Meeting Diana Gabaldon At The Fergus Scottish Festival

My sis Julia LeBlanc (who many of you know as the fantastic creator of all the Outlander fanvids on my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/nancy777ca got us tickets to the Diana Gabaldon appearance this past Saturday in Fergus, Ontario.

The weather has a sense of humour and decided to give us the FULL Scottish experience by pouring rain almost all day. When we arrived there were already people in line to get their books signed who had been held over from an earlier morning signing that Diana had to cut short because she wasn't feeling well. She promised to return a few hours later to finish signing their books so they stayed in their places.

My sis and I opted to grab our seats and settle in early so we'd be up close to Diana when she gave her talk at 2 o'clock and then get our books signed afterwards.

When we walked in, this was in the center of the room. A Doctor Who Tardis...I didn't get it at first. I don't know what was wrong with my brain.

Festivities began with , of course, bagpipe music and one gentleman showing off different instruments.

Then came the Chief of 1,000 year old Clan Leslie giving us the history of his clan. It was at this point that it occurred to me, after looking at these things for about an hour that what I was looking was the Outlander stones!

Seriously. I don't know what was wrong with my brain that day. Lol!

Then it was time for Diana to come out. As everyone who has ever met her as already remarked upon. This woman is TINY! Not to mention lovely and you have to double a take when she informs you that she is 64 years old! I only hope to look half that good! 

We had heard most of her stories before but her delivery is so fun that you find yourself laughing anyway and it was fun to hear the reactions from those who hadn't heard the stories before. Like this gem that I had to capture on video of Diana explaining the appeal of a man in a kilt. :D

 After her talk was over, my sis and I headed to the line up with our books to meet Diana and get them signed. The line was pretty massive but we figured with the huge line already in place once we arrived, are chances were pretty slim anyway and we'd at least got to see her talk which we preferred. Still, it was 3 o'clock and she was staying to sign until 4:45 so we got in line so we decided to try anyway. I tried to get a pic of the line but couldn't get all of it in frame.  Picture this...about times 10!

At about 4:30 one of the attendants suggested that those who had a weekend pass (my sis and I did not) could come back tomorrow and were given a number to get their books signed first tomorrow. This cut the line down considerably and at about 4:45 there were only 10 of us left in line. Diana was like a machine. Sign, smile (how her face wasn't stiff by that point is amazing to me!) a few words, next!

Then it was my sis's turn while I took video (which we always prefer if we can do it so we can grab shots later. We will be uploading those videos to youtube later)

My sis introduced herself as Julia LeBlanc and Diana told her she did wonderful work with her videos.  

Then it was my turn.

I told her that as an author she was a huge inspiration to me and she thanked me. 

Brief, but such an awesome moment! Then the event staff had photo set up where they would take your photo and photoshop you into a stone back drop. Of course, we had to. :D

We also took some pics over by these Outlander banners. 

And that was pretty much it! We headed back home with smiles on our faces and on cloud nine after meeting Herself!