Tag: outlander

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2024 SiWC Lunch with Diana!

Good day, Diana fans!

On Sunday at Surrey International Writers’ Conference (SiWC) I was privileged to enjoy a long private  lunch with Diana!

Details about our “date” are posted below but first a bit of history. The first time I lunched with Diana was 2015, almost 10 years ago!

We met in Beaverton, OR, after she spoke at a fund raiser. We have met for lunch or drinks many times since then.

The last time we lunched was at 2022 New York Comic Con.  We began our outing by riding in a golf cart through the bowels of the Javits Center!

We enjoyed a delish lunch at Hudson Yards. Her nails this day were a beautiful dusty blue. BTW, these are her natural nails, not gels!

After lunch, we parted near The Vessel. It was a beautiful but windy day.

I had not seen Diana during 2023 because I spent that year rehabilitating a shattered ankle and didn’t go anywhere. 🥲

All of that changed at 2024 SiWC!

We had a wonderful two hour lunch on Sunday.

As we waited in line to be seated, author Michael Slade walked up and asked in a booming voice why women’s conversations were more interesting than men’s. I said I thought it is because women talk about everything while men have a fairly narrow range of acceptable topics. I was thinking sports, hunting, fishing, etc., for the guys. What do you think?

Diana and I ordered lunch. We were joined for a while by her youngest daughter, Jen. Hi Jen! 🤗

Jen lives in Scotland with her hubby and Diana’s two grandsons. She flew over just to attend SiWC.  Sadly, she had to leave after a few minutes to catch her flight home. A delightful and very personable young woman. Mum was rightfully proud of her lovely daughter.

For the next 2 hours, we engaged in our usual discussion of far flung topics. Diana is very excited about Blood of My Blood (BOMB) and has written a couple of scripts for the show.  She also gave the writers the ideas for it (of course)! 🤗

I asked her why it has taken 1.5 years between 7a and 7b. She answered that they were timing the releases of BOMB and 7b so there would not be issues with overlap.

We talked about our parents, our children and our lives growing up, our homes, property and pets. She shared photos of her darling grandsons (she is hoping for more).

She then commented on the beauty of the red and black bracelet I was wearing.

I make my own jewelry and she has received a number of pieces from me in the past, such as this one from 2019! 🎁

Sorry the photo is grainy. This is the piece on a form before I gifted it to her!

Back to my story. I removed the bracelet and said “Shall we try it on you?” I put it on her and asked if it was too big. She said it fit perfectly so I said “It is yours.” She was pleased! ☺️

This felt uncanny because that very morning as I put the bracelet on, I thought, “I bet Diana is going to like this bracelet.”  Then, I asked myself,  “Do you want her to have it?” 🤔

Of course, the answer was “yes” as I can make myself another one. 😁

It made her happy! 🤗

She let me photograph (a tradition of mine) her new nail color, a beautiful lush red. She usually wears lavender, blue or green. I think the color looks great on her. She wears jewel tones very well! 😍 Psst….Isn’t her top lovely?

After two hours, she was tiring and I understood why. In just three days, she had done multiple events: Michael Slade’s Shock Theater, a library panel event, two solo workshops and an author’s panel. She also had done blue pencil events where she helps new authors with their work.

Her last 1.5 hour workshop occurred just before lunch and she had yet another event to attend that evening. The woman is a power house but she does need to rest sometimes! 😉

So we hugged and said farewell, until next time! 👋🏻

But wait! I have more. I will end my post with the next video.

Some of  you are aware that during SiWC Diana does philanthropic work in the British Columbia prison system. She teaches a master class on writing to the inmates. This year she was unable to work with them because the contact she needs to help her access the system sadly passed away. So, in the future, she must find a new sponsor.

Although I made this video in 2018, it gives you an idea of the important work that Diana does for people whose lives are impacted by incarceration. She teaches her class and then listens to their questions and comments. Based on these, she buys and donates books to the prison library to help them with their goals.

Her works are a good lesson in kindness to all of us. 🥰

Isn’t she the best? 🤩

The deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

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Video and Photo credits: Outlander Anatomy,

 

 

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2024 SiWC Panel with Diana Gabaldon

Greetings Outlander fans! My, I have missed you all… 🤗

This weekend I find myself in beautiful Surrey, British Columbia,  Canada, attending the Surrey International Writers’ Conference, more commonly known as SiWC!

I drove from Oregon to Canada lastThursday. It was a beautiful day but the  normally 5.5 hr drive turned into nearly 7 hours due to two collisions in Washington state.  Yes, it was an inconvenience for those on the freeway, but I was grateful to arrive safely and I hope those involved in the crashes are OK.

Thus far, I have attended several events featuring Diana – she is one busy lass! All were delightful and I will share them with you, but not in chronological order mostly due to the technical issues of posting via  iPad. 😉

Today’s event was titled “Compelling Expositions,” a panel featuring Diana Gabaldon, Michael Slade, Robyn Harding, and Darren Groth (not shown).  K. C. Dyer moderated (also not shown).

Diana looked stunning, layered with in a deep red shawl because the room was freezing! 🥶

Many fruitful topics were covered by the panel. Here are some highlights including Diana’s responses:

  • Question:  Which is your fav scene from your writings? Diana chose the scene from “Outlander” book wherein Jamie rescues Claire from Black Jack Randall’s clutches. They shelter at a tavern –  Jamie tells Claire he is not ready for bed and proceeds to whip her with his sword belt. This set up a major clash between the two characters because each POV was justified from their perspective. Claire was trying to find a way back to Frank but Jamie knew her actions put all of their lives  in danger. I must confess, this choice surprised me. I suppose because Diana has written so many splendid scenes. How would one even choose? 🤔

This is wee bit of the excerpt from the scene (pp. 249-250 “Outlander” Kindle version) that is Diana’s fav!

“Come to bed, Jamie. What are you waiting for?”

He came to stand by the bed, swinging the belt gently back and forth.

“Well, lass, I’m afraid we’ve a matter still to settle between us before we sleep tonight.” I felt a sudden stab of apprehension.

“What is it?” He didn’t answer at once. Deliberately not sitting down on the bed by me, he pulled up a stool and sat facing me instead.… 😯

  • Question: How do you deal with pacing? Diana responded that pacing depends on context. For example, if there is an emergency then the writer wants to keep sentences short and terse. Pacing allows the author to create tension between two elements. A question is raised and then answered to move the story forward. (Psst…. She didn’t mention that sometimes the answers to questions she raises don’t get resolved until two books and ten years later!) 😂
  • Question: How do you deal with slang or dialect? Diana feels dialogue is the most important way to define a character.  An author using another language (e.g. Gaelic) needs to educate themself in the language. She watched films with Scottish characters to hear their spoken English. At conferences, if she heard anyone speaking with a Scottish accent, she invited them for coffee and listened to them speak. Diana also recommended reading books written by someone who speaks the language. She read several Scottish authors to help her get a feel for syntax, cadence, etc. Frankly, her devotion to her craft is a splendid example to all aspiring authors. 🥰
  • Question: Do you plan out a chapter or scene ahead of time? Diana does not. We already know she doesn’t write in a straight line. She also does not tell her characters what to say or do. She waits patiently for them to speak to her.  This being my fourth SiWC, I can tell you hers is a unique approach. Most writers I encounter plan out scenes, many even work from  a classic outline. She also doesn’t know ahead of time how a book will end. I guess the one exception here is that she seems to know how the “Outlander” books will end. Sob! 😢
  • Question: Who is your favorite author. James Clavell, she answered without a moment’s hesitation.  Clavell authored the marvelous, “Shogun,” for those who might not know. Although it has been some time since I read it, it is well worth doing so. 👍🏻

These were highlights of the panel for me.

The full panel discussion can be accessed here:

I hope you enjoyed the panel. Need I say, my fav author for “Compelling Exposition” is none other than Diana Gabaldon? 🤩 🥇 🏆

The deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

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Photo and audio credits: Outlander Anatomy

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2024 SDCC – Bear McCreary Panel

Greetings all!

I continue my experience at 2024 SDCC with the Bear McCreary panel titled, “Musical World building!”

Before the panel came to the podium, heavy metal music filled the packed auditorium! 👂 Turns out, this music was from “The Singularity.” You can hear more of this composition by following this link: https://bearmccreary.com/thesingularity/

After the muscial intro, the panelists then came out individually and introduced themselves:

First  to the stage was Bear McCreary! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

We Outlander fans honor Bear who has brought us, over the seasons, the most wonderful renditions of the Sky Boat Song! And, of course, we fans are keenly aware of his numerous musical accomplishments beyond Outlander!

Next was Kyle Higgins who was unknown to me but, given the applause, was recognized by many audience members. He is best known for his work on the Batman franchise at DC Comics, namely writing the miniseries Batman: Gates of Gotham and for the Nightwing and Batman Beyond titles, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers franchise at Boom! Studios, and Radiant Black at Image Comics.

Matias Bergara was next.  He lives in Uruguay and is a video game designer, comic book writer and artist. After winning numerous awards in South America,  he works almost exclusively for the international market, and illustrated a children‘s book by Neil Gaiman, “Odd and the Frost Giants.”

Last, but certainly not least, was Raya Yarbrough! Raya is Bear’s spouse who was beautiful and poised as always. Raya, is an eclectic poet, singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles. Although she is most recognized as the singer of the theme for Outlander, her voice and original music have been featured in many TV series, including  Battlestar Galactica, Marvel’s Agents Of Shield, Da Vinci’s Demons, and Agent Carter.  Her album “Raya Yarbrough,” was released internationally on Telarc/Concord records. 

We were not allowed to video record this session, but I did make an audio recording. I hope you enjoy hearing the session in its entirety. Here it is!

The following are highlights from the discussion in case you missed them.

*Bear talked about working on The Singularity, a graphic musical novel that required collaboration between numerous heavy metal groups and artists of word and graphics including Kyle, Matias and Raya. His goal was to develop one cohesive vision and bring it to life by collaboration. This is the backbone of musical world-building. 

In other news, Bear is working on a broadway show titled “Particle Fever!” It is based on the Higgs boson, aka the God Particle, discovered at the CERN large particle accelerator in Switzerland. He claims molecular physic’s time has come! 🤓

Bear said his musical score for Battlestar Galactic is tattooed on his heart because he got his start there at age, 24! However, his favorite score is from Godzilla: King of Monsters!

He revealed that he decided to score an original piece for the ending credits of Godzilla. When the film was first reviewed by the bigwigs, they started to leave as the credits rolled, but Bear asked them to wait. After the credits were done, they exclaimed they hadn’t authorized money for a final piece but he explained he knew that, he just wanted to do it! Presumably, for free! 🤩

*Kyle was asked what he would tell his young self. His answer: “just finish things!” 🤗 He also said clarity is very important. And, conflict with its tension and release plays an essential role in his creative efforts.

*Matias made a comic book out of music. He advised the audience to do things honestly and directly.  😇

*Raya is a poet, song writer and singer and is now a mother of two! She told us her mother wrote “Night Terrors” for Star Trek: the Next Generation. something I did not know! As a busy mom, she has to find time during the day to compose. She says while writing lyrics, she may not know what she is trying to say until she gets to the last line! 😮

Her latest project is a collaboration with Bear based on 82 ancient wheels and cogs found in the sea near Athens. These remnants comprise the oldest known analogue computer, an orrery (model of the solar system), known as the Antikythera mechanism (image below). Raya sings the voice of the machine as they explore its psychology! 🤔

There is much more to hear in the recording so I will close with gratitude for the gifts that Raya and Bear have given to the Outlander community. Looking forward to the second half of season 7! 🤗

The deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

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Photo and video credits: www.wikipedia.com, Outlander Anatomy, Bear McCreary