"It'll Be Awhile" Until Outlander Book 10 Comes Out

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Diana Gabaldon is keeping busy. Between doing press for Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, signing tens of thousands of copies of the book for eager fans, and writing for the TV show, the author has still found time to start working on her 10th novel in the Outlander series.

When asked about what she's working on next in December 2021, she told T&C, "On top of the pile would be in the beginnings of book 10. I have started writing that, but I'm just poking away at it little by little, because there's so much interference from the book launch stuff going on that I can't work with my usual focus."

She continued: "I usually get about an hour and a half to myself at night, when I just think or do my normal office stuff. I am working on book 10 though. It's just beginning to bubble, like the tar pits at La Brea, these rising bubbles and there's a lot of bones underneath."

But don't expect the tome to come out anytime soon. On Twitter in May 2022, she shared "I've barely begun Book 10; it'll be awhile."

Gabaldon previously confirmed to T&C that the 10th book will most likely be the end of Jamie and Claire's story—but it won't be her final text in the extended Outlander universe. She's also working on a prequel novel about Jamie's parents, and a book about Master Raymond, a time-traveler who plays a small role in the Outlander story.

"The other major thing that I'm working on right now is the prequel volume, which is the story of Jamie Fraser's parents, Brian and Ellen," she told T&C at the time. "That one is actively talking to me. I've been carrying that one around in my head for quite a while, so I know quite a bit about it. And I've just started serious work on it, you might say. So I have actual scenes, things like that."

As for Master Raymond's story, that's on the back burner for now. "I have the beginnings of that," Gabaldon said, "but I'm not working on it actively at the moment for obvious reasons. It's just there for when I get to it. And in the fullness of time, we'll have to do an Outlandish Companion Volume Three to cover volumes nine, 10, and the prequel, but that can wait until I've written those things."

Given that there was a seven year gap between the 8th Outlander novel, Written in My Own Heart's Blood and Go Tell the Bees, fans should expect that wait to be lengthy. But fortunately in the meantime, a super-sized season 7 of Outlander premieres this week on Starz.

And, Gabaldon hinted that the show and the book series could conclude around the same time. "At the moment I intend [book 10] to be the final one—to complete things and fall contiguously with the end of the TV series. They won’t be exactly synchronous, but close probably," she told TV Insider in June 2023. "And the bottom line is, I’m 71. I don’t know how long I’ll last. I want to be sure of finishing. [Laughs] [When I started] I thought I was just writing Outlander for practice, and no one would ever see it. And here we are."

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