The Dresden Files > DF Reference Collection
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cass:
Yet *more* from MarsCon
Segment 5:
Interviewer: Do you do a lot of travel to do research for locations?
Jim: Um, uh, I…I didn’t when I first started the books, up through about book seven or book 8, I mean , there was just no way I could even…I could possibly afford it. Uh, I did a lot of my research online, uh, I started making contacts online for people in Chicago so I’d be able to say ‘Hey, I need to know what the west wall of Graceland Cemetery looks like.’ And I’d have somebody say, ‘Oh, I drive by there on my way to work everyday, I will take pictures on my cell phone and email them to you.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, I love the internet!’ (Laughter) Lately, I’ve been able to say, ‘Okay, I need a couple of rooftops that are about the same height and at fairly close together, let me go get Google Earth, okay and I find two buildings that are exactly what I want, and where are the streetlights, they’re right here ‘cause I can zoom in and see them, he’d have to remove all these streetlights right here to make this feasible, okay, and, and, so then I can write a good scene that way. I’ve actually gone to Chicago several times now, uh, I was actually in the Field Museum and I got a picture of myself in front of Sue trying to hitch a ride. (Laughter) Uh, the same day I went to the Field Museum I also went to the aquarium, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I have got to use this in a book!’ And they had this lady taking a tour of schoolkids through looking at all the dolphins underwater and I’m like, ‘Uh, Ma’am?’ Okay, just so you know, if you ask them, ‘Ma’am, what would happen, uh, if this glass broke? (Laughter) I mean, you know, if somebody shot it or something.’ (Laughter) They don’t take that in nearly a good a humor as you would think. Even if you say, ‘No, I need to know for professional reasons.’ (Laughter) Ok, so just, FYI.
Interviwer: (Pointing) Yup!
Audience member: Uh, do you ever give yourself nightmares?
Jim: Do I ever give myself nightmares? Um, mostly about having….uh, showing up to a…uh, like, showing up to someplace to sign my books, only, I can’t sign them because I didn’t finish them. (Laughter) It’s like one of those I didn’t get my homework done dreams. I’ve never appeared naked in one, though, which, I think that’s a mercy for all of us. (Laughter) But, uh, other than that, uh, no, not really.
Interviewer: (Pointing) Yeah.
Audience member: Uh, where did MacAnally come from?
Jim: Where did MacAnally come from? Uh, MacAnally, I…I basically just needed a neutral barkeep character where I could have a lot of things happen, uh, kind of uh, I wanted to have sort of a, uh, a little microcosm Casablanca where I could have the Nazis and the French rubbing elbows. Uh, and, I needed a name for the barkeep, ‘cause I was writing it fairly early in the Dresden…in Storm Front, so I named him after my friend MacAnally, who was a buddy of mine all the way through junior high and high school. And who liked his drink, uh, I was always like the sober guy, I was always the guy that the people…the people were going to go somewhere that they were gonna be drunk they were like, ‘Hey Jim, do you wanna go?’ because they knew I wasn’t going to drink and that way, they had somebody to drive. So I got to wind up in…and I remember all these things that these other people have no memory of (Laughter), so I feel kind of special, you know.
Audience member: Um, so you said that Dresden Files started as this sort of eff you to your teacher moment, and, you know, said that you have panned, you know, so many books and then three apocalyptic trilogy…at what point did it change from ‘Eff you’ to, like, when did you stop and do that planning?
Jim: Uh, when did I stop and do the planning? After I…after I handed the first draft to my teacher and she read it and she looks at me and she says, ‘You did it.’ I said, ‘What?’ She said, ‘This will sell. You will be able to sell this to a publisher. This is of professional quality, you’ve been working towards this for years, you did it.’ And I said, ‘I did?’ (Laughter) She says, ‘Yes.’ And it was the first time…I mean, her…praise from this teacher was like….she was not preparing you, uh, to, you know….she was not the kind of teacher who would, who would write a big star on your paper and put it on the refrigerator for you so everybody could see how good it was. She was the kind of teacher who would, uh, like, literally roll up a chapter, after she’d read it, lean over, thwap you lightly on the head with it, and say, ‘What were you thinking?’ and then tell you…and then tear it down. Uh, I mean, in a very neutral, mechanic, crasftsman fashion, but that’s what she would do. And so when she said, ‘You did it.’ I was just like, you…I mean, I was rolling my jaw up off the floor on a little…on a stick, because it just kept hitting the floor. And so after that, I said, ‘Well, uh, if you really think this could go, I mean, do you think I should plan for a series?’ And she’s like, ‘Well, that might be something that you would consider, yes.’ And so, I went home and wrote out…and planned it for a twenty book series, and I came back and I said, ‘A twenty book series, do you think that would be okay?’ (Laughter) And she sorta gets this little smile of her face and she says, ‘You know, I think if you can sell a twenty book series, yeah, you’ll be doing fine.’ (Laughter)
Interviewer: So, how’re you doing?
Jim: Yeah, uh, I’m doing fine. (Laughter). I had no idea exactly how dry that was at the time. I mean, because there’s no way you can walk up to a publishers as an unpublished author and say, ‘I want to sell you a twenty book series!’ Uh, that’s impossible, that doesn’t happen. And I didn’t know it was impossible, so I did it. (Laughter). Uh, go figure. Uh, like I said, I’ve stumbled into things a lot. Uh, and then…I think I’ve been fortunate enough to realize in time that I had a good thing going and then smart enough not to ruin it. Uh, so, you know, and plus, you know, there was, you know, writing…uh, writing for ten years without getting paid, is kind of, you know, my “in papers” but, uh, you know, that’s the kind of investment you…you have to make, when you’re not very innately talented, which, apparently I wasn’t. It was a lot of working to build up skills.
Audience member: Are you still in touch with this teacher?
Jim: Am I still in touch with the teacher? We swap emails once or twice a year. Uh, I wrote her, uh, I wrote her a letter that was for her students, uh, so that she could show it to them, and I, uh…the letter starts off, ‘Dear Debbie’s Students, Shut up and do what Debbie tells you to do. (Laughter)’ And then I told them that story, and then, at the end, ‘So, in conclusion, I…you know, my career would have taken off five years sooner if I had just shut up and done what Debbie told me to do. (Laughter). You know, Sincerely, Jim Butcher’
Interviewer: (pointing)
Audience member: I had the same question.
Audience member: Um, a buch of us have been chomping at the bit and wondering, um, who’s going to wield Amoracchius and Fidelacchius and [unintelligible]
Jim: Um, yeah, ok, who’s going to get to wield the two new Swords? Um, well really, not the two new swords, but the Swords that are in Dresden’s keeping right now, and are we going to get anything more about that from Ghost Story? Probably not, nah. (Laughter)
Interviewer: How…how long will they have to wait?
Jim: I…well…oh, uh, let’s see, we’ll probably get the new…we’ll probably get the new, the new wielder of Fidelacchius in Book 14 or 15. Um, Amoracchius is gonna, uh…we’re gonna…(Jim chuckles evilly), that’s…that’s gonna be apocalypse time by the time we get [unintelligible]. Amoracchius is not one of those Swords that really rampages around the world very often, and when if does, you’ve heard about it, so…(Laughter).
Audience member: I’ve read the last book, and I was very curious about development of [unintelligible] and I was wondering if we were going to get a little bit of backstory on him?
Jim: Backstory on Mouse? I mean, there’s…there’s like eight weeks before Harry got him, (Laughter), that’s really not a whole lot to fit that in…I mean, in terms…in terms of what he is, um, I will say this about Mouse: uh, he does have a bunch of brothers and sisters, uh, who, who wonder where….how come they haven’t heard from him. ‘You never howl, you never pee on anything….’ (Laughter) And plus, there is…uh, I will just say that the possibility exists that Harry didn’t rescue all of them, and if so, where are the others? (Various awww!s from the audience) Interesting.
Interviewer: Don’t ever mess with the dog. The audience hates it when you mess with the dog.
Jim: I’ve been…I…I’ve been, yeah, there have been several folks who have said, ‘yeah, you need to write a, uh, a Mouse and Mister short story.’ (Applause) Oh my gosh, that would so be like an episode of Pinky and the Brain. (Laughter and applause, comments about taking over the world.)
Jim: But, uh…but you will learn more about Mouse when, you know, you really have to have someone who’s able to talk to him, and the only one who can talk to animals is, is Injun Joe right now.
Audience member: Can Harry [unintelligible] Joe, ‘cause, [unintelligible] animals, he knows all the animals [unintelligible]
Jim: Oh, well, if he knew where Mouse was, maybe.
Audience member: Will Harry find love and actually get to keep it? (Laughter)
Jim: Will harry find love and get to keep it. Um, maybe? Maybe, maybe. Yeah, the romance is the one thing I never really sketched out; I wanted it to be kind of more organic to go along with the story as…as it developed or didn’t, and uh, as it turns out, you know, as it turns out, the person that you’re in love with can have some small effects on other aspects of your life. (Laughter) You know, who knew?
Interviewer: So, you yourself don’t know where that particular angle is going yet?
Jim: No, no, why? It’s too much fun to…it’s too much fun to find out while I’m writing it. Uh, so, I’ll let you know as soon as I do. Uh, [comment cut off].
cass:
Last two segments from MarsCon
Segment 6:
Audience member: [comment cut off]….ants along the side?
Jim: How much was I involved with the back and forth, uh, kinda, the banter between the characters that are in the margins of the role-playing game book. Uh, I went over it, I went over the dialogue to approve it after it was already all done. Uh, and…and basically said, ‘Yeah, this is good.’ You know, so, that was the work of them, uh, and I think it speaks to, uh, their dedication and commitment as to, uh, how well they actually did do that dialogue. (Applause) Yrah, I swear, I mean, some of these researchers that Fred managed to get to put on the books, I mean, they are just spooky. Uh, you know, they had written all these things into…into the rule book that I was like, ‘You can’t…you can’t put that, that, you can’t put that there!’ And they’re, ‘Why not?’ ‘Well, because it’s not going to be out ‘til Book 18!’ (Laughter) But they had put together the pieces and inferred the existence of, uh, certain things, and uh, you know, they were just kind of, you know, throwing them in, and I’m like, ‘Don’t do that, don’t do that!’ (Laughter)
Interviewer: On, on the flip side though, was there anything in there that you looked at and said ‘Oh, I could use that!’?
Jim: Um, not so far, not so far. Uh, there are some things that I’ve looked at and gone, ‘Ooh, interesting!’ uh, and so it’s gone into the cooker, but, uh, I’ll probably…I’ll probably think it’s original. (Laughter) And then at some point I’ll be going back through the rule book and go, ‘Oh! Okay, I got it there, I…I really should send a letter to Fred.’ (Laughter)
Audience member: Um, that was a leading question because there’s a back and forth between Harry and Billy about the werewolves being able to talk to animals, uh, dogs specifically. So….
Jim: Where? Which book?
Audience member: I just got them for Christmas; I don’t have them memorized yet.
Various: [Unparseable comments about what book and section the information might be found in from various audience members]
Audience member: Um, it’s basically, ‘Billy says “Woof”’. (Laughter)
Jim: Right, yeah, yeah, the wolves can’t…I mean, they…just because you can turn into a wolf doesn’t mean you can talk to a dog. It does give you a little bit more insight and perspective into being a dog. Uh, which almost counts as communication. Um, you know, for me, uh, I think I understand my dog pretty well, although I had to subtitle him for a long time in order to do it. So, I had my dog voice when I do my dog’s dialogue back to me when I talk to him. So, you know, ‘What’s going on Fros (sp?), whatcha doing?’ (In a high voice) ‘Oh nothing, I’m not trying to jump up on this chair to get what’s left of your sandwich.’ (Laughter) You know, that kind of thing.
Interviewer: Now that, uh, the SyFy series has ended, uh, what’re…what…what is the state of the rights for the Dresden Files?
Jim: Uh, the rights to the Dresden Files have…I got them back early, so they’re all mineminemine again. (Applause) And we’ll see what happens, we’ll see what happens with them.
Audience member: Uh, considering the experience with the series and how that kind of well, (other audience member: tanked), that happened, uh, what kind of involvement would you insist upon, if anything else were to ever happen again, I mean, would it be similar to the involvement you had with the comic? Final say? I mean, what would you like to have?
Jim: Oh, um, if…the question is: if we do…if there’s another, uh, shot at a TV show or movie, et cetera, what kind of role would I want to have, would I want to play in it. Um, I think it would depend a lot upon, uh, how much I already had on my plate, uh, because I’m kind of at a point in my life right now where there’s enough to do that if I add anything else to it, I’m going to be letting down someone that I care about a lot, and that’s not acceptable to me. Um, so, uh, I think it would depend on what my schedule was looking like and so on for how much I would want to be involved. And, I mean, if you want to get involved in Hollywood, there’s a number of levels to which you can get involved, and some of them I kind of don’t like, I kinda don’t like the, uh, you know, the executive producer level of involvement, where they put your name on it, and they do things in your name but you’re not actually doing things. Although there is an additional paycheck that goes along with it, I understand. Uh, but, uh, you know, as far as that goes, uh, I would…I would either like to be up to…in it up to my neck with, with uh, veto authority over it, or, you know, not involved, you know, except as the, ‘And oh here…and by the way, there’s the author.’ Although I think I would say, ‘I get to appear in the background somewhere, and that’s all there is to it!’ (Laughter)
Interviewer: Everyone caught his cameo in the series?
Audience: Yup.
Jim: Yeah, I got to do the cameo for the…for the TV series, uh, which was fun and cool. And, uh, I got to meet people and so on.
Interviewer: (Pointing) Yeah.
Audience member: At what point in the series are we going to find out about Harry and the island of Demonreach?
Jim: At what point in the series are we going to find out about the connection between Harry and the island of Demonreach? In the last chapter of Ghost Story. (Audience gasps, applauds) Yeah, that came as a shock to the betas who are reading it in progress right now, they’re like, ‘Really? Really?’
Audience member: Is there any plans….Side Jobs was an enjoyable book, do you have any plans to do any other novellas like that or collections…?
Jim: Ok, um, do I have any plans for any more novellas or collections? The answer to that is I originally wrote Side Jobs because I…I wanted to do the anthology because I wanted to get all the short stories in one place; there are people who can’t afford to go buy, you know, a dozen different anthologies, uh, and so I wanted to be able to have them all in one spot for the readers to be able to get them. Um, and, as it turned out, when Side Jobs came out, there was…there was issues at other publishers and I had two stories out that did not make Side Jobs. Um, so, now, the only thing I can do if I wanted to stick to my original goal is to do another anthology, uh, of short stories, because…(Applause), so that’s kind of the idea now, as…I’m writing several more short stories, uh, early next year…early this year…Oh my gosh, I’ve got to…I’ve got to get those written! (Laughter)
Interviewer: Good night, everyone, Jim’s got to go!
Jim: And, uh, and then I’ll also be writing another novella, and, uh, you know, to include, uh, so I’m going to do another few short stories so that I can do another anthology, probably not next year, but maybe the year after.
Interviewer: (Pointing) Yes?
Audience member: What did Margaret LeFay have on Leanansidhe in order to convince her to be Harry’s godmother?
Jim: What did Margaret LeFay have on the Leanansidhe in order to convince her to be Harry’s godmother. Uh, (singsong) I’m not gonna tell you! (Laughter) (Jim nods.) uh, but…but you’ll see.
Audience member: When?
Jim: At some point. (Laughter) At some point. I’m not sure…I’m not sure if that’ll be late in the series or early in the capstone, so….
Interviewer: (Pointing) Yeah.
Audience member: The Alphas have started demonstrating a little bit more than just turning into a wolf, how far are you planning on going with that?
Jim: I’m sorry, what was the first part of the question?
Audience member: The Alphas have started demonstrating…
Jim: Oh, the Alphas have started, uh, to develop, uh, into something more than just turning into a wolf, and how far will I be running with that. Um, a bit. (Laughter) But, uh, but I don’t want to spoil anything for you, so, uh...yeah, they’re…Okay, the Alphas are…the Alphas are us, they’re the gamers who look at this thing…who look…the gamers…the people who show up at the conventions and cosplay and who suddenly get handed this stuff, this cool stuff they can do. Of course they’re not just going to leave it at…at what they’re handed, ‘Look, here’s how you can become a wolf, that’s amazing,’ ‘Oh, that IS amazing! But what else can we do?’ (Laughter) ‘Wouldn’t it be even more amazing if…?’ And uh, yeah, so far nobody’s managed to melt themselves into a puddle of grey goo, that’s sort of the…that’s sort of the ultimate FAIL as a shapeshifter, uh (Laughter) you know, if you get the mega-fail that’s what happens to you, but we’ll see.
Audience member: Will we get to see Ivy grow up a bit?
Jim: Will we get to see Ivy grow up a bit? Oh yes.
Audience member: [Unintelligible]
Jim: Uh, who do I think would play a good Harry. Besides Will Smith, because I’ve always said Will Smith. Uh, this guy in the back (points, to laughter), for one. I really don’t know him but he’s quite tall and he was pointing to himself, so, uh…(Laughter) (suggestions from the audience—“the dude with the hand”) yeah, well, Matt, yeah, he might do it pretty well, actually, he’s got the right look, um, uh, let’s see, Alexis Denisov, uh, I think, could do it, or could have done it, I don’t know what he’s like lately. Marsters could have done it, I don’t know if he could do it lately, he’s getting kind of…you know, he’s getting a little weathered, we might have to cast him as uh, as somebody else. Um….(to somebody in the audience) what? Oh, uh, I would…I would accept Hugh Jackman, (Laughter)…I would tolerate him, I would tolerate Mr. Jackman. Uh, uh, really, it’s not something that I really think about so much, because in my head, he’s never somebody who’s in the movies, he’s the guy in my head who, uh, is the guy in the uh, in the prequel cartoon, that Ardien drew. Uh, in the prequel comic, the, uh, Welcome to the Jungle, that’s Dresden as he looks in my head, that’s very, very close to what he is because they worked so closely with me putting the images together.
Segment 7:
Audience member: Uh, could Ivy…does the Archive read digital? Or is it only print?
Jim: Does the archive read digital, or is it only print? No, she gets it all. Uh, and…yeah, and nobody ever planned for the amount of information that has actually shown up in the past 20 years or so. Uh, so yeah, that’s not a good thing to be throwing on the…the little girl, don’t-have-any-insulation-against-everything-Archive. (Jim chuckles evilly) Like, totally bad timing for that, haha. Uh, I think Ivy would punch me in the nose too. (Laughter)
(audience gets loud)
Interviewer: Could you start again, please?
Audience member: You’ve got all this written down on indestructible scrolls somewhere, [unintelligible]…we still get the end of the story, right?
Jim: Oh, heck no. (Laughter) So it’s in your best interest to see that I am all right. (Laughter)
Interviewer: (Pointing) Uh, way in the back.
Audience member: Any…give us any teasers on the upcoming shorts?
Jim: On the upcoming short stories? Huh. Man, I might have to do a Mister and Mouse one…(Applause) [unintelligible]…although it might really wind up being more Mister, Mouse and Bob (more applause), because that would be really cool. Uh, uh, let me think who else…um…no, I was…I was thinking I’ll probably do another…another Murphy one at some point, and…because, I mean, it was so hard to do, the first one, it was like, okay, I did a lot of work on that I need to get some more mileage out of that one. Uh, and then, I will probably actually do one from the point of view of the private eye…
Audience: Vince?
Jim: Yeah, Vince (Applause). Uh, just because, uh, he’s really…I mean, he is so much my tribute to the late Robert Parker character, uh, it’s really…it was my intention to write…to write somebody who’s totally in that Spencer vein. And uh, Vince….Vince is good for that. Uh, he’d be…he’d be hilarious as a…as a point of view character, but….
Interviewer: Do you have a title for the book after Ghost Story?
Jim: Uh, no not yet.
Interviewer: All right, we’ve got time for one last question.
Jim: Wait! I do. I’ve…I put in email somewhere. (Laughter) I can’t remember right now, though, but it’s digital. (Someone comes up onto the stage and says something to Jim). Oh! Right! Okay, duh. Winter Knight. Yeah, Winter Knight. I mean, come on, obviously. All right, look. Being dead does not get you out of a contract with the Queen of Air and Darkness. It does not.
Audience: …[unintelligible] until he died?
Jim: He cheated. What if he cheated? Somebody must’ve.
Interviewer: So, I guess that kind of answers your other question about being hit by a bus, if being dead doesn’t get you out of a contract. (Laughter)
Jim: Yeah, it doesn’t get you out of a contract with Penguin, either.
Interviewer: All right, we’re coming to the end of the hour, we’ve got time for one last question. (Points)
Audience member: With the Dresden Files is chugging along, and Codex Alera done, are we going to see you doing any other series or are you going to focus solely on doing Dresden?
Jim: Uh, I’m only doing the Dresden, uh, for the next year or so, uh, just because my wife says, ‘Jim, you have got to take some time off or I will kill you.’ (Laughter) Uh, and…and she’s probably right. Um, but I am gong to be starting…I mean, I’m going to be doing another project…I don’t want to be doing just the Dresden Files, I want to be doing other stuff, too. I think, in the future, uh, I think the way I’ll do it next is that I’ll…I’ll write the book and have it written and then sell it. Because that seems to be so much of a less, uh, deadline, stressy, uh, time-crunchy way to get things done.
Audience member: Any change you’ll be going back to Alera?
Jim: Any chance of going back to Alera? Maybe.
Interviewer: Did you come in late? (Laughter)
Jim: Yeah, I kinda talked about that earlier, um, oh, that question doesn’t count, we’ll go one more.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Audience member: Any books coming out on audio?
Jim: Any…?
Interviewer: Any books coming out on audio?
Jim: Oh, the Dresden books on audio? They’re all on audio.
Audience member: Are they?
Jim: Yes. Yeah, James Marsters read them all. Okay, one more, that one didn’t…
Interviewer: Yeah that one doesn’t count either. Sorry Lunacy!
Audience member: If the faerie queen dies, do you get out of the contract?
Jim: If the faerie queen dies do you get out of the contract? No. You just have a different faerie queen show up to…I mean, the faerie queen is an office, it’s not a person, uh, so, I mean, Lily found that out the hard way, you know, so…
sjsharks:
Wow thanks a ton for all of that cass
cass:
My poor abused fingers and wrists say, "You're welcome!" ;D
library lasciel:
Someone needs to buy cass a round or 23.
Sheesh. That's one epic transcripting job there.
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