A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Diana Gabaldon

Diana Gabaldon is the author of the international bestsellers Cross Stitch, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross and A Breath of Snow and Ashes - all featuring Claire and Jamie Fraser. The lastest book in the series, An Echo in the Bone, is published in January 2010.

Although American by birth, Diana has become fascinated by the history of Scotland, England, France and the USA in the mid-18th century when the struggles that would determine the shape of the modern world were taking place. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with her husband and their children.

Photo © Nancy Castaldo

Diana Gabaldon on her influences...

I know writers of novels who say they don't read fiction at all while working on a book, out of fear of "being influenced" by what they read.   I am struck by horror at the thought of going years without being able to read fiction (though perhaps these people write faster than I do, and take long vacations between books?)—but more struck by the sheer silliness of this.

Everything writers see, think, and experience influences their work.  How could it not?   Now, it's true that people do ask writers, "Where do you get your ideas?" and that writers--out of facetiousness or desperation--give answers like, "From the Sears catalog" (or "From Ideas.com," depending on the writer's vintage).   But the truth is that writers get ideas from every damn thing they see, hear, smell, touch, taste, think, feel, or do—including the books they read.

Naturally, one wants to develop a unique voice, but do kids learn to talk without ever being talked to?   You have an individual voice, by virtue of being an individual.  And your individuality is composed of your essential God-given spark of personality and of the sum total of the things you encounter in life.   Now, whether each encounter is a bruising collision or a fruitful act of love…who knows?   But all of it is grist to a writer's mill; so much should be obvious, if one reads at all widely.
   
Personally, I learned to read at the age of three, and have read non-stop ever since.   I'll be 58 next week; you can read a lot of books in fifty-five years.  I'm sure that every single book I've ever read has had some influence on me as a writer, whether negative (I've read a lot of books with the mounting conviction that I would never in my life do something like that) or positive.