SANTA FE - Diminutive Diana Gabaldon, author of the best-selling Outlander series, is tucked away in a century-old Southwestern-style Santa Fe hideaway with her husband, Doug Watkins, and their two dachshunds.

But she's small, 5-foot-2 1/2 inches, only in height. She's a gifted storyteller whose impact is large and international.

"Last time we tried to figure it out, there were 15 million to 17 million copies worldwide of all my books," she said.

Perhaps the best known is her six-book Outlander series about Claire Randall, a 20th-century doctor who becomes a time-traveler going through standing stones in Scotland, and Jamie Fraser, a Scots laird whom she marries back in the 18th century. The next in the series, "An Echo in the Bone," is due out Sept. 22.

Gabaldon is 57 years old, but looks at least 10 years younger, with dark hair framing perfect skin, possibly a legacy from her English and Mexican-American ancestry.

She's seated in her welcoming living room, furnished with terra cotta-colored comfortable leather sofas, with a muted Navajo-style rug in the center of the floor. A photo dominates the wall, the kind of picture a viewer can get lost in, like a graphic maze.

Gabaldon grew up in Flagstaff, Ariz. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology from Northern Arizona University, a master's degree in marine biology from the University of California-San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and a Ph.D. in quantitative behavioral ecology from Northern Arizona but that wasn't enough.

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"I was a scientist, but always wanted to be a writer. I figured if I wanted to write a book, I should try," she said. "I had no background in history, so I figured one period was as good as another.

"I picked a place to get started, Scotland and the 18th century."

And she did her research the old-fashioned way, by herself, through books.

"I was writing and doing research concurrently. I wanted to be accurate," she said.

As a result, she has amassed 4,000 books dealing with 18th century Scottish culture, North Carolina, where Claire and Jamie end up, and the American Revolution, which impacts their lives.

She also has "a collection of 70 to 80 herbals about the medical use of plants." That's because Dr. Claire is forced by the absence of modern pharmaceuticals to use herbs for healing.

"I acquire more books for each book I write, specific to the setting and events," Gabaldon said. "They are as good as I can make them."

Scotland intrigued her after she saw the "Dr. Who" science fiction program on television. Time travel resulted when "Claire took over and started telling the story herself."

Gabaldon started writing the first book in the series, "Outlander," in 1988, "when the World Wide Web didn't exist." It was published in 1991. Each book takes three years of research and writing.

She and Watkins met while playing French horn in the Northern Arizona University marching band in Flagstaff.

"We ended up sitting next to each other," she said. He started in geology, switched to business, and is now retired, "being a handyman," he said.

She kept her maiden name after marrying because, she said, she had "spent 25 years explaining how to pronounce it GAB-uhl-dohn, with a long 'o.'"

Their primary residence is Scottsdale, Ariz. They have three children Laura, 27, an operating room nurse in Albuquerque; Jenny, 23, who's working on an MBA at Illinois De Paul University; and Sam, 25, whose first book, a fantasy, is being published in the United Kingdom, Watkins said.

There will be at least one, possibly two, more books in the Outlander series. Gabaldon is also working on a variety of writing projects and is deluged with speaking requests.

One highlight was being guest of honor at the Inverness Highland Games during a 10-day trip to Scotland in July.


Bev Eckman-Onyskow is an Alamogordo-based freelance writer. E-mail her at beckmanonyskow@aol.com.