…the smartest historical sci-fi adventure-romance story ever written by a science Ph.D. with a background in scripting “Scrooge McDuck” comics.” – Salon magazine
The keynote speaker for the 2014 Gala Awards Banquet is Diana Gabaldon.
From her bio and recent press release:
DIANA GABALDON is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the wildly popular Outlander novels—Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bone and the forthcoming Written In My Heart’s Own Blood—as well as a bestselling series featuring Lord John Grey, a character she introduced in Voyager; the graphic novel, The Exile; and one work of nonfiction, The Outlandish Companion. She won both the Quill Award and the Corine International Prize for Fiction in 2006 for her sixth Outlander book, A Breath of Snow and Ashes.
Diana Gabaldon
Photo Credit Elenna Loughlin
The Outlander series is the basis for Outlander: The Musical and a forthcoming eponymous series on Starz slated to premiere in 2014.
In 1991, Diana Gabaldon published Outlander, her groundbreaking first novel in the series that now has over 25 million copies in print and is published in 34 languages worldwide. At the center of the story is Claire Randall, a former WWII combat nurse who wanders through a circle of standing stones and ends up in 18th-century Scotland. As a “Sassenach”—an outlander—Claire finds that her best chance of survival lies with a young clansman named Jamie Fraser. And so begins a powerful story that has spanned decades and garnered millions of fans.
Written In My Heart’s Own Blood by Diana Gabaldon
Readers have been eagerly awaiting Gabaldon’s new Outlander novel Written In My Heart’s Own Blood (Delacorte Press Hardcover; June 10, 2014) since 2009’s An Echo in the Bone shot to instant bestsellerdom. This riveting installment follows her vivid cast of characters against the backdrop of 18th-century Scotland and pre-Revolutionary Philadelphia, as Jamie makes a dramatic return to Claire’s side, Roger and Bree search for their lost son, and love and violence shadow each other. Written In My Heart’s Own Blood is an enthralling adventure of betrayal and redemption, death and danger, and the perilous waves of a family’s loves and loyalties through generations.
Dr. Gabaldon holds three degrees in science: Zoology, Marine Biology, and Quantitative Behavioral Ecology, (plus an honorary degree as Doctor of Humane Letters, which entitles her to be “Diana Gabaldon, Ph.D., D.H.L.” She supposes this is better than “Diana Gabaldon, Phd.X,”) and spent a dozen years as a university professor with an expertise in scientific computation before beginning to write fiction. She has written scientific articles and textbooks, worked as a contributing editor on the MacMillan ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMPUTERS, founded the scientific-computation journal SCIENCE SOFTWARE QUARTERLY, and has written numerous comic-book scripts for Walt Disney.
Ms. Gabaldon’s keynote to the Willamette Writers Conference will be held during the Gala Awards Banquet at the Willamette Writers Conference on August 2nd, 2014 at 6:30 pm. For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit the Evening Events page, or contact Bill Johnson at wilwrite@willamettewriters.com or (503) 305-6729.