Inverness Clan Village Welcomes Famous Author

The Inverness Highland Games Committee has announced that award-winning US novelist Diana Gabaldon, author of the New York Times best -selling Outlander series, will be a guest of honour at the 2009 Tulloch Homes Clan Village at the Masters World Championships on Saturday July 18th.

Dr Gabaldon offered her services to the Highland Games Committee as she is in Scotland in July to take part in the Scotland Homecoming gathering in Edinburgh. 

Her offer has been swiftly accepted and she will be present at the Clan Village at the Bught Park to sign copies of her “big, weird novels which seem to make people want to go to Scotland”.

She said: “I can't be in Scotland and not go to the Highlands!  And when I was informed that the Inverness Highland Games (which, I am assured cannot  be missed) was taking place on the 18th-19th July, I changed my plans to make sure I can attend. My name naturally hasn't the same drawing power as those of the "heavies", but it has been known to draw modest crowds.”

Games Committee Chairman Angus Dick said: “This is great news.  We are delighted that Dr Gabaldon has got in touch and wants to be involved in our event.  She should be a big attraction at the Clan Village.”

Dr. Gabaldon holds three degrees in science: Zoology, Marine Biology, and Quantitative Behavioral Ecology and spent 12 years as a university professor with an expertise in scientific computation before beginning to write fiction in 1991.

Her adventure began in 1991 with the classic Outlander, continued through five more New York Times-bestselling novels - Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, and A Breath of Snow and Ashes - and a non-fiction companion volume, The Outlandish Companion, which provides details on the settings, background, characters, research, and writing of the novels.

Dr Gabaldon has also written two historical mysteries, Lord John and the Private Matter, and Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, as well as several novellas featuring Lord John Grey (which will appear in volume form this November, as Lord John and the Hand of Devils).

A Breath of Snow and Ashes, the most recent novel in the main Outlander series, won both a Quill Award and the Corine interntational literary prize for fiction.

Dr Gabaldon will be at one of 32 stands at the Clan Village.