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Okay, I promised to write about this, so here it is.

Diana was speaking at the Irish Cultural Center in downtown Phoenix (which is currently being torn up because they're installing a light rail system down the main street - which is really hitting the businesses hard because people are avoiding the area. But that's another subject). I'd found out about it from the group of Arizona fans of DG, and Susan (who happens to work part time for Diana and Doug) said that she'd pick me up. Unfortunately, Saturday afternoon I started to feel really ill - a very bad headache (which even extra strength aspirin didn't make a dent in) and then I started to feel rather queasy...Great, I thought, now I'm going to have to back out. But I decided to tough it out, although I must say I wasn't very conversational that evening, but thankfully Susan had also offered a lift to Linda, another fan, who also happens to be an ex-pat Canadian who moved down to Phoenix with her husband about 15 years ago. Anyway, they carried on a conversation, so it wasn't so obvious that I wasn't saying anything.

The Irish Cultural Center itself is in what looks like an old stone building - they have a gift shop in a separate cottage on the property (which is entered through a very lovely Iron gate). In the shop, there were artifacts from Ireland - including a copy of the Book of Kells (which I happened to see myself when I went to Ireland in 1989 - it's held in Trinity College in Dublin) and some beautiful Belleek pottery - including a mug which said 'Herself' on it (Susan said, maybe we should get that for Diana - being as how that is how most of fans refer to her - see www.lallybroch.com).

The event was due to start around 7:30 or so, and we got there around 6:30, thinking it might be crowded - but we were one of the first ones there. But not too soon after we sat down, quite a few people arrived - both men and women - a lot of them carrying suspiciously-familiar books

Diana was the only one speaking that evening - it was an event to raise money for the center to make some renovations - and a fellow from The Poisoned Pen also came with a whole bunch of her books - ready to be purchased - both hardcover and trade paperback size.

I had seen pictures of Diana before, but didn't really get how tiny she is, until I actually saw her in person. I was sitting in the front row, so had a pretty good view, except for when the person taking photograghs was in front of me - as you will see when you look at the photos.

If you've read any of the interviews she's given, the talk she gave was not all that different - similar to what Stasia mentioned - how she'd started writing the book as just an exercise to see if she could, and that the inspiration for the period she chose was from an episode of Dr. Who (the boy in the kilt); and that she has already written the end of the story (she writes in chunks, not sequentially, and fits all the pieces together bit by bit), that there is at least one more if not 2 more books, but that they probably won't be published until some time in 2009; she's currently working on a couple of mysteries (which is what she first was going to try writing - before doing Outlander - but said that she didn't think she could do that since mysteries had plots - little did she know, right?) That it is true that she'd never been to Scotland - she only went AFTER Outlander was published - but she did know how to carry out research (she certainly impressed me, as well as some of you, with the reality she portrayed of the areas she described!). A couple of people asked questions - about the next book (when it would be coming out), but nothing very eye-opening. I, unfortunately, was having a hard time concentrating on anything but wondering how I could get to the restroom (on the other side of the room) without crossing right in front of her (thereby making a complete fool of myself), and trying to convince myself that I was NOT going to be sick - mind over matter!

Anyway, she finished up her talk and moved over to a table directly in front of me where she prepared to autograph books for people - and almost everyone lined up for her to do so. I ran to the bathroom and...well, I won't go into that.. but I felt better afterward, and I came back to see Susan and Linda talking to 3 other women - who they appeared to know. Turns out they were Michelle and Kristine (they're in one of the photos below) and Molly, a friend of Michelle's - other members of the Arizon LOL group. They had come in a bit later than us, so we hadn't seen them until now.

I did end up getting my photo taken with Diana - I didn't have any book for her to sign, but that my copies were all signed by her via bookplates I was pleased to have gotten from her a few years ago, and I hope I didn't sound like a complete idiot when I told her how much enjoyment her books have given me and a lot of other people, and that I was also a member of the Ladies of Lallybroch (which did, now that I think of it, sound really DUMB!). She is a very gracious lady, and Susan says that she is very humble - that she surprised at how much her books have come to mean to people.

Okay, folks - I'm going to try to link to a slideshow of the photos. Let's see if this works

Irish Cultural Center evening with Diana

(I would have liked to actually include the photos here, like I've seen others do, but couldn't figure out how to do that)

Ruth