The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [201]
Without hesitation, he made a shallow slash across the chest—no need to bleed the carcass; the heart was long since still—and ripped the skin between the legs, so the pale swell of the intestines bulged up from the narrow, black-furred slit, gleaming in the light.
It took both strength and considerable skill to split and peel back the heavy skin without penetrating the mesenteric membrane that held the visceral sac enclosed. I, who had opened softer human bodies, recognized surgical competence when I saw it.
–Drums of Autumn, chapter 15, “Noble Savages”
PART NINE
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: Is Craigh na Dun a real place?
A: Let’s put it this way; if it was … would I tell you?
ANSWERS
Who is speaking in the prologues? Claire? Brianna? You?
A: Well, that’s a good question. To me, the prologue is essentially the voice of the book speaking, if that makes any sense. All the books are designed to stand individually, as well as to interlock as parts of a whole. Consequently, while I hope the various plot elements, characters, etc., are consistent among the books, each book is meant to be unique in tone, structure, and approach. So, each prologue is meant to convey something about the tone and essence of that particular book.
With the exception of Outlander, the prologues have been the single most difficult passage to write in each book.1 It always takes multiple tries to get one right, and I often have to wait for inspiration—in the form of a phrase or vision—to hit.2 In Drums, the prologue was the last thing written!
As to the question, though, I prefer to leave the prologues ambiguous. Who is speaking? The book itself (though I do imagine that any given reader may hear the book speaking with the voice of one or another of the characters).
One peculiarity regarding the prologues is that while the ambiguity works fine in written form, the recorded version really has to be a little more certain. That is, the poor actress who does the audiobook recordings (Geraldine James for the abridged Bantam audio versions; Davina Porter for the unabridged versions from Recorded Books (see Appendix VI: “Foreign Editions Audiotapes, and Strange, Strange Covers”) is obliged to read the prologues in someone’s voice.
Evidently, either the abridger or Ms. James decided (they didn’t ask me) that the prologues of the first three books should be read in Claire’s voice, while the Drums of Autumn prologue was read in Brianna’s voice.
However, the first paragraph of the Drums prologue contains this line: “When I look in the mirror, my mother’s eyes look back at me.…” For what the observation is worth—we’ve made rather a Big Deal through three books, now, about how much Brianna resembles Jamie Fraser, up to and including the slanted blue cat eyes. Claire’s eyes, on the other hand, have been described at no-doubt tedious length in terms of sherry, whisky, and other intoxicant substances of a brownish hue.
And Claire does once describe her own mother, while looking at a photograph (in Voyager): “Warm brown eyes…”
Q: Is there going to be another book about Jamie and Claire?
A: Oh, yes. There will be two more novels—The Fiery Cross and (so far) King, Farewell—that complete the story of Jamie and Claire. There will also be a prequel volume, dealing with Jamie Fraser’s parents, Brian and Ellen, and the 1715 Rising.
That came about rather by accident.3 A friend asked me whether I would be interested in writing a novella for a four-author anthology she was putting together. “I dunno,” I said. “I’ve never written anything under three hundred thousand words; it would be an interesting technical challenge. Let me check with the publisher, though, and make sure there’s no problem.”4
When I described the invitation to my editor, she said that sounded