ParanetOnline
The Dresden Files => DF Spoilers => Topic started by: RobReece on February 14, 2022, 05:59:05 PM
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has anyone heard anything from or on Jim? not trying to dig into his personal life, just curious if even the Betas have had any contact with him...
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I hope he is well and is writing the Olympian Affair. I'm really looking forward to that book.
I wish we got some sort of updates on this website, Twitter, or somewhere (anywhere). I saw the video from Dragon Con where he said he thought he'd be having something finished by February... it's now February. I wonder how things are progressing...
I yearn for the days when Jim was cranking out a book a year!
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Convention season really doesn’t start until after February, taking a 3 month break for the holidays, so you won’t see him then. Check the Convention websites see if he is GOH. He normally does DragonCon as a member rather than GOH and may do other Cons if they are going in-person, just to get back to seeing people he hasn’t seen in 2 years.
He has the lead story (and cover) in the Heroic Hearts anthology coming out on 3 May 2022, so I would expect a rash of on-line interviews or in-person events to promote this in April, with Jim kicking back and celebrating May 4th.
His son, has also sold his first novel, urban fantasy but he’s doing a bit of a Joe Hill, so he may or may not be around with him promoting that.
He may also be in protracted silence if he is negotiating on a new Dresden Files show with someone like Disney or Amazon or Netflix, and we suddenly see him everywhere promoting that. I think of the recent Amazon Jack Reacher series which popped up out of nowhere seemingly. Given the tug of war over his creative input on the Blackthorne series you have got. It’s been 15 freaking years now that this major IP has not been on screen.
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has anyone heard anything from or on Jim? not trying to dig into his personal life, just curious if even the Betas have had any contact with him...
Crickets. It's been 1 year and 5 months since Battle Ground. Nothing on reddit or twitter.
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Or the official site.
Convention season really doesn’t start until after February, taking a 3 month break for the holidays, so you won’t see him then. Check the Convention websites see if he is GOH. He normally does DragonCon as a member rather than GOH and may do other Cons if they are going in-person, just to get back to seeing people he hasn’t seen in 2 years.
He has the lead story (and cover) in the Heroic Hearts anthology coming out on 3 May 2022, so I would expect a rash of on-line interviews or in-person events to promote this in April, with Jim kicking back and celebrating May 4th.
His son, has also sold his first novel, urban fantasy but he’s doing a bit of a Joe Hill, so he may or may not be around with him promoting that.
He may also be in protracted silence if he is negotiating on a new Dresden Files show with someone like Disney or Amazon or Netflix, and we suddenly see him everywhere promoting that. I think of the recent Amazon Jack Reacher series which popped up out of nowhere seemingly. Given the tug of war over his creative input on the Blackthorne series you have got. It’s been 15 freaking years now that this major IP has not been on screen.
Where did you find that about Heroic Hearts? It is a Dresden story?
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Or the official site. Where did you find that about Heroic Hearts? It is a Dresden story?
Why yes, a point of view story from Toot, where he teams up with Mister to deal with a threat Harry doesn’t notice. Look on Amazon for Heroic Hearts and Dresden. The story is Little Things, no idea how long so it is, but it will be a “short story” given the protagonists, the first since The Good People which may end up as part of Next Book. The cover appears to show Toot and Lacuna fighting off foes in their approximate size range post Battle Ground given the armour.
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Or the official site. Where did you find that about Heroic Hearts? It is a Dresden story?
I've actually got the Heroic Hearts info from Patricia Briggs' website. She has a story in there, too. The second time I heard about it, was somewhere here. Maybe a transcript of an interview or so.
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Thank you both! :)
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Yes, we all have the dilemma of whether to pay the full price for a book for a little hit of Dresden.
If it’s half a dozen pages it will be very annoying, if it 90 pages much better. As the headliner I would hope the latter.
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Yes, we all have the dilemma of whether to pay the full price for a book for a little hit of Dresden.
If it’s half a dozen pages it will be very annoying, if it 90 pages much better. As the headliner I would hope the latter.
I'll pay it, because there are several stories I'm interested in. I think it was 4 or 5 stories, but I can't remember them all. Actually I must admit, I'm not too excited about a story about Toot-Toot. But I definitely want to read the love story with Asil from the Mercy-Thompson-verse. And there is a story by Kelley Armstrong and one by Kevin Hearne.
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Yes, we all have the dilemma of whether to pay the full price for a book for a little hit of Dresden.
If it’s half a dozen pages it will be very annoying, if it 90 pages much better. As the headliner I would hope the latter.
Those are the ones I put on my Kindle.. If we get a full length book in less than two years, not bad. But if it is another three to five years until a full book, I begin to be pissed because I feel like crumbs are being tossed my way. Since it is about a beloved character I too am hoping for 90 pages or more, Toot and Mister both deserve it.
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I will probably not buy it. I have bought several times anthology books only for the JB story, both on paperback and kindle. But the economic situation in my country has made that buying thing in dollars is too expensive. I really need to think before doing that sort of purchase. If it was a normal Dresden story, I will probably do not hesitate in buying it. A Toot-toot one? Nah, I can wait and see what other people think on the story and even if the price of the book is reduced with time.
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He may also be in protracted silence if he is negotiating on a new Dresden Files show with someone like Disney or Amazon or Netflix, and we suddenly see him everywhere promoting that. I think of the recent Amazon Jack Reacher series which popped up out of nowhere seemingly. Given the tug of war over his creative input on the Blackthorne series you have got. It’s been 15 freaking years now that this major IP has not been on screen.
This would be amazing, and I've wondered about it. It would certainly be pretty awesome to see a modern production of a Dresden Files show. I could see 4 to 6 episodes per book, with 2-3 books per season. Season 1 is first three books (3, 3, 4 episodes), Season 2 is next three books 12 episodes (4, 4, 4 episodes), and subsequent seasons are two books (they get longer in word count) per season at 5 episodes per book. It'd be 12 seasons to get through everything, which is a LONG time, but that would give actors time to age (the timeline would still have to be compressed) and Jim time to write the remaining 8 or 9 books... (Or maybe not, considering current production.)
Something like that would be absolutely incredible.
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The streaming service model seems better suited to adapting existing IP from book sources. Episode lengths can be variable, and a smaller episode count per season allowed, as well not being tied to the TV calendar of sweeps and holidays. This means the rhythm of the original narrative can be more easily retained, and all this seems to allow for more input from the original creator.
As the old joke goes about the aspiring actress “she was so dumb she slept with the writer” indicating the writer was the least influential in the film making heirachy. Jim could expect way more say as a creator these days, commissioning buyers for the streaming services know that they are reaching out to the existing fan base first and foremost and don’t have to cheapen or dumb down the product to appeal to a wider audience, in part because they can now reach everyone in that fan base at the same time and in part because the wider audience these days have a better understanding of comic, SF and fantasy ideas and tropes. The wider audience were not confused by the Multiverse concept in No Way Home, and seem to be willing to try the new. Look at the success of Squid Game.
I would start with an adaption of Grave Peril and do an abbreviated version of Storm Front as a flashback within that story, same with Summer Knight and Full Moon.
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The streaming service model seems better suited to adapting existing IP from book sources. Episode lengths can be variable, and a smaller episode count per season allowed, as well not being tied to the TV calendar of sweeps and holidays. This means the rhythm of the original narrative can be more easily retained, and all this seems to allow for more input from the original creator.
As the old joke goes about the aspiring actress “she was so dumb she slept with the writer” indicating the writer was the least influential in the film making heirachy. Jim could expect way more say as a creator these days, commissioning buyers for the streaming services know that they are reaching out to the existing fan base first and foremost and don’t have to cheapen or dumb down the product to appeal to a wider audience, in part because they can now reach everyone in that fan base at the same time and in part because the wider audience these days have a better understanding of comic, SF and fantasy ideas and tropes. The wider audience were not confused by the Multiverse concept in No Way Home, and seem to be willing to try the new. Look at the success of Squid Game.
I would start with an adaption of Grave Peril and do an abbreviated version of Storm Front as a flashback within that story, same with Summer Knight and Full Moon.
It's funny, lots of people aren't big fans of Storm Front and Fool Moon, and I admit that when I first found the series, Storm Front didn't really grab me. Neither did Fool Moon. But after reading Grave Peril, I was hooked and went off to buy all of the rest of the available books at the time (I think through White Night).
That said, upon re-reading, I still really like Storm Front and Fool Moon. I think Storm Front is still a good introduction to the story. A first season consisting of the first 3 books would be pretty powerful, ending on the high note of Grave Peril, really setting up future seasons.
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I like both SF and FM, perhaps not as much as other books, but I would enjoy them on screen. FM in particular, if budget is good, would be visually amazing, with so many kinds of werewolves. Also, poor Kirby.
Summer Knight is one of my favorites of the whole series.
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It depends on whether they want to expand the fan base, SF and FM are not as technically accomplished as Grave Peril. If going purely for fan base, you have Restoration of Faith as a pre- title prologue to Storm Front. Storm Front is about 30 pages shorter than even Full Moon, so it could take up say the first 20 minutes of the first episode. I think that would help strengthen Storm Front.
Do the original comics, but animated like they have with The Boys prequel. That way you can drop them between the live action series without disrupting the live action series production, more Dresden for your money.
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Yes, we all have the dilemma of whether to pay the full price for a book for a little hit of Dresden.
If it’s half a dozen pages it will be very annoying, if it 90 pages much better. As the headliner I would hope the latter.
Jim is much better than most authors in that we will get a Side Jobs or Brief Cases in time so that we see these stories
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I hope he is well and is writing the Olympian Affair. I'm really looking forward to that book.
I wish we got some sort of updates on this website, Twitter, or somewhere (anywhere). I saw the video from Dragon Con where he said he thought he'd be having something finished by February... it's now February. I wonder how things are progressing...
I yearn for the days when Jim was cranking out a book a year!
At dragonCon he said he was at 40% and hoped to be done by his (October) birthday. Guess not..... (Ref: Con, https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,54440.0.html )
There WAS a rumor of another divorce.. and we know how badly the first threw him off. Not as much solid documentation on that rumor, reddit stuff
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Jim is much better than most authors in that we will get a Side Jobs or Brief Cases in time so that we see these stories
So we buy the same story twice. Three times with the audiobook. Four times if it’s not Marsters.
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So we buy the same story twice. Three times with the audiobook. Four times if it’s not Marsters.
Well, that IS assuming you bought the first anthology. I don't buy them for one or two stories. Jim gives me the option to bypass it. Appreciated.
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Agree. Also i do not buy audiobooks.
That said, I have several books both in kindle and in paper. I like to read them anywhere with my kindle, no matter where I am. But I also like the feeling of the paper pages and the look of them in my shelves (for reasons I explained later, I stopped doing that, too expensive. So I do not own SG, PT or BG hard copies. Perhaps one day).
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Well, that IS assuming you bought the first anthology. I don't buy them for one or two stories...
Libraries are my friend!
Like you, I don't buy an anthology for 1-2 stories. OTOH, it's not uncommon for a DV short to occur in an anthology with a lot of other stories of interest! Then I'll buy it (unless Larry Correia is attached, I still haven't forgiven him for the horridness that was Sad Puppies &c, nor seen anything resembling a genuine apology or remorse on his part).
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Agree. Also i do not buy audiobooks.
That said, I have several books both in kindle and in paper. I like to read them anywhere with my kindle, no matter where I am. But I also like the feeling of the paper pages and the look of them in my shelves (for reasons I explained later, I stopped doing that, too expensive. So I do not own SG, PT or BG hard copies. Perhaps one day).
I agree, call me old fashioned but I prefer a real book with real paper pages in my hands when I cuddle up at night to read and relax. Now I do have a Kindle and have used it to get the anthologies and to get older books that are now mostly out of print, if they are available at all, are more affordable in the Kindle format.
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Yes, but how long do you want to wait for a fix of Dresden?
Libraries are fine, but Jim is popular (damn him for being a talented and engaging author) and waiting for a library copy can take months. If the library buys it in the first place. Looking at the Cover it does seemed designed to get bought by Libraries leaning heavily on the Jim Butcher name, so that is something.
The same for waiting several years for enough short stories to be published to make up a collection (currently only the Microfictions and the Good People have not been republished) only the story in Heroic Hearts is awaiting publication, with no news of other stories and Next Book being episodic (so Dresden centered work will be in that) I am thinking three years minimum. We will see Next Book before the next short story collection (I favour Cold Cuts as a title, tasty little slices of red meat served after the main meal, and set entirely during Harry’s tenure as Winter Knight. The number of times Harry is described as eating them is not incidental).
We may get a Dresden TV series BEFORE another short story collection, it’s that unlikely in the near to medium term.
Besides I am relatively well off and can afford to maintain a high cost Dresden habit, even if I feel slightly dirty and used after making payment to Amazon.
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Well, some of us are just afraid we will never live to see how it all ends..
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Well, some of us are just afraid we will never live to see how it all ends..
George RR Martin does that to you.
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If he keeps adding books and taking three years per book he may not live to end the series. Had I known I would have caught another bus. He's already changed my reading habits. Nor more series that aren't complete and no more books by Butcher other than the Dresden Files.
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Jim is relativel young and in good health and planning for after the Dresden Files, but I still say my plan to have him sequestered in a place with no distractions until he dies of old age, writing 16 hours a day has its attractions.
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Jim is relativel young and in good health and planning for after the Dresden Files, but I still say my plan to have him sequestered in a place with no distractions until he dies of old age, writing 16 hours a day has its attractions.
I hope he lives to a hundred. I hope he writes 100's of books. I'm just saying that I won't be reading them if I have to pay. There are hundreds of thousands of book that are finished that I haven't read yet. So assuming he doesn't run off the rails I'll get my Dresden fix at the Library. If he can make me wait years I can wait the additional months to check out either the audio book or the hardcover.
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George RR Martin does that to you.
How about Robert Jordan?
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Jordan actually did try to speed up that's part of why book 11(his last) was so bad, I imagine it's different when you know it's coming. Jim isn't under that type of pressure or I'd imagine he'd leave outlines with more detail.
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I hope he lives to a hundred. I hope he writes 100's of books. I'm just saying that I won't be reading them if I have to pay. There are hundreds of thousands of book that are finished that I haven't read yet. So assuming he doesn't run off the rails I'll get my Dresden fix at the Library. If he can make me wait years I can wait the additional months to check out either the audio book or the hardcover.
Amen.. Edit, edit,edit... When the books are coming out three to five years apart and the plan is over twenty books the years catch up to everyone.. Ten books three years apart, that's thirty years. Ten books five years apart, that's fifty years! Stories can be dragged out too long and start to repeat themselves and even get a bit silly..
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I have a theory that Sanderson has trapped Butcher, Rothfuss, and Martin in hive-mind cocoons and is using their combined skills to churn out his 3.5 stories/year catalog.
I don't have any evidence yet, but I'll share it when I do.
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Maybe he can look at what Brian Sanderson is doing with Kickstarter.
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Just to be clear, I do not want to hurry JB. I just wish to have some news of what he is doing. Some updates on his website would be good.
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Just to be clear, I do not want to hurry JB. I just wish to have some news of what he is doing. Some updates on his website would be good.
We all do. Personally. I hope he's doing well.
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It's been a tough time for many people, the past few years, and Jim has had plenty of personal tragedy and hardship. It's hard to write at the best of times, and damn near impossible at the worst. That's the curse of the creative arts.
Jim will get back to writing (if he hasn't already) when he's ready, assuming he ever is. It would be very sad for us all if he can't for a long time, worse if he never does. I don't think that's very likely but it's possible. And that's his right too, and there isn't anything we can do about that (or should do).
All we can do really is do as we have ever done i.e. just be the same group of loyal, dogged, weird, needy, well-meaning, over-enthusiastic nerds. I hope Jim knows he's got a lot of people all over the world who care about him, more than just him as an author, and are grateful for all he has done for them and the joy he has brought to them. I know I am.
I don't think I ever expected some guy from Independence, MI MO to make my life a little better with his stories. But he went and did it anyway without being asked, without even knowing that I existed or that he might even do that. I do hope he finds a bit more happiness, if only so that his own life improves. If he gets back to writing his fantastic series, all the better.
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He had personal tragedy? I did not know :'( I know nothing of him since he stopped updating with tweeter account.
And again, I am not hurrying him, I know he does not own us anything. But I wish there were news about what he is doing, even if those news were "he is not writing".
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Bad for all of us, my mother slipped into full blown dementia in the 2 years I couldn’t visit her, she doesn’t recognise any of us anymore. My best friend developed an auto immune condition in the last year picked up very late because of Covid which has rendered him blind and may rob him of the use of his legs, and I haven’t been able to visit him either.
The two books last year REALLY helped, I have been self isolating for over 2 years because of my own health. They were a real high point in a very bad year. Of course I want more, but Jim made things better over the last 2 years or a lot of people, he needs to remember that.
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It's been a tough time for many people, the past few years, and Jim has had plenty of personal tragedy and hardship. It's hard to write at the best of times, and damn near impossible at the worst. That's the curse of the creative arts.
Jim will get back to writing (if he hasn't already) when he's ready, assuming he ever is. It would be very sad for us all if he can't for a long time, worse if he never does. I don't think that's very likely but it's possible. And that's his right too, and there isn't anything we can do about that (or should do).
All we can do really is do as we have ever done i.e. just be the same group of loyal, dogged, weird, needy, well-meaning, over-enthusiastic nerds. I hope Jim knows he's got a lot of people all over the world who care about him, more than just him as an author, and are grateful for all he has done for them and the joy he has brought to them. I know I am.
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That's sad, whatever it is, I hope it will get better. Thank you for sharing information.
I certainly will not stop being nerdy, lol.
I don't think I ever expected some guy from Independence, MI to make my life a little better with his stories. But he went and did it anyway without being asked, without even knowing that I existed or that he might even do that. I do hope he finds a bit more happiness, if only so that his own life improves. If he gets back to writing his fantastic series, all the better
I feel the same here.
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I am sorry CT. And yes, I know.