The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [147]
Next day he went to pick up his gear and pretty soon found out why nobody ever fished ’Coire Bhreachdain. ’It took him several days to get his traps out of there, since he could stay there only at slack tide, and a couple of weeks to repair the damage. It didn’t take him quite as long to figure out why no lobster live there. He did make a name for himself, however. He is still known, some forty years later, as the only man known to be foolish enough to set lobster traps in Coire Bhreachdain.”
17I unfortunately didn’t have access to a native speaker of Kahnyen’kehaka. I used a rather simple dictionary of Mohawk words and expressions, and therefore some compound terms are my best guess, rather than officially “correct” expressions.
18Ha.
PART FIVE
OUTLANDISH WEB SITES AND ONLINE VENUES
Since my writing career has been inextricably involved with the Internet (so to speak), it seems only right to make note of a few of the current Web sites that deal with the Outlander novels.
The nature of the Internet is infinitely flexible; this means not only that specific sites will change in nature and design over time, but that new ones will pop up and older ones will disappear. Therefore, this section is brief noting only those sites that have been in existence for quite some time, and that look likely to remain extant in the near future. However, I can’t guarantee the existence of these sites; still less, exactly what you will find on them.
Still, America Online and CompuServe are likely to be around for a while, and I am fairly sure that if you do an Internet search on the name “Gabaldon, ”you’ll turn up a lot of interesting sites—many of them actually having something to do with me and my books.
—D.G.
THE WEB SITES
THE DIANA GABALDON HOME PAGE
www.cco.caltech.edu/~gatti/gabaldon/gabaldon.html
wo or three years ago, I received an E-mail from Rosana Madrid Gatti, who told me she had read and enjoyed all my books. Further, she said, she had some expertise at Web page design, and if I would allow her, she would be pleased to construct a Web site featuring me and my books.
This definitely came under the heading of Offers One Can’t Refuse, and the result—and Rosana—have been great blessings ever since.
Rosana does a beautiful job with both the design and management of the site; in fact, I believe she’s won awards for the design, and well-deserved, too! Whenever time and material permit, I send her a chunk of assorted material (excerpts from work in progress, tour schedules, information on ordering books and book plates, assorted rants, and the like). She then releases this material, in neatly organized bits, to the Web site.
She also goes beyond the call of duty in helping to answer questions that people address to the Web site—and in passing on messages addressed to me.1
Like all Web sites, this one undergoes occasional redesign and reorganization. Constant features, though, include the excerpts—this is the only Web source that has excerpts of my work in progress2—and personal appearance schedules, plus links to various other online sites (Web pages, Web forums, list-serves, newsgroups, etc.) that feature material on or discussions of the Outlander novels. Rosana has also managed to find entertaining collateral material, such as the Clan Map of Scotland, which is available to those who are browsing.
The Web site offers me not only the chance to share work and news with the readers, but also an invaluable venue for communication—a way to let people know of changes in publication dates and tour schedules, and also a way to quash some of the persistent rumors3 and misinformation that circulate constantly about the books.4 I’m more than grateful to Rosana for suggesting it—and especially for running it!
THE LADIES (AND LADS) OF LALLYBROCH
www.lallybroch.com