Outlandish Observations is 12 years old!

Outlandish Observations turns 12 years old today!!

Wow. That's hard to believe, even for me. Twelve years?! But it's true.

I started this blog on August 28, 2008, with two goals in mind. The first was simply to learn about blogging. The second was to create a central repository for news and information for OUTLANDER fans, a place where people could go to find answers to commonly asked questions, links to other OUTLANDER-related sites, and the latest information on Diana Gabaldon's new and upcoming releases.

To say that this blog has succeeded far beyond my wildest imaginings is a severe understatement! In the beginning, I never expected anyone to visit my site except a few dozen of my friends from the Compuserve Books and Writers Community (now TheLitForum.com) and the Ladies of Lallybroch fan-site.  I didn't talk about it on Compuserve for the first couple of years, because I was very reluctant to draw attention to it where Diana Gabaldon could see -- which seems silly in retrospect, but it's true.  Suffice it to say that I did get over that shyness, eventually. <g>

Special thanks to all of my followers on the Outlandish Observations Facebook page! Last year at this time I had 11,345 followers on Facebook. Today that number is 11,976, an increase of 5.56%. I'm delighted that so many new people have found my site over the past year. Welcome! I hope you take some time to look around and see what else is available here.

Outlandish Observations was one of the first successful OUTLANDER-related blogs. These days there are innumerable fan-sites, Facebook groups, and so on. The more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned! <g> I'm proud to be a part of such a thriving, creative, and enthusiastic worldwide community of fans, united in our passion for these books and characters and this amazing story Diana Gabaldon has created, that is now being brought to life on TV.

Speaking of which...I'm delighted to see so many new people discovering OUTLANDER as a result of the TV series!  Thanks to all of you who've enjoyed my episode recaps for Seasons 1-5.  It takes a lot of time and effort to put those recaps together, and I'm so glad you're finding them useful!

I haven't been blogging as often as usual in recent months, due to a number of factors: a feeling of "OUTLANDER fatigue" after the end of Season 5, a very busy period at work, a lot of stress in my personal life (not all of it related to the pandemic), and the fact that there just hasn't been much new to talk about lately. But I wanted to assure you all that I'm not going anywhere, and I plan to keep this blog going for the foreseeable future.

It goes without saying that I can't wait for GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE, Book 9 of the OUTLANDER series!! Diana Gabaldon is still in the final stages of writing the book. We don't yet have a publication date, or cover art, or pre-order links, but as soon as I hear anything definite, I will post it here. Please check back here from time to time for the latest updates.

Many, many thanks to all of you who've visited Outlandish Observations over the past twelve years. It's been an amazing journey, and I'm so glad you've come along for the ride.

THANK YOU ALL!!