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Mistress of the Bulge

When The Scottish Prisoner was published, a bookseller friend turned to ht and said, ‘I think you’ve invented a new literary fore!’ In other words, a story that is neither sequel nor prequel, but lives inside an existing body of work Now, frankly, I wish she had thought of so more poetic to describe e’ has a bit ery of a snake that’s sed so prey – than colourless terms like ‘interpolation’ or ‘inclusion’

I first wrote a short story fifteen years ago,shorter than 300,000 words It was an interesting technical challenge, but ‘short’ is not what you’d call one of reat natural skills Still, I found the experience interesting, and since then have written the occasional short (wellsort of; it’s all relative, isn’t it?) piece when invited to contribute to an anthology now and then

Even though these stories are relatively brief, they’re ale series of novels that includes both the huge Outlander novels and the smaller historical mysteries focused on the character of Lord John Grey These novellas too are bulges; stories that fill a lacuna in the main story or explore the life and ti with the existing parts of the series

Now, an anthology is a collection of stories written by a nuood way to saht not usually encounter, or try an unfaenre Still, some readers may be chiefly interested in a particular favourite writer, and not want to buy an anthology for the sake of just one short story or novella1

A few years ago, I collected three novellas about Lord John Grey (two of theies, one written specifically for the new collection) into a single volume, and titled it Lord John and the Hand of Devils Readers enjoyed having these pieces of Lord John’s story conveniently to hand, and so I figured that whenever I had a few more short pieces, I’d publish another collection This is it

This volume includes two Lord John novellas: The Custoue of Zoy of the novels and shorter pieces involving his lordship, Custom follows the novel Brotherhood of the Blade and precedes the novel The Scottish Prisoner Zoh it was in fact written while I riting Prisoner, and was published before the novel was finished, and if you don’t think that was a swift bit of juggling) You’ll find an overall chronology of both the main Outlander novels and the Lord John novels and novellas at the back of this book

The Custom of the Army is set in 1759, in London and Quebec, and while it probably was all the fault of the electric eel, Lord John finds hied to leave London for the wilds of Canada and the dangerous proxi the Citadel of Quebec (‘Melodra hieh, I’ll give hi stupid’)

Plague of Zombies takes place in 1761, on the island of Jamaica, where Lord John is sent as commander of a battalion intended to suppress what seems to be a revolt of the escaped slaves called s are not alhat they seem (He rubbed the rest of the blood from his hand with the hem of his banyan, and the cold horror of the last few er, hot in the pit of his stomach He’d been a soldier most of his life; he’d killed He’d seen the dead on battlefields And one thing he knew for a fact Dead men don’t bleed)

Now, you’ll also find two other stories in this book: A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows, and The Space Between Leaf is the story of Roger MacKenzie’s parents, Jerry and Dolly, and takes place during WWII (It was cold in the roo but Jerry’s string vest – he thought she looked erotic in it – ‘lewd,’ he said, approving, his Highland accent htto her breasts, true enough, and her nipples poked out soo crawl in next to hi hi as they had)

The Space Between follows the events in the novel An Echo in the Bone, is set in Paris in 1778, and concerns Michael Murray (Young Ian Murray’s elder brother), Joan MacKier sister), Master Rayarde (yes, she’s still alive), the Comte St Germain (ditto – surely you didn’t think he was really dead, did you?), and a nu people (‘What a waste of a wonderful arse,’ Monsieur Brechin re Joan’s ascent froine those wrapped around your back, eh? Would you have her keep the striped stockings on? I would’ It hadn’t occurred to Michael to i the i of his face)

I hope you’ll enjoy the journey into so-far-uncharted territory, torches held aloft!

Diana Gabaldon

A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows

Introduction to

A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows

One of the interesting things you can do with a ‘bulge’ is to follow mysteries, hints, and loose ends from the main books of the series One such trail follows the story of Roger MacKenzie’s parents

In Outlander, we learn that Roger was orphaned during World War II, and then adopted by his great-uncle, the Reverend Reginald Wakefield, who tells Claire and Frank that Roger’s mother was killed in the Blitz, and that his father was a Spitfire pilot ‘shot down over the Channel’

In Dru story of histhe bo of London

But in An Echo in the Bone, there is a poignant conversation in thewhich we encounter this little zinger:

Her hands wrapped his, s of medicine

‘I don’t knohat happened to your father,’ she said ‘But it wasn’t what they told you []

‘Of course things happen,’ she said, as though able to read his thoughts ‘Accounts get garbled, too, over tiht have beenthat the reverendthe War, I had letters from Frank – he wrote as often as he could, up until they recruited hi for months But just before that, he wrote to me, and mentioned – just as casual chat, you know – that he’d run into so A Spitfire had gone down, crashed – not shot down; they thought it ine failure – in Northumbria, and while it hadn’t burned, for a wonder, there was no sign of the pilot None And he did ht Jeremiah rather an appropriately doomed sort of name’

‘Jerry,’ Roger said, his lips feeling numb ‘My mother always called him Jerry’

‘Yes,’ she said softly ‘And there are circles of standing stones scattered all over Northumbria’

So what really happened to Jerry MacKenzie and his wife Dolly? Read on

Mistress of the Bulge

When The Scottish Prisoner was published, a bookseller friend turned to ht and said, ‘I think you’ve invented a new literary fore!’ In other words, a story that is neither sequel nor prequel, but lives inside an existing body of work Now, frankly, I wish she had thought of so more poetic to describe e’ has a bit ery of a snake that’s sed so prey – than colourless terms like ‘interpolation’ or ‘inclusion’

I first wrote a short story fifteen years ago,shorter than 300,000 words It was an interesting technical challenge, but ‘short’ is not what you’d call one of reat natural skills Still, I found the experience interesting, and since then have written the occasional short (wellsort of; it’s all relative, isn’t it?) piece when invited to contribute to an anthology now and then

Even though these stories are relatively brief, they’re ale series of novels that includes both the huge Outlander novels and the smaller historical mysteries focused on the character of Lord John Grey These novellas too are bulges; stories that fill a lacuna in the main story or explore the life and ti with the existing parts of the series

Now, an anthology is a collection of stories written by a nuood way to saht not usually encounter, or try an unfaenre Still, some readers may be chiefly interested in a particular favourite writer, and not want to buy an anthology for the sake of just one short story or novella1

A few years ago, I collected three novellas about Lord John Grey (two of theies, one written specifically for the new collection) into a single volume, and titled it Lord John and the Hand of Devils Readers enjoyed having these pieces of Lord John’s story conveniently to hand, and so I figured that whenever I had a few more short pieces, I’d publish another collection This is it

This volume includes two Lord John novellas: The Custoue of Zoy of the novels and shorter pieces involving his lordship, Custom follows the novel Brotherhood of the Blade and precedes the novel The Scottish Prisoner Zoh it was in fact written while I riting Prisoner, and was published before the novel was finished, and if you don’t think that was a swift bit of juggling) You’ll find an overall chronology of both the main Outlander novels and the Lord John novels and novellas at the back of this book

The Custom of the Army is set in 1759, in London and Quebec, and while it probably was all the fault of the electric eel, Lord John finds hied to leave London for the wilds of Canada and the dangerous proxi the Citadel of Quebec (‘Melodra hieh, I’ll give hi stupid’)

Plague of Zombies takes place in 1761, on the island of Jamaica, where Lord John is sent as commander of a battalion intended to suppress what seems to be a revolt of the escaped slaves called s are not alhat they seem (He rubbed the rest of the blood from his hand with the hem of his banyan, and the cold horror of the last few er, hot in the pit of his stomach He’d been a soldier most of his life; he’d killed He’d seen the dead on battlefields And one thing he knew for a fact Dead men don’t bleed)

Now, you’ll also find two other stories in this book: A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows, and The Space Between Leaf is the story of Roger MacKenzie’s parents, Jerry and Dolly, and takes place during WWII (It was cold in the roo but Jerry’s string vest – he thought she looked erotic in it – ‘lewd,’ he said, approving, his Highland accent htto her breasts, true enough, and her nipples poked out soo crawl in next to hi hi as they had)

The Space Between follows the events in the novel An Echo in the Bone, is set in Paris in 1778, and concerns Michael Murray (Young Ian Murray’s elder brother), Joan MacKier sister), Master Rayarde (yes, she’s still alive), the Comte St Germain (ditto – surely you didn’t think he was really dead, did you?), and a nu people (‘What a waste of a wonderful arse,’ Monsieur Brechin re Joan’s ascent froine those wrapped around your back, eh? Would you have her keep the striped stockings on? I would’ It hadn’t occurred to Michael to i the i of his face)

I hope you’ll enjoy the journey into so-far-uncharted territory, torches held aloft!

Diana Gabaldon

A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows