Outlandish Observations is 16 years old!

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things in my personal life have been incredibly busy in recent weeks and I just haven't had the time. Also, I've been dealing all summer with pain in my left wrist (recently diagnosed as a form of arthritis) that makes typing difficult. It's frustrating because I'm left-handed, like Jamie, and I do almost everything with that hand. Typing too much tends to aggravate the soreness, so I have been trying to limit unnecessary typing (including blogging) as much as possible. The good news is that I saw a specialist last week and the wrist is gradually getting better. I hope to resume blogging more often in the coming weeks, but no promises! We'll see how things go.

I couldn't resist posting today, though, because I have a milestone to celebrate. Outlandish Observations turns 16 years old today!!



Sixteen years....wow, that's amazing, even to me! Really hard to believe I've kept it up that long! I'm delighted, as always, to see that people are still enjoying it, especially in the middle of this #Droughtlander when there's very little OUTLANDER-related news to talk about.

I started Outlandish Observations 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. (Of course, this was long before anyone knew there would be a TV series.)

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>

Looking back over the past 16 years, here are some of the highlights:

- Friday Fun Facts - From 2012-2014, I had a weekly "Friday Fun Facts" feature, where I posted five interesting or unusual facts or bits of trivia from the OUTLANDER books. (You can see the index of topics here.) It was very popular, but I opted to stop when MOHB and the TV series came out in 2014, because I just didn't have the time to do the research those weekly posts required.

- My interview with Diana Gabaldon in 2018 - That was the first and only interview I've ever done. I was thrilled with Diana's responses and with the reaction from the fans!

- My episode recaps for OUTLANDER Seasons 1-7. It takes a lot of time and effort to put those recaps together, but it's worth it. I've received so many positive comments about those recaps over the years, and I'm glad you're finding them useful! I definitely intend to continue these detailed recaps for the second half of Season 7 (starting November 22) as well as Season 8.

Special thanks to all of my followers on the Outlandish Observations Facebook page! I now have more than 15,900 followers, an increase of 6.93% over last year! 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 and Facebook groups, and of course a great many people sharing their love of OUTLANDER (books, show, or both!) on Instagram, TikTok, and other social media sites. 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.

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

THANK YOU ALL!!