<p>Ron Moore said in his podcast they they couldn’t find the right spot for little Roger in the earlier episodes when Claire was there. He said there were too many other things going on. He does make his changes purposefully. He addressed some fan concerns in the episode 8 podcast. </p>
<p>I also loved the scene with Claire and Frank at the stones!</p>
<p>I completely missed the little Roger thing!</p>
<p>I just got Written in My Own Heart’s Blood out of the library (I hadn’t read it yet), and took An Echo in the Bone out too to do a skim to reacquaint myself with the major plot points. I can’t believe what I had forgotten, such as the letters. All that BS about the supposedly innocent Mrs. Bugg still annoys me, though.</p>
<p>Hi guys. DiA arrived Friday and as I met my UPS guy on the sidewalk, I told him how happy i was to see him with my book. He compared me to a child he’d delivered an Xbox to the day before 
I’ve now finished it in a couple of marathon sessions over the weekend interrupted only by sleep, a very nice party on Saturday and a shopping outing with my daughter. It WAS a good read, very satisfying, and I am also ready to move on to the next now (which I have, ready). </p>
<p>As one who saw the entire show (the 8 episodes so far) before reading anything and has now read the first two books I am sure I am reading (and watching) very differently than you all did, who’ve known these books for a long time.</p>
<p><strong><em>POSSIBLE SPOILERS (for TV series and books both)</em></strong>***</p>
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<p>It certainly did - I had no idea who he was or why he might be important, but I’m OK with it. I feel like the TV show is dropping hints that I didn’t catch in the book and honestly vice versa. I referred to “the Highlander” outside her window earlier in the thread and how I went back to watch that episode to make sure it was who I thought it was (and he appears again in that wanted poster in episode 8). So I was happy to see, as I read DiA, there is a line that Jamie says to Claire, “I think ghosts are people who love so much and feel so strongly that their spirit lives on after the body wears out” or something along those lines. So I wonder if the TV show is telling the same story but just in a different way, making small points where it can, to catch up later.</p>
<p>Like, in the books Claire gets an engraved ring and at the end of DiA we find out that it was inscribed with part of the poem Hugh gives her wrapped around the amber. But in the TV show, there is no poem, only the amber. The key Jamie uses for the ring on the TV show, but not in the book as I can recall…she asks him in the wedding episode what the key is for and he looks away significantly and basically tells her “never mind”. I have gone back and forth between the books and the TV show a couple of times for stuff like that.</p>
<p>I em enjoying the books a lot for the escapist storytelling aspects of course, but I am also enjoying the puzzles, the dropped hints. I don’t know if DG knew she’d write so many books when she did the first one, or two…from what I’ve read elsewhere I think she didn’t. But the TV show has the advantage of knowing what’s coming far in the future, so it can drop threads and hints and pick them up later, and it’s fun to me to look for them.</p>
<p>I will agree with mezzo that episode 8 had rather more of Frank than I cared to see - not sure how the alleyway attack moves the main story, though his search and the stones part was OK for me. On the other hand, the spur of the moment, no big deal Frank-Claire wedding made a nice contrast to the very big deal Jamie-Claire wedding. I don’t remember reading the Frank wedding stuff in the book.</p>
<p>I am avoiding the major DG sites and forums because I really don’t want any spoilers and I’m afraid I’ll stumble on them by accident. I’ve been basically OK here since the fact that they’re, er, enjoying each other in their later years, is no less than I would expect of these characters :)</p>
<p>I will say, as I run across a humorous recap of an episode of the show, I will read it. This one is laugh out loud funny: <a href=“killing time | Outlander S1E08 Photo Recap, "Both Sides Now,"...”>http://atom1cflea.■■■■■■■■■■/post/99198865481/outlander-s1e08-photo-recap-both-sides-now-part-1</a></p>
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<p>I think the purpose of the alleyway attack is to show how Frank has a bit of Black Jack in him, though he is able to regain his composure. BJR would probably have killed her, delighting in the entire exercise.</p>
<p>You’ll get to know Frank better in Voyager.</p>
<p>I’ve enjoyed your posts.</p>
<p>^^^^LOVED that recap! </p>
<p>ETA: I saw that Diana Gabaldon herself noted that the Killing time recapper is one of her favorites. :)</p>
<p>Here are some more of Killing Time’s Outlander recaps:</p>
<p><a href=“killing time | ALL THE OUTLANDER PHOTO EDITS I EVER EDITED.”>http://atom1cflea.■■■■■■■■■■/post/98346816211/all-the-outlander-photo-edits-i-ever-edited</a></p>
<p>They’re great recaps, all. And it is she who points out that what Frank beats the guys in the alley with is, in fact, a black jack :)</p>
<p>^^^OHMomof2, I’ve just spent the last hour reading the other recaps and laughing until I came to tears.</p>
<p>I don’t know how you stumbled upon those recaps, but they are GREAT. Thanks!</p>
<p>Yeah, and I never would have caught on about the black jack, but I had read that somewhere else, too…</p>
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<p>I may or may not be following some Outlander stuff on Twitter ;)</p>
<p>…and agreed, I read them all and laughed and nodded in vigorous agreement and them laughed some more. She’s brilliant, who mixes Dr Dre lyrics with this TV series???</p>
<p>@OHMomof2, I joined twitter just to follow Outlander related tweets…Who knows, we might even be twitter friends. :-/ </p>
<p>Well in that case, may I suggest following connieBV (if you liked those recaps posted earlier - that’s her), heughligans (lol), Outlander, Outlander Writers, Outlander_Starz and I follow the general hashtag Outlander as well.</p>
<p>While I’m posting, here’s some news speculated about earlier in this thread about book sales - I am definitely not alone in coming to the books from this show:</p>
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<p>I bet she sells a lot of 8 book box sets for the holidays!</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/success-outlander-television-series-help-4389384”>http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/success-outlander-television-series-help-4389384</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/books/tvs-outlander-puts-diana-gabaldons-novel-on-top-again.html”>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/books/tvs-outlander-puts-diana-gabaldons-novel-on-top-again.html</a></p>
<p>That link above says season 2 will be based on Dragonfly in Amber. I hope they are going to cover more of Outlander in the remaining (?) season 1 episodes, there is a lot of content not yet touched. Like the entire Rising plot!</p>
<p>The remaining 8 episodes starting in April will be the remainder of Book 1 Outlander. JUst read that DG will be getting $6M for Book 9, just signed the deal. Twice as much as Book 8…I wonder if it will be the conclusion since she is getting so much, or just the popularity of her books now with the show. That is one rich woman…i wish she just wasn’t so snarky with her fans sometimes.</p>
<p>The article says her agent waited for the show to come out to close the 9th book deal. Good agent, I’d say :)</p>
<p>@snowdog - that first episode of the second half of the season is likely to be a whopper. Those who’ve read know what happens after and I predict a perfect storm of commentary about it from those who haven’t. Apparently that, um, difficult, scene was one of two that Sam Heughan did for his audition tape and DG was very impressed with how he handled all the emotions Jamie has in it. Makes me wonder if they’ll use Jamie’s POV for that episode…I’d sure like to know what he was thinking. I had to set the book down and think for awhile after I read it.</p>
<p>On another note, I am grateful that DG decided on a tv series rather than movies for these books.That would probably take as long as the book series has…</p>
<p>I also love the books, but I found the young Claire really annoying, particularly in Outlander. Part of the TV series seems to be DG being able to get a “do over” for that first book that she thought no one was ever going to read. In particular, Claire is a lot more independent and makes up her mind much faster than the book Young Claire. The TV Claire is just more competent as a human being.</p>
<p>OHMomof2, if you come across part 2 of the photo recaps, will you post? I guess she’s still working on it.</p>
<p>I like TV Claire more than Book Claire…she just seems nicer for some reason.</p>
<p>Diana has a post on her Facebook page today that addresses some of the concerns of fans about changes in episode 8. If you are on Facebook, it’s worth going to over to read.</p>
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<p>@Mezzo’sMama, don’t know if you are still following the thread, but Diana Gabaldon actually does address a few of your points on her facebook page. It was very interesting to read her thoughts on how her “baby” is being adapted to the screen.</p>