How's Life?
Confusing!
Is there anything you 'd be willing to tell us about your long-term plans for Cinder Spires (number of books, plot teases, etc)?
I've got an outline for three, six, or nine books depending on how folks are liking it. :)
What is a Saint in the Dresden Files? You've mentioned them as a mortal champion distinct from the Knights of the Cross, so I was curious what they were like, and if they specific to the Heavenly crowd or a more common and/or non-denominational form of power?
Saints, for practical purposes in the Dresden Files, distinct from straightforward religious figures, were mainly people with a wizard's or sorcerer's talents who went into the Church and who blended faith magic with their natural abilities to accomplish some amazing things. Most of the Catholic saints were members of the White Council as well. As the power of the Church waned, the word Saint kind of gradually turned to saint, and in the current storyline saints are simply people who blend faith with their magic.
It is Frowned Upon to be a practicing saint in the White Council, in some senses. They much prefer minds uncluttered by what they see as unnecessary folderol, and think that the worst thing they could imagine is a blend of a wizard's power with a fanatic's zeal, so if you're a saint it's not hard to make other wizards uneasy. Most saints keep their practice under discrete wraps, though there is at least one practicing saint on the Senior Council.
Did Vadderung sacrifice anything to be able to spend so much time on Earth, or is he just at a higher risk than most prefer? Or something else entirely?
Over several different points of the Dresden Files universe, the old gods' power was curtailed, limits set upon it, so that they wouldn't be able to do as much interfering with the development of humans. That was fine with most of them--they were kind of self absorbed jerks anyway, a lot of them. But a few wanted to keep walking beside and guiding humanity.
I don't want to ruin the story for you, and it will be out further down the line. :)
Is Ancient Mai so called because she is the eldest in the Council's gerontocracy? (Chronologically if not on the objective scale).
Ancient Mai carries the title for oldest wizard on the Council, but does not see herself as a leadership figure, and regarded Langtry's talents as more suitable than her own for the role of Merlin.
Can you clarify how many times Bob has been split? It seems like it happened both before Harry got him and also during/after Dead Beat from Harry's orders, does that mean there were three Bob's at one point?
Bob was never meant to be a contiguous personality with his own self motivation. He was supposed to be a sidekick and servant, and then this stupid kid went and gave him a NAME. With the name came individuality, and it was all downhill from there.
It's less a question of how many splits Bob has in his personality, and more about how much of his memory/power his dominant personality can encompass at one time. Two truly powerful wizards have held Bob--Kemmler and Dresden. Both of them left the mark of their force of will upon the construct in a particularly powerful way and in fairly recent times. When Butters picked up Bob, he too left his mark on the skull, though as somebody who really isn't all that much different from Harry, the skull just sort of rolled into the most convenient shape to make a personality for Butters--the one he already had for Harry.
Can the True Name be considered a full part of the Self equation in the way the Body, Spirit, and Soul are? Ive been nursing a theory about the Dresden File Self being a multipart and evolving thing based on (a westerners understanding of) the Egyptian myths.
The True Name is kind of the portrait on the passport that has the rest of the information under mind, body and spirit. It's what lets your power "recognize" your target when you send it out. The name itself isn't a part of you: it's a description of you.
What is Mister's cat name for Harry in Cinders Spire style?
Sleeps Loudly
What was Archangel the location and its importance to the White Council, and what was the Brute Squad that Bob mentioned role compared to the wardens?
That was where Petrovich the Earth Mage lived. He and his people were hell on wheels in a fight. Earth magic is slow and tricky to use, but if you get good at it, it's very difficult to counter.
What kind of magic did Aleron LaFortier specialize in? In Dead Beat Harry said that Ebenezer was the least powerful of the Senior Council was this Harry being an unreliable narrator or was LaFortier stronger then he looked?
Illusion. Ebenezar can pull a satellite down from orbit onto your head. Someone like LaFortier can bamboozle nations. The way that the old school wizards think, direct power is the least useful power. All you can do with it is break something or kill someone.
What did Harry mean in Dead Beat when he said Cowl’s magic was different from what he worked with? They both used kinetic magic and had a lingering sense of black magic was it the way Cowl used his magic or something else?
Black magic is different. It's kind of the ultimate perversion of magic's original intent--creation. It takes things away from you when you use it, increasingly so as you use it more. To be able to use black magic at all is to have a soul that truly believes it /belongs/ here and /should/ be used. It's super powerful and super destructive. Things go wrong just because there's black magic about, much less when it gets used to actually break something.
What are the other three Vampire Courts who are like mosquitos in influence compared to the others major Courts called and will we see them in the series?
You won't see Courts because they don't have them. There are other vampires around, but they aren't as large and organized as the Courts have been, and can't operate with the same kind of coordination.
The exception to that is the Jade Court, who rarely act outside of the Yangtze river valley. Everyone knows that they exist. No one is quite sure where. They do not respond to invitations or offer any of their own. They never deal directly with outsiders, but move through allies and agents. They are not signatories of the Accords, but everyone speaks of and treats them as if they are, because some fairly horrible things have happened to people, over the centuries, who showed too much disrespect.
The mosquito type vamps though operate mainly in SE Asia, mostly in SK, Thailand, that region. They're thugs, a branch of the Tongs, running drugs and human slaves through the local seas and sometimes hiring out as assassins.
What would Harry’s Denarian form look like if he took up Lasciel's coin? If he took up other coins like Ursiel and Magog would he become more bestial or would he adapt other characteristics?
If he took up Lasciel's coin, he'd immediately have a style and fashion adviser who would make him look like Someone Important everywhere he went. He'd have better posture, would look neat and clean all the time, like he knew exactly what he was doing, and would have supernatural sex appeal he could summon up on demand. Lasciel would have turned him into Bond.
Throughout your books you mention that the right side/hand releases energy and the left hand/side absorbs it. Does this have anything to do with your dominant hand/side? Is this the opposite for lefties?
It's less about dominant hand than which one is closer to your heart, so nah, it's the same for righties and lefties. Dominant hands for spells aren't usually an issue by the time you know what you're doing, but among the apprentices righties have an advantage at offense, lefties at defense.
Is the Nevernever mapped to Earth/Our solar system/the whole universe? Or the other way around? Is it possible to not open a Way from one dimension to the other? Or is there for every location one on the other side - always guaranteed? Is the mapping a function?
The Nevernever is, like, noneuclidean space in a lot of ways. It morphs and changes, without a fixed amount of acreage. Based on how much power you apply to it, you can change the Nevernever, make a given area larger or smaller.
You mentioned that parts of the Nevernever connect to parts of the real world based on similar ambiances and energies. Is it possible to have an ambiance or energy that does not have an equivalent in the other dimension?
No. The Nevernever is made out of a substance that is basically like the goo from Ghostbusters 2: it reacts to human emotions. When a given vibe goes out, the goo responds.
Is Harry named after the city of Dresden because he usually ends up setting things on fire?
No. He is named after the city of Dresden because the night I was thinking of character names, John Sheridan on B5 was giving this speech about military atrocities and their psychological impact. Dresden was one of the cities he mentions in the speech, and it went well with "Harry."
Reading Cold Days, it seemed like you really changed the way you approach the audience. A lot more breaking the fourth wall and more swearing. Is this something new you were trying or any particular reason for this change?
Heh. Cold Days was Dresden operating on a whole new engine, more or less. There were more changes than that. :)
Is Nicodemus the same guy as St. Nicodemus from the Bible who helped wrap Jesus in the shroud of Turin?
Inappropriate for this venue. :)
What made you decide to read "Even Hand" for the Brief Cases audiobook?
Someone had to do it. They saved money using me. :)
Does reincarnation exist in the Dresden Files universe? And do we know any characters that have already had former lives?
Sort of. And not really. For reincarnation to be viable, you can't rig the game by knowing who you were the last time around. :)
Will we ever meet the other heavenly archangels: Michael, Gabriel, or Raphael?
<spoiler>I'm not going to tell you</spoiler>
Did Hendricks finish his thesis?
He keeps writing it and rewriting it. It's over 1200 pages now.
How old is Marcone?
If I recall, he was 40 in Storm Front.
How did Hendricks and Marcone meet? How long have they known each other before Storm Front?
In the service. They were Marines together. Marcone was Hendrick's sergeant when Hendricks was a Louie.
Is Marcone genuinely fond of Helen Beckitt, or is their "romantic" relationship for him more about keeping a potential threat close or just a weird guilt trip?
Marcone... does not think like most human beings. For him, there's no reason all of those things can't be true at the same time. But he's not going to be giving anyone True Love shields from the Whites any time soon either.
Multiple times in Small Favor, characters are able to contact the otherwise unreachable Denarians through "Accords-approved methods." What do these methods entail?
Mostly established messaging and answering services, mostly through human attorneys. You are also allowed to use heralds (and send heralds back headless if you get annoyed, like Ancient Mai's herald was frozen half to death by Mab in Summer Knight, by way of telling the Council "no, you can't use my roads.") And there are some various supernaturals who specialize as go-betweens and intermediaries.
Will we ever learn more about the frozen prisoners in Arctis Tor? The Byzantine lovers, the cardinal, the spider (who I think is Arachne), and the three women? I'm fascinated about who they were, how the ended up on Mab's shit list (if that's why they're there), and if they'll ever be freed. Thanks again!
First answer:Oh, they didn't wind up on Mab's shit list. They wound up on the Custodian's shit list. And yeah, obviously, we're going to use them more later. I'm too lazy to spend energy to build things I won't use. :D
Second answer:Processing...
OH THOSE GUYS.
Yeah, I know who they all are. I don't have a further story role set for them at the moment, they're just part of Mab's backstory. That's kind of her trophy case of personal victories.
If I remember right they're Vlad Tsepes and his lover (who wanted to be together forever), Richlieu (Mab always collects eventually, no matter how tricky you are), that's not Arachne it's friggin' Anansi (Mab, too, knows hubris), and the triumverate of women was actually two women with Mab pulling a Scooby Doo move and hiding among them. Trying to remember, they were a pair of historical French or German or British twin sisters who were burned as witches by a Saint. Mab saved them, sort of. Instead of being burned to cinders, they were transformed to living crystal and used to decorate her bower. Mostly, Mab defeated the Saint, sort of at the end of the middle ages/opening of the Renaissance, when there hadn't been all that many Old Word wins lately.
They aren't really a part of Harry's story, just background details for Mab. Anansi is too much a trickster to be caught forever. He'll get free at some point and have a merry vengeance on Mab's pride and ego. She's just so serious, all the time, a guy like Anansi couldn't do anything BUT give her the grumpy camp counselor treatment once he was free. :)
I had a question regarding mortal ‘belief’ and the influence it can have on a mantle. Specifically as it relates to Odin’s alter-ego, Kringle. He himself has said ‘This became the tale with which you are familiar only in fairly recent times.’ So I was wondering, did that influence his powers as well? Because Time Travel is said to be his area of expertise (something rather handy for getting around the world in one night) and he is able to give Dresden help/info/counsel totally free of charge or obligation, unheard of for a Fae. So is it that Santa’s mantle essentially ‘changed’ over time to reflect those powers, since millions and millions of children believe so strongly (to the point of writing him letters every year) that he can get around to all the boys and girls of the world in one night to give gifts to those who are deemed ‘good’ or ‘worthy’? Does it take that level of belief to alter a mantle? Or did Odin himself have a hand it in, another sort of ‘political fiction’ because he thought those powers would be useful or change was necessary?
Okay, well this is a novel's worth of questions.
That said, fae accounting for services rendered doesn't really exist on a cash and carry basis. Fae accounting is /meant/ to get mortals more entangled with the fae as a natural consequences of getting anywhere near it.
Harry is about as entangled as you can get without actually /being/ a fae. The accounting rules are considerably easier on him, since they've already accomplished what they set out to do. :)
Santa's powers haven't really changed so much as expanded. Santa is just godawful powerful for about a month a year, and on Christmas Eve they are at their peak. Of course, he's also /really/ busy those days.
Power is a weird thing. At some point, you suddenly hit a point of diminishing returns where you more you get, the fewer places you can actually use it.
Also, on a more casual note, has there ever been a female Merlin of the White Council? :)
As for a female Merlin, yeah, it's happened several times. Just depends on who lives longest, mostly, and can impress the other fogies. Gender isn't really a consideration on the White Council. Anyone who is anyone is at least a century old, and generally past the time where they'd be interested in children. Biological aspirations don't apply. Muscle mass isn't an issue. What matters to wizards is talent, power, and knowledge, none of which are issued along with plumbing.
In Ghost Story we learn that Morty is a significantly more powerful ectomancer than Dresden thought. My question is this: Is Ectomancy just another field of magical study that a wizard could have a talent for like Harry with Thaumaturgy, Chandler with Time magic, and Molly with Illusion magic or is Ectomancy a separate field from normal magical study? Could Morty become a full Wizard or are his talents too different?
Oh, any wizard could learn ectomancy, it's just a matter of spending the time and energy to do it.
Morty's issue isn't that his Ectomancy isn't strong: it's that he doesn't have that kind of strength elsewhere. You wanna be a Wizard of the White Council, you've kinda gotta be able to do it all. That's what separates a wizard like Harry from a sorcerer like Morty. Harry might NEVER be as strong an ectomancer as Morty is. But Harry can also do thaumaturgy and evocation and abjuration AND divination AND illusions AND etc etc. Morty only tunes in to the one channel. Wizards got the entire America's Favorite Package.
How fast could Lash teach magic? The bit about being able to teach Harry how to heal his hand in Dead Beat implied that it was several dozen times faster than normal (because there's no way he'd be able to pick up healing before his hand healed normally on his own).
Teach it? VERY quickly. She could alter your perception of time and give you months of pure mental lessons in an evening. If she just did it for you while you sit in the passenger seat? She can do that instantly.
How exactly would the version of Changes where Harry does the Darkhallow have gone afterwards? It seems like the kind of thing that would burn his bridges with absolutely everybody.
Well, with the White Council for sure, and with a lot of human authorities. But if he'd become a friggin' necromancer, he would have found his allies among the dead and dead-adjacent, and things would have generally been a lot gothier. :)
You've previously mentioned that Morgan might appear in book 17 (Mirror Mirror), is that still on track?
Maybe.
Can you tell us more about the details of how Ways work and how two people working in the same spot can end up in different places?
I can.
Will the Shapeshifting Guru from the Ukraine mentioned in the list of freeholding lords in White Night play a role in the series or will it be like the Jade Court and not appear in the series?
Can't think of a reason to have him around for Harry's story. Might be a different case in a spinoff.
Why did the half-turned Red Court and Cassius experience sped-up aging the moment they lost the thing stopping their aging? Shouldn't they have just gone back to aging at normal rate if the Red Court half of them was just pressing the proverbial pause button?
Because it wasn't pressing pause. It was just sustaining them for the duration of the transformation. Once the transformation dropped them back into their mortal form again, it was time to pay the piper. They paid for their life with life, the way all vampires do. They just chose not to take someone else's. But younger half-vamps, like Susan, would have been okay, just older and a lot more tired.
Did He Who Walks Behind slow down time around the clerk who tried to run in Ghost Story? If no, how was he slowed down?
HHWB, being a Walker, is an outsider on a power level similar to Uriel. He can do all KINDS of stuff. But also has a lot of weird limits as to when and where he can use his power.
Follow-up question: why did you have to kill Lash? :(
Right? She woulda been such an awesome girlfriend. :)
Bonnie appears to share physical features from a range of different women in Harry's life but not Molly, Why?
Bonnie doesn't /have/ physical features. She's a spirit in a carved wooden skull.
What (if any) kind of material did you read or watch to achieve your signature gritty realism for the airship engagements?
I'd like to say it was Harrington stories or Aubrey stories or Hornblower stories, but honestly there was probably an enormous amount of influence from various historical depictions of battles of WWI and WWII which fascinated me as a child. Man, I read /shelves/ of books about fighter pilots, scouts, infantry commanders, snipers, commandos, anything I could get about WW2 especially.
How does the size of the largest airships in TCS compare to the size of warships like Yamato-class battleships (263 m / 863 feet) or the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers (332 m / 1089 feet)? Speaking of aircraft carriers, Are there any similar ships of this type in TCS? (Please note: if you have plans up your sleeves for the really Epic Big Guns coming along then feel free to ignore this question.)
The heaviest ships, Dreadnaughts, come in around a thousand meters long, and need three lift crystals larger than Predator's to stay aloft. (They're usually built with 4 or 5 for redundancy--dreadnaughts were designed to be beaten to hell and still fight.)
Preddy is a little toy compared to that. She's only about 350 feet long, I believe, and a tiny fraction of the weight.
Finally on a minor note, What is the actual trigger mechanism for firing from the the cannons or the gauntlet crystals?
A couple of firing studs on the thumbs of the grips, and you have to press them both down to complete the circuit and fire.
Do you think the word count of your novels are gonna get longer from now on? (if you know) How long is your next novel compared to Skin Game or The Aeronaut’s Windlass?
Well, Peace Talks is next, and I'll be surprised if it's any shorter than Skin Game. My books only seem to get longer as I keep working and keep trying to design more characters and plots.
If you've seen them, what are your general thoughts on The Last Jedi, Infinity War or any other film/anime you'd like to rant/rave about?
I've been pretty focused on my health and getting into this house the past many weeks, so I'm behind on my movies. Infinity War is really quite an excellent standalone tragedy. I rank Last Jedi at somewhere under the Holiday Special in terms of how it compares to other Star Wars films. Black Panther was one of the better standalone superhero films that has come along, finally saw that when it came to DVD--was sick as a dog during its entire theater run. Enjoying the hell out of Westworld. Hopefully I will get to Deadpool 2 at least this weekend.
Recurrent in your books are characters who do things they describe as “wrong, but necessary,” from the Blackstaff to Gaius Sextus. What interests you about this moral gray area where ends and means must be weighed against one another?
When I was a kid, I got beat up a lot. I was the second smallest kid in class, the smartest, and it's just possible I may have shot my mouth off a few times, mostly over matters of right and wrong. As a result, I've always been fascinated with power and its exercise. How do you use it properly? How do you use it responsibly? What is or is not an abuse of power? Can it be wielded without corrupting those who hold it?
Those are some serious questions.
It's always been a goal of mine to be a good man. But how can you do that if you don't know what it means? What does it mean? What does it /cost/?
Turns out being a decent human being is confusing and hard, if you really think about everyone involved.
But the Dresden Files are really stories about the wielding and abuse of power, always have been.
How are you planning to handle the dichotomy between having both an accelerated plot and intensified character interactions and your policy of the one year gap between books for the rest of the series, without losing crucial character scenes and plot elements to the time periods between each book?"
I don't know. This is the first time I've ever written a 20something novel epic story. :)
Can a wizard soulgaze a baby? A child? What would it do to that child?
Kids have got a certain amount of magical protection. Think of them like a baby dear: a fawn gets born with a suite of counter-predator capabilities that help it survive. Same for kids. They tend to be really resilient to the effects of magic. A child could soulgaze a wizard and find it distressing and confusing, but wouldn't wind up with the inkstain on their memory like the wizard would.
Would you be interested in getting your nerd on in front of a camera? Seriously, would be really cool to see you DM a game. You could even DM a Dresden Files game and pass it off as work - you're promoting your stuff!
Nah, I don't wanna DM a Dresden Files game. Too much like work. :)
Any news on Peace Talks?
Living without a workspace greatly impacted my ability to perform as a professional, but I fell in love with a girl who is awesome and I was tired of not being near her.
I started building a house that was supposed to be finished in nine months. It took three years. So it's been very difficult to get much work done in that time. Now, finally, I've got a house, and as soon as I'm not promoting Brief Cases I will be kicking of the big middle scene of Peace Talks, and then all I have to do is write the roller coaster to the end of the story.
My goal is to have it in the can before I get married in September. :)
How do you think that will influence your themes?
I don't particularly care about themes, so not much. :)
Hey Jim! Martial artist too and huge fan. What do you practice/study, and why do you like it? Thanks!
At the moment, I'm practicing a lot of jogging up and down hills in places where there's very little air in the air. :) I need to get into a good Krav Maga or Jiu Jitsu school, take in a little of some of the arts I haven't gotten to play with too much.
I mostly just like learning from people, and I find the physical interaction demanding enough to test me but pleasant enough to do repeatedly. Any martial art can give you the tools you need to survive some kind of violent encounter. It's all about just being a serious student, keeping your eyes and ears open, and then applying some common sense and experience to what you learn.
Actually want to learn some dance next. Not exactly a martial art, but is martial arts adjacent. :)
If Mab, Titania, Uriel, and Vadderung all got into a drinking contest at Mac's, who would win, and would there be any repercussions for the world?
Vadderung would go first, Mab and Titania would go down grimly on exactly the same drink at exactly the same time, days later, locked in eye contact all the way. Uriel would be left, distressed and slightly confused and not understanding at all why everyone had just done that.
Is Nicodemus the first host for Anduriel?
Yes, the one and only.
What is Nicodemus’ occupation before he chose to change career to murdering murderer?
He was a tax collector. Which was only technically not as bad as being a murderer at that time in history. :)
We've seen both Lea and Mab do healing magic. Is that something Molly will eventually be capable of? In time to make her dad's retirement a little more comfortable, at least?
Well.
You've... sort of seen them do healing magic. Summer is really all about the healing. Winter is more about... not permitting you die when you really probably ought to.
Lea's "healing" of Harry, though, was mainly psychological and mainly a lie. :)
I listen to the Dresden audiobooks exclusively (long commute). Have you ever written something specifically to have some fun with James Marsters?
You know all those alliterative sentences I put in there? :)
I'ma throw in a shout out to /u/loweeel, the awesome Redditor who named "Brief Cases"!
Indeed, twas his idea, which won out over "More Jobs." :)
If you were a wizard, what would be your signature spell? The most Jim spell possible?
The one that got me a Coke from the fridge. :)
Will Brother Wang and the other monks ever find out about Harry keeping Mouse?
Who says they didn't plant Mouse where he would do the most good? :)
Hey Jim, I have a question completely unrelated to your books. You've said previously that you like wrestling, so I'm wondering who your favorite wrestler is.
BULLDOG BOB BROWN
Hi Jim, Just wondering what is the ONE question that you would like to answer, but nobody ever asks...
"Would you like to go away?" :)
Any plans for future collabs with Larry Correia? Just recently finished Monster Hunter Files and thought your addition was unique but fit the tone of that universe well. I'd love to see you write more in that universe, and maybe even have a (not canonical, just for fun) Dresden x MHI crossover.
I hesitate to collab with anyone I don't already hate with a seething passion, since it seems like I wind up there anyway. Plus, I'm like the WORST person in the world to work with.
I like Larry. I doubt I'd want to do anything beyond a short piece with him. :)
I also have a question about the YA series about Maggie: How self contained are the books going to be in regards to the Dresden Files?
Beats me. I haven't gotten there yet.
Huge fan of yours! Question: did Sue have feathers?
Nah, cause Harry reanimated her, and he grew up with nekkidosaurs.
does Ebenezer know about Thomas and his relation to him?
No. :)