Written in My Own Heart's Blood (139 page)

1
For example, Nathanael Greene’s remarks about Quakers are taken from his own letters, as is his reference to his father’s discouraging reading as “tending to separate one from God.”

2
With regard to maps and distances, etc., it’s worth noting that such things as township boundaries did change between the eighteenth century and the twenty-first. Ergo, Tennent Church is now in Manalapan, New Jersey, whereas originally it was in Freehold Township. The church didn’t move; the township did.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It takes me about four years to write one of the Big Books, what with research, travel, and the fact that they are . . . er . . . big. During that time, LOTS of people talk to me and kindly offer advice on everything from How to Reseat an Eyeball to what kind of a mess indigo-dyeing really makes, entertaining trivia (such as the fact that cows do not like daisies. Who knew?), and logistical support (mostly in terms of remembering when the people in my books were born and how far it is from point A to point B and in which direction—I went to a parochial school that stopped teaching geography in the fifth grade, so this is Not One of My Strong Points, and as for personal chronology, I just don’t care whether a given character is nineteen or twenty, but apparently lots of people do, and more power to them).

This being the case, I’m sure I’m leaving out dozens of kindly people who have given me useful information and assistance over the last four years and I apologize for not having written down their names at the time—but I surely do appreciate said information and assistance!

Among those whose names I
did
write down, I’d like to acknowledge . . .

. . . My literary agents, Russell Galen and Danny Baror, without whom my books would not be published as successfully and widely as they are, and I would not have the edifying experience of opening cartons of books written in Lithuanian with my name on the front—to say nothing of the Korean edition of
Outlander
with the pink bubbles on the cover.

. . . Sharon Biggs Waller, for information about the Scots Dumpy and for bringing this charming chicken to my attention.

. . . Marte Brengle, for telling me about the forensic reconstruction of George Washington’s face, and Dr. Merih O’Donoghue, for notes on his disastrous dental history.

. . . Dr. Merih O’Donoghue and her ophthalmologist friend, for technical commentary and useful gruesome details concerning Lord John’s eye. Also for the teaching model of an eyeball, which adorns my bookshelves and gives interviewers who enter my office the willies.

. . . Carol and Tracey of MyOutlanderPurgatory, for their lovely photos of the battlefield at Paoli, which drew my attention to the Rebel rallying cry “Remember Paoli!” and the discovery of Lord John’s unpopular cousin.

. . . Tamara Burke, for bits of homestead and farming lore, most particularly for her vivid description of a rooster valiantly defending his hens.

. . . Tamara Burke, Joanna Bourne, and Beth and Matthew Shope, for helpful advice on Quaker marriage customs and absorbing discussions regarding the history and philosophies of the Society of Friends. Any error or license taken with regard to such customs is mine, I hasten to add.

. . . Catherine MacGregor (Gaelic and French, including gruesome lullabies about beheaded lovers), Catherine-Ann MacPhee (Gaelic, phraseology
and
idiom, besides introducing me to the Gaelic poem “To an Excellent Penis” (see below), and Adhamh Ò Broin, Gaelic tutor for the
Outlander
Starz television production, for emergency help with exclamations. Barbara Schnell, for providing the German and occasional Latin bits (If you want to know how to say “Shit!” in Latin, it’s
“Stercus!”
).

. . . Michael Newton, for permission to use his delightful translation of “To an Excellent Penis,” from his book
The Naughty Little Book of Gaelic
(which I recommend highly, for assorted purposes).

. . . Sandra Harrison, who saved me from Grievous Error by informing me that British police cars do not have flashing red lights, only blue ones.

. . . the 3,247 (approximately) French-speakers and scholars who informed me that I had misspelled
“n’est-ce pas”
in an excerpt of this book posted on Facebook.

. . . James Fenimore Cooper, for lending me Natty Bumppo, whose reminiscences of the proper way to conduct a massacre considerably eased Lord John’s journey into captivity.

. . . Sandy Parker (aka the Archivist), for faithful tracking and analysis of the
#DailyLines
(these are tiny snippets of whatever I happen to be working on, posted daily on Facebook and Twitter for the purpose of entertaining people during the long time it takes me to finish a book, as well as a constant helpful flow of articles, photos, and useful nits).

. . . The Cadre of Genealogical Nitpickers—Sandy Parker, Vicki Pack, Mandy Tidwell, and Rita Meistrell, who are responsible for the high degree of accuracy in the beautiful family tree you see on the endpapers of this book.

. . . Karen I. Henry, for bumblebee-herding and for the “Friday Fun Facts” supplied weekly on her blog,
Outlandish Observations
. (The FFF are a collection of fascinating bits of trivia from the books, explored and expanded upon, with pictures.)

. . . Michelle Moore, for Twitter backgrounds, entertaining tea mugs, and a lot of assorted other things that can best be tactfully called “creative design.”

. . . Loretta Moore, faithful and timely mistress of my website.

. . . Nikki and Caitlin Rowe, for designing and maintaining my YouTube Channel (which is frankly not something I ever thought I’d need, but a handy thing to have).

. . . Kristin Matherly, who is the fastest website constructor I’ve ever seen, for her Random Quote Generator, among many other beautiful and helpful
Outlander
-related sites.

. . . Susan Butler, my assistant, Without Whom Nothing Would Ever Be Mailed, a thousand necessary things would not be done, nor would I ever show up for scheduled events.

. . . Janice Millford, Sherpa of the Everest of email and rider of avalanches.

. . . to my friend Ann Hunt, for lovely writing and golden wishes, to say nothing of virtual flowers and raspberry gin.

. . . the title of
Chapter 13
(“Morning Air Awash with Angels”) is taken from a line of the poem by Richard Purdy Wilbur, “Love Calls Us to the Things of This World.”

. . . and the title of
Chapter 117
, “Into the Briar Patch,” is taken from the American folktale “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby” (retold by various authors).

. . . whereas the title of
Chapter 123
,
“Quod Scripsi, Scripsi,”
is courtesy of Pontius Pilate.

. . . Joey McGarvey, Kristin Fassler, Ashley Woodfolk, Lisa Barnes, and a whole passel of other Highly Competent and Energetic People at Random House.

. . . Beatrice Lampe, Andrea Vetterle, Petra Zimmerman, and a similar passel of helpful publishing people at Blanvalet (the German publisher).

. . . As always, great thanks to those practitioners of Eyeball-Numbing Nitpickery whose time and devotion results in a much better book than this would be without them: Catherine MacGregor, Allene Edwards, Karen Henry, Janet McConnaughey, Susan Butler, and especially Barbara Schnell (my invaluable German translator) and Kathleen Lord, copy editor and unsung heroine of the comma and timeline, both of whom always know how far it is from Point A to Point B, even if I would rather not find out.

. . . and my husband, Doug Watkins, who sustains me.

About the Author

Jennifer Hershey (
editor, U.S
.
)
Bill Massey (
editor, U.K
.
)
Kathleen Lord (
aka “Hercules”—copy editor
)
Barbara Schnell (
translator and trench-buddy, Germany
)
Catherine MacGregor, Catherine-Ann MacPhee,
and Adhamh Ò Broin (
Gaelic experts
)
Virginia Norey (
aka “Book Goddess”—designer
)
Kelly Chian, Maggie Hart, Benjamin Dreyer, Lisa Feuer,
and the rest of the Random House Production Team
and
Beatrice Lampe und Petra Zimmermann in München

BY DIANA GABALDON

Outlander

Dragonfly in Amber

Voyager

Drums of Autumn

The Fiery Cross

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

An Echo in the Bone

The Outlandish Companion
(
nonfiction
)

The Exile
(
graphic novel
)

Lord John and the Hellfire Club
(
novella
)

Lord John and the Private Matter

Lord John and the Succubus
(
novella
)

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade

Lord John and the Haunted Soldier
(
novella
)

Custom of the Army
(
novella
)

Lord John and the Hand of Devils
(
collected novellas
)

The Scottish Prisoner

Plague of Zombies
(
novella
)

Other Outlander-related novellas

A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows

The Space Between

Virgins

Copyright

An Orion ebook

First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Orion Books
Ebook first published in 2014 by Orion Books

© Diana Gabaldon 2014

The right of Diana Gabaldon to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-4091-4138-9

The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane
London, WC2H 9EA

An Hachette UK company

www.orionbooks.co.uk