wait and see.)

Will we find out what happened to Alex and Mary Randall’s child? (Oh, good; at last, something I know. Yes.)

Will we find out more about Hamish and the other MacKenzies of Leoch? (Oh, good, another one I can answer; yes. Possibly not in this book, but yes.)

Will we hear more about Adso, Clarence the mule, Rollo, and the White Sow? (Well, some of ’em, sure.)

Does Jem get to go to Disneyland and say hello to the giant mouse named Michael? (Don’t know. I’d like him to, but I haven’t seen that, yet.)

Will Lord John stay a Loyalist? (I can’t think he wouldn’t. Why on earth would he become a rebel?)

You aren’t going to kill Lord John, are you?!? (Well, I wouldn’t, no. I imagine there are a few other people who feel differently about him, though. Cf  “...including murder,” above. You think Willie’s going to be thrilled to find out his stepfather’s been lying to him all these years? If he does find that out, of course. Lord John hopes he doesn’t.)

Are you going to explain where that box full of letters came from? (Probably.  Assuming I figure that out...)

(I’m tempted to pull a JK Rowling here and tell you that two important characters will die in this book—except that I’m only sure about one of them, so far. I can, however—and before you even read the book!--assure you with complete certainty that Lord John is gay.)

Anyway, here are a couple of brief excerpts from An Echo in the Bone, to celebrate the New Year with—hope you enjoy them

New Year Excerpt A
New Year Excerpt B