- Another Link --
Judie, Sun, November 24 2024, 19:53:39
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Outlandish Voices:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/outlandishvoices/
It is a Facebook group and they have done quotes. So here is the link to check them out as you so choose. :)
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- The board is locked - check out these links -- Judie, Fri, November 22 2024, 21:57:08
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Hi, ladies.
I am going to set the board to moderated because all we are getting these days is spam.
If you are looking to discuss the books or TV show, here are some Facebook links.
Ladies of Lallybroch(TM) Stars Outlander Season 7 discussions: https://www.facebook.com/groups/196455687405875
Ladies of Lallybroch main discussions: https://www.facebook.com/groups/85831728896
Ladies of Lallybroch Stars Outlander discussions - all the episodes: https://www.facebook.com/groups/247589332102782
And there is also Karen Henry's website - Outlandish Observations:
https://www.outlandishobservations.com
She has a lot of information there and she posts regularly. I believe you can comment also. :)
We had a great run with the quotes. I'll leave them here so folks can peruse them as they wish. Thanks, gang.
Judie
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- Thank you, Judie! Because the show started last night I thought I’d look and see if anyone was here. And you are with some good options for keeping in touch. Can I add “Outlandish Voices”. I don’t know how to make the http address. Lallyhugs to you ❤️ (NT) -- Kathy in PA, Sat, November 23 2024, 7:33:07
- You can still contact me via the "contact forum admin" link. :) (NT) -- Judie, Sat, November 23 2024, 18:12:23
- Because I was not logged in when I made the main post, I cannot edit it. But here is another link to an Outlander group - Outlandish Voices - on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/outlandishvoices/ (NT) -- Judie, Sun, November 24 2024, 19:52:00
- The recent discussion on the future of the Board -- Janet, Thu, August 22 2024, 10:53:17
I find it quite interesting that something as significant as possibly closing the Board has had a total of 4 responses, unless there are more somewhere I'm not seeing them. If anyone else has comments, please, post them!
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- Quote of the Day discussion -- Judie, Sat, August 17 2024, 19:07:38
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On July 15th, kgp posted the following:
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For our Lovely Lurkers and the few active participants - you beautiful people - a discussion will occur next month as to whether there is enough traffic and interest to keep the Board going. This has been home to a lot of us for a very long time but it might be time to let it go. -- kgp, Mon, July 15 2024, 12:01:08
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Quote of the Day started somewhere around 2000, I think. Someone may have a more accurate record than I do - I'm just guessing. Anyway, if it was 2000 then QOTD has been going for 24 years. I'd say that's a pretty good run.
I think things have dwindled down to about half a dozen diehards these days. KGP did a great job of moderating for the last few years. And I know there are a few ladies who aren't on Facebook and they enjoy coming here to see the quotes.
But, to be honest, it seems that interest has really waned. There haven't been any quotes for over a week and I've only had one inquiry about that.
I guess the question would be is there still interest? And then the second question would be who wants to take on the job of organising quoters?
I'll leave this here and see what the responses are.
Another option could be to move it to a Facebook group but that would leave out those who are not on Facebook. I think FB is just an easier way to do things, but there may not even be interest in that. 24 years is a long time for something to continue, but people change and interests change.
Hey - throw out your thoughts. :)
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- I agree, interest in the board has waned, but not our love for the books. I was a lurker for years, then started doing some quotes, it was fun. As much as I love this site, I think it is time to say goodbye unless someone steps up and takes charge. Unfortunately, that won't be me. I'll check back in a day or two and see what the sense of the group is. (NT) -- Janet, Sun, August 18 2024, 9:08:58
- I'm also a permanent lurker. I love the daily quotes but I have to admit I can't be arsed to post them myself. (NT) -- Susannah, Mon, August 19 2024, 6:39:19
- I love this board and the extras of the card and ornament exchange and cards for Ladies that need them. I don’t want it to end but I’ve been lax about posting and taking a week too. Could we keep some form? Remember Polls & Surveys, Social Board and the Kirk, besides QOTD. I love the thoughts and opinions here; not Facebook but a common place online. When the new book and season come out we’ll have a lot to discuss. (NT) -- Kathy in PA, Mon, August 19 2024, 9:20:51
- QOTD for Wednesday, August 7, 2024 -- kgp, Wed, August 07 2024, 16:13:18
The following quotation is from Seven Stones To Stand Or Fall by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved Besieged
“What did you mean, Mother, when you said, ‘It’s come to that already’? Because you didn’t know about the invasion, did you?”
She glanced up at him sharply, ceasing to stir. Then she took a deep breath, like one marshaling her mental forces, visibly made a decision, and put down the quill and ink.
“No,” she said, turning to him. “George told me such a thing was being quietly discussed - but I left England with Olivia in September. War with Spain hadn’t yet been declared, though anyone could have seen that it was coming. No,” she repeated, and looked at him intently. “I meant the slave revolt.”
John stared at his mother for the space of thirty seconds or so, then slowly sank onto a wooden pew that ran along the side of the room. He closed his eyes briefly, shook his head, and opened them.
“Is there anything to drink in this establishment, Mother?”
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- QOTD for Tuesday, August 6, 2024 -- kgp, Tue, August 06 2024, 11:45:01
The following quotation is from Seven Stones To Stand Or Fall by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved Besieged
“She’s in Havana,” General Stanley said. “Minding your cousin Olivia.”
This seemed like a moderately respectable thing for an elderly lady to be doing, and Grey relaxed slightly. But only slightly.
“Is she ill?”
“I hope not. She said in her last letter that there was an outbreak of some sort of ague in the city but that she herself was in good health.”
“Fine.” Tom had come back with the brandy bottle, and John poured himself a small glass. “I trust she’s enjoying the weather.” He raised an eyebrow at his stepfather, who sighed deeply and put his hands on his knees.
“I’m sure she is. The problem, my boy, is that the British Navy is on its way to lay siege to the city of Havana, and I really think it would be a good idea if your mother wasn’t in the city when they get there."
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- QOTD for Monday, August 5, 2024 -- kgp, Mon, August 05 2024, 17:43:52
The following quotation is from Seven Stones To Stand Or Fall by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved Besieged
“Me lord! It’s General Stanley!”
“Who?” Grey said blankly. His mind, occupied with the details of imminent escape refused to deal with anything that might interfere with said escape, but “Stanley” did ring a distant, small bell.
“Might be as he’s your mother’s husband, me lord?” Tom said. With a becoming diffidence.
“Oh . . . that General Stanley. Why didn’t you say so?” John hastily grabbed his coat from it’s hook and shrugged into it, brushing crumbs off his waistcoat as he did so. “Show him in, by all means!”
~~~~~~~~
A couple of light hearted pieces to start the week
Last edited by author: Mon, August 05 2024, 17:44:06
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- QOTD for Sunday August 4, 2024 -- kgp, Mon, August 05 2024, 17:42:55
The following quotation is from Seven Stones To Stand Or Fall by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved Besieged
Lord John Grey Dipped a finger gingerly into the little stone pot, withdrew it, glistening, and sniffed cautiously.
“Jesus!”
“Yes, me lord. That’s what I said.” His valet, Tom Byrd, face carefully averted, put the lid back on the pot. “Was you to run yourself with that stuff, you’d be drawing flies in their hundreds, same as if you were summat that was dead. Long dead,” he added, and muffled the pot in a napkin for additional protection.
“Well, in justice,” Grey said dubiously, “I suppose the whale is long dead.” He looked at the far wall of his office. There were a number of flies resting along the wainscoting, as usual, fat and black as currants against the white plaster. Sure enough, a couple of them had already risen into the air, circling lazily toward the pot of whale oil.
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- QOTD -- Janet, Sat, August 03 2024, 3:17:55
Quote of the Day for Saturday, August 3, 2024
The following quote is taken from Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, Chapter 7, The Unintended Consequences of Ill-Considered Actions. Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved.
This quote is going to be long, but I needed all of it to get to a conclusion…..
“What the devil did you tell me for, ye wee idiot?” he said under his breath, urging his horse up into a gallop. “What did ye think I’d do?”
Just what you damn well did was the answer. John hadn’t resisted, hadn’t fought back. “Go ahead and kill me,” the wee bugger had said. A fresh spurt of rage curled Jamie’s hands as he imagined all too well doing just that. Would he have gone ahead and done it, if that pissant Woodbine and his militia hadn’t shown up?
No. No, he wouldn’t. Even as he longed momentarily to go back and choke the life out of Grey, he was beginning to answer his own question, reason fighting its way through the haze of fury. Why had Grey told him? There was the obvious---the reason he’d hit the man by sheer reflex, the reason he was shaking now. Because Grey had told him the truth.
“We were both fucking you.” He breathed hard and deep, fast enough to make him giddy, but it stopped the shaking and he slowed a little; his horse’s ears were laid back, twitching in agitation.
Hope you enjoyed a week of the first seven chapters of MOBY as much as I did bringing them to you!
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- QOTD -- Janet, Fri, August 02 2024, 10:22:00
Quote of the Day for Friday, August 2, 2024
The following quote is taken from Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, Chapter 6, Under My Protection. Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved.
“No,” I said definitely, putting the cork back in and shoving vial and box into my pocket. “That won’t help. Purse you lips and blow out.” His eyes bulged a bit, but he did it; I could feel the slight movement of air on my own perspiring face.
“Right. Now, relax, don’t gasp for air, just let it come. Blow out to the count of four. One…two…three….four…let it come in, count of two…yes, good. Now don’t worry; you aren’t going to suffocate, you can keep doing that all day.” I smiled encouragingly at him, and he managed to nod. I straightened up and looked round; we were near Locust Street, and Peterman’s ordinary was no more than a block away.
And so we meet the Duke of Pardlow. As a physical therapist I have worked with people with asthma, and while it’s very scary, if you can get them to control their breath it really does help! (But the drugs were have now are much, much better!!!)
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- QOTD -- Janet, Thu, August 01 2024, 10:35:39
The following quote is taken from Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon, Chapter 5, The Passions of Young Men. Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved.
I shook my head, dismissing the dozen things I could do nothing about. During this minor reverie, Jenny and Mrs. Figg appeared to have been discussing William and his abrupt departure from the scene.
“Where would he go to, I wonder?” Mrs. Fig looked worriedly toward the wall of the stairwell, pocked with blood smeared dents left by William”s fist.
“Gone to find a bottle, a fight, or a woman,” said Jenny, with the authority of a wife, sister, and the mother of sons. “Maybe all three.”
This makes me smile every time I read it. Jenny is nothing if not pragmatic! I often wonder what she would have done if she found Young Ian in the brothel in Edinburgh instead of Old Ian…..
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- The exact same thing happened to me Janet! A huge smile. I wish I could be as succinct and right as Jenny. Lol. If she found Ian in a brothel she’d probably have something snarky to say, but after how many kids?, she’s unflappable. (NT) -- Kathy in PA, Thu, August 01 2024, 11:19:25
- I know lots of folks dislike Jenny because of grabbing Jamie by the balls in Outlander, and how she treated Claire when she returned in Voyager, but I've always been a fan of hers. (NT) -- DianaH, Fri, August 02 2024, 10:39:02
- QOTD -- Janet, Wed, July 31 2024, 3:57:59
The following quote is taken from Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon, Chapter 4, Don’t ask Questions You Don’t Want the Answers To. Copyright 2014,All Rights Reserved.
The hands wrapped themselves in his shirt and jerked him to his feet. He managed to stand, and a wisp of air seeped into his lungs. Fraser’s face was an inch from his. Fraser was in fact so close that Grey couldn’t see the man’s expression---only a close-up view of two bloodshot blue eyes, both of them berserk. That was enough. He felt quite calm now. It wouldn’t take long.
“You tell me exactly what happened, ye filthy wee pervert,” Fraser whispered, his breath hot on Grey’s face and smelling of ale. He shook Grey slightly. “Every word. Every motion. Everything.”
Grey got just enough breath to answer.
“No,” he said defiantly. “Go ahead and kill me.”
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- QOTD -- Janet, Tue, July 30 2024, 4:07:57
The following quote is taken from Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon, Chapter 3, In Which the Women, As Usual, Pick up the Pieces. Copyright 2014, All rights reserved.
Jenny Murray had entered the house on the heels of William’s departure, and while the sight of her was a lessor shock than any of the others so far, it left me speechless. I goggled at my erstwhile sister-in-law---though, come to think, she still was my sister-in-law…..because Jamie was alive. Alive.
He’d been in my arms not ten minutes before, and the memory of his touch flickered through me like lightening in a bottle. I was dimly aware I was smiling like a loon, despite massive destruction, horrific scenes, William’s distress---if you could call an explosion like that “distress”---Jamie’s danger, and a faint wonder as to what either Jenny or Mrs. Figg, Lord John’s cook and housekeeper, might be about to say.
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- QOTD -- Janet, Mon, July 29 2024, 4:25:02
Quote of the Day for, Monday, July 29, 2024. The following quote is taken from Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon. Chapter 2, Dirty Bastard. Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
“Bastard!” he said out loud, and shouted, “Bastard, bastard, bastard!” at the top of his lungs, hammering at the brick wall next to him with a clenched fist.
“Who’s a bastard?” said a curious voice behind him. He swung round to see a young woman looking at him with some interest. Her eyes moved slowly down his frame, taking note of the heaving chest, the bloodstains on the facings of his uniform coat, and the green smears of goose shit on his breeches. Her gaze reached his silver buckled shoes and returned to his face with more interest.
“I am,” he said, hoarse and bitter.
“Oh really?” She left the shelter of the doorway in which she’d been lingering and came across the alley to stand right in front of him. She was tall and slim and had a very fine pair of high young breasts---which were clearly visible under the thin muslin of her shift, because, while she had a silk petticoat, she wore no stays. No cap, either—her hair fell loose over her shoulders. A whore.
“I’m partial to bastards myself,” she said, and touched him lightly on the arm. “What kind of bastard are you? A wicked one? An evil one?”
“A sorry one,” he said, and scowled when she laughed. She saw the scowl, but didn’t pull back.
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- QOTD -- Janet, Sun, July 28 2024, 10:42:23
I thought I'd do QOTD, and happened to pick up MOBY. I opened to the first page, and found a great scene. Then I turned to the Second Chapter, and found another. Then the third.....I don't know where the quotes will take me, but I find it fascinating to take the trip
Quote of the day for Sunday, July 28, 2024
Written in My Own Heart's Blood, by Diana Gabaldon. Chapter 1, A Hundredweight of Stones. Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved
Even as he did so, he found himself shaking his head. No, it had to be two cairns. His mam and Uncle Jamie were brother and sister, and the family could mourn them here together---but there were others he might bring, maybe, to remember and pay their respects. And those were the folks who would have known Jamie Fraser and loved him well but wouldn't ken Jenny Murray from a hole in the---
The image of his mother in a hole in the ground stabbed him like a fork, retreated with the recollection that she wasn't after all in a grave, and stabbed again all the harder for that.
The thought process here, mourning his mam and Uncle Jamie and how Ian's thoughts jump around remind me of times when I lost people who were special to me.
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- QOTD for Saturday, July 20, 2024 -- CindyG, Fri, July 19 2024, 20:41:01
The following quote is from Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 8, “Visitations.” Copyright ©️ 2021 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“‘Both, then,’ Roger said. ‘Two holes for the family, and a separate privy for visitors—or rather, for the surgery. Say it’s for convenience. Ye dinna want to seem highfalutin by not letting people use your own privy.’
‘No, that wouldna do at all.’ Jamie vibrated briefly then stilled, but stayed for a moment, looking down, a half smile still on his face. The smells of damp, fresh-dug earth and newly sawn wood rose thick around them, mingling with the scent of the fire, and Roger could almost imagine that he felt the house solidifying out of the smoke.
Jamie left off what he was thinking, then, and turned his head to look at Roger. ‘I missed ye, Roger Mac,’ he said.
Roger opened his mouth to reply, but his throat had closed as hard as if he’d swallowed a rock, and nothing came out but a muffled grunt.”
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- QOTD for Friday, July 19, 2024 -- CindyG, Thu, July 18 2024, 20:40:28
The following quote is from Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 6, “Home is the Hunter, Home From the Hill.” Copyright ©️ 2021 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“He turned his head, casting a look toward the distant mountain, where the sun was coming slowly down through a scatter of fat little clouds, painting their bellies with soft gold.
We both sighed a little at the sight, and he turned back and took my hand. ‘What I want ye to do, Sassenach, is sit wi’ me here for a moment—and tell me I’m no dreaming. She’s really here? She and the bairns and Roger Mac?’
I squeezed his hand and felt the same bubbling joy I could see in his face.
‘It’s real. They’re here. Right there, in fact.’”
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- What a devil of a trek it took for the Mackenzies to get back. I would need to sleep for a month, not get up at crack of stupid to go hunting. (NT) -- kgp, Fri, July 19 2024, 10:22:19
- So many emotions with the return of the Mackenzies - sheer joy, relief, terror, curiousity, and the ever present concerns of the practical - housing, feeding & clothing them, plus explaining where they've been. (NT) -- DianaH, Fri, July 19 2024, 10:37:01
- QOTD for Thursday, July 18, 2024 -- CindyG, Wed, July 17 2024, 19:29:29
The following quote is from Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 1, “The MacKenzies are Here.” Copyright ©️ 2021 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“‘I wanted…’ he whispered. ‘I wanted you. Had to have ye. But once I was inside ye, I wanted…’
He sighed then, deep, and moved deeper.
‘I thought I’d die of it, then and there. And I wanted to. Wanted to go—while I was inside ye.’ His voice had changed, still soft but somehow distant, detached—and I knew he’d moved away from the present moment, gone back to the cold stone dark and the panic, the fear and overwhelming need.
‘I wanted to spill myself into ye and let that be the last I ever knew, but then I started, and I kent it wasna meant to be that way—that I’d live, but that I would keep myself inside ye forever. That I was givin’ ye a child.’”
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- QOTD for Wednesday, July 17, 2024 -- CindyG, Tue, July 16 2024, 20:15:53
The following quote is from Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 1, “The MacKenzies are Here.” Copyright ©️ 2021 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“‘It was me freezing, at the abbey. I’d worn myself out tryin’ to walk, and ye wouldna let me eat anything, so I was starving to death, and—‘
‘Oh, you know that’s not true! You—‘
‘Would I lie to ye, Sassenach?’
‘Yes, you bloody would,’ I said. ‘You do it all the time. But never mind that now. You were freezing and starving, and suddenly decided that instead of asking Brother Paul for a blanket or a bowl of something hot, you should stagger naked down a dark stone corridor and get in bed with me.’
‘Some things are more important than food, Sassenach.’ His hand settled firmly on my arse. ‘And finding out whether I could ever bed ye again was more important than anything else just then. I reckoned if I couldn’t, I’d just walk on out into the snow and not come back.’”
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- QOTD for Tuesday, July 16, 2024 -- CindyG, Mon, July 15 2024, 19:43:22
The following quote is from Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 1, “The MacKenzies are Here.” Copyright ©️ 2021 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“‘I want ye, a nighean,’ he said softly. ‘Will ye lie wi’ me? It may be the last time we have any privacy for some while.’
I opened my mouth to say, ‘Of course!’ and instead yawned hugely.
I clapped a hand to my mouth, removing it to say, ‘Oh, dear. I really didn’t mean that.’
He was laughing, almost soundlessly. Shaking his head, he straightened out the rumpled quilt I’d been sitting on, knelt on it, and stretched up a hand to me.
‘Come lie wi’ me and watch the stars for a bit, Sassenach. If ye’re still awake in five minutes, I’ll take your clothes off and have ye naked in the moonlight.’
‘And if I’m asleep in five minutes?’ I kicked off my shoes and took his hand.
‘Then I won’t bother takin’ your clothes off.’”
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- For our Lovely Lurkers and the few active participants - you beautiful people - a discussion will occur next month as to whether there is enough traffic and interest to keep the Board going. This has been home to a lot of us for a very long time but it might be time to let it go. -- kgp, Mon, July 15 2024, 12:01:08
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- QOTD for Monday, July 15, 2024 -- CindyG, Sun, July 14 2024, 20:18:30
The following quote is from Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 1, “The MacKenzies are Here.” Copyright ©️ 2021 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“‘Aye,’ he said again after a long moment. ‘I ken what ye’re saying, Sassenach. I thought my heart would burst when I saw Brianna and kent it was really her, and the bairns…but for all the joy of it…see, I missed them cruelly, but I could take comfort in thinking they were safe. Now—‘
He stopped and I felt his heart beating against me, slow and steady. He took a deep breath, and the fire popped suddenly, a pocket of pitch exploding in sparks that disappeared into the night. A small reminder of the war that was rising, slowly, all around us.
‘I look at them,’ he said, ‘and my heart is suddenly filled with…’
‘Terror,’ I whispered, holding tight to him. ‘Sheer terror.’
‘Aye,’ he said. ‘That.’”
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- QOTD for Sunday, July 14, 2024 -- CindyG, Sat, July 13 2024, 19:45:05
The following quote is from Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 1, “The MacKenzies are Here.” Copyright ©️ 2021 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“‘I just asked Daddy if he remembered a Gathering we went to, years ago. The clans were all called at a big bonfire and I handed Daddy a burning branch and told him to go down to the fire and say the MacKenzies were there.’
‘Oh.’ Jem blinked once, then twice, looked at the fire blazing in front of us, and a slight frown formed between his soft red brows. ‘Where are we now?’
‘Home,’ Roger said firmly, and his eyes met mine, then passed to Jamie. ‘For good.’
Jamie let out the same breath I’d been holding since the afternoon, when those four figures had appeared suddenly in the clearing below, and we had flown down the hill to meet them. There had been one moment of joyous, wordless explosion as we all flung ourselves at one another, and then the explosion had widened as Amy Higgins came out of her cabin, summoned by the noise, to be followed by Bobby, then Aidan—who had whooped at sight of Jem and tackled him, knocking him flat—with Orrie and little Rob.”
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- QOTD for Saturday, July 13, 2024 -- kgp, Sat, July 13 2024, 5:29:53
The following quotation is from Written In Me Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 78 In The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time
Ian’s left eye was stinging badly and his vision was cloudy; a cut in his eyebrow was bleeding. He groped in the small bag at his waist and found the handkerchief wrapped around the smoked ear he carried. The cloth was a small one, but big enough to tie round his brow.
He wiped his knuckles over his mouth, already longing for more water. What ought he to do? He could see the standard now being vigorously waved, flapping heavily in the thick air, summoning troops to follow. Plainly Lee was headed over the bridge; he knew where he was going, and his troops with him. No one would - or could - stop to climb down a ravine to aid a wounded British soldier.
Ian shook his head experimentally and, finding that his brains didn’t seem to rattle, set off toward the southwest. With luck, he’d meet La Fayette or Uncle Jamie coming up, and maybe get another mount. With a horse, he could get William out of the ravine alone. And whatever else might happen today, he’d settle the hash of those Abenaki bastards.
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- QOTD for Friday, July 12, 2024 -- kgp, Fri, July 12 2024, 4:55:51
The following quotation is from An Echo In The Bone by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 100 Lady In Waiting
“Let her go,” said Ian, hoarse with running. His chest heaved and sweat was running down his face; she could smell him, even above the old man’s musty reek. She jerked her hand out of Arch Bug’s clasp, speechless with horror.
“Don’t kill him,” she said, to both of them. Neither of them listened.
“I told ye, did I not? Arch said to Ian. He sounded reasonable, a teacher pointing out the proof of a theorem. Quod erat demonstrandum. Q.E.D.
“Get away from her,” Ian said.
His hand hovered above his knife, and Rachel, choking on the words, said, “Ian! Don’t. Thee must not, Please!”
Ian gave her a look of furious confusion, but she held his eyes, and his hand dropped away. He took a deep breath and then a quick step to the side. Bug whirled to keep him in range of the ax, and Ian slid fast in front of Rachel. Screening her with his body. .”
“Kill me, then,” he said, deliberately to Bug. “Do it.”
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- QOTD for Thursday, July 11, 2024 -- kgp, Wed, July 10 2024, 18:48:48
The following quotation is from A Breath Of Snow And Ashes by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 36 Winter Wolves
Ian stood a moment longer, looking toward the house where his Emily was. His face felt hot, fevered with urgency. He burned harsh and bright, like a coal, but he could feel the heat seeping out of him into the cold sky, and his heart turning slowly black. Finally, he slapped his palm against his thigh and turned away into the forest, walking fast, the dog padding big and soundless by his side.
“Hail Mary, full of grace . . . “ He paid no attention to where he was going, praying under his breath, but aloud, for the comfort of his own voice in the silent dark.
Ought he be praying to one of the Mohawk spirits, he wondered? Would they be angry that he spoke to his old God, to God’s mother? Might they take revenge for such a slight, on his wife and child?
The child is dead already. He had no notion where that knowledge came from, but he knew it was so, as surely as if someone had spoken the words to him aloud. The knowledge was dispassionate, not yet food for grief; only a fact he knew to be true - and was appalled to know it.
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- QOTD for Wednesday, July 10, 2024 -- kgp, Tue, July 09 2024, 17:22:09
The following quotation is from The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 109 The Voice of Time
Jamie laughed in gratified surprise, and Ian grinned broadly back. His face was weathered to a deep brown, and the dotted lines of his Mohawk tattoos ran in fierce crescents from nose to cheekbones - but for a moment, I saw his hazel eyes dance with mischief, and saw again the lad we had known.
“I used to say things over in my mind,” he said, the grin fading a little. “I’d look at things, and say the words in my mind - ‘Avbhar,’ ‘Coire,’ Skirlie’ - so as not to forget.” He glanced shyly at Jamie. “Ye did tell me to remember, Uncle.”
Jamie blinked, and cleared his throat.
“So I did, Ian,” he murmured, “I’m glad of it.” He squeezed Ian’s shoulder hard - and then they were embracing fiercely, thumping each other’s backs with wordless emotion.
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- QOTD for Tuesday, July 9, 2024 -- kgp, Tue, July 09 2024, 6:48:05
The following quotation is from Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 1997 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 50 In Which All Is Revealed
“Ian,” I said, torn between exasperation and tenderness, “are you doing this because of Brianna’s baby?”
The white of his eyes flashed as he glanced at me, startled. He nodded, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably inside the stiff coat.
“Aye, of course,” he said, as though surprised that I should ask.
“Then you’re not in love with her?” I knew the answer quite well, but thought we had better have it all out..”
“Well . . . no,” he said, the painful blush renewing itself. “But I’m no promised to anyone else,” he hastened to add. “So that’s all right.”
“It is not all right,” I said firmly. “Ian, that’s a very kind notion of yours, but - “
“Oh, it’s not mine,” he interrupted, looking surprised. “Uncle Jamie thought of it.”
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- QOTD for Monday, July 8, 2024 -- kgp, Mon, July 08 2024, 5:08:23
The following quotation is from Voyager by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 1994 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 27 Up in Flames
Young Ian, though, was the focus of attention, as multiple heads came popping out of the drawing room in response to the noise Bruno was making. With his singed hair, swollen red face, beaky nose, and lashless, blinking eyes, he strongly resembled the fledgling young of some exotic bird species - a newly hatched flamingo, perhaps. His face could scarcely grow redder, but the back of his neck flamed crimson, as the sound of feminine giggles followed us up the stairs.
Safely ensconced in the small upstairs sitting room, with the door closed, Ian turned to his hapless offspring.
“Going to live, are ye, ye wee bigger?” he demanded.
“Aye, sir,” Young Ian replied in a dismal croak, looking rather as though he wished the answer were “No.”
“Good,” his father said grimly. “D’ye want to explain yourself, or shall I just belt the hell out of ye now and save us both time?”
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- QOTD for July 6, 2024 - Sunday -- kgp, Sun, July 07 2024, 12:31:35
The following quotation is from Voyager by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 1994 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 5 To Us a Child Is Given
“D’ye want to see him?”
“Oh, a him, is it?” With hands experienced by years of unclehood, he lifted the tiny package and cuddled it against himself, pushing back the flap of blanket that shaded its face.
Its eyes were closed tight, the lashes not visible in the deep crease of the eyelids. The eyelids themselves lay at a sharp angle above the smooth rounds of the cheeks, giving promise that it might - in this one recognizable feature - resemble its mother.
The head was oddly lumpy, with a lopsided appearance that made Jamie think uncomfortably of a kicked-in melon, but the small fat mouth was relaxed and peaceful, the moist pink underlip quivering faintly with the snore attendant on the exhaustion of being born.
“Hard work, was it?”
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- QOTD -- Janet, Sat, June 22 2024, 3:00:32
Well, this week started off to be ghostly, like the first two quotes, but as I wandered through Drums, it became first meetings, with foreshadowing of things to come. I guess that's kind of ghostly.....I know re-meting Sgt. Murchison certainly invoked ghosts....Hope you enjoyed the week.
Quote of the Day for Saturday, June 22, 2024
The following quote is from Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon, Chapter20, The White Raven. Copyright 1997, all rights reserved.
The elder lady was Nawayenne, not Grabrielle’s grandmother as I had thought, but rather Nacognaweto’s. This lady was light-boned, thin, and bent with rheumatism, but bright eyed as the sparrow she so strongly resembled. She wore a small leather bag tied round her neck, ornamented with a rough green stone pierced for stringing, and the spotted tail feathers of a woodpecker. She had a larger bag, this one of cloth, tied at her waist. She saw me looking at the green stains on the rough cloth, and smiled, showing two prominent yellow front teeth.
………Moved by curiosity, and an impulse I couldn’t describe, I asked Grabrielle about the old lady’s amulet, hoping this wasn’t an insufferable breech of good manners.
“Grandmere est…….” She hesitated, looking for the right French word, but I already knew.
“Pas docteur,” I said, “et pas sorciere, magicienne. Elle est…..” I hesitated too; there really wasn’t a suitable word for it in French, after all.
“We say she is a singer,” Berthe put in shyly in French. “We call it shaman; her name, it means ‘It may be; it will happen.’”
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- QOTD -- Janet, Fri, June 21 2024, 10:17:45
The following quote is from Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon, Chapter13, An Examination of Conscience. Copyright 1997, all rights reserved.
Dim as it was in the taproom, I could see the man’s face go blank with shock. Jamie came to an abrupt halt behind me. He said something in Gaelic under his breath that I recognized as a vicious obscenity, but then he was moving forward past me, with no sign of hesitation in his manner.
“Sargent Murchison,” he said, in tone of mild surprise, as one might greet a casual acquaintance. “I had not thought to lay eyes on you again---not in this world, at least.”
The Sargent’s expression strongly suggested that the feeling was mutual. Also that any meeting this side of heaven was too soon. Blood flooded his beefy, pockmarked cheeks with red, and he shoved back his bench with a screech of wood on the sanded floor.
“You!” he said.
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- QOTD -- Janet, Thu, June 20 2024, 10:55:11
Quote of the Day for Thursday, June 20, 2024
The following quote is from Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon, Chapter 10, Jocasta. Copyright 1997, all rights reserved
I found her at once, among the people hurrying out of the house and down the walk. I would have know her for a MacKenzie, even if I hadn’t known who she was. She had the bold bones, the broad Viking cheekbones, and high, smooth brow of her brothers, Colum and Dougal. And like her nephew, like her great-niece, she had the extraordinary height that marked them all as descendants of the same blood.
A head higher than the bevy of black servants who surrounded her, she floated down the path from the house, hand on the arm of her butler, though a woman less in need of support, I had never seen.
……Suddenly, the truth dawned on me: her hand on the butler’s arm, her touching Jamie’s face in greeting, the glass put ready for her grasp, and the shadow on her face when Ian talked about her painting. Jocasta Cameron was blind.
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- Nice to meet you, Jocasta! Like all the MacKenzie's, there's a lot hidden beneath surface impressions. (NT) -- kgp, Thu, June 20 2024, 18:22:03
- Blind or not, we find Jocasta to be a force, not a helpless woman. She's as sly as any Mackenzie. (NT) -- DianaH, Fri, June 21 2024, 9:32:59
- QOTD -- Janet, Wed, June 19 2024, 4:05:10
Quote of the Day for Wednesday, June 19, 2024
The following quote is from Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon, Chapter 6, I Encounter a Hernia. Copywrite 1997, all rights reserved.
“Claire Fraser,” I said, offering him a hand in fascination. He squinted at it a moment, brought my fingers to his nose and sniffed them, then looked up and broke into a wide smile, nonetheless charming for missing half his teeth.
“Why you’ll maybe be a yarb-woman, won’t you?”
“I will?”
He turned my hand gently over , tracing the chlorophyll stains around my cuticles.
“A green fingered lady might just be tending her roses, but a lady whose hands smell of sassafras root and Jesuit bark is like to know more than how to make flowers bloom. Don’t you reckon that’s so?” he asked, turning a friendly gaze on Ian, who was viewing Mr. Myers with unconcealed interest.
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- QOTD -- Janet, Tue, June 18 2024, 3:54:12
The following quote is from Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon, Chapter 2, In Which We Meet a Ghost. Copywrite 1997, all rights reserved.
“Sacree Vierge!”
My head snapped up. Everyone was shouting, and the horses, startled, were neighing and jerking frantically against their hobbles, making the wagon hop and lurch like a drunken beetle.
“Wuff!” Rollo said next to me.
“Jesus!” said Ian, goggling at the wagon. “Jesus Christ!”
I swung in the direction he was looking and screamed. A pale fugure loomed out of the wagon bed, swaying with the wagon’s jerking. I had no time to see more before all hell broke loose
And so we meet Stephan Bonnet…….
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- QOTD -- Janet, Mon, June 17 2024, 4:06:56
Quote of the Day for Monday, June 17, 2024
Taken from Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon, Chapter 1, A Hanging in Eden. Copywrite 1997, All rights reserved
"Ah the pity of it." Duncan Innes was quite drunk by now. He sat slumped against the wall, his armless shoulder rising higher than the other, giving him a strange, humpbacked appearance. "That a dear man like Gavin should come to such an end!" He shook his head lugubriously, swing it back and forth over his alecup like the clapper of a funeral bell.
"No family left to mourn him, cast alone in a savage land---hanged as a felon, and to be buried in an unconsecrated grave. Not even a proper lament to be sung for him!" He picked up the cup, and with some difficulty, found his mouth with it. He drank deep and set it down with a muffled clang.
"Well, he shall have a caithris!" He glared belligerently from Jaimie to Fergus to Ian. "Why not?"
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- QOTD -- Janet, Sun, June 16 2024, 9:39:58
If anyone wants to join me in quotes, please jump in. Otherwise, we'll romp through Drums of Autumn....
Quote of the Day for Sunday, June 16, 2024
Taken from Drums of Autumn, Prologue. Written by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved. Copywrite 1997
All the time the ghosts flit past and through us, hiding in the future. We look in the mirror and see shades of other faces looking back through the years; we see the shape of memory, standing solid in an empty doorway. By blood and by choice, we make our ghosts; we haunt ourselves.
( I wanted to include the whole Prologue about ghosts, but that would be WAY too long. This bit lets us know that we are all haunted.....)
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- QOTD for Saturday, June 15, 2024 -- CindyG, Fri, June 14 2024, 19:44:56
The following quote is from The Outlandish Companion by Diana Gabaldon, “Prologue.” Copyright ©️ 1999, 2015 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“I was sitting in church the next day, thinking idly about this particular show (no, oddly enough, I don’t remember what the sermon was about that day), when I said suddenly to myself, Well, heck. You want to write a book, you need a historical period, and it doesn’t matter where or when. The important thing is just to start, somewhere. Okay. Fine. Scotland, eighteenth century.
So I went out to my car after Mass, dug a scrap of paper out from under the front seat, and that’s where I began to write Outlander; no outline, no plot, no characters—just a time and a place. . . .
I had not the slightest intention of telling my online acquaintances in the Literary Forum what I was up to. I didn’t want even the best-intentioned of advice; I wanted simply to figure out how to write a novel, and was convinced that I must do this on my own—I’d never asked anyone how to write a software review or a comic book script, after all, and I didn’t want anyone telling me things before I’d worked out for myself what I was doing.
So I didn’t say anything. To anybody. I just wrote, a bit every day, in between the other things I was doing, like changing diapers and writing grant proposals.”
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- QOTD for Friday, June 14, 2024 -- CindyG, Thu, June 13 2024, 18:44:33
The following quote is from The Outlandish Companion by Diana Gabaldon, “Prologue.” Copyright ©️ 1999, 2015 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“ Okay. Fine. Where to set this historical novel? I have no formal background in history; one time or place would do as well as another.
Enter another accident. I rarely watch TV, but at the time I was in the habit of viewing weekly PBS reruns of Doctor Who (a British science-fiction serial), because it gave me just enough time to do my nails. So, while pondering the setting for my hypothetical historical novel, I happened to see one very old episode of Doctor Who featuring a ‘companion’ of the Doctor’s—a young Scottish lad named Jamie MacCrimmon, whom the Doctor had picked up in 1745. This character wore a kilt, which I thought rather fetching, and demonstrated—in this particular episode—a form of pigheaded male gallantry that I’ve always found endearing: the strong urge on the part of a man to protect a woman, even though he may realize that she’s plainly capable of looking after herself.”
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- QOTD for Thursday, June 13, 2024 -- CindyG, Wed, June 12 2024, 19:00:47
The following quote is from The Outlandish Companion by Diana Gabaldon, “Prologue.” Copyright ©️ 1999, 2015 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“So…what kind of novel should this be? Well, I read everything, and lots of it, but perhaps more mysteries than anything else. Fine, I thought, I’d write a mystery. But then I began to think. Mysteries have plots. I wasn’t sure I knew how to do plots. Perhaps I should try something easier for my practice book, then write a mystery when I felt ready for a real book.
Fine. What was the easiest possible kind of book for me to write, for practice? (I didn’t see any point in making things difficult for myself.) After considerable thought, it seemed to me that perhaps a historical novel would be the easiest thing to try. I was a research professor, after all; I had a huge university library available, and I knew how to use it. I thought it seemed a little easier to look things up than to make them up—and if I turned out to have no imagination, I could steal things from the historical record.”
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- QOTD for Wednesday, June 12, 2024 -- CindyG, Tue, June 11 2024, 19:42:10
The following quote is from The Outlandish Companion by Diana Gabaldon, “Prologue.” Copyright ©️ 1999, 2015 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“This was a fascinating group of individuals who all liked books. That was the only common denominator; the group included people of every conceivable background and profession—among them, a few published writers, a good many aspiring writers, and a great many nonwriters who simply liked to discuss books and writing. Finding this congenial gathering to be the ideal social life for a busy person with small children—something like a twenty-four-hour electronic cocktail party—I promptly signed up with CompuServe, and began logging on to the Literary Forum several times a day, to read and exchange posted messages with the kindred spirits there.
At this point in my life, I had a full-time job with the university, I was writing part-time for the computer press, and I had three children, ages six, four, and two. I’m not sure quite why I thought this was the ideal time to begin writing my long-intended novel—mania induced by sleep deprivation, perhaps—but I did.
I didn’t intend to show this putative novel to anyone. It wasn’t for publication; it was for practice. I had come to the conclusion—based on experience—that the only real way of learning to write a novel was probably to write a novel. That’s how I learned to write scientific articles, comic books, and software reviews, after all. Why should a novel be different?”
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- QOTD for Tuesday, June 11, 2024 -- CindyG, Mon, June 10 2024, 19:31:11
The following quote is from The Outlandish Companion by Diana Gabaldon, “Prologue.” Copyright ©️ 1999, 2015 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“I sent a query letter to the editors of Byte, InfoWorld, PC, and several other large computer magazines, enclosing both a recent copy of Science Software and a copy of a Walt Disney comic book I had written. The query said roughly, ‘As you can see from the enclosed, you’ll never find anyone better qualified to review scientific and technical software—and at the same time, capable of appealing to a wide popular audience.’
By good fortune, the microcomputer revolution had just bloomed, to the point where there actually was a fair amount of scientific and technical software on the market. And as one of perhaps a dozen ‘experts’ in the newly invented field of scientific computation (it’s really pretty easy to be an expert, when there are only twelve people in the world who do what you do), I got immediate assignments. It was in the course of one of these that a software vendor sent me a trial membership to CompuServe, for the purpose of mentioning a support forum that the vendor maintained for the software I was reviewing.
I spent half an hour checking out the software support forum, and then—finding myself with several hours of free connect time in hand—set out to see what else might be available in this fascinating new online world. This being the mid-1980s, there was not nearly so much online as there is today (there was no World Wide Web; only the subscription services, such as CompuServe, GEnie, and Prodigy. America Online didn’t even exist yet). Still, among the resources available then (on CompuServe) was a group called the Literary Forum.”
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- QOTD for Monday, June 10, 2024 -- CindyG, Sun, June 09 2024, 20:45:30
The following quote is from The Outlandish Companion by Diana Gabaldon, “Prologue.” Copyright ©️ 1999, 2015 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“At the time when my desire to write novels resurfaced, though, I was working at Arizona State University, writing Fortran programs to analyze the contents of bird gizzards. . . .
At the conclusion of eighteen months of labor—which resulted in a gigantic eight-hundred-page coauthored monograph on the dietary habits of the birds of the Colorado River Valley—I said to myself, You know, there are probably only five other people in the entire world who care about bird gizzards. Still, if they knew about these programs I’ve written, it would save each one of those five people eighteen months of effort. That’s about seven and a half years of wasted work. Why is there no way for me to find those five people and share these programs with them?
The net result of this rhetorical question was a scholarly journal called Science Software, which I founded, edited, and wrote most of for several years. A secondary result was that when my husband quit his job to start his own business and we needed more money, I was in a position to seek freelance writing work with the computer press.”
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- QOTD for Sunday, June 9, 2024 -- CindyG, Sat, June 08 2024, 19:24:34
The following quote is from The Outlandish Companion by Diana Gabaldon, “Prologue.” Copyright ©️ 1999, 2015 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“Well, it was all an accident, is what it was. I wasn’t trying to be published; I wasn’t even going to show it to anyone. I just wanted to write a book—any kind of book.
Not actually any kind of book. Fiction. See, I’m a storyteller. I can’t take any particular credit for this—I was born that way. When my sister and I were very young and shared a bedroom, we stayed up far into the night, nearly every night, telling enormous, convoluted, continuing stories, with casts of thousands (like I said, I was born with this).
Still, even though I knew I was a storyteller from an early age, I didn’t know quite what to do about it. Writing fiction is not a clearly marked career path, after all. It’s not like law, where you do go to school for X years, pass an exam, and bing! you can charge people two hundred dollars an hour to listen to your expert opinions (my sister’s a lawyer). Writers mostly make it up as they go along, and there is no guarantee that if you do certain things, you will get published. Still less is there any guarantee that you’ll make a living at it.”
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- QOTD for Saturday -- kgp, Sat, June 08 2024, 4:07:27
The following quotation is from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 1991 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 3 The Man In The Woods
Not until we were picking our way cautiously down the far side of the hill did I gather breath and wit enough to ask where we were going. Receiving no answer from my companion, I repeated “Where are we going?” in a louder tone.
To my considerable surprise, he rounded on me, face contorted, and pushed me off the path. As I opened my mouth in protest, he clapped a hand over it and dragged me to the ground, rolling on top of me.
Not again! I thought, and was heaving desperately to and fro to free myself when I heard what he had heard. And suddenly lay still. Voices called back and forth, accompanied by trampling and splashing sounds. They were unmistakably English voices. I struggled violently to get my mouth free. I sank my teeth into his hand, and had time only to register the fact that he had been eating pickled herring with his fingers, before something crashed against the back of my skull, and everything went dark.
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- QOTD for Friday -- kgp, Fri, June 07 2024, 6:18:21
The following quotation is from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 1991 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 3 The Man In The Woods
There was a sudden whoosh from above, followed immediately by a blur before my eyes and a dull thud. Captain Randall was on the ground at my feet, under a heaving mass that looked like a bundle of old plaid rags. A brown, rocklike fist rose out of the mass and descended with considerable force, meeting decisively with some bony protuberance, by the sound of the resultant crack. The Captain’s struggling legs, shiny in tall brown boots, relaxed quite suddenly.
I found myself staring into a pair of sharp black eyes. The sinewy hand that had temporarily distracted the Captain’s unwelcome attentions was attached like a limpet to my forearm.
“And who the hell are you?” I said in astonishment.
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- QOTD for Thursday -- kgp, Thu, June 06 2024, 8:13:42
The following quotation is from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 1991 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 3 The Man In The Woods
“Not just at present, Chuckie. I’m asking myself,” he said, conversationally, “just why a whore abroad in her shift would be wearing her shoes? And quite fine ones, at that,” he added, glancing at my plain brown loafers.
“A what!” I exclaimed.
He ignored me completely. His gaze had returned to my face, and he suddenly stepped forward and gripped my chin in his hand. I grabbed his wrist and yanked.
“Let go of me!” He had fingers like steel. Disregarding my efforts to free myself, he turned my face from one side to the other, so the fading afternoon light shone on it.
“The skin of a lady, I’ll swear,” he murmured to himself. He leaned forward and sniffed. “And a French scent in your hair.”
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- QOTD for Wednesday -- kgp, Wed, June 05 2024, 7:07:32
The following quotation is from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 1991 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 3 The Man In The Woods
Had he been a snake, I would have stepped on him. He stood so quietly among the saplings as almost to have been one of them, and I did not see him until a hand shot out and gripped me by the arm.
Its companion clapped over my mouth as I was dragged backward into the oak grove, thrashing wildly in panic. My captor, whoever he was, seemed not much taller than I, but rather noticeably strong in the forearms, I smelled a faint flowery scent, as of lavender water, and something more spicy, mingled with the sharper reek of male perspiration. As the leaves whipped back into place in the path of our passage, though, I noticed something familiar about the hand and forearm clasped about my waist.
I shook my head free of the restraint over my mouth.
“Frank!” I burst out. “What in heaven’s name are you playing at?”
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- QOTD for Tuesday -- kgp, Tue, June 04 2024, 7:59:58
The following quotation is from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 1991 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 2 Standing Stones.
It was in fact nearly eleven before I reached the stone circle. It was drizzling, and I was soaked through, not having thought to bring a mac. I made a cursory examination of the outside of the circle, but if there had ever been a fire there, someone had taken pains to remove its traces.
The plant was easier to find. It was right where I remembered it, near the foot of the tallest stone, I took several clippings of the vine and stowed them temporarily in my handkerchief, meaning to deal with them properly when I got back to Mrs. Baird’s tiny car, where I had left the heavy plant presses.
The tallest stone of the circle was cleft, with a vertical split dividing the two massive pieces. Oddly, the pieces had been drawn apart by some means. Though you could see that the facing surfaces matched, they were separated by a gap of two or three feet.
There was a deep humming noise coming from somewhere near at hand. I thought there might be a beehive lodged in some crevice of teh rock, and placed a hand on the stone in order to lean into the cleft.
The stone screamed.
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- QOTD for Monday -- kgp, Tue, June 04 2024, 7:47:04
The following quotation is from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 1991 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 2 Standing Stones.
“Goodness!” I stretched, trying to get the kinks out of my legs and back. “That was quite a sight, wasn’t it?”
“Wonderful!” enthused Frank. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” He slipped out of the bush like a snake, leaving me to disentangle myself while he cast about the interior of the circle, nose to the ground like a bloodhound.
“Whatever are you looking for?” I asked. I entered the circle with some hesitation, but day was fully come, and the stones, while still impressive, had lost a good deal of the brooding menace of dawn light.
“Marks.” he replied, crawling about on hands and knees, eyes intent on the short turf. “How did they know where to start and stop?”
“Good question. I don’t see anything.” Casting an eye over the ground, though, I did see and interesting plant growing near the base of one of the tall stones. Myosotis? No, probably not; this had orange centers to the deep blue flowers, Intrigued, I started toward it.
Last edited by author: Tue, June 04 2024, 7:47:30
Edited 1 time.
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- QOTD for Sunday - 50 lashes with wet noodle for me. I'll catch up. -- kgp, Tue, June 04 2024, 7:39:44
The following quotation is from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 1991 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 2 Standing Stones.
It wasn’t until we were undressing for bed that I remembered to mention the miniature henge on Craigh na Dun to Frank. Hid fatigue vanished at once.
“Really? And you know where it is? How marvelous, Claire!” He beamed and began rattling through his suitcase.
“What are you looking for?”
“The alarm clock,” he replied, hauling it out.
“Whatever for?” I asked in astonishment.
“I want to be up in time to see them.”
“Who?”
“The witches.”
“Witches? Who told you there were witches?”
“The vicar,” Frank answered, clearly enjoying the joke. “His housekeeper’s one of them.”
I thought of the dignified Mrs. Graham and snorted derisively. “Don’t be ridiculous!”
Last edited by author: Tue, June 04 2024, 7:47:48
Edited 2 times.
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- QOTD for Saturday, May 18, 2024 -- CindyG, Fri, May 17 2024, 19:49:53
The following quote is from Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, chapter 24, “Welcome Coolness in the Heat, Comfort in the Midst of Woe.” Copyright ©️ 2014 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“‘Ask me to your bed,’ he said, breathless, hands on my arms. ‘I shall come to ye. For that matter—I shall come, whether ye ask it or no. But remember, Sassenach—I am your man; I serve ye as I will.’
‘Do,’ I said. ‘Please do. Jamie, I want you so!’
He seized my arse in both hands, hard enough to leave bruises, and I arched up into him, grasping, hands sliding on his sweat-slick skin.
‘God, Claire, I need ye!’
Rain was roaring on the tin roof now, and lightning struck close by, blue-white and sharp with ozone. We rode it together, forked and light-blind, breathless, and the thunder rolled through our bones.”
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- WOW! What a week! Thank you for this. (NT) -- Janet, Sat, May 18 2024, 10:23:20
- I couldn’t remember exactly when this happened so I read the chapter title and it struck me how beautiful that thought is; comfort in the midst of woe. Thank you, Cindy, for a week of “hump days!” (NT) -- Kathy in PA, Sun, May 19 2024, 4:29:31
- This week's quotes were a reminder that DG's sex scenes are so much more than "Insert Tab A into Slot B, repeat as necessary." Wow! (NT) -- DianaH, Mon, May 20 2024, 10:20:46
- QOTD for Friday, May 17, 2024 -- CindyG, Thu, May 16 2024, 19:31:33
The following quote is from An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 11, “Transverse Lie.” Copyright ©️ 2009 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“‘This is silly,’ she said, ‘I can see my breath—and yours. It’s cold enough to blow smoke rings. We’ll freeze.’
‘No, we won’t. Ken the way the Indians make fire?’
‘What, rubbing a dry stick on a …’
‘Aye, friction.’ He’d got her petticoats up; her thigh was smooth and cold under his hand. “I see it’s no going to be dry, though—Christ, Sassenach, what have ye been about?” He had her firmly in the palm of his hand, warm and soft and juicy, and she squealed at the chill of his touch, loud enough that one of the mules let out a startled wheeze. She wriggled, just enough to make him take his hand out from between her legs and insert something else, quick.
‘Ye’re going to rouse the whole barn,’ he observed, breathless. God, the enveloping shock of the heat of her made him giddy.
She ran her cold hands up under his shirt and pinched both his nipples, hard, and he yelped, then laughed.
‘Do that again,’ he said, and bending, stuck his tongue in her cold ear for the pleasure of hearing her shriek. She wriggled and arched her back, but didn’t—he noticed—actually turn her head away. He took her earlobe gently between his teeth and began to worry it, rogering her slowly and laughing to himself at the noises she made.
It had been a long time of making silent love.
Her hands were busy at his back; he’d only let down the flap of his breeks and pulled his shirttail up out of the way, but she’d got the shirt out at the back now, and shoved both hands down his breeks and got his hurdies in a good two-handed grip. She pulled him in tight, digging in her nails, and he took her meaning. He let go her ear, rose on his hands, and rode her solid, the straw a-rustle round them like the crackle of burning.
He wanted simply to let go at once, spill himself and fall on her, hold her to his body and smell her hair in a doze of warmth and joy. A dim sense of obligation reminded him that she’d asked him for this; she’d needed it. He couldn’t go and leave her wanting.
He closed his eyes and slowed himself, lowered himself onto her so her body strained and rose along his length, the cloth of their clothes rasping and bunching up between them. He got a hand down under her, cupped her bare bum, and slid his fingers into the straining warm crease of her buttocks. Slid one a little farther, and she gasped. Her hips rose, trying to get away, but he laughed deep in his throat and didn’t let her. Wiggled the finger.
‘Do that again,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘Make that noise again for me.’
She made a better one, one he’d never heard before, and jerked under him, quivering and whimpering.
He pulled out the finger and guddled her, light and quick, all along the slick deep parts, feeling his own cock under his fingers, big and slippery, stretching her …
He made a terrible noise himself—like a dying cow—but was too happy to be shamed.
‘Ye’re no verra peaceful, Sassenach,’ he murmured a moment later, breathing in the smell of musk and new life. ‘But I like ye fine.’”
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- QOTD for Thursday, May 16, 2024 -- CindyG, Wed, May 15 2024, 19:30:56
The following quote is from A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 66, “The Dark Rises.” Copyright ©️ 2005 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“‘I’ve the hands of a bricklayer,’ he said, laughing a little as I passed my lips lightly over the roughened knuckles and the still-sensitive tips of his long fingers.
‘Calluses on a man’s hands are deeply erotic,’ I assured him.
‘Are they, so?’ His free hand passed lightly over my shorn head and down the length of my back. I shivered and pressed closer to him, self-consciousness beginning to be forgotten. My own free hand roamed down the length of his body, toying with the soft, wiry bush of his hair, and the damply tender, half-hard cock.
He arched his back a little, then relaxed.
‘Well, I’ll tell ye, Sassenach,’ he said. ‘If I havena got calluses there, it’s no fault of yours, believe me.’”
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- QOTD for Wednesday, May 15, 2024 -- CindyG, Tue, May 14 2024, 19:45:32
The following quote is from The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 13, “Beans and Barbecue.” Copyright ©️ 2001 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“‘I think we’ll not have time for the lot, Jamie dear,’ said the priest. ‘But if ye were to tell me about one or two of these occasions, just so as I could be formin’ a notion as to the … er … severity of the offense …?’
‘Och, aye. Well, the worst was likely the time wi’ the butter churn.’
‘Butter churn? Ah … the sort with the handle pokin’ up?” Father Kenneth’s tone encompassed a sad compassion for the lewd possibilities suggested by this. “Oh, no, Father; it was a barrel churn. The sort that lies on its side, aye, with a wee handle to turn it? Well, it’s only that she was workin’ the churn with great vigor, and the laces of her bodice undone, so that her breasts wobbled to and fro, and the cloth clinging to her with the sweat of her work. Now, the churn was just the right height—and curved, aye?—so as make me think of bendin’ her across it and lifting her skirts, and—‘
My mouth opened involuntarily in shock. That was my bodice he was describing, my breasts, and my butter churn! To say nothing of my skirts. I remembered that particular occasion quite vividly, and if it had started with an impure thought, it certainly hadn’t stopped there.“
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- This made me laugh, again. Every time I picture Jamie’s “wellllll, Father” fake pious confession and Claire’s dawning realization - it cracks me up. (NT) -- Kathy in PA, Wed, May 15 2024, 3:19:10
- This whole section of the book made me laugh, what with the butter churn, Jamie and Germaine making faces at Bree's wedding, etc. (NT) -- DianaH, Wed, May 15 2024, 14:23:00
- QOTD for Tuesday, May 14, 2024 -- CindyG, Mon, May 13 2024, 20:25:44
The following quote is from Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon, chapter. 2, “In Which We Meet a Ghost.” Copyright ©️ 1997 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“Then he stirred and came toward me, still intent, but still no longer. His thighs were cold as water when he touched me, but within seconds he warmed and grew hot. Sweat sprang up at once where his hands touched my skin, and a flush of hot moisture dampened my breasts once more, making them round and slick against the hardness of his chest.
Then his mouth moved to mine and I melted—almost literally—into him. I didn’t care how hot it was, or whether the dampness on my skin was my sweat or his. Even the clouds of insects faded into insignificance. I raised my hips and he slid home, slick and solid, the last faint coolness of him quenched by my heat, like the cold metal of a sword, slaked in hot blood.”
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- QOTD for Monday, May 13, 2024 -- CindyG, Sun, May 12 2024, 21:14:22
The following quote is from Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 6, “Making Waves.” Copyright ©️ 1992 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“‘How did you get me in bed?’
‘I didn’t. I couldn’t budge you, so I just laid a quilt over you and left you on the hearth. You came to life and crawled in under your own power, somewhere in the middle of the night.’
He seemed surprised, and opened the other eye again.
‘I did?’
I nodded and tried to smooth down the hair that spiked out over his left ear.
‘Oh, yes. Very single-minded, you were.’
‘Single-minded?’ He frowned, thinking, and stretched, thrusting his arms up over his head. Then he looked startled.
‘No. I couldn’t have.’
‘Yes, you could. Twice.’
He squinted down his chest, as though looking for confirmation of this improbable statement, then looked back at me.
‘Really? Well, that’s hardly fair; I dinna remember a thing about it.’”
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- QOTD for Sunday, May 12, 2024 -- CindyG, Sun, May 12 2024, 8:01:15
The following quote is from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 18, “Raiders in the Rocks.” Copyright ©️1991 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“‘Jamie,’ I panted. He pushed his kilt out of the way and pressed my hand against him.
‘Bloody Christ,’ I said, impressed despite myself. My sense of propriety slipped another notch.
‘Fighting gives ye a terrible cockstand, after. Ye want me, do ye no?’ he said, pulling back a little to look at me. It seemed pointless to deny it, what with all the evidence to hand. He was hard as a brass rod against my bared thigh.
‘Er … yes … but …’
He took a firm grip on my shoulders with both hands.
‘Be quiet, Sassenach,’ he said with authority. ‘It isna going to take verra long.’”
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- QOTD for Friday, May 10, 2024 -- kgp, Fri, May 10 2024, 5:47:16
The following quotation is from Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Chapter 78 Thee Smells of Blood
“Friend Silvia,” Ian said softly, “this is my wife, Rachel.”
“Friend?” Rachel said, astonished but heartened, “Thee is a Friend?”
The woman nodded, uncertain, “I am,” she said, and her voice was soft, but clear. “We are. I am Silvia Hardman, and these are my daughters: Patience, Prudence, and little Chastity.”
“They’ll be needing something to eat, mo cridhe. And then maybe - “
“A little hot water,” Silvia Hardman blurted. “Please. To - to wash.” Her hands were clenched on her knees, crumpling the faded homespun, and Rachel gave the hands a quick look - possibly she had helped Ian in his killing? The stone was hard in her throat again, but she nodded, touching the smallest of the little girls, a pretty, round-faced babe somewhere between one and two, more than half asleep on a sister’s lap.
“Right away,” she promised. “Ian - get thy mother.”
“I’m here,” Jenny said from behind her. Her voice was alert and interested. “I see we’ve got company.”
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- QOTD for Thursday, May 9, 2024 -- kgp, Thu, May 09 2024, 8:11:42
The following quotation is from Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Chapter 77 City Of Brotherly Love
“Yes. He - he brought us food. Every time he came.”
Her eye lingered on the awkward shape, but her face was unreadable.
“That’s no a bad epitaph,” he told her, taking the valise. “When my time comes, I hope mine is as good. Mount up. I’ll take care of this.”
He helped her up, then lifted Prudence, who squealed with excitement, and Chastity, who just stared, round-eyed, and sucked her thumb hard.
“Patience, ye’ll come with me, aye?” He tied the bundle of possessions at the back of the saddle, boosted Patience up front, then swung up behind her, a rope to the bridle of the Justice’s horse in one hand. He clicked his tongue to the horses and the grim little cavalcade lurched off into the lightly falling snow. None of the Hardmans looked back.
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- QOTD for Wednesday, May 8, 2024 -- kgp, Wed, May 08 2024, 5:37:41
The following quotation is from Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Chapter 77 City Of Brotherly Love
“Go away,” she said. “And tell thy uncle to stop coming here.”
He looked her over carefully, but she seemed to be in her right mind. Homely as a board fence, but sensible enough.
“I think we may be talkin’ of different men, lassie. My uncle is Jamie Fraser, of Fraser’s Ridge in North Carolina. He stayed with your family for a day or two sometime past - “ He counted backward in his head and found an approximation, “It would ha’ been maybe two weeks before the battle at Monmouth; will ye have heard o’ that one?”
Evidently she had, for she scrambled out of the bush in such a hurry as to snag both limp brown hair and ratty shawl and emerged covered with dead leaves.
“Jamie Fraser? A very large Scottish man with red hair and a bad back?”
“That’s the one,” Ian said, and smiled at here. “Will your mam be at home, maybe? My uncle’s sent me to see to her welfare.”
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- QOTD for Tuesday, May 7, 2024 -- kgp, Tue, May 07 2024, 4:03:37
The Following Quotation is from Written In My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2015 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 10 The Descent Of The Holy Ghost Upon A Reluctant Disciple
“Don’t let Mam give thee rhubarb syrup,” she advised him.”It makes thee shit like the blazes, and if thee can’t get to the privy, it - “
“Prudence!”
Prudence obligingly shut her mouth, though she continued to look Jamie over with interest. Her sister knelt and rummaged under the bed, emerging with the family utensil, this a homely object of brown earthenware, which she presented gravely for inspection.
“We’ll turn our backs, sir, if thee should need to - “
“Patience!”
Red in the face, Mrs. Hardman took the pisspot from her daughter and shooed the little girls to the table, where - with a glance at Jamie to be sure he had meant it - she took the bread and meat and apples from his bag, dividing the food scrupulously into three parts: two large portions for the girls, and a smaller one for herself, put side for later.
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- QOTD for Monday, May 6, 2024 -- kgp, Mon, May 06 2024, 5:38:17
The Following Quotation is from Written In My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2015 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 10 The Descent Of The Holy Ghost Upon A Reluctant Disciple
“Is thee ill? I could give thee rhubarb syrup,” she offered. He managed to smile at that, shaking his head.
“I thank ye, ma’am. It’s no but a clench in my back. When it eases, all will be well.” The trouble was that until it eased, he was all but helpless, and the dawning realization of that gave him a sense of panic.
“Oh.” The woman hesitated for a moment, hovering, but then the baby started to wail and she turned away to fetch it. A little girl - five or six, he thought, a stunted little creature - crawled out from under the bed and stared at him curiously.
“Is thee going to stay to supper?” she asked, in a high, precise voice. She gave him an appraising frown. “Thee looks like thee would eat a lot.”
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- QOTD for Sunday, May 5, 2024 -- kgp, Sun, May 05 2024, 10:58:00
The Following Quotation is from Written In My own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2015 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 10 The Descent Of The Holy Ghost Upon A Reluctant Disciple
“Jesus, Mary and Bride - not now,” he said between his teeth, and meant it somewhere between prayer and curse. He’d felt something small wrench or tear in his back when he’d hit John Grey, but in the heat of the moment it hadn’t seemed important. It’s hadn’t troubled him much walking - he’d barely noticed, with all there was on his mind - but now that he’d sat for a time and the muscles had chilled . . .
He tried rising, carefully, collapsed again. Bent sweating over the table with his fists clenched, he said a number of things in Gaelic that weren’t at all prayerful.
“Is thee quite well, Friend?” The woman of the house leaned near, peering nearsightedly at him in concern.
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- Spam posters -- Janet, Thu, May 02 2024, 11:36:18
I HAD to open my mouth about adult sites......sorry!
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- Parrots??? -- Janet, Sun, April 28 2024, 10:08:15
Does it seem like this web site has been taken over by the parrot and macaw lobby?????
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- QOTD for Saturday, April 20, 2024 -- CindyG, Fri, April 19 2024, 20:40:39
The following quote is from Seven Stones to Stand or Fall by Diana Gabaldon, “Introduction.” Copyright©️2017 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“NOW, REMEMBER…
You can read the short novels and novellas by themselves, or in any order you like. I would recommend reading the Big, Enormous Books of the main series in order, though. Hope you enjoy them all!”
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- QOTD for Friday, April 19, 2024 -- CindyG, Thu, April 18 2024, 19:56:38
The following quote is from Seven Stones to Stand or Fall by Diana Gabaldon, “Introduction.” Copyright©️2017 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“ So, for the reader’s convenience, the detailed listing here shows the sequence of the various elements in terms of the story line. However, it should be noted that the shorter novels and novellas are all designed in such a way that they may be read alone, without reference either to one another or to the Big, Enormous Books—should you be in the mood for a light literary snack instead of the nine-course meal with wine pairings and dessert trolley.”
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- QOTD for Thursday, April 18, 2024 -- CindyG, Wed, April 17 2024, 19:39:07
The following quote is from Seven Stones to Stand or Fall by Diana Gabaldon, “Introduction.” Copyright©️2017 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“The Big Books of the main series deal with the lives and times of Claire and Jamie Fraser. The shorter novels focus on the adventures of Lord John Grey but intersect with the larger books (The Scottish Prisoner, for example, features both Lord John and Jamie Fraser in a shared story). The novellas all feature people from the main series, including Jamie and/or Claire on occasion. The description below explains which characters appear in which stories.
Most of the shorter Lord John novels and novellas (so far) fit within a large lacuna left in the middle of Voyager, in the years between 1756 and 1761. Some of the Bulges also fall in this period; others don’t.”
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- QOTD for Wednesday, April 17, 2024 -- CindyG, Wed, April 17 2024, 8:35:05
The following quote is from Seven Stones to Stand or Fall by Diana Gabaldon, “Introduction.” Copyright©️2017 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“THE OUTLANDER SERIES includes three kinds of stories:
The Big, Enormous Books of the main series, which have no discernible genre (or all of them);
The Shorter, Less Indescribable Novels, which are more or less historical mysteries (though dealing also with battles, eels, and assorted sexual practices);
And
The Bulges,—these being short(er) pieces that fit somewhere inside the story lines of the novels, much in the nature of squirming prey swallowed by a large snake. These deal frequently—but not exclusively—with secondary characters, are prequels or sequels, and/or fill some lacuna left in the original story lines.”
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- QOTD for Tuesday, April 16, 2024 -- CindyG, Mon, April 15 2024, 21:24:00
The following quote is from Seven Stones to Stand or Fall by Diana Gabaldon, “Introduction.” Copyright©️2017 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“SO. THIS IS (as the front cover suggests) a collection of seven novellas (fiction shorter than a novel but longer than a short story), though all of them are indeed part of the Outlander universe and do intersect with the main novels.
Five of the novellas included in this book were originally written for various anthologies over the last few years; two are brand-new and have never been published before: ‘A Fugitive Green’ and ‘Besieged.’
Owing to differences among publishers in different countries, some of the previously published novellas may subsequently have been published in print form as a four-story collection (in the UK and Germany) or as separate ebooks (in the United States). Seven Stones provides a complete print collection for those readers who like tactile books and includes the two new stories.
Since the novellas fit into the main series at different points (and involve a number of different characters), below is an overall chronology of the Outlander series, to explain Who, What, and When.”
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- QOTD for Monday, April 15, 2024 -- CindyG, Sun, April 14 2024, 21:34:13
The following quote is from Seven Stones to Stand or Fall by Diana Gabaldon, “Introduction.” Copyright©️2017 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“Without going too much into the mental process that led to this (words like ‘sausage-making’ and ‘rock-polishing’ come to mind), I wanted a title that at least suggested that there were a number of elements in this book (hence the Seven), and Seven Stones just came naturally, and that was nice (‘stone’ is always a weighty word) and suitably alliterative but not a complete poetic thought (or rhythm). So, a bit more thinkering (no, that’s not a typo), and I came up with to Stand or Fall, which sounded suitably portentous.
It took a bit of ex post facto thought to figure out what the heck that meant, but things usually do mean something if you think long enough. In this instance, the ‘stand or fall’ has to do with people’s response to grief and adversity: to wit, if you aren’t killed outright by whatever happened, you have a choice in how the rest of your life is lived—you keep standing, though battered and worn by time and elements, still a buttress and a signpost—or you fall and return quietly to the earth from which you sprang, your elements giving succor to those who come after you.”
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- QOTD for Sunday, April 14, 2024 -- CindyG, Sun, April 14 2024, 10:59:37
The following quote is from Seven Stones to Stand or Fall by Diana Gabaldon, “Introduction.” Copyright©️2017 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
I just love the introduction to this book. Who else begins with an apology and explanation of the title?
“If you picked this book up under the misapprehension that it’s the ninth novel in the main Outlander series, it’s not. I apologize.
So, if it’s not the ninth novel, what is it? Well, it’s a collection of seven…er…things, of varying length and content, but all having to do with the Outlander universe. As for the title…basically, it’s the result of my editor not liking my original title choice, Salmagundi.* Not that I couldn’t see her point…Anyway, there was a polite request via my agent for something more in line with the ‘resonant, poetic’ nature of the main titles.”
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- QOTD for Saturday, April 13, 2024 -- kgp, Fri, April 12 2024, 19:40:09
The following quotation is from The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 44 Private Parts
With my blood no longer boiling, I could admit that Jamie might perhaps be right about Phillip Wylie’s intent in making objectionable advances to me. He might not be, too. But regardless of the young man’s underlying motives, I did have incontrovertible proof that he had found me physically appealing, grandmother or not. I rather thought I wouldn’t mention that to Jamie, though; Phillip Wylie was a very annoying young man, but upon cooler reflection, I had decided that I would prefer not to have him disemboweled on the front lawn, after all.
Still, maturity did alter one’s perspective somewhat. For all the personal implications of those male members in an excited state, it was the flaccid one that most interested me at the moment. My fingers itched to get hold of Duncan Innes’s private parts - figuratively, at least.
Last edited by author: Fri, April 12 2024, 19:40:53
Edited 1 time.
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- QOTD for Friday, April 12, 2024 -- kgp, Fri, April 12 2024, 19:38:48
The following quotation is from The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 43 Flirtations
“Aye, I’m up to my ears in Majors and Regulators and drunken maid servants, and you’re out in the stable canoodling wi’ the fop!”
I felt the blood rising behind my eyes, and curled my fists, in order to control the impulse to slap him.
“I was not ‘canoodling’ in the slightest degree, and you know it! The beastly little twerp made a pass at me, that’s all.”
“A pass? Made love to ye, ye mean? Aye, I can see that!!”
“He did not!”
“Oh, aye? Ye asked him to let ye try his bawbee on for luck, then?” He waggled the finger with the black patch under my nose, and I slapped it away, recalling a moment too late that “make love to” merely meant to engage in amorous flirtation, rather than fornication.
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- QOTD for Thursday, April 11, 2024 -- kgp, Thu, April 11 2024, 8:50:26
The following quotation is from The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 40 Duncan’s Secret
“Oh, it makes a difference, all right,” I said. I leaned back against a tree, arms crosses under my bosom, and gave him a look from under my lashes. “When I am a hundred and one, and you’re ninety-six, I’ll invite you to my bed - and we’ll see which one of us rises to the occasion, hmmm?”
He looked at me thoughtfully, a glint in the dark blue of his eyes.
“I’ve a mind to take ye where ye stand, Sassenach,” he said. “Payment on account, hmmm?
“I’ve a mind to take you up on it,” I said. “However . . . “ I glanced through the screen of branches toward the house, which was clearly visible. The trees were beginning to leaf out, but the tiny sprays of tender green were by no means sufficient camouflage. I turned back, just as Jamie’s hands descended on the swell of my hips.
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- QOTD for Wednesday, April 10, 2024 -- kgp, Thu, April 11 2024, 8:49:50
The following quotation is from The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 40 Duncan’s Secret
“Well,” he said slowly, “it’s true that Duncan hasna been wed before. Did ye not wonder why?”
“No,” I said. “I’d just assumed that the Rising had - oh, dear.” I stopped, catching a notion of what this might be about. “It’s not - goodness. You mean . . . he likes men?” My voice rose involuntarily.
“No!” he said, scandalized. “Christ, ye dinna think I’d let him marry my aunt, and him a sodomite? Christ.” He glanced around, to be sure no one else had heard this calumny. And shepherded me into the shelter of the tree, just in case.
“Well, you wouldn’t necessarily know, would you?” I asked, amused.
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- QOTD for Tuesday, April 9, 2024 -- kgp, Tue, April 09 2024, 10:34:46
The following quotation is from The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 39 In Cupid’s Grove
Ever since she had shown him the sperms, he had been uncomfortably aware of the crowded conditions that must now and then obtain in his balls, and impression made forcibly stronger in situations such as this. He kent well enough that there was no danger of rupture or explosion - and yet he couldn’t help but think of all the shoving going on.
Being trapped in a seething mass of others, with no hope of escape, was one of his own personal visions of Hell, and he paused for a moment outside the screen of willow trees to administer a brief squeeze of reassurance, which he hoped might calm the riot for a bit.
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- QOTD for Monday, April 8, 2024 -- kgp, Mon, April 08 2024, 5:35:28
The following quotation is from The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 37 Mail Call
“Here’s one we could do. The Testicles of a Male Animal - like you’d get them from a female animal - taken with six large Mushrooms and boyled in Sour Ale until tender, the both Testicles and Mushrooms to be sliced thin, well-pepper’d and seasoned with Salt, then sprinkled with Vinegar and brown’d before the Fire until crusty. Da hasn’t gotten around to castrating Gideon yet, has he?”
“No. I’m sure he’d be happy to give you the objects in question, if you want to try.”
She went very pink in the face, and cleared her throat with a noise that reminded me even more of her father. “I - um - don’t think we need that just yet.”
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- QOTD for Sunday, April 7, 2024 -- kgp, Sun, April 07 2024, 11:40:00
The following quotation is from The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 37 Mail Call
”A Spur To Venus. This being a list of infallible Remedys for Fatigue of the Male Member.”
I peered over her arm, my own eyebrows rising.
“Goodness. A Dozen of Oysters, soaked overnight in a Mixture of Wine and Milk, to be baked in a Tart with Crushed Almonds and Lobstermeat, and served with Spiced Peppers. I don’t know what it would do for the male member, but it would probably give the gentleman attached to it violent indigestion. Of course, we haven't got any oysters here anyway.”
“No loss,” she assured me, frowning at the page in concentration. “Oysters remind me of big plugs of snot.”
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- QOTD for Saturday, March 16, 2024 -- CindyG, Fri, March 15 2024, 19:44:34
The following quote is from Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 155, “Quaker Wedding, Redux.” Copyright ©️ 2021 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“Then the rider came right to the edge of the porch and reined up and my heart leapt as I saw who it was. William snatched off his hat and bowed from the saddle. He was breathing hard, his dark hair was pasted to his head with sweat, and there were hectic patches of red across his broad cheekbones. He gulped air, his eyes fixed on Jamie.
‘Sir,’ he said, and swallowed. ‘I need your help.’”
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- QOTD for Wednesday, March 13, 2024 -- CindyG, Tue, March 12 2024, 19:25:10
The following quote is from Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 25, “Enter a Serpent.” Copyright ©️ 1997 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.
“There had luckily been enough sewage in the bottom of the pit to break his fall. From appearances, the ninth Earl of Ellesmere had landed facedown. Lord John stood for a moment on the path, wiping his hands on his breeches and surveying the encrusted object before him. He rubbed the back of a hand over his mouth, trying either to hide a smile or to stifle his sense of smell.
Then his shoulders started to shake.
‘What news from the Underworld, Persephone?’ he said, unable to keep the quaver of laughter out of his voice.
A pair of slanted eyes looked blue murder out of the mask of filth obscuring his Lordship’s features. It was a thoroughly Fraser expression, and I felt a qualm go through me at the sight. By my side, Ian gave a sudden start. He glanced quickly from the Earl to Jamie and back, then he caught my eye and his own face went perfectly and unnaturally blank.”
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- QOTD for Thursday, March 7, 2024 -- kgp, Thu, March 07 2024, 8:11:36
The following quotation is from Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2014 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 80 Pater Noster
“Your father,” Hal said after a few moments. “Or my brother, if you prefer. Do you recall when you saw him last?”
Resentment sparked abruptly into anger.
“Yes, I bloody do. On the morning of the sixteenth. In his house. With mo other father.”
Hal made a low humming noise, indicating interest.
“That when you found out, was it?”
“It was.”
“Did John tell you?”
“No, he bloody didn’t!” Blood surged to William’s face, making his head throb with a fierce suddenness that made him dizzy. “If I hadn’t come face-to-face with the - the fellow, I don’t suppose he’d ever have told me!”
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- I never really understood all of William’s awful emotions until I just read this passage alone. We, along with almost everyone important in his life, already knew and he realized that almost the same time. It was horrible for him and I get it a lot more when I look at it from his perspective. I’m still trying to like him more than I do. lol (NT) -- Kathy in PA, Sun, March 10 2024, 12:22:14
- So much of who William thought he was turned out to be false. Plus, all of the people - Lord John, Hal, Claire, even Ian, knew, while he himself was kept ignorant of his parentage. It's little wonder he was so angry and confused. (NT) -- DianaH, Tue, March 19 2024, 11:39:57
- QOTD for Wednesday, March 6, 2024 -- kgp, Wed, March 06 2024, 5:47:37
The following quotation is from Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2014 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 80 Pater Noster
“You want me to . . . sing? he managed.
“Well, perhaps not right this minute,” the duke said. He sat back on his stool and began to whistle a tune. “Recognize that, do you?” he asked, breaking off.
“‘Lillibulero’,” William said, beginning to feel rather cross. “Why, for God’s sake?”
“Knew a chap once who was hit on the head with an ax and lost the ability to make out music. Couldn’t tell one note from another.” Hall leaned forward, holding up two fingers. “How many fingers am I holding up?”
“Two. Stick them up your nose,” William advised him.
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