First of all, I can’t tell you enough how disappointed I was when I received an invitation to attend the private fan Outlander event this past weekend at New York Comic Con. I begged and pleaded friends to give me a few thousand dollars so I could fly my butt across the U.S., but to no avail I was stuck here on the west coast living vicariously through the numerous live tweets and Facebook status updates brought to us by those fortunate enough to attend. Nope, [cough] not bitter at all! 
So the next best thing was follow the Twitter boards like a hawk and read about all the cool events featuring Diana Gabaldon and Ron Moore.
It all started Friday morning (west coast/Pacific time), when we began seeing pictures of models of production sets, and scripts! Check these puppies out (photos from: Outlander TV News):
Along with the seriously long lines of fans waiting to meet and greet DG and Ron:
(source: Outlander STARZ)
Later that evening, Ron and Diana spent some time doing Q&A in a room packed full of anxious fans. Here’s a short recap of some of Ron’s and Diana’s answers to the most pressing questions…
Q: Has it sunk in yet, how much the Outlanders are behind you and deeply, deeply feel this story?
DG: I definitely feel their love and passion!
Q: Which scene or scenes are you most looking forward to filming?
DG: there are a lot of small conversations between Jamie and Claire that I’m looking forward to seeing.
RM: Jamie in Jack Randall’s window with a pistol.
Q: In taking this story and bringing it to the screen, @Writer_DG, how involved were you?
DG: Basically, I said yes and then everything rolled from there. The first attempt was for a movie but it didn’t work out and Ron was lying in wait for such an opportunity to make it to TV.
Q: What drew you to Outlander?
RM: It’s a great story. I love history as historical fiction and I just got swept away.
Q: Any trepidation having your characters written by someone else?
DG: I really appreciate how Ron handled it. They came & spent 2 days w/ me learning about these characters, picking my brain, things I knew but that maybe everyone else doesn’t. But there are things that will be different.
Q: Ron how familiar were you w/ the historical time-frame?
RM: Not very. Which I loved b/c I really enjoy learning as I’m reading.
Q: There were script pages shown at NYCC. What are you most excited to see from the page to the screen?
DG: The wedding night.
Q: My wife has read the book a million times. How true will it say?
RM: Very true. The execs at STARZ read the book and said ‘Make the book for the existing fans and trust that new fans will be swept away’.
Q: How has your fandom changed since the TV show was announced?
DG: There’s a heck of a lot more of you!
RM: I live with a fan, my wife, and my job is not to screw up her book!
Q: How many more do you still have in this series?
DG: Well I don’t know. I always knew there was more to the story. This (the new one coming) isn’t the last book.
Q: Are we going to see more Frank in the 1940’s?
RM: We’re going to do some flashbacks to their marriage b/c I want the audience to see why Claire is so drawn to go back.
Q: Are we going to fall in love with Jamie?
DG: Well absolutely. When I went to look at Sam’s (@Heughan) audition, 10 secs in, he was gone and BAM there was Jamie Fraser”
Other noteworthy comments:
– Ron Moore might explore new things but always staying in the land. Always tying it back to the book.
– “We’re maintaining the first person POV so everything is told from her (Claire’s) eyes.”
– “There r scenes that r shorter in the book that we’ll expand on a bit b/c its on TV but we’re always staying w/ Claire b/c it’s her journey”
On Saturday, was a special private event/luncheon in which fans were presented with an inside view of the first week of filming. And to top it all off, they got the first public viewing of Mr. Sam Heughan as a redhead, speaking Gaelic, followed up by him saying “C’mon Sassenach” to Caitrion Balfe, who will play Claire. KILL ME NOW! Fortunately STARZ was generous enough release a video of the ENTIRE 48 minute Q&A session. Brace yourself folks, here it is:
So, now I’m hands and knees, BEGGING Starz to organize an event here on the west coast. And next time I will take out a small loan, if need be.
Cheers!
-OA