Best day ever yesterday!!!! My bff and I drove to Barrie, Ontario to see Diana Gabaldon, author of the bestselling Outlander series. We haven’t had a chance to get together in ages, so the hour drive gave us a great chance to catch up. We arrived at the Chapters bookstore where Diana was appearing about three hours early, and it was a good thing we did because there were already 35 people in line ahead of us. One couple even slept there overnight!! We killed time while we were waiting talking to people and taking our pictures with the giant cutouts of the characters from the TV series based on her books which is starting in August. By the time 1pm rolled around, the store was packed with anxiously waiting fans, and the atmosphere was awesome.
Diana spoke for about 20 minutes or so, telling us all about how she got her start as an author, and then she took questions from the audience. She has an incredible, sarcastic sense of humour and kept us all laughing the entire time. Afterwards, we were able to get her new book signed and have our pictures taken with her. She is one of my favourite authors of all time, so it was definitely a thrilling day for me. Here are some of my pictures for any of the Diana Gabaldon fans out there.
Now, I have to share another photo with you to give you your laugh for the day :). Are any of you familiar with Flat Stanley? He is the character from a children’s series of books, and in the hopes of getting children to write more letters, a program was started where children take a cutout of Flat Stanley and send him to a person in another part of the world. That person then takes Flat Stanley on a tour of their city/town/country, and takes pictures to send back to the child, so that they can see the adventures Flat Stanley has been on.
Well, I saw a cutout of Jamie, the main male character in the Outlander books, on the website for the TV series, so my son’s girlfriend and I came up with the brilliant idea that I should make a Flat Jamie and take him on my trip to Paris, London, and Scotland this summer. I will take pictures of him everywhere we go! Seriously, there was no alcohol involved in this idea – I’m just a little bit strange. So, I cut out Flat Jamie, glued him to some cardboard, and took him with me yesterday. Diana signed him and then I got him laminated, so he’s all ready to travel. The quality of this photo is terrible, but here he is:
photos from the loonybin 
What a joy filled post… had me smiling from start to finish… don’t know the book or author or the TV series about to start… but after such enthusiasm I want to know more…
I’m glad I was able to convey my joy because it was a great day! This is a bestselling historical series which takes place in 1743 Scotland with a fantastic love story at its root. They are huge books with tons of detail about the unrest of the time, and the writing is incredible. It is one of the best historical series I have ever read!
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing this lovely experience with us. Great photos:)
Thank you – I’m glad you enjoyed it :). I really love going to author events because it’s interesting to hear how they got their start in the business and how they write. For instance, Diana doesn’t write her books from beginning to end. She writes bits and pieces and then puts them together at the end. Other authors I have seen actually do story outlines and start writing at the beginning.
This is my 3rd attempt to reply:) I hope it goes through!
I agree that it’s interesting too see how they got their start in the world of writing and publishing. Thanks again for sharing!
Comment received successfully :). You are very welcome!
Oooh, ooh, I recognise who this is now! This is the author you recommended to me with the loooooong fantasy series isn’t it? Exciting, I know how much you loved her books!
Awesome pics, especially the one with you and the author. Sounds like a fabby day, I’m so glad you got to go, and with your cool cutout too. 😛
It’s not really fantasy. It’s actually a historical series, but there is time travel involved. It’s awesome, and like all women you will fall in love with the main male character, Jamie :). Everyone who reads it wants Jamie LOL!!!
Ahh historical, whoops! My bad. 😛
LOL!! How can we keep them all straight when we read so much?
I am so jealous!
I wish you could have been there!