Diana Gabaldon at JDL

Tish, Lisa, Irene and I went to Jackson District Library this weekend for the Word Wise festival featuring authors Diana Gabaldon and Beverly Jenkins. Tish and Irene have read all of Diana's books, and Lisa and I are catching up.

Word Wise started on Friday evening with book signings and the authors reading from their books. So many people showed up that they had to move the podium outside to the steps of the library (a Carnegie building) with the crowd gathered outside on the lawn to listen. Diana Gabaldon did not disappoint her fans. To laughter and cheers from the crowd, she read an X-rated excerpt from her newest book coming out this fall, Echo in the Bone. Tish and I bought books for the authors to sign for us (Diana signed in Gaelic, so we're not sure what she wrote!).

On Saturday morning, Diana and Beverly lectured on writing and research to a group of us in a writers' workshop, and then a bagpiper played us across the street from the library to the luncheon, where Diana was the featured speaker.

If you haven't read Gabaldon's books, start with The Outlander - the first in her series. It is hard to categorize her writing. The inspiration for her series was a Dr. Who episode, and time-traveling is central, so you could sort of classify her books in the sci-fi genre. But the books are also historical fiction (18th century Scotland, including military and medical history), and mysteries, and romance, and erotica.