The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [209]
Bear in mind that I had never been to Scotland when I wrote Outlander. When I finally did go, I found a stone circle very like the one I had described, at a place called Castlerigg. There is also a place near Inverness called the Clava Cairns, which has a stone circle,31 and another place called Tomnahurich, which is supposed to be a fairy’s hill, but I’ve never been there, so I don’t know how like Craigh na Dun it is. As for Lallybroch… well, I do repeatedly find things that really exist after I’ve written them, so I really wouldn’t be at all surprised.
Q: How do you develop your characters? Do you keep charts or index cards to keep track of them?
A: I don’t keep charts of characters, notes, outlines, anything. I don’t write down anything but the text of the book, in part because if I write something down, I forget it.
In the later books, I do occasionally have to count back to see what month of what year it is when a given scene takes place, so I’ll know what the weather should be like, but that’s about as far as it goes. I don’t forget the characters, because I can “see” them. You wouldn’t forget what your spouse looks like, or what s/he likes for breakfast, would you? (See “Characters” in Part Two for a fuller description of character development.)
Q: Are you Claire?
A: Well, no. Though of course, I’m all the characters; I have to be, after all. But if you are asking whether I based the character of Claire on myself, no, I didn’t.
(See “Characters” for a fuller explanation.)
Q: We were trying to figure out the “rules” for the Minister’s Cat. Any light you could shed would be helpful.
A: The Minister’s Cat is just a simple word game, with no real overall “winner.” Each player takes a turn for each letter of the alphabet, trying to pick an adjective that will either baffle or simply amuse his opponent; the person who picks the “best” adjective (one his opponent doesn’t know, or just one that’s more entertaining) is the winner of that round.
The Minister’s Cat is an adipose cat.
The Minister’s Cat is an adhesive cat.
Both good, but “adhesive” might be better, since the thought of a sticky cat is funnier than the image of a fat cat.
The Minister’s cat is a bad cat.
The Minister’s cat is a bandkeramik cat.
“Bandkeramik” is a term used to describe a type of Neolithic pottery, marked with a banded design, i.e., this is a striped cat.) “Bandkeramik” probably wins this round.
The game can vary from the simple to the complex, and is often used to teach vocabulary. I happened on it in a bookstore in Inverness, where I found two small books: The Minister’s Cat, which showed several alternatives per letter, with amusing illustrations, and Cat A’Mhinister, a Gaelic version, which was presented with the suggestion that the game was an effective way of learning Gaelic (Gaidhlig) vocabulary.
Roger and Brianna are, of course, using the game to communicate indirectly with each other, as well as to pass the time on their car trip.
Q: Several of us read and reread the books, discussing them and trying to figure out why Claire and Jamie did what they did or reacted the way they did. We all have one question, though: Why was it so important to Claire to take back Frank’s wedding ring at the end of Drums? None of us would have taken it back! Can you explain what your thinking was on this point? Even given Claire’s history with Frank, her love for Jamie was so great, why would she feel the need to have any ring other than his?
A: I’m tempted to say that this is one of those things that you either see or you don’t see—but I’ll try to explain. Yes, Claire has history with Frank—a lot of history, and very mixed, in terms of joy and pain. He was her first love, her first husband, and when she married him, she did so with the full intention of being married to him for life. She is, after all, a very loyal and honest person. For her to have “left” him and chosen to stay with Jamie was an act of betrayal, and she knows it. Frank did nothing wrong; his only