The Dresden Files > DF Reference Collection

WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here

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knnn:

--- Quote from: Second Aristh on July 15, 2016, 02:21:34 AM ---Hi everyone.  Here's several more of the quotable WoJ from the 2015 interviews.  There are a couple WoJ on Dresden along with some nice ones for Cinder Spires that I hadn't heard before.  I didn't transcribe most of the writing craft talk or the stories Jim tends to tell for frequently asked questions.

--- End quote ---

There's also a blurb (at the 20 minute mark) about a giant steam-power lumber mill on the surface that gets blown up.   This is something that didn't actually happen in the book, so either it got edited out or it's from the second book.

TheCuriousFan:
Priscellie: So this year saw not one but two Dresden Files novels released that had originally been created as one massive tome, split into a two part episode of awesomeness, what are some of the ways the books changed when you split them?

Jim: Primarily what I had to do was I had to expand several storylines in Peace Talks that had not existed before and I was able to bring a lot more focus onto them. And that was pretty much Harry's conflict with Ebenezar was something I was able to say "oh this is scheduled for a little bit further into the story but I can go ahead and do this now, this'll be nice". So I was able to play that out and it was great because it was an opportunity for Dresden to go up against somebody who was like him but in every way just more awesome and for Dresden to kind of have to confront that but fortunately he's run into that now often enough that it's not really a weakness for him in terms of his ego it's like "I know I can't win that fight I'll have to think of something else ". But that was the main thing and then I had to write a little bit more of an introduction into Battle Ground than existed before. So we wound up getting to say "release the kraken!" and that's always something you want to do as a writer, one of those boxes you want to tick, "has anyone ever said release the kraken in one of my stories? Yes? Good, moving on".

Priscellie: So this year also marks the 20th anniversary of the Dresden Files which we've been commemorating in the year of Dresden celebration on jimbutcher.com and every Tuesday we've been dropping never-before seen artwork, microfiction, interviews, contests, sample chapters and other... whatever amazingness we happen to come accross. With the microfiction, I feel like those have been the most popular events in the year of Dresden. You've taken us inside the heads of Donald Morgan, Kincaid, Bigfoot Irwin and even Mister the cat. Which was the most fun to write?

Jim: Mister the cat obviously. Anytime you write from an animal's point of view you're gonna have a good time doing that no matter what's going on, yeah probably that one. The microfictions were a lot of fun to... just kind of writing a little short snippet for characters we wouldn't really see a lot of otherwise in the story. Always a lot of fun so I'll do more of those. People keep asking questions about side characters that sort of did their part and moved along and to be able to just go back and write something from their point of view and turn it out real quick is often a lot of fun.

Priscellie: Are there any characters you wrote into microfictions that you now realise you want to write something longer for then?

Jim: I don't know about that, just because I've got so many ideas for things to write and there's only so much Dresden Files energy I can pour into something at a time and I think I probably want to get Harry's story done first of all.

Priscellie: People like more Harry stories, right? Just a mild interest that might bring us here today. The last time I got to interview you we were still pretending there was only going to be one trailer and now we have trailers for both Peace Talks and Battle Ground, the surprise is out. Did you have a favourite moment between the two trailers?

Jim: I actually loved the shot of Ethniu blowing the roof off and plunging Chicago into darkness, I thought that was awfully fun. I loved everything that has Dresden and Marcone on the screen at the same time, that was all quite excellent.

Priscellie: I liked those too if you may have noticed.

Jim: Yeah, the guys we had playing those characters were just so great together, so that was a lot of fun.

Priscellie: Yeah, Chris Sharman? who played Marcone was just like, oozes menace.

Jim: Oh yeah, he does, he does. It's like he flips a switch and you want to back away from him, it's like "this is a dangerous man".

Priscellie: So many of the most dangerous and terrifying characters in the trailer were played by like, the most kindhearted, considerate actors.

Jim: Oh my god, I know. The girl playing Ethniu, she was so sweet I just wanted to pick her up and put her in my pocket she was such a cutie and then all of a sudden she gets to turn on "evil, frustrated demigoddess here to wreck everything". So it's always amazing when you run into people who can do that, it's a genuine gift.

Priscellie: One additional bit of housecleaning, Ian Hampson, from one of the Facebook communities, says: Can we preemptively call you an evil, evil man?

Jim: It's usually a good bet, Ian. So yeah, feel free. I mean I'm not gonna take it personal either way because it's kind of a compliment for me so.

Priscellie: So part of your writing process includes the use of beta readers. Spoilers. *laughs* And occasionally you'll have a beta reader point out a continuity check that forces you to rewrite things. Which continuity check has ruined your life the most?

Jim: Let's rewrite this question: "Which of Priscilla's beta continuity checks has ruined my life the most?"

Priscellie: *laughs* If that's the way you want to phrase it I don't mind.

Jim: I know that I tried to do something with a character that I actually killed at the beginning of one book, I forget which one but I think it was around 11 or 12. And you had to remind me of that and I had to be like "oh right, character dead. Can't really talk my way through this one I'm gonna have to take this serious and fix it". But it's never, even when the beta readers hand me something that causes me a lot of extra work they're never doing anything that is undoing anything good. They're making the book stronger and better. Sometimes in a very annoying fashion, a very frustrating fashion but then again if I had been smart and caught it myself it wouldn't have happened either so I can hardly blame the beta readers for it when I wasn't smart enough to see the problem.

Priscellie: You've mentioned when you started writing the series that you created D&D character sheets for the major players. Are there any major details that you remember from it that might be fun for fans to know about?

Jim: Harry Dresden does not have an 18 intelligence as a wizard on his D&D character sheet, he has a 16 intelligence. So he's just like, barely enough to be first-rank wizard. But he did have an 18 constitution so I'm like "okay buddy you're gonna get beat up a lot" and that was part of the randomness the dice gave me that actually went into the series itself as I went along.

Priscellie: Wow, I didn't think there was a dice roll aspect.

Jim: Yeah, I just rolled the character up and put his stats together and "oh intelligence 16? so he's kind of smart then all right, good he's a wizard he should be smart", yeah he had a high constitution, just sort of middling dexterity and strength and less wisdom and less charisma than he should have had so I'm just like "you're going to be saying the wrong thing to the wrong person all the time", again, a bit of dice randomness that created character for the series.

Priscellie: Anything from the other character sheets?

Jim: Murphy's has 15 strength and dexterity and 16 constitution, I think she was basically as smart as Dresden only she hadn't wasted all her time learning esoteric magic stuff, she'd learned all the practical things. There were several characters that were like that and I went through and I was like "you've gotta have a character sheet of some kind and I've got all these spare D&D character sheets lying around so I might as well use them".

Priscellie: So we know what Harry does for income, what do some other wizards do to make ends meet?

Jim: Most wizards are clever enough to start investing. And after a century or so their portfolio is usually pretty impressive and making a really nice return. So most of the older grey-headed, solid, been-around wizards that have kind of established themselves are usually independently wealthy by then as well. Because it's like take ten bucks, put it in the bank, wait a century. You know, like that.

Priscellie: But to first get that principal, what do some of the gen x/millennial wizards do?

Jim: Oh gosh, the gen x/millennial wizards are such outcasts because they have so much trouble interacting with technology so they really can't take part in online culture. So so many things leave them behind and and they don't want to be left behind so they keep trying to keep up with it and everything. And these are the kind of folks who are kind of like a good magic talent but not full time wizardy talent, not go make a living at it talent. Those folks want to keep up, they try to keep up but they can't really so they wind up doing all these jobs that are like exotic animal farm.

Priscellie: *laughs* Warden Tiger King.

Jim: Exactly, Warden Joe Exotic.

Priscellie: The crossover no one wanted.

Jim: They wind up in these places where they find themselves making a living where they do things where they don't actually intersect hugely with the online culture and technology culture. And yeah which is also... they generally don't interact well with technology in general either so they kind of wind up in shady businesses where you don't keep a lot of records on computers.

Priscellie: So most members of the Paranet have some minor magical talent, what is Paranoid Gary's talent?

Jim: Paranoid Gary's talent is that he's an oracle, his talent is analysis. His oracular gift expresses itself through him mucking around on the internet and finding out various information. Oracular stuff is a very very low wattage gift, magically speaking. So it runs on a tiny battery that rarely interferes with things that are around him because the more it interfered with the things around him the more it would obviate it's own ability to tell the future.

Priscellie: Algorithomancy.

Jim: Something like that. But Gary he can analyse things and put things together. His magic is essentially... he gets the powers from "Psych" where things get highlighted when he looks at them. He goes "aha!" and puts them together after that. He rarely puts them together in a coherent and logical and overall sane and human way because that's not really who he is but he's really good at putting them together.

Priscellie: Those questions were by Damian Walls and Sarah Beck, props to you guys for asking.

Jim: Thanks guys.

Priscellie: What would the Paranet have to do to be considered a big enough body to sign the accords? And this is from poly? granada?

Jim: Oh they'd have to win some fights, is what they'd have to do. At the end of the day, in the supernatural world, among the various political powers, what gets you respect is the ability to thrash them. And if you can do that then they have to take you seriously because if they don't then you can thrash them. So that would be what they would really have to do, it would be something, a very difficult thing for them to do. It'd take an awful lot of coordination and leadership so it would take an awful extreme situation for something like that to come together. And I can't imagine where in the Dresden Files universe an extreme situation like that might exist *smirks and lifts mug while Priscellie laughs*.

Priscellie: From Bidor24, the blackened denarii have apparently been around for 2000 years, in that time they must have gone through a lot of owners. Were any of them people we would recognise from history books?

Jim: Yeah probably. For the most part, Nicodemus himself didn't like grabbing overwhelming historically notable figures because he thought that was too obvious. He was always in favour of operating from the shadows and keeping as low a profile as possible in most cases. He didn't mind if his enemies knew what he was up to and what he was doing because that added to his reputation so that was fine. The original question?

Priscellie: Are there any famous folks in history?

Jim: His wife on the other hand /loved/ getting famous boys. So yeah you would be able to find a lot of folks who were briefly Denarians, especially musicians who got famous really fast, musicians who went crazy overnight.

Priscellie: So Nicky and the Nickelheads could genuinely be a band?

Jim: Yeah we could certainly have something like that at some point. I swear to god I want to do a battle of the bands episode in the graphic novels, it'd be a lot of fun. Because Harry can play guitar sort of and we can have Thomas on drums and Molly can do tambourine so...

Priscellie: How long have starborns been a thing? Is it recent millennia or much further back?

Jim: Oh for many many many many many moons, as long as anyone remembers, including among the supernatural memories. That's been going since creation got started, it's sort of a well you'll see what it is later when we talk about it more.

Priscellie: Alright, how quickly will Bonnie mature?

Jim: That's a more complicated question than it sounds like. Bonnie's already very very mature when it comes to things like information retention and perception and understanding what is happening out in the world. What she's not mature at is understanding how what she knows interacts with what's happening in the real world.

*cat climbs up*

This is mister Fenris.

Priscellie: Oh my goodness. Okay take two.

Jim: Okay this is Fenris he is my good friend but at the moment he's not hanging out. *turns camera* here we go, Fen weighs four pounds, he is the alpha animal of the house, the ninety pound pitbull will flee from him. Admittedly the ninety pound pitbull is a sucker, he's a big chicken, he flees from everything so...

Priscellie: He's very fierce *camera turns to dozing pitbull* I'm scared.

Jim: Ah yes Fenris and Brutus, they are quite the team. Occasionally Brutus will by lying there asleep next to me and Fenris will just come walking up and just sort of tap him and Brutus will open his eyes and get up and follow Fenris somewhere I don't even know where they go, they wander off someplace.

Priscellie: And the previous one was from Kimberly Sanco? Thank you again. Derek Burger asks "Since there are monsters that can only be seen by children, what happens if or when a wizard uses the sight when one is present?"

Jim: He would go right past it if he wasn't, if he didn't have a childlike mind. If he could not- if he was not in contact with his inner kid if he did not have a good conversational relationship with his own imagination he wouldn't see it at all. And there's really not a lot of wizards who would. There's relatively few who would still be connected enough to that childlike sense of adventure and mischief that they would be able to connect with kids on that level, that's a rare thing.

Priscellie: What percentage of the white council is aware of these creatures that can exist?

Jim: There might be a dozen people on the council who know that and probably most of them who know that have talked about it and been considered wackos by everybody else. Which is just the perfect way for wizards to react to something like that in the Dresden Files "oh that can't possibly be real!", like that. It's for me the proof that wizards are definitely human since it's the reaction they have in the face of something like that.

Priscellie: Excellent, okay um, I do not know how to pronounce these accents. It's Christian? Biorr asks "are the children of wizards somehow shielded from a soulgaze from their parents? Also what would happen if an infant soulgazed an infant?"

Jim: The kid would not react to a soulgaze until some sort of moment where their personality coalesced. You know somewhere about the age of responsibility, the age of maturity where you become responsible for your own choices and your own actions. Because souls are all tied up with free will in the Dresden Files so the kid would probably be clear until that point. That point is different for everyone but you recognise it as a parent when you look at the kid and go "oh my goodness that's another person over there" and at some point in their life you look at them and go "this person has now become something that is not just an amalgamation of what he's run into on tv, in the classroom and here at home with me, he's becoming this whole person who is starting to lip off to me". Because that is the point at which for me I realised "oh my gosh my son is his own person" is when he started mouthing off to me, he was about nine when he first did it. And he was getting away with it behind my back and I wouldn't have known it was happening at all except his mother's face finally broke and she wasn't able to hide the smile anymore and I had to whip around and look at this nine year old behind me dancing around like a shirtless monkey, making fun of me while I was talking about the gym day I'd had that day you know so... Kids are very good for you, they keep you humble, it doesn't matter who you are?

Priscellie: So about the age of nine is where that sort of thing begins?

Jim: Yeah that would sort of be when it would start to begin and if you were a wizard parent you would begin to notice it happening and start to take steps about it like "okay you're growing up now so we're going to have to talk about the way of the world and the first thing is eye contact is going to be an issue so let's talk about how to do it without actually doing it and how we connect with each other without doing it still." I think in wizard families you'd find a lot more physical hand holding a lot of physical contact to compensate for that sort of thing.

Priscellie: Did Molly ever soulgaze her parents?

Jim: Oh um, no probably not- oh she probably did with her dad which is why she's so wrapped up with not wanting to disappoint him. I think that's probably what's behind that.

Priscellie: The feelings!

Jim: Right? Right? Poor kid oh my gosh.

Priscellie: R E A? on reddit asks "is there anything you can tell us about Elaine's parents? Were they minor talents or major players in the supernatural world?"

Jim: I'm not going to say anything about Elaine's parents, mostly because I haven't thought about it too much. Let me think about that one for a while and see where she came from. *thinks* Oh I can't say anything about that without giving too much away so I won't say anything else.

Priscellie: Alrighty. What has Kincaid been up to since the events of Changes?

Jim: Oh Kincaid. I will say this much, Kincaid and Ivy kind of had their falling out.

Priscellie: It's in one of the microfictions on jimbutcher.com

Jim: Oh yeah I actually did that on the website. Since then he's been feeling guilty a lot and drinking and sort of stalking Ivy about and still trying to protect her occasionally and to which she's just like "no, no, I cannot deal with this, no" but he's bad at boundaries and so is she so it's a very broken relationship between the two of them.

*more cat bits*

Priscellie: Who was the warden of Demonreach before Harry?

Jim: Lemme think, I know who it is, and who the guy before that was, but the guy before /that/ was Kemmler so...

Priscellie: Oh god. *laughs*

Jim: Yeah, I mean, half of that entire thing was just the white council trying to keep Kemmler from getting back to the island and opening it up. Which is why they had him being hounded by the wardens all through the wild west and so on. It was to stop him from being able to set things up even more. Kemmler is sort of in the Dresden Files universe he's sort of the Dresden Files version of WWI where it was actually the biggest most epic most incredible conflict the world has ever known but we're all used to seeing WWII because they got some of it on film but we didn't get nearly as much of the great war on film but when you actually go and study it and study all the troop numbers and resources involved WWI was really the great war and WWII was kind of a follow-up. A softer echo in many ways.

Priscellie: In terms of how long someone is a warden, I'm sure it varies from case to case but how long does wardenship typically last?

Jim: It depends on how quickly it gets you killed.

Priscellie: Is that the only way out?

Jim: I'd say it's not the only way out. You can definitely walk away from it or be dragged away from it or driven away from it. And then if somebody else comes along and challenges Demonreach then it's their island if your influence isn't there anymore. By the time Harry got there nobody had been there in a good long while because amon the people who are in the know on the council it would be suicide to go try and do that. If one of the senior council guys got it all the other senior council guys would be like "yep he's the bad guy he's definitely corrupt and serving evil". And then Dresden walked into it and it was just such a stupid move they all kind of looked at him and went "I thing he was he was being dumb? Do you think he was being dumb? Yeah it looks dumb. It looks like he was just being stupid, oh my god, we do need the firepower", you know, like that. The poor council, they find themselves so strapped for resources in so many ways that they keep having to tolerate Harry Dresden.

Priscellie: Did his (Kemmler) wardenship end when he was killed after WWII?

Jim: It ended during one of the times they killed him. Kemmler got killed a bunch of times. He was one of those fun villains who just kept getting back up again just kept Napoleoning his way back into being a problem for the white council.

Priscellie: Pop goes the weasel for necromancers.

Jim: Exactly.

Priscellie: Joshua Salley asks "are we likely to meet the actual Merlin and Arthur as it seems with the situation we may need some backup".
 
Jim: That seems... are they still copyrighted or are they public domain now?

Priscellie: They're definitely public domain.

Jim: Okay. Maybe so then. Public domain, I won't have to pay anybody to use them, perhaps so.

Priscellie: They're legend.

Jim: True, true. I think they're public domain then.

Priscellie: They're definitely older than the oldest Disney film so anything than that is in the public domain.

Jim: One of my favourite crack theories I've heard is that Harry Dresden is Merlin and aging in reverse and getting closer to the beginning and that's what the Dresden Files is, Merlin's origin. That gives me way too much credit but I really like the idea.

Priscellie: Are there any other crack theories you enjoy?

Jim: Yeah there's always a lot of them but whenever somebody asks the question I immediately can't think of them. I did remember that one and brought it up so, when I do think of one I try and bring it up so people will know.

Priscellie: Which Hogwarts house would Dresden go into?

Jim: Uh... wow, good question. That's a really deep one. I can just see Dresden- the sorting hat going "Dresden in house... Gry-no, house Sly-no, house Hu-no, house R-no not that one either." "we've run out of houses" "I don't care, find something" Dresden would wind up in house janitor closet probably.

Priscellie: Steven Parlan? asks "Jim I know you're a D&D player, what's Harry's class and level?"

Jim: Oh at this point Harry is... he's not really doing like full on teleportation type stuff yet so that's gonna put him around 10th 11th 12th level wizard I forget exactly when you start collecting teleportation. It might be as early as 9, could be he just hasn't learned, it's within his capability he just hasn't learned that spell yet, I don't know. But yeah he's like a mid level-high level wizard though he's gonna be doing some respectable stuff, he's not gonna be throwing any Wishes around or anything but... At this point in D&D terms he'll be of that level 10+ of being a wizard, of being a magic user from first edition D&D.

Priscellie: So we're going to get our first question that is sourced from you guys. The top upvoted question is from Joshua Matthews "why Jim, why?" Whyyyyyy

Jim: You all love it, don't act like you don't. I do what I do and if you all didn't respond in the most sincere way possible with your dollars, I wouldn't do this. You're doing this to yourselves.

Priscillie: This is victim blaming.

Jim: Really all I'm doing is-I'm a mirror for the audience, that's all.

Priscellie: It's a very dark mirror.

Jim: *laughs* Kind of a goofy mirror, really.

Priscellie: Like a funhouse mirror.

Jim: Basically.

Priscellie: Alright, Jonathan McGee asks "what is the summer mantle like for Fix and has be basically become like Roland Reuel 2 at this point?

Jim: The Summer mantle is a much different experience for whoever's holding it. It too is fundamentally a force that is dedicated to creation but whereas the Winter mantle's creative output is essentially just in reproduction, go make more soldiers, the Summer mantle's output is much more attached to art and beauty. So Fix finds himself desperately painting things and fixing up cars and not just fixing them but making them beautiful and stuff like that and those are the sorts of pressures that he has to deal with. It's like "sorry I have to create today or I'm gonna lose my mind", like that, and that's what he's doing while Dresden is on the beach with the 225 pound weight vest.

Priscellie: Does he have a Soundcloud?

Jim: Fix? Probably. But yeah that's the sort of drive that Summer deals with, they have a different sort of creative force where they're creating light and beauty. That's sort of what is in their uvra??? They can also just go and get it on and get it out that way but it is a much different thing there over in Summer, they're much more concerned with nurturing the aspects of civilisation in mortals. That is part of what they're doing to protect them because for some of the same reasons that for instance British officers always insisted on having tea every day at the same time because it served as a ritual to remind them that they would not always be in the field and doing these things they would eventually be returning to civilisation and there were some trappings of civilisation that you did not surrender no matter the circumstances and one of those was tea. That was one of the things that helped people come back not just alive but sane and ready to go back to civilisation.

Priscellie: It reminds you of the Dead Poet's Society quote about how medicine and all these things are so important for extending life but the arts are what we live /for/.

Jim: Yes. That's /why/ to do it in the first place and that's really a lot of the balance of Winter and Summer. Winter is there to get the things that are on the bottom of Mazlov's pyramid and Summer is there for those things that are on the higher end and you need them all in order to be a whole person.

Priscellie: Jonathan also asks "can Harry's new blasting rod channel Winter ice in addition to fire?"

Jim: There's no reason it couldn't, the only reason it hasn't is that it's alien to his thinking. Because he does fire and so ice is something completely separate. Fire and ice are kind of the same thing as far as magical operations go and Harry's hit on that before, but it's not something he's made an emotional truth to the point he can whip out an ice blasting rod. That's not something it would occur to him to do. If it did he would probably make a device that would... *ideas begin to appear* get him in all kinds of trouble and probably flood places because he could switch between fire and ice but the middle's just wet. And... *laughs* there's so much havoc in that I have to do it now, damn you sir *Priscellie starts laughing*. Yeah I'm gonna have to play around with that now and see what happens.

Priscellie: So thank you Jonathan McGee you've been personally damned by Jim Butcher.

Jim: Yes you have, congratulations sir.

Priscellie: Seidmadr asks "how much time did the Merlin spend swearing when he learned Harry had returned?"

Jim: Oh um well, I'm not gonna answer that because you'll see later when we go on...um... Does anybody really think that whoever's in charge of the White Council is really what he looks like? So we'll see more about that as we move along.

Priscellie: Okay my brain is going places. Deserae? asks "do you ever lurk on the Dresden Files subreddit or other forums and maybe pose as someone else in order to drop misleading theories or gauge readers' reactions to your books?"

Jim: No I'll occasionally lurk and go by and just see what people are thinking or talking about and that's where I see occasional bits of crack theory. But no I don't go stir things up agent provocateur style.

Priscellie: That he'll admit to.

Jim: So far. But now that you're talking about it... I don't know, that could be fun. I mean, it's not like I don't like messing with you guys. I just normally leave it combined to the pages of the book because it seems more fair. On the other hand, there you all are talking about my stuff and having extra fun and it seems like I should get to have some fun too. Now I'm gonna be thinking about it, why do you do this to me Priscilla? Why do you admit questions like this that you know are going to corrupt my moral fiber?

Priscellie: *laughing* I don't think your moral fiber could get any more corrupt than it already is.

Jim: Okay fair enough.

Priscellie: One of my fun beta anecdotes that I like to recount is when he was writing the very last chapter of Changes. He waited until he saw me online to send it to the beta list so he could get my reaction live in person.

Jim: I'd been up for hours too, it was a Saturday morning I was waiting for you to wake up, it was something like 8:30 or 9, you were sleeping in late for you. But yeah I hadn't slept in a couple of days and been on a sprint to finish the book and I was like "okay just wrote the final chapter, I /have/ to see what this does to her, I have to, there's no way I can't, get some coffee and wait".

Priscellie: My exact words were "what the everloving crap was that??!"

Jim: True that was the first thing.

Priscellie: Jonathan Sheperd asks "I heard you mention in another video that one of your favourite writers was Robert Reid Parker. What's your favourite Spencer novel?

Jim: My favourite Spencer novel... maybe Looking for Rachel Wallace, it was a really really good one. Potshot was a really good one because it was just like the Avengers of the Spencer novels and I really enjoyed that concept. But yeah I love Spencer, depending on what kind of mood I'm in I've got a different favourite Spencer book as a fave. And I've actually enjoyed the hell out of Sunny Randall and his sheriff too I've forgot his name. But yeah anything Robert Parker's done is worth reading. Oh my goodness what an amazingly talented craftsman.

Priscellie: And what are some other authors readers might want to enjoy in between books to make a little bit more sense of the flavour text that went into creating Dresden?

Jim: Definitely go check out Roger Zelazny's? Amber series, I'm rereading those right now and more and more I'm impressed at exactly how influential they were for the Dresden Files and for my writing style in general. If you haven't read Roger Zelazny go read him. Fritz Libra? I love reading his stuff, Harry Harrison, the Stainless Steel Rat. Lemme think, Louis Bujold, I think she's really in many ways the most talent writer alive right now that's working in science fiction and fantasy so she has my eternal respect. Let's see I always recommend the Termaire? novels by Naomi Novik?, if you enjoy the Dresden Files kind of shootemup action go check out go check out Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia?, if you find yourself craving some science fiction epic look at David Weber's Honor Harrington books (ugh no). These are all folks who either had an influence on or have been influenced by the Dresden Files, they're working professionals who are telling great stories of their own, creating their own worlds out of imagination, they're the folks that I go to to read when I want to be inspired.

Priscellie: Daniel Wolfshadow asks "I've tried summoning Molly, why doesn't she answer?"

Jim: You'll have to take that up with Molly she doesn't share all her information with me and I won't presume to speak for her.

Priscellie: Valid. Chris Mullan? asks "if Uriel became mortal when he willingly gave up his grace how or why did the Fallen retain their immortality?"

Jim: The difference was that Uriel's grace was not something that was /taken/ from him, it was something he elected to give up and what was left behind when he did that was essentially this pure human who had not done anything and had not fallen from grace, this pure mortal who was left over after Uriel handed his grace off. So he could still act and walk around and maneuver as a mortal. When it comes to the Fallen though, their grace was taken from them and sort of all that was left was the /shadow/ of the angel that they had been, sort of the negative impression of that angel. They didn't have their own body, their own free will that they could exercise and lose because they already exercised their will and choose badly and lost it. The hard part of being a Fallen is being this creature who is written in indelible ink and who can't recover in many ways. That's sort of the great tragedy of them but that's who they are in the cosmos, they have to be who they are or the balance falls apart.

Priscellie: Charles asks "can you explain why Maeve kept trying to seduce Harry with the limits of the lady mantle? Was it an attempt at assassination?"

Jim: That would have been fun, yes. It might also have forced Mab into grabbing Dresden sooner which Maeve sort of liked the idea of. Maeve also felt enough towards Lloyd Slate that she wanted to get him killed as quickly as she could because she knew he was being tortured and eventually he might go crazy and be enough of a monster that Mab might turn him loose on her so Maeve wanted to get that taken care of and out of the way.

Priscellie: Maeve chose Lloyd Slate to be the Winter knight?

Jim: Yes she did. But after Mab had her, Maeve was worried that Mab was going to get him all roided up and send him back home. You know so that was like "okay I've got to get rid of him, plus he /was/ a pretty good dog". Maeve never really had a lot in the way of humanity going in her favour but she kind of had the ghosts and shreds of it hanging around and so she would- it would come out in the most horrible ways. She was really such a bent and broken character and I only showed the most over the top stuff on-screen. But it was just awful to be her and now Molly's getting to live it so I can walk her into that bit by bit it's so I've sort of been thinking my way through in Molly's head and saying "oh now how does that change and how much does Dresden actually /see/" and by the time we get through all the filters I'm feeling a little bit insane, by the time it actually gets written.

Priscellie: With regards to Maeve so she wasn't allowed on the Disneyland visits?

Jim: No no no no no... Maeve was not allowed around Sarissa that would not have been a good idea. That would be one of those things where Mab was just like "no, just not that, you know what we're going to keep Maeve and Sarissa apart even if /walls of ice/ have to appear to make it happen".

Priscellie: Joshua Matthews asks "if someone with multiple personalities or mantles like Kringle were imprisoned on the island, could only one part be released and other parts left in prison?"

Jim: Ooh that's a good question. Yeah I mean theoretically yeah you could. That would work really really well if the warden was using that to get specific services out of somebody without wanting to expose people to certain dangers. If Harry for example captured Kringle on the island for example he might want to send him out as Kringle or as anything /but/ Kringle so you can go forth and do whatever you're doing Odin but I'm keeping Kringle right here because I know he's the source of your immortality, you can come get him out on Christmas Eve.

Priscellie: oooh.

Jim: And then bring him back but meanwhile you can be free but I've got you. And that's the kind of thing you can get away with when you're the warden of Demonreach when you've got this prison that you can grab any of the big supernatural beings. That would be a way you could exercise control over a being like that. So in that way yeah that's /exactly/ the kind of being you want to entrap with Demonreach but at the same time to do it you've gotta go fight em and win. You don't wanna be the guy that tries to trap Odin and misses. You too will be honoured to learn of Tae Kwan Leap.

Priscellie: So is that a way that Harry could potentially shed the Winter knight mantle?

Jim: That's potentially a way but's it's also like "now walk off the island and leave that part of you here" and what does that do to you if you're just a person? And not one of these incredible supernatural spiritual slash energetic beings. When you're just a regular guy and at the end of the day Dresden has some great tricks but at the end of the day he's a regular guy, what will that do to you? I mean that's some pretty delicate psychic surgery there I don't think that's something you want Harry Dresden in charge of.

Priscellie: Maybe not even Molly assisting with that.

Jim: Yeah maybe not. I don't know who you want doing that, maybe Mab.

Priscelle: Oh god.

Jim: Right?

Priscellie: I also feel like that would be sort of cross purposes.

Jim: Yeah but do you /trust/ her to do it? Not that she can or can't but do you trust her to do it right?

Priscellie: Is killing the Winter knight the only way of getting that mantle? Could Mab withdraw the Winter knight mantle from Harry if she decided she'd prefer a different vessel?

Jim: Ooh I don't know if she could do it without hurting him.

Priscellie: If she didn't care about hurting him?

Jim: If she didn't care about hurting him yeah she could just rip it away that's easy she can just have him killed. But yeah I don't know, maybe she could. It's also one of those things though that I think that, power's one of those gifts where once you give it away you don't get it back. That's kind of the nature of what it is. You give somebody power then they have that power now and they can do things with it and it's sort of out of your hands. It could be one of those things where Mab could go get it back but it's really messy and then she'd have to clean the thing off and perhaps send it out to the spiritual dry cleaners to have the mantle fixed before she could pass it on to someone else.

Priscellie: Joshua Matthews also asks "did Butters ever get in the ring with the einherjar?"

Jim: Oh god I'm not gonna not let that go by. Just give it time though because I've got to set it up. I'm actually gonna be writing some short fiction of sort of what's going on over the course of the next year for Dresden and how his life is changing and it's gonna be framed around a number of political events that he has to attend. And after you've read the book you'll laugh at that it's so funny. And so I'll be able to show how things are changing and one of the things I'll definitely want to do is Butters and that einherjar I don't see how I can not do that.

Priscellie: Can you give us a new bit of backstory that likely won't make it into the books? Jason asks.

Jim: I have several times already along the way here. Lemme think if I can think of anything else, anything that's like small. *thinks* We'll come back to it I mean we've hit several things along the way so far tonight. Here's some we might get to in the future. There actually are gods and stuff around and functioning in our world but they're posing as mortals because they're getting way more play as professional wrestlers and rock stars than they ever did as deities. In our world there's a lot of like the old Greek and Roman deities that are still hanging around, they just look very very different and they're not really allowed to do anything except hang on and watch and observe, they're not allowed to get involved in mortal affairs. So they tend to be a lot of smoke and mirrors and thunder and not a lot of things happening, they're not like Odin who is actually involved in the world and there's something right there. That is sort of the limit that the deities have found themselves running into. Eventually at some point in the Dresden Files history there came a point where the Creator was like "okay guys, you were supposed to guide and protect humanity. You sort of did okay in some instances and some places but now it's time for the humans to be making their own way and everybody needs to step off and do it. And if you want to stay involved in the affairs of humanity you're going to have to play and be subject to death as a mortal just like everybody else." And can you really see Zeus going "oh I'm so enamoured with the mortals I'm going to risk myself to help them"? You can't really see that but of all the deities in sort of the major western pantheons that I was looking at the one that I really thought would stay involved, it had to be Odin. It had to be the guy who would go to people's homes and visit them to check up that they were maintaining their host rights properly and stuff like that you know. He was genuinely involved with humanity. So I made him that character who said "alright I'll set aside my deific immortality and I'll throw into the game like anybody else will" and then immediately started building himself to become someone cool and taking all these other mantles to maintain his immortality so he could continue doing what Odin always did which was defend and teach humanity. I wanted to have that character in the world doing that that was so much fun to get to write I can't get enough of it I love it.

Priscellie: Christine asks "how much of you is in Harry?"

Jim: Harry Dresden is the guy I would like to think I would be if I was handed his powers. I think in fact I would probably be much more one of the giggling villains. Not just one of the villains but one of the giggling villains, one of the guys who is really having a good time being a villain, I think that might be me if they handed me that kind of power but Harry's the kind of guy I would like to think I would be. The kind of guy who genuinely cares and who is genuinely good *Priscellie is silently holding up Jim's Slytherin mug* I don't know what you're talking about. But that's who I would like to think I would be. In real life perhaps not.

Priscellie: Charles asks "how much time do you spend choosing names for characters?"

Jim: Depends on the character some names just come to me and some names there's research that goes into them and there's actual.. most of the character names are puns on some level. About what their function is in the story or what they have to do, not all of them but a good many of them.

Priscellie: John Freeman asks "I've noticed that as Harry grows in his abilities he starts to use magic as a conduit to manipulate energy with a much better understand of classical physics. How do you think magic in the Dresdenverse would behave with respect to quantum mechanics?"

Jim: I would have to know more about quantum mechanics to give you an answer that makes sense. That said, it would interact with quantum mechanics first and foremost on the level of the human emotion that gets involved in going into it. I've known some folks who worked in quantum physics so I would say they would be the sort of wizard who would be like the frustration mages. That would be an excellent way to describe those guys because there just seems to be so much- they seem to be dealing with chaos and with unknowable forces that they keep running into over and over and that keep ruining their day on a regular basis over and over again. I would see those people being frustration mages but having them do things that /nobody/ else could do. They would be the kind of folks who could find the dispersed atoms of the bullet that shattered after it hit that wall, that kind of thing because they would actually be able to get through and dig into that. But they would also be just... loopy just loopy.

Priscellie: Kevin Nichols asks "is there a key difference between how air and water magic work in the Dresden Files?"

Jim: Yes. Water magic is, of the four major classical elements water magic is a very different one in the Dresden Files universe and it has a much more... what would typically be thought of as an eastern understanding of what is involved in water magic. Water magic is stuff that is involved in healing, the stuff that is involved in emotional connection, the stuff that is involved in empathy. It is your interaction with the natural physical world and being in harmony with that world. That's why the wizards who are water mages tend to be very very different from Dresden. Dresden is a very linear kind of guy, he is an a+b=c sort of fellow, the water mages in the Dresden Files universe though are are people like River Shoulders, people like Listens-To-Wind and because water magic acts so differently you see them as very different sorts of wizards and they sort of solve their problems very differently. They tend to be much more empathetic towards Dresden and towards other people who are misunderstood for example. That's why of all the wardens it's Carlos Ramirez who is the one who is close to Harry, he's the water mage, he's the one who can understand him and does have that empathy. He's the guy who is all about connections and about taking connections apart when he needs to. That's where the disintegration aspect of what he does- in water magic comes from is severing those connections now that he understands them. But yeah Ramirez, he is a much more spiritually and mentally alert guy than most of the wardens around, he's got a lot of depth to him. Also a lot of pain so he's a complex fellow.

Priscellie: Please write a story from Ramirez' pov because this sounds really compelling.

Jim: Maybe I will.

Priscellie: Excellent. Oh right five minutes to go uh, someone has a theory as to who fixed Little Chicago, we're not gonna tell you.

Jim: Right.

TheCuriousFan:
Priscellie: Jonathan McGee asks "what would Thomas look like if he took Mab's offer to be her backup knight? And can the white court feed off of fae the same way they do humans?"

Jim: Oh my god they can and it would be such a nightmare. Here's the thing about being in faerie. And remember that we're talking about "you are what you eat" that's sort of one of those lines that goes all the way through the Dresden Files universe. So when you're in fae the reason you don't accept food from faeries is because the food you're getting isn't actually food it's the stuff of the Nevernever. The material of the Nevernever is basically an augur you can form into whatever you want and so the fae have formed it into food but your body will still take it and take it in but when you leave faerie it turns back into ectoplasm it goes away on whatever level it was so if you've been in faerie for a month eating food you're gonna have a month's worth of your body just slough off because even though you ate the food and processed it and made it part of your body it was never actual material it was just the stuff of the Nevernever.

Priscellie: So in all that time when Harry was getting rehab.

Jim: They were bringing in mortal food for him to keep him whole because otherwise he would have been bound and been unable to leave. That's why you don't eat food when you're in fae sort of the same rule that goes around for other realities like that as well. That was the first part of the answer but now I've forgot the first part of the question.

Priscellie: So even if Molly were to shed her current mantle one assumes she has probably had enough fae food at this point that that's an issue.

Jim: Unless she has protected herself from it which she could have done because her mantle comes with a bunch of intellectus about how the rules work because she has to have to have that because she's in charge of it. But at the same time if Thomas did that he'd be devouring essentially false emotions in the same sort of way and so he when he went back and all that stuff peeled off and he ate nothing but faerie food that would just leave him bonkers insane until he got back. It would turn him into a /monster/ if that happened and Mab would be in favour of that because that would be to her advantage in many ways so she would be into that. Because that way she could essentially get a Winter Soldier out of it that way, she gets to send him out and essentially as soon as he he leaves he's empty and just her terminator killing machine and when he comes back she can fill him up with whatever she needs for the next mission *Priscellie winces*. I know, it's awful, I'm bent to be thinking of these sorts of thing.

Priscellie: *laughs* You're not a nice human being.

Jim: I'm not a nice human being but I'm channeling it in as healthy a way as I possibly can so...

Priscellie: We are your therapy.

Jim: Yeah exactly. Wow I feel so bad to say that but it's true.

Priscellie: Joseph R asks "why didn't the Archive interact more with Dresden?"

Jim: There's character reasons for that which we might find out more later. But the Archive, well for one thing the Archive doesn't want to interact real hard with anybody, the Archive is there for everybody. The Archive is there to be the backup memory of humanity. It's not supposed to be involved with any one being or one cause or anything like that, it's got to be a pretty big cause before the Archive says "yes, that's acceptable for the Archive to pitch on because this is a cause that is in the interest of all humanity." Like fighting Ethniu, that was a cause that was somewhat worthy.

Priscellie: Trying to find which one will be the one to bring us out, let's see... How does it feel knowing that Mandalorians follow The Way from the Cinder Spires?

Jim: Oh, that's just the Way, the ideal. Oh my gosh, the Mandalorians would be welcome. Brother, the various brothers and sisters of the Way would be happy to get along with the Mandalorians. You'll see the Way get along well with the Pikers as we get to do more Cinder Spires stuff. I'm so looking forward to it.

Priscellie: Are there any being Demonreach is incapable of holding?

Jim: Demonreach is incapable of holding, at least forever, any being with free will. So Demonreach can't keep Thomas there forever.

Priscellie: Oooh. Does the Brit have free will?

Jim: That is the question then, isn't it? That is a fair question.

Priscellie: I think we'll end it there.

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/jim-butcher

If anyone wants the Mysterious Galaxy one done they can either pay for my ticket or post the password because that q&a is behind a paywall.

Dina:

--- Quote from: TheCuriousFan on October 05, 2020, 11:33:38 AM ---Priscellie: Algorithomancy.

Jim: Something like that. But Gary he can analyse things and put things together. His magic is essentially... he gets the powers from "Psych (or Psyche, don't know the reference)" where things get highlighted when he looks at them. He goes "aha!" and puts them together after that. He rarely puts them together in a coherent and logical and overall sane and human way because that's not really who he is but he's really good at putting them together.

--- End quote ---

TCF, Jim means the TV Show "Psych" were a man pretends to be psychic but it's "just" very observant. In the show some pieces of what he sees are suddenly highlighted, that in some videogames that use that effect to let you know what things you can interact with. The lead character of Psych can take note of those observations, order and connect them in his head and imagine what happened.

(Delete this post if you don't feel like it should be here. And again, thanks for your work)

TheCuriousFan:

--- Quote from: Dina on October 07, 2020, 06:09:42 AM ---TCF, Jim means the TV Show "Psych" were a man pretends to be psychic but it's "just" very observant. In the show some pieces of what he sees are suddenly highlighted, that in some videogames that use that effect to let you know what things you can interact with. The lead character of Psych can take note of those observations, order and connect them in his head and imagine what happened.

(Delete this post if you don't feel like it should be here. And again, thanks for your work)

--- End quote ---
Thanks for the info.

And I mostly did this one because it was particularly dense with new info.

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