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WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here

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Starshine:
I will start today on the Beavercreek Signing - so please no one else take that.

Starshine:
Here is BeaverCreek Part 1 [and the first question of part 2, which continues from part 1.] I left out things like audience laughter/applause etc.  I'll work on more tomorrow:



BEAVERCREEK SIGNING 7-29-2011  PART 1

[Questions will be all in caps - Jim's answers will have normal punctuation.]

[Applause]

Okay - how are you guys doing?  [Laughter and applause]

Sorry about that - don't kick me out - okay Sorry I get a […] ful standing out there as if Im a teacher or something and I never really liked those people - some of them - some of them were all right.  One of my teachers in 4th grade actually had to bring a bookcase from  home and put it in her office, because every time she caught me reading a book when i was supposed to be paying attention to her lesson she would take the book away and eventually she had no desk so she had to bring in a bookcase and put it in her office, so she had the entire […] series and every science fiction book ever.  It's like being in class and she'd be giving a lesson and well I already read the lesson and I got it so, why shouldn't I read a book.  I always felt she was being -  In retrospect, I think she was very conflicted about that.  Here's this student not paying attention, but Im taking his BOOK away - that seems counterproductive to the education part.  [Laughter]

Is it okay if we do like question and answer?  Is that fine by you guys?  Okay.  But for it to work someone has to ask a question.  Okay - here we go.

WHY DID YOU CUT YOUR HAIR?

Well I thought it was thematic - with the release of Changes when it came out - and I wanted to really shock my wife.  So I left with the hair down to the middle of my back and the full I've-been-writing-for-three-months beard - that's where my inspiration comes from.  My muse lives in the beard.  I went out with all that and got the hair down to the crew cut and had the beard taken off and came back in  and waited for her to freak - and we had one of those conversations that goes on for 20 minutes where she doesn't  look up from what she's doing to notice and finally I got tired of waiting for the bomb to drop and just sort of sat down and started watching TV and maybe 15 minutes later she's like "Oh my God!  If we hadn't been talking I would have shot you. "  A charming woman is my lady.

ARE WE EVER GOING TO FIND OUT ABOUT KINCAID'S PAST?

Maybe a bit more - maybe not.  I'm not sure how we'll do that yet.  I kind of have this vague project in mind of doing the Dresden Files universe version of the French and Indian War - which would be so much fun because it's all the old folks on the Senior Council that  are so angry at Harry for being a punky young wizard - that was when THEY were the punky young wizards.  So that would be a really good time I think, but of course the danger in that is, Im going to have to learn about the French and Indian War.  That's one of those projects I could get into and then forget - Oh, wait a minute!  Im supposed to be writing a book, aren't I? 

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF GETTING ME TO COME OUT AS A GUEST AND SITTING IN ON THE ROLE-PLAYING GAMES AT THE GAMING CONVENTIONS THAT THEY RUN?

Well let's see.  Getting me out there - Im not traveling next year  -  at all  - in honor of the Mayan apocalypse.  I figure maybe Im a little jaded because this is the seventh or eighth apocalypse Ive lived through.  But if we're all here in 2013 then I'll resume my schedule and I try to go to at least one small con, one medium-sized con and one big con every year, because the small and medium-sized cons - even though I don't get to see as many people - they have their own advantages too and I can actually hang out with folks and talk and stuff like that.  And nobody says - "Jim - you've made this room into a fire hazard!" -  like that guy in Atlanta.

I WAS ATTRACTED TO HARRY DRESDEN BY THE S-F SERIES.  ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE WAY IT TURNED OUT OR DO YOU REGRET THAT NOW BECAUSE OF THE CHANGES THEY MADE?

This fella was attracted to the books through the series on S-F .  Was I happy with it or was I upset with the changes they made?  I like to think of my cups as half full.  There's 3 kinds of people in the world - optimists who think the cup is half full, pessimists who think the cup is half empty and engineers who think the cup is overdesigned by 100 percent.  But, I think, all in all, it could have been a lot worse.  And I say that because I saw the first draft, the first treatment  -  which none of you saw if you laughed because there's not enough brain bleach in all the world.  But, all in all, it was okay.  There were some things that I was really annoyed with at the time - what they did with Bob annoyed the hell out of me - but Terence Mann's is a good actor and he's a really nice guy in person and he had a gift - he [had me] sold on it by about episode 10.  If the darned thing hadn't stopped when it did, i think it could have gone on to bigger and better things.  They were getting their stuff together production-wise and so on as they went along.  But on the other hand it might be a good thing that it did stop because - you know - before they did anything completely squirrelly with it, like - you know maybe it's a good thing it got cancelled - I don't know.

But all in all it was a positive experience.  I got to go up and do my Stan Lee appearance in the show - it was fun.   Im in the background in Butters' morgue somewhere, being one of his assistants .  I don't actually get to talk or anything - you have to join the guild to do that.  Man,  Im in too many guilds already.

YOU USE A LOT OF 'M' NAMES IN THE SERIES - MAB, MAX, MAEVE, MOLLY, MICHAEL ETC - IS THERE A REASON FOR THAT?

Uh, maybe, yeah [seems non-plussed]   There's no conscious reason for it although  my beta readers - whenever I show up with a new character named with an 'M' , they're like - "Another 'M' name!  Another "M" name!  It's like - Oh come on!  Get used to it.  Mmmmm - can't  say mmmmmmm without "M" . 

But no - no conscious reason.  Some of them were pre-named for me though.  Mab was pre-named for me.  I didn't name her.  The archangel Michael was pre-named for me. Same thing.  I feel the case has been overstated - the case in favor of too many 'M' names.

WHEN CORPSETAKER TOOK A BODY - LIKE LUCCHIO'S  BODY - DID THEY RESET THE AGES?

No, the bodies are just suits.  And Lucchio's original suit was more worn out than the new one that she got, and that's the only difference.

DID YOU ALWAYS INTEND TO INTRODUCE MOUSE OR DID MISTER JUST NOT DEVELOP INTO THE COMPANION THAT YOU WANTED?

Mister is a cat and cats do not develop into anything.  And I feel that to do anything like that would have been to betray the very nature of cats and they might declare war on me if that happened.  I swear to God Im eventually going to write this theme-park  universe that I run my game in, where the cats have opposable thumbs - and yeah you don't want to mess with a cat with opposable thumbs.  They have opposable thumbs and matches so - better treat them with respect or there's gonna be some trouble.

But yeah - Mouse was created as Dresden's enemies were getting tougher and tougher - and it seemed like it would be a simpler and simpler solution to kill him in his sleep.  So I wanted to be sure that he had a real solid protection […..] for him so that was one of the reasons Mouse kind of got sent his way in terms of the author sending him his way.  But I really like the way he [grew up?] and Mister - Mister's gonna be mighty no matter what - I mean, he's a cat.  He's not a special cat or anything.  He's a CAT.  How much better could he be?  At least that's his perspective.

ARE WE GOING TO HEAR MORE ABOUT MR FERROFAX?

Yeah - later in the series.  Im fundamentally lazy as a writer and I don't like to introduce things that Im not going to use and I like to re-use things whenever I can.  And I think it makes a better story that way too.  But mostly, Im lazy.

WHEN YOU STARTED WRITING I REMEMBER YOU SAYING ONCE THAT YOU WERE TAKING A WRITING CLASS AND YOUR TEACHER SAID - 'WELL JUST TRY THIS FORMULA' - AND YOU FOUGHT AGAINST IT OR SOMETHING AND THEN WHEN YOU FINALLY DID USE THE FORMULA OR WHATEVER SHE WAS TEACHING YOU TO - IT WAS SUCCESSFUL - IS THAT RIGHT?

A course in the University of Oklahoma's College of Journalism called Writing a Genre Fiction Novel, and what the course was, was that over the semester you wrote a novel, and it was a pass/fail course kind of thing.  If you did not finish your novel that semester, you did not pass.  And Debbie had been working with me - Debbie [Chester?] was a teacher - and she had been working with me for several years trying to convince me of some very common sense things about story telling and I was not listening to her because I had a degree in English literature, whereas she had merely published 40 novels. 

So one semester I decided to prove her wrong.  I decided I was going to prove her wrong by being maliciously co-operative with her.   I was going to be her good little writing zombie.  I was going to fill out all her little worksheets and build all these little structures and do these character sheets and outlines - and then she would see what awful, cookie-cutter pablum crap came out of that kind of process.  And I wrote Storm Front.  You know, which showed her - clearly.  Im one of these guys who's been fortunate enough for his stupid mistakes to have worked out well.  Stupidity has been my ally so far so I try not to feel too smart because it might jeopardize my success.

Starshine:
BEAVERCREEK PART 2

[Sorry - there were some things on here that I could not get.  Especially the author's last names and the last question.  Maybe somebody else can listen and suggest something?]


BEAVERCREEK SIGNING - PART 2

[Question was at end of part 1]


A course in the University of Oklahoma's College of Journalism called Writing a Genre Fiction Novel, and what the course was, was that over the semester you wrote a novel, and it was a pass/fail course kind of thing.  If you did not finish your novel that semester, you did not pass.  And Debbie had been working with me - Debbie [Chester?] was a teacher - and she had been working with me for several years trying to convince me of some very common sense things about story telling and I was not listening to her because I had a degree in English literature, whereas she had merely published 40 novels. 

So one semester I decided to prove her wrong.  I decided I was going to prove her wrong by being maliciously co-operative with her.   I was going to be her good little writing zombie.  I was going to fill out all her little worksheets and build all these little structures and do these character sheets and outlines - and then she would see what awful, cookie-cutter pablum crap came out of that kind of process.  And I wrote Storm Front.  You know, which showed her - clearly.  Im one of these guys who's been fortunate enough for his stupid mistakes to have worked out well.  Stupidity has been my ally so far so I try not to feel too smart because it might jeopardize my success.

WHO DO YOU DRAW INSPIRATION FROM?  WHAT NEW AUTHORS OUT THERE ARE YOU READING?

One of the most recent guys that came out is Harry [Powley?]  His first book is called Child of Fire and it's a really excellent book.  His world that he set up is just so dark and nasty - I love it.  There's a new author that isn't published yet that I got to read a manuscript for because they were hoping for a quote and I gave them them the best quote I've ever given anybody - his name is Benedict [jacker?] and the book is called Faded - and it's just marvelous.  I love it.  And not only because he mentions Harry Dresden indirectly on like the first page.  Or not purely because of that but it's also extremely well done and a very clever book.

Lets see - [Scal ---]  I read [Scal--] .  I read [….] and [Hagen?] for being able to write this beautiful poetic passages and then switch instantly to the gritty, pulpy action prose - I hate that guy!  He's really nice though.

Recently I've been reading [Brandon Chanderson?]  I finished Way of Kings this morning on the plane.  I thought it was a wonderful book.  I hope I can do happy fantasy that good at some point.

Robert E Parker of course - the late Robert Parker.  The Spencer series I loved.  Pretty much everything he's written Ive read it and loved it.  There's always people that I forget to mention that are on there whenever anybody asks this question.  Guys like E E Knight.  I loved his Vampire Earth series.   Cause that was a story that should not work.   Space vampires.  It should not work!  But yet he makes it work - and very well.  It's a great job with what he does. 

Naomi Novik [?]  I love the [….] books.  I was a Harry Potter fan.  I liked the books.  And there's others - Im just not remembering them at the moment.

IN ONE OF YOUR EARLIER BOOKS YOU MAKE A VERY [BRIEF] REFERENCE TO  THE JADE COURT.    WILL THEY EVER COME INTO PLAY?

Oh maybe.  Will the Jade Court ever come into play?  Maybe.  Probably not until the BAT finale, being as they are isolationists and  by definition they don't get involved in stuff.  So, if anything like that was to happen, Dresden would have to go get involved with them and it's hard enough to research Chicago, but to research CHINA??  I don't know - that seems to go against my basic laziness principle. 

ARE WE GOING TO GET MORE ON MOUSE - HIS ORIGINS AND WHERE HE CAME FROM?

Yeah, we are.  As Dresden works it out eventually, but it's going to take a while.  Also note that Dresden did not necessarily rescue ALL the puppies that got stolen.

THERE WERE SEVERAL MENTIONS OF THE VARIOUS SPECIES IN CODEX ALERA THAT WERE APPARENTLY WIPED OUT.  ARE YOU GOING TO GO INTO ANY NOVELS THAT EXPAND ON THAT?

I don't have any plans for it right now.  Basically - the basic story is -  the Romans showed up and there were all these other races that were on this world - Aleris - I always thought of it as the end  of the dump shoot for the Bermuda Triangle of the galaxy.  And the Romans basically had a very rigid kill or be killed mindset - and they was really good at killing.  And even more so after they got Furies [?] so there were a lot of people that got crushed by the Romans and that was where the story came from, but if I do go back to Alera, it will probably be a couple of generations down the line where you can see the effects that have happened because of what everybody's been doing in the original series.  It'll be a much [clean? lean?]  healthier place when we go back, so - but I don't know when we'll do that.

WHY DID [ARTHUR KILL THE ………..] CHARACTER?

[A lot of laughter and applause - I couldn't hear the question well and Jim didn't repeat it]

Because we do not survive upon our royalty payments, but upon your pain.

[more laughter and even more applause]

We feast upon you. 

I don't know if anybody went to [Woodstock?] at Comicon this year.  There was a whole skit about exactly that.  [ Amy? ………] was performed by Wil Wheaton and Alicia [Days?]  Buy the video - Im sure it's out on video.

I WAS WONDERING - IS IT MORE LIKELY THAT WE SEE ANOTHER DRESDEN FILES BOOK OR ONE OF THE MYRIAD OTHER PROJECTS THAT YOU'RE THINKING OF NEXT?

I don't know.  The only one I've got contracted right now is the next Dresden book.   I'm working on another fantasy right now.  I don't know if it'll get done in time for me cause Im going to have to stop by Christmas and start working on the next Dresden.  But as far as I know it'll be Dresden - that is subject to change without notice - and if I do get a contract, then I'll announce it on my site so folks can know that it's on the way.

I INTRODUCED THE NOVELS TO MY FIANCEE WHO IMMEDIATELY CONSUMED ALL OF THEM [IN THE SPACE OF A WEEK?] AND AT THE END OF IT SHE LOOKED AT ME AND SHE SAID "I REALLY LOVE THESE NOVELS BUT - WHY IN THE COVER ART DOES HE WEAR A HAT?

What's with Dresden's hat in the cover art is the question - the answer to that is the art department thought it was a good idea.  They thought it was the perfect visual shorthand for wizard detective - he's got a wizard staff and he's got a detective fedora - wizard/detective right there.  So that's what they wanted and that's what they got.  And they said - Jim, you approve of this -right?!?!  [Laughter]

Yeah - it's gorgeous - it's the best cover ever .
[book company]  Good!  Im glad you said that.

IS EBENEZAR GOING TO FIND OUT THAT HE HAS OTHER GRANDCHILDREN SOMEWHERE?

[singsong voice] - Im not gonna tell you.

 I can't.  I mean - I cant - that's future stuff.  We'll get to lots and lots of things.  I had to chant - Im not gonna tell you - so many times last night  in Atlanta - it was kind of fun actually.

ARE THRE ANY PLANS FOR A DRESDEN VIDEO GAME IN THE FUTURE?

There are always plans, but in the media business you can never be sure about anything until the check clears, so there are talks going on right now - we'll have to see what happens.   But I'd like it  - I think they should do an [MMOR] PG - that would be awesome.  Except I think I could probably get membership for free .

[Question from audience - cannot hear it.  Answer is another Im not gonna tell you and a lot of laughter.  Tape ends.]

Starshine:
BEAVERCREEK - PART 3


BEAVERCREEK PART 3

[…….] although it would be easier to work aircraft carriers in if I did it like that.  I mean, you know, a [little Hitler??]

IS MAGIC EVER REALLY GOING TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET IN THE DRESDEN-VERSE?

Right here, because, as I said.

[My note - this doesn't make sense to me - but I think something is missing in the transition from Pt 2 to Pt 3.]

I WAS JUST WONDERING - DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF HOW MANY BOOKS OR MOVIES ARE GOING TO COME OUT [of your work????]

Total books in the DF series 20-ish of the case books - it could be a little bit more, it could be a little bit less, depending on whether or not my kid goes to grad school.  And when I get done with the case books there'll be a BAT as kind of a gap-fill thing.

THE MORE THE BETTER.

So YOU say, but when things go on past their expiration date you wind up with things like the last season of X-Files - you've got that zombie show, just sort of staggering on -  it should have died, you know, a while ago [monster voice] AWESOMELY! 

OVER THE COURSE OF A SERIES DURING THE CREATIVE PROCESS WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST OFTEN GETS LEFT ON THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR?

I've got a pathological aversion to actually chopping stuff out once I"ve gotten it written - see above regarding lazy.   The things that do get dropped out are mostly small bits and pieces - pieces of conversation that really weren't relevant to what was going on - descriptions that just kind of rambled on and on too long when I could have done it in like a word and a half.  That kind of thing. 

Oh - actually - there are actually entire chapters that got scrapped once in a while where I realized - Oh wait a minute!  I should have taken a left at Albuquerque and instead I got this chapter which was taking the book in completely the wrong direction so I delete it, and start over.  I don't think I actually saved very many of those though.  Most of them - I look at them and go  ooops! -   don't let anybody know you did it - they'll think you're cooler that way.

[WHAT IS YOUR SECRET AS A WRITER TO BEING SO GOOD, SO CLEAR?]

My secret to being so clear - I worked really, really hard to learn how to do it.  I mean I wrote for like 9 years before I ever sold anything for any money at all.  And I've got half a dozen novels that are so awful I would not have made Osama bin Laden read them.

Mostly the important thing as a writer that you have to learn is don't get too overcomplicated with your language if you're trying to make things clear.  My belief as a writer is that if I'm doing my job right, the language should be transparent so that as the story's going, you don't even know you're reading words - you're kind of creating  your own virtual reality as you go along.  I like the transparent writer.  I don't like to do the wordplay thing - or at least not very often.  Plus I'm not very good at it.  [?Rathless?   OOH Rathless?] 

ON YOUR BIO YOU MENTION YOUR VICIOUS ATTACK DOG.  IS THAT SARCASM OR IS HE REALLY A VICIOUS ATTACK DOG?

He is VICIOUS.  He is the most vicious 20 pounds of Bichon Frisee - you have ever seen.  20 pounds of killer white fluff.  I never said he was dangerous - I said he was vicious.  And indeed he is.  OTOH, he's also saved my kid from a bear - so he's worth it.

I can tell the bear story if you want.  All right - at one point we were living out in kind of the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania.  We were about half an hour out of state college -maybe a little bit further - kind of in Amish country.  We were living in this long valley - it was like 22 miles long and there were like 3 houses and then Amish farms was the whole thing.  Mountains and ridges all around - just gorgeous, but there was actual wildlife about. 

Anyway,we've got this little dog and we make him sleep with the boy downstairs in his room which is right off the kitchen.  And we put the baby gate up, the boy goes to bed and we put the dog in bed with the boy and they go to sleep and it's adorable. 

One night , at about 3 in the morning, the dog somehow manages to knock the baby gate over, climb up the stairs - which he's never done before - he's a puppy - and then he came to the side of the bed and he's throwing a fit at me from the side of the bed [doggie fit noises] .  And Im like - what is wrong with you?  You've come to […..] aren't you - that's what it is.   And so I take the dog back downstairs, all sleepy and grumpy to put him back in bed with the boy and I  find that the boy has kicked all the covers off and he's just lying in bed shuddering like that - he's running like a 101 fever.  And Im like - oh my gosh - take care of the kid and give him Tylenol and get him back to bed and he goes back to sleep again .  And Im like - Good Dog!  That was awesome!  I picked him up, put him on the bed, he curled up next to the boy and went right to sleep.  But wow! - okay!  That's pretty cool!.

A couple of weeks later, the same thing happens.  I'm like - What is it Lassie?  Did Timmy fall down the well again?  And so I go downstairs, and the boy's fine.  And I kind of  stop and look at the dog and say - It's 2:30 in the morning - what do you think you're doing?  [More frantic dog noises]  We had kind of this long, narrow house.  And he goes about 10 feet down the kitchen and then stops and looks at me.  And Im like - What? [More frantic dog noises]  I walk over to him, he quiets down.  Okay, that's a little bizarre.  So he goes another 10 feet and does the same thing.  And another 10 feet, and another 10 feet, and we go all the way - up and down - the first floor of the house.  We do this twice.  And then after that he curls up in a ball and goes to sleep.

I'm like - Okay.  You are officially crazy.  I pick him up.  I put him in bed.  I go back to bed.  The next morning I"m getting the kid up.  I'm getting him off to school and - what you have to realize is - the main door to the house that we use was the kitchen door - and then immediately across from the kitchen door was the door to his room - okay, now this was a glass door.  I open the door, cause I was gonna walk the kid out to the bus stop - and I stop and look and on the snow on the steps leading up to the door are bear prints about this big - pawprints.  I kind of stopped and I look at those and I look down and I go outside and the pawprints go all the way around the house - twice.   And I realized at that point that the dog had known the bear was out there .  He came to get me, and then he made me pace the bear up and down the […..] - so that the bear would know I knew he was there.  After that man - I looked at that dog and said - You are IN.  All right. [  Laughter and applause]

Now whenever anybody  gives me a hard time about having a little dog - "You need to have a big dog - like my german shepherd"  - I go like - Did your german shepherd ever save your kid from a bear?  Noooo.  Well, that little dog DID! 

ARE YOU STILL THINKING ABOUT DOING A MISTER/MOUSE/BOB SHORT STORY?

It has been suggested to me it might be fun - it'd be kind of like the DF version of [Funiculai??]  which influenced me when I was small and impressionable and I think it probably got taken away by my teacher while I was [there too?].

HAVE YOU READ GEORGE MARTIN'S GAME OF THRONES AND THE SEQUELS AND WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THEM?

I read the first one probably - many,many moons ago - right after it first came out .  I read it and went "ummmmm"  - for fantasy, this is really low on fantasy - you know, you kind of go through the whole thing and you've got one person that doesn't get burned by fire and a zombie.  And it's like - it's a little lower than the fantasy intake that I want.  I could probably go back and read them again.  I might think they're much better now.  The Black Company books were like that for me.  First time I read them Im like - whatever - and I went back 10 or 15 years later after I'd studied a lot of history and so on - and Im like - Oh my gosh!  These are brilliant!  And it's just a matter of perspective I think and where you are.  And maybe I'll think Martin's brilliant the next time I go back.  I like the series though.  Im all [..….] about the series.

SPEAKING ABOUT THE SERIES, AND I KNOW YOU'VE ALREADY TRIED IT WITH S-F,   BUT WITH ALL THESE OTHER BOOK SERIES GOING TO HBO AND [ALLTHAT],  HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED DOING THAT, OR MAYBE A MOVIE?

Have I ever considered doing the DF for HBO or for a movie?   I shall think about it.  [Laughter].  I'm willing to forgive Hollywood for the first iteration of the DF and the Sorceror's  Apprentice.  I'm just saying if you take the covers of the comic book and the [….] from Sorcerer's Apprentice and put them next to each other - that's all Im saying. 

I think if it had been anyone other than Nick Cage…..  [part 3 ends]

Starshine:
BEAVERCREEK PART 4


  [….] books at me  when I was visiting the set - it was awesome!


AS AN AUTHOR IN YOUR BOOKS YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO GRAB MY ATTENTION REALLY QUICKLY FROM PAGE ONE AND TO KEEP IT THERE ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE BOOK.   IS THAT SOMETHING YOU'VE HAD TO WORK AT OR IS THAT SOMETHING THAT COMES NATURAL TO YOU?

I would like to tell you that - yes - I have worked out millions of secret ways - and I have formulas and excel spread sheets and so on to figure it out.  But honestly, I think what it is, is it springs out of the way that I write because I write a chapter at a time and then I send the chapter off to my Beta readers and they let me know what's going on in the chapter.  And my personal goal is to make the beta readers scream by the end of the chapter that there's not another chapter for them to read.  And as a result I think that means that I'm setting the hook at the end of every chapter - cause nobody likes to stop just in the middle of a chapter.  They'll say - one more chapter.  But if I make a good chapter interesting enough -  [….]  then they'll keep reading.  And -  it was an accident.  I've had a lot of those and a little bit of good luck.

ARE WE GOING TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BOB AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH MAB AND COMPANY ANYTIME?

Yeah - we're gonna do a whole bunch of fairy stuff next book.  The next book's gonna be all about Winter court and Dresden showing up there.

ARE WE EVER GOING TO MEET LEFAY'S MOTHER?

 As in Ebenezar's wife?  Well, not unless we go back and do the French and Indian War thing probably.

ARE WE GOING TO FIND OUT WHO SHE IS?

She was a mortal.  She died somewhere around 1810 I think.  I've got it all written down somewhere.  Plus I can check Wikipedia.  I often look at Wikipedia before I go somewhere else.  Because you guys keep track of it way better than I do.  I mean, by the time Im done with a book, I've seen 7 or 8 slightly different versions, and then maybe 2 or 3 versions that I chose not to write, so by the time you get to Book 13 of the series, that's 13 times 12 - that many different versions of the book so it starts getting hard to do the book-keeping in my head with all of that - so I go to Wikipedia - which is great.

THERE'S A LOT OF OCCULT REFERENCES IN YOUR BOOKS.  IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU ARE INTERESTED IN AND STUDY ON YOUR OWN OR IS THAT SOMETHING YOU JUST LOOKED UP FOR THE BOOKS?

By and large something I looked up.  I still think it's terribly interesting and it's the kind of subject I would read up on anyway but for the most part, when I was building a magic system, I went out and bought several books from the metaphysical section of the local bookstore to figure out - kind of read about what people who actually believe - the people who actually incorporate it into their system of faith and see what they think about it and how things work, and then I tried to rip off all the best stuff from them for the DF and then throw in a few things that were dramatically cool.

AS FAR AS KILLING OFF HARRY DRESDEN, WAS THAT PRE-PLANNED FROM CLOSE TO THE BEGINNING OR WAS THAT A NATURAL PROGRESSION?

Sorry  -  Killing off Harry Dresden - was that pre-planned from the very beginning or was that just starting off in another direction?  It's key - a ghost solving his own murder in Book 13 - it's not by accident.  Yeah that was planned from the very beginning.  I was very pleased that I finally got to write that part.

ANY TIME SOON - LIKE IN THE NEXT 2 BOOKS - ARE WE GIONG TO GET ANY MOVEMENT ON HARRY'S CONNECTION TO THE OUTSIDERS?

Yeah, probably pretty soon - I can't keep putting it off much longer.  Although it is fun to tease you.  I eventually have to deliver or else it's no good.

WHERE DID YOU GET THE INSPIRATION FOR BOB ?

The inspiration from Bob mostly came from me wanting to […] my teacher's notes.  I told her - after I'd written the first series of the DF - or the first chapter of the first book - she read the chapter and said - Well, I think you've done it!   I said "What?!"  She said this is sellable.  I think this will sell.  What are you planning for next?  And I'm like uh -uh - he's got to go talk to his - I've got to give him this assistant so that when the cops are around they'll be the dummies that he can explain things to - cause that's one of the principles of writing - it's the joy of idiocy - you always keep one dummy around to ask questions and have things explained to him and that's how you get the information to the reader in a more entertaining fashion.

So sometimes Murphy will be the dummy and then when there's something that Dresden needs to know he can go to this more nerdy assistant and the assistant will be the dummy - errr - and he'll be the dummy and the assistant will be the smart guy.  And she's [i e his teacher] like okay - that works.  Just dont make him a talking head.  [Laughter]  Which is writing crap shorthand for a character that just shows up and dispenses information and then turns around and walks away.  And the examples she always used for the talking head characters were the characters from the old bad b/w s-f movies who would show up and say - "As you know, Bob .."  Except, if Bob knows, why are you explaining it to him, you meathead! 

So I had to make a literal talking head named Bob and she sort of read that and just looked up at me over her spectacles across the desk and said "You think you're funny don't you?"

DID CASSIUS'  DEATH CURSE GET RESOLVED?

Yeah - and that was also really something that was part of the factors that Dresden did not know about that was pushing him towards that decision to begin with.  But that's not something that he can tangibly factor in to what he's experiencing at the time.

I REALLY ENJOYED YOUR DEPICTION OF THE FAE IN THE BOOKS.  WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THEM […..]

I first ran into the Fae in terms of the Fae being the Sidhe and not just like Tinkerbelle or [….] when I was playing Amber-mush [?] in the early 90's and I would mush like a theme and I could mush 11 characters simultaneously.  Some of them had conversations with one another .  But that was when my fingers still worked really well and I had really awesome typing speed.  But that was when I first ran into the concept of the Sidhe and then I had to go and look them up and expand on them and learn more about them there.

NOT SO MUCH A QUESTION BUT I JUST WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR POSITIVE PORTRAYAL OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTERS BECAUSE THERE'S SO MANY BOOKS WHERE THEY TAKE CHRISTIAN CHARACTERS AND THEY MAKE THEM SO STEREOTYPICAL AND SO HYPERCRITICAL AND I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT VERY POSITIVE PORTRAYAL OF THE  CHRISTIAN CHARACTERS WITH MICHAEL AND HIS FAMILY AND SO I JUST WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR THAT.

Oh - she likes the positive portrayal of Michael and his family as the  Christian characters and you're right - I mean most often if you're going to have the Christian faith appearing in a book or a movie the guy who's supposed to be embodying it is always either a hypocrite or a self-righteous moron.  I wanted to try and write something that I thought was a little bit closer to the actual ideal.  The people who actually do live up to that actual ideal  aren't the people who go around saying - Look!  Im living up to the ideal - there're too busy being it.

I WAS WONDERING IF MAC'S ALE WAS BASED ON A BEER YOU'VE HAD OR IF I SHOULD GET  WITH MY BREWING BUDDIES AND START MAKING IT?

I don't drink - like at all.   My family line has way too high a cross-enrollment in alcoholics anonymous and state prisons.  So it's one of those things - like -no, I think I'd better stay away from that and so I have.   So I have to rely on my friends who actually do appreciate it to be able to tell me - no, you've got to write about it like this - Oh, okay.  I can do that.

DO YOU PLAY WARHAMMER? 

Like the online version?

END OF PART 4

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