2022 Year in Review

At first glance, 2022 seems like it's been a pretty quiet year in OUTLANDER fandom (with the exception of Season 6, of course!), as we all settled in for a long #Droughtlander. But there were plenty of things to celebrate over the course of the year. Here are some of the highlights:



January 6 - STARZ released a new trailer for OUTLANDER Season 6.



February 10 - My Outlandish Observations blog set an all-time record, after Diana Gabaldon posted the link to my recap of OUTLANDER Episode 511 ("Journeycake") on her Facebook page. By the end of the day, it had a total of just over 20,000 page views! That's almost 19% more than the previous single-day record for my blog, and as you can see from this chart, it's far, far more than I could have achieved on my own. Thank you, Diana!



February 24 - The OUTLANDER Season 6 World Premiere was held in London. Here's the video of the panel discussion.



March 4 - The OUTLANDER Season 6 Soundtrack, featuring music by composer Bear McCreary, was released. You can find it at Amazon Music or Apple Music. Look here for the list of tracks on the album.



March 6 - May 10 - OUTLANDER Season 6 aired on STARZ! Overall I thought it was a terrific season, with the exception of the ether/PTSD subplot. Here are my detailed Season 6 episode recaps:

Episode 601: Echoes
Episode 602: Allegiance
Episode 603: Temperance
Episode 604: Hour of the Wolf
Episode 605: Give Me Liberty
Episode 606: The World Turned Upside Down
Episode 607: Sticks and Stones
Episode 608: I Am Not Alone



April 6 - STARZ announced that OUTLANDER Season 7 filming is underway! They released a new photo of Jamie, Claire, Roger, and Bree to mark the occasion. For those of you who don't know, Season 7 will be 16 episodes long. It will include four episodes that were originally intended to be in Season 6. The rest of Season 7 will cover AN ECHO IN THE BONE, the seventh book in Diana Gabaldon's OUTLANDER series. Please note: As of the end of 2022, they are not yet done filming Season 7.



April 26 - I posted some thoughts on what they've done to Claire's character in Season 6 as a whole, and Episode 607 in particular. Judging by the reaction to that post, I am definitely not alone in my negative reaction to the whole ether/PTSD storyline. I sincerely hope we don't see ANY references to it in Season 7!



April 28 - My Outlandish Observations Facebook page now has more than 13,000 followers!! THANK YOU ALL!



May 5 - We have our adult William, the Ninth Earl of Ellesmere, at long last! STARZ announced that Canadian actor Charles Vandervaart has been cast to play William Ransom, the bastard son of Jamie Fraser, as an adult. Here is the official press release, along with a side-by-side comparison of Jamie and William.



May 7 - As the Season 6 discussions on TheLitForum began winding down at last, Diana Gabaldon's comment on the forum totally made my day! It means so much to me that she appreciates how much time and effort I put into managing the discussions on the forum on a daily basis, especially during what I call "thread explosions", aka the huge burst of activity in the period right after a new book is released or while a new season of the OUTLANDER TV series is in progress. It's pretty exhausting!


I encourage all of you to come and check out TheLitForum. We're always happy to talk about anything OUTLANDER-related, books or show! Diana is on the forum most days, except while traveling, and she participates in the discussions as time permits. Be sure to check out the other sections of the forum, too. It's a great resource for writers and aspiring writers. You have to sign up to read or post on the forum, but it's free.



May 10 - OUTLANDER Season 5 was finally released on Netflix in the US! Season 5 has been available in other countries for some time, but it wasn't available on Netflix in the US until now. The timing is a little odd, coming just as Season 6 is winding down, but I'm glad more people will have access to it now.



May 29 - June 3 - I went on a week-long Road Scholar trip to Montreat, NC, in the mountains of western North Carolina, about 70 miles east of where Fraser's Ridge is supposed to be located. I attended a program about the Scots-Irish, their history and culture, and their migration to the Southern Appalachian region of western North Carolina. (It's not QUITE the same as Jamie and Claire's journey, but plenty close enough!) The program description is HERE if you're interested.

I've attended a few of the Road Scholar "Adventures Online" programs via Zoom in recent months, but this was my first experience going on one of their in-person trips. I had a wonderful time, and I consider it a big success, my first time doing a multi-day trip like that completely on my own, without a family member available to help. Everything worked beautifully and I'm so glad I decided to go! You can see my blog posts about the trip here:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4



June 1 - In celebration of #WorldOutlanderDay (the 31st anniversary of OUTLANDER's publication in 1991), I posted a  selection of 31 of my favorite "quick quotes" from Diana Gabaldon's books and stories. Hope you enjoy them!



June 27 - STARZ announced the casting of two characters who will play important roles in Season 7: Rachel and Denzell Hunter. Joey Phillips will play Denzell Hunter, a Quaker doctor, and Izzy Meikle-Small will play Denny's sister Rachel.



June 28 - Diana Gabaldon received an honorary degree from the University of Glasgow! Diana received the Doctorate of Letters for "services to literature", which is certainly fitting and (of course) well-deserved! You can see Diana's reaction on her blog here.



July 26 - The standalone e-book version of Diana Gabaldon's novella, "A Fugitive Green", was released in the US and Canada! For those of you who don't know, "A Fugitive Green" was published in 2017 as part of Diana Gabaldon's story collection, SEVEN STONES TO STAND OR FALL. This story takes place in 1744. It tells the story of how Lord John's brother Hal and his wife Minnie first met. It's a terrific story and I highly recommend it! Look here for more information, including links where you can download the e-book.



August 4 - Big news today! STARZ announced that an OUTLANDER prequel called "OUTLANDER: BLOOD OF MY BLOOD" is officially in development! This series will focus on Jamie Fraser's parents, Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie. Look here for the official press release, and see my blog post here for more information. Please keep in mind that the show has not yet been "green-lit" (approved), so they are still in the very beginning stages, with no guarantees that a prequel TV show will actually be made. We'll have to wait and see. But I think the concept has a lot of potential.



August 6 - I posted some Deep Thoughts comparing the OUTLANDER universe as a whole to a garden. I was really pleased with the reaction, especially from Diana Gabaldon, who posted the following comment on my blog:

That is absolutely lovely, Karen--I'm so moved by your beautiful imagery and great insights. Thank you!

August 28 - Outlandish Observations turned 14 years old! I'm delighted, as always, to see that people are still enjoying it. Thanks so much to all of you!



September 5 - OUTLANDER made the comic pages! The BLONDIE comic strip had a reference to OUTLANDER. I thought that was pretty cool. Click on the image above for a bigger view.



September 10 - In the days immediately after the death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, the media was abuzz with the news that the Royal Beekeeper had informed the Queen's bees of her death and King Charles III's accession to the throne. Of course those of us who've read Diana Gabaldon's most recent novel didn't need an explanation of what "telling the bees" involves, but it was entertaining to see so many people around the world learning about the custom for the first time.



September 13 - And speaking of BEES..... The trade paperback (large size) edition of Diana Gabaldon's novel, GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE, Book 9 in the OUTLANDER series, was published in the US and Canada! Look here for more information.



September 15 - This has nothing directly to do with OUTLANDER, but it was by far the most important event in my personal life in 2022. Shortly after midnight on September 15, my house was broken into. The burglar stole my car (!!) and my cell phone, as well as all of my house keys and car keys, including spare keys. He also took about $100 in cash from my wallet, but left everything else in my purse, including my driver's license, credit cards, ATM card, and prescription sunglasses. I was asleep with the bedroom door shut, and I never heard anything. I didn't realize anything was wrong until the next morning, when I couldn't find my phone. I thought I might have left it in the car, so I opened the door from the house to the garage, and the car was GONE!! I thought I was dreaming at first, but unfortunately not. The neighbor across the street has video from his security camera showing my car being driven out of my garage at 12:34 am.

It was a terrifying experience, and I'm SO grateful that I stayed asleep while the burglar was in the house. I wasn't physically hurt at all, just badly shaken up, as you can imagine. Three months later, I have a new phone, a new car (equipped with the hand controls I need to drive, and a lift to get my electric scooter in and out of the car), and a home security system, but the trauma of that experience is still with me, and it's definitely something I will never forget.



September 20 - The OUTLANDER Season 6 Blu-ray, DVD, and Collector's Edition were released! Look here for more information.



October 11 - More Season 7 casting news from STARZ, including some familiar faces and some new ones. Look here for more details.



October 15 - Diana Gabaldon appeared at Eden Court in Inverness, Scotland. This was an event that the Inverness Outlanders fan group had been planning for months, and by all accounts it was a tremendous success! Congratulations to the Scottish fans for making this happen!



October 18 - Diana Gabaldon's novella, "Besieged", was released as a standalone e-book in the US and Canada! For those of you who don't know, "Besieged" was published in 2017 as part of Diana Gabaldon's story collection, SEVEN STONES TO STAND OR FALL. This story, featuring Lord John Grey, takes place in 1762, during the siege of Havana. Look here for more information, including links to sites where you can download the e-book.



November 9 - Like so many other people in recent weeks, I am exploring alternatives to Twitter. So I set up an account on Mastodon. You can follow me at https://mstdn.social/@karenh3a. There is relatively little OUTLANDER-related content on Mastodon so far, but I'm trying to make an effort to reach other OUTLANDER fans on Mastodon using hashtags like #Outlander, #OutlanderSTARZ, and #DianaGabaldon. If you're on Mastodon, please follow me and boost (the equivalent of retweeting) any of my posts you find interesting. I haven't made a final decision about leaving Twitter yet, but if I do close down my Twitter account, I will post here and let you all know. In the meantime, I hope to see some of you on Mastodon!



November 20 - Sam Heughan won a BAFTA Scotland Audience Award! The award goes to "your favorite Scot on screen", and I think it's well deserved! Here's Sam's acceptance speech. Listening to him rattle off all those numbers, it just reinforces, yet again, what an immense amount of work goes into making the OUTLANDER TV show.



December 22 - As a brutal cold wave swept over the US just before Christmas, I decided to repost my collection of OUTLANDER quotes to keep you warm. Hope it helped a little!



December 23 - STARZ has given us all a holiday treat this year: the new key art for OUTLANDER Season 7, and the first official teaser video from OUTLANDER Season 7! Notice the very last frame of the video: "Summer 2023". So we still have a long wait ahead of us, but it's good to have an approximate timeframe, at least!



I hope you enjoyed this look back at 2022. Wishing you all a Happy New Year, and all the best in 2023!