Outlandish Observations is 18 years old!

Today, August 28th, is the 18th anniversary of Outlandish Observations!

Eighteen years....wow, that's amazing, even to me! Really hard to believe I've kept it up that long! I'm delighted, as always, to see that people are still enjoying it.

I started Outlandish Observations on August 28, 2008. That was about a year before AN ECHO IN THE BONE was published, long before anyone knew there would be a TV series. In the beginning, I had two goals in mind. The first was simply to learn about blogging. The second was to create a central repository for news and information for OUTLANDER fans, a place where people could go to find answers to commonly asked questions, links to other OUTLANDER-related sites, and the latest information on Diana Gabaldon's new and upcoming releases.

So much has changed in the OUTLANDER fan community in recent years, as the OUTLANDER TV series has exploded in popularity, and now with the prequel TV series, OUTLANDER: BLOOD OF MY BLOOD, airing on STARZ. It often seems impossible to keep up with everything that's going on! I think that's one reason that Outlandish Observations has lasted so long. There's always something new to talk about!

Outlandish Observations was one of the first successful OUTLANDER-related blogs. These days there are innumerable fan-sites and Facebook groups, and of course a great many people sharing their love of All Things OUTLANDER on Instagram, TikTok, and other social media sites. The more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned! <g> I'm proud to be a part of such a thriving, creative, and enthusiastic worldwide community of fans, united in our passion for these books and characters and this amazing story Diana Gabaldon has created.

I'm delighted that so many of you have enjoyed my OUTLANDER episode recaps over the years! Those posts took a lot of time and effort to put together, but I think it was worth it.

Special thanks to all of my followers on the Outlandish Observations Facebook page! I now have almost 17,900 followers, an increase of 9.67% over last year! I'm delighted that so many new people have found my site over the past year. Welcome! I hope you take some time to look around and see what else is available here.

Finally, let me just say this: If anyone had told me when I started Outlandish Observations that I'd still be blogging about All Things OUTLANDER eighteen years later, I'm sure I would have said they were insane! <g> But I have no intention of stopping anytime soon. At a time when "OUTLANDER burnout" is affecting some of the more well-known fan-sites, I'm still here, and I intend to keep this site going for the foreseeable future. There's still a lot to look forward to, including A BLESSING FOR A WARRIOR GOING OUT (aka Book 10) and more!

Many, many thanks to all of you who've visited Outlandish Observations over the past eighteen years! It's been an amazing journey, and I'm so glad you've come along for the ride.

THANK YOU ALL!!