Claire and Jamie
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Prepare Yourselves… The ‘Outlander’ Coloring Book is Coming!

By Sarah Bredeman

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‘Outlander’ author Diana Gabaldon announced on her Facebook page yesterday that the ‘Outlander Coloring Book’ is a legitimate, real thing and is coming this fall. The release of the coloring book will coincide with the publication of ‘The Outlandish Companion, Volume Two‘ in October.

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I don’t know about you, but JE SUIS PREST for some coloring. Don’t judge me.

If you are anything like us, you have a ton of questions right now. If you haven’t gone straight out to Google to find out more, let me just lay it all out for you now.

What is it? What isn’t it? When can you get it, and where?

  • Diana has ASSURED us, this is JUST a coloring book. There are no secrets or new tidbits to be learned from the book.
  • It is NOT a story, so says Diana. It is pages for coloring. The end.
  • It is not an “adult coloring book”- of which both meanings may apply. It is not overtly explicit, and it is also not the Zentangle-esque coloring book which offers intricate detailed designs touted as a great way to relieve stress (and get a massive hand cramp).
  • There are a ton of pictures (45).
  • Because Diana’s voice and word choice are second-to-none, here is her explanation of the illustrations:

"“Most of the illustrations are really good; some are spectacular; almost all of them are decent. A few of them don’t appeal to me personally, but are a matter of personal taste and preference. And if the price of quality is being peppered with incessant daily emails saying, ‘Look at this and tell us what you think by tomorrow morning because (of course) WE HAVE TO GET THIS DONE RIGHT NOW”…well, so be it.”"

I would highly suggest you go to Diana’s Facebook (HERE) and read her entire post about the Coloring Book process. It is both hilarious and eye-opening, both about the production of a coloring book and the publishing industry in general. If you are not aware, Diana usually has many strong opinions about her industry (and other things) and generally is perfect with expressing those opinions.

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For example, she spoke IN GREAT DETAIL of the process of getting the cover art designed, and the… issues… that were involved with that. Apparently, the first version included a Jamie that was… less than savory.

"“Along comes the sketch. OK, a sketch is necessarily a really rough draft, and things change. This picture was well-composed and deftly drawn. The Generic Claire had a nice Da Vinci “Madonna of the Rocks” look about her. Jamie, though… Responses from a few intimate friends to whom I showed this sketch ranged from “Holy Shite! That’s terrifying!” to “He looks like a _putto_ on crack.” (NB: “putto” is the singular form of “putti,” which are those little fat cherubim with curly hair floating around in the skies of Italian Renaissance paintings—not, I mean, a male prostitute.)Cue two or three days of fuss, during which my own (flippant) reply to the (endlessly patient) art director who asked if I could be specific as to what I didn’t like about Jamie’s face was, “What? ‘Sex pervert/drug addict’ isn’t specific?” (Yes, I did then follow up with a very specific analysis of feature.) Someone also suggested shrinking the two figures and pulling them further back into the frame, so as to provide a richly detailed room around them (colorers presumably like that sort of thing)—and perhaps distract attention from Jamie’s face."

You can pre-order the Outlander Coloring Book from Amazon, Barnes and Noble– or you can ask your local indie bookstore!

We can’t wait to see all the Outlander pictures this fall!

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