List $79.99

Written by Diana Gabaldon - Audio book performed by Davina Porter - Unabridged Fiction - 48 RETAIL EDITION COMPACT DISCS - 58 hours

Publisher, Recorded Books (September 2005)

NOTE: Retail Editions from Recorded Books are attractive, compact cardboard boxes shrink-wrapped, with full-color art.

A worldwide sensation with more than 12 million copies in print, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series has produced #1 best-selling novels and earned a fiercely devoted fan base. Another spellbinding entry in the series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes continues the saga of 18th-century Scotsman Jamie Fraser and his 20th-century, time-traveling wife, Claire. The year is 1772, and the rift between Britain and its American colonies has put a frightening word into the minds of all concerned: revolution. In the backwoods of North Carolina, violence has already reared its ugly head, as cabins have been burned to the ground. To preserve the colony for King George III, the governor pleads with Jamie to bring the people together and restore peace. But Jamie has the privilege, although some might call it a burden, of knowing that war cannot be avoided. Claire has told him that the colonies will unite and rebel, and the result will be independence, with all British loyalists either dead or exiled. And there is an additional problem. Claire has discovered a newspaper clipping from 1776 that tells of Jamie’s death. With its epic scope, historical details, and sweeping romance, A Breath of Snow and Ashes is everything Gabaldon’s fans love and more.

About the Author: As a rule, someone with a Masters degree in marine biology, a PhD in quantitative ecology, a university teaching position, and free-lance work for computer magazines and for publications like Disney comics isn’t looking for more to do.

Diana Gabaldon has not gotten to where she is in life by following the rules. A New York Times-bestselling author, she writes books that fit into existing categories about as neatly as she does. Which is to say, not at all.

As unconventional as her career has been in so many ways, Gabaldon attributes much of her success to a very conventional “rule”: “I work like a dog. How the heck would anybody else do it?” She offers some rules of her own to aspiring novelists, which she’ll expound upon in detail in a nonfiction book of essays she’s compiling: “1) Read, 2) Write, 3) Don’t Stop!”

Her legions of readers and listeners are hoping Diana Gabaldon will never stop revisiting the characters and situations she has created in her Outlander series.

Diana says about herself: I've been getting a lot of requests lately from people doing not only the usual kinds of interviews, but also people in high school, college, (and occasionally middle school) etc., who are doing reports on me and my books. This is very flattering, to be sure, and I'm much obliged to you all.

Now, I have no idea why my biographical particulars ought to be of any great interest to people writing this kind of report, but since they seem to be, I thought it might be most helpful just to provide the basic facts here.

Born: January 11, 1952

(For those horoscope casters in the crowd, I was born at 6:01 PM in Williams, Arizona.

I grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona, and presently live in Scottsdale, Arizona. Scottsdale is a desert (the Horizontal Inferno, I call it; the average daily temperature between mid-May and mid-October is about 110 Fahrenheit). Flagstaff is an alpine environment, 7000 ft. above sea-level, and set in the middle of the largest stand of Ponderosa Pine in the world--the Kaibab National Forest.

I inherited the family house in Flagstaff when my father died a few years ago, and go up there to write as often as I can. It's cool, peaceful, and the phone doesn't ring very much. So why do I live in Scottsdale. Well, my husband likes the desert, and my kids have school and friends here.

Husband: Douglas Watkins

Yes, he's very tall and has red hair. No, he doesn't have a brother. Yes, he looks very nice in a kilt--his is black.

We've been married for...[counting on fingers]...goodness, twenty-five years now. Time flies. Together for five years before that, so we've known each other for a good long time; fortunately, we seem still to enjoy each other's company.

We met in the French Horn section of the Northern Arizona University marching band. No, I don't still play the Horn; Doug still owns one, but is more given to practicing on a bagpipe chanter these days.

Interviewers frequently ask me what my husband "does." Well, lots of things, but I'm sure he wouldn't like me to describe them all in public.

If you mean, what does he do by way of earning income--I'm not sure there's a real name for it, but what he does is to buy an older commercial property, and reconstruct the building from the inside out, doing most of the work--plumbing, carpentering, etc.--himself. Then he rents or sells it.

What he does by way of occupation (rather than income) is to race dragsters and fly airplanes. Yes, I go to watch him race (and hold the portable weather-analysis station); no, I don't fly with him often--we figured we'd wait until all the kids were in college, just in case.

Kids: We have three--two girls and a boy--aged (at the moment) 20, 18, and 16. However, they deserve to have their own privacy, so I won't say more about them here.

Education: Well, I do have one, even if it doesn't have anything to do with my books.

Flagstaff High School, 1966-1970.

Northern Arizona University, 1970-1973. B.S. in Zoology.

University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1973-1975. M.S. in Marine Biology: research topic, "Agonistic Interactions of Hermit Crabs."

Northern Arizona University, 1975-1978. Ph.D. in Ecology. Dissertation: "Nest Site Selection in Pinyon Jays, _Gymnorhynchus cyanocephalus."