76
DF Reference Collection / Re: Questions
« on: March 17, 2012, 09:28:24 PM »
Oh my God, I've got it! Lasciel is Mrs. Skunkelkrief. She's been hiding in plain sight! No one ever suspects the octogenarian landlady.
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77
DF Reference Collection / Re: Questions
« on: March 17, 2012, 09:13:45 PM »Yep. And it was ureils 'what you do for love' speach thatb signed the deal. As to the ladder, its just an assumption, but a valid one. knights show up to opose fallen, not before, meaning lasciel acted first.
But Knights don't only show up to oppose Fallen. We have multiple examples of Michael being on the clock and fighting stuff other than Denarians. And if Lasciel had acted without a Denarian host, I don't see how that could not be a violation of the Rules, since she's apparently not even supposed to speak to non-host mortals directly. So if she'd broken a Rule badly enough to try to kill Harry directly-- well, for one thing, she surely would have succeeded, and for another, Uriel would've been allowed to balance it out.
78
DF Reference Collection / Re: Questions
« on: March 17, 2012, 08:13:30 PM »How was Lash responsible for the ladder? Also, and I know you'll never agree, but the words made Harry become the Winter Knight, not that they got him dead.
The words the Whisperer said got him dead-- he would have become the Winter Knight with or without them. We know this because did become the Winter Knight without them, after Molly erased his memory.
79
DF Reference Collection / Re: Questions
« on: March 17, 2012, 05:14:44 PM »If the whispering shadow was Lash, then Lash didn't have Harry killed--Harry had himself killed.
Remember, the seven words didn't include, "Then kill yourself." They were a guilt trip, probably meant to make Harry seek power--if Lash is whispering, then she'd have preferred said power be Lasciel, but another source of power (that would heal Harry) would also help ensure Lash's and Harry's survival.
But we know-- or, at least, Uriel has led Harry to believe-- that the Whisperer intended for its words to convince Harry to kill himself. According to what Uriel said, the Whisperer knew exactly how Harry would react, and it said what it did, when it did, to trigger a suicidal reaction. That was supposedly how the Whisperer cheated, and the fact that it cheated was the reason that Harry was allowed to return to Earth in the first place. This chain of events seems to disprove the "Lash screwed up" theory.
The shadow is lasciel , i believe in a new host. Lash is the parasite. This has been i believe confirmed by jim. (not the new host part). Also let slip by Jim is there is a conection between maggie sr and the black court, and that they will be showing up soon. As to lash herslef, she knows what the black court is up too.. Not nec the outsiders. Rember her last words in wn? Shes taking a nap until after jim does his big blampire amry reveal
As Serack quoted, it's been unofficially confirmed that Lash is the Parasite. It has not been confirmed that Lasciel was the Whispering Fallen. That's just the most obvious place where Lasciel could have shown up in Ghost Story.
Myself, I always feel like that's too easy a guess to make for Jim to bother hiding it at the end of GS. It feels to me like the guess we're supposed to make, and then we find out later that the truth was something sneakier and more surprising.
80
DF Reference Collection / Re: Questions
« on: March 16, 2012, 05:45:33 PM »Lash was the parasite that kept Harry's heart beating while Demonreach kept his body "fed" and Mab kept him on the porch of death, but not yet through that door.
I think that's actually been unofficially confirmed, right? Someone got him to say that Lash was the parasite while he was signing their book. 'Course, he could have been using "Lash" and "Lasciel" interchangeably. He's done that before. Or the parasite could be the combined being of Lash and Lasciel, and the Whispering Fallen could have been someone other than Lasciel. Like Anduriel, for instance. He always seemed like a great suspect, since his physical form was just a shadow to begin with, and he did come very close to killing Nicodemus. Nic might have pressured Anduriel into getting rid of Harry, even if it broke a Rule.
81
DF Reference Collection / Re: Questions
« on: March 15, 2012, 08:10:04 PM »As to why the shadow, it probably is part of the rules. I doubt a mortal mind can withstand direct contact, thus abrogating the freedom of choice.
A mortal mind definitely can't hold up under the psychic pressure of continuous, direct contact with one of the Fallen, which is the whole point behind Harry burying the coin and refusing to take it up. Harry knew he would never be able to hold off the real Lasciel.
Just so I'm clear, you're suggesting that Lasciel was always in contact with Lash, even after he buried the coin, right? That Lasciel never spoke to Harry directly, and in fact cannot speak directly to a mortal, but has to use the shadow as a mouthpiece?
82
DF Reference Collection / Re: Questions
« on: March 15, 2012, 05:43:41 PM »The singing i refered too was the rolling stones. I think she was taking time to move in, was concerned about the possibility of getting evicted by a greater power (such as mab) and decided to lay low and be subtle. Lash had to be aware that mab was chasing him at this point.
The thing is... if you can transfer an entire copy of yourself into someone else's mind, you can surely speak to that mind, as well. And why bother with letting your copy talk when you, the larger, more truly powerful version of you, can speak for yourself instead? Prior to Harry placing the coin in the steel ring and burying it, there's no reason to assume one version of Lasciel over the other is doing the talking, except for the fact that one version is the true Lasciel and the other is just a shadow of her. Why let an inferior copy handle the conversation? While the coin was in Harry's possession, I think Lasciel herself was doing the talking.
Even if the steel circle didn't do anything to block Lasciel's contact with Lash, dropping the coin and burying it at least kept it away from Harry, which kept the full power of the Fallen in the coin away from Harry's mind. And I think Cozarkian could be right about the conscious act of sealing away the coin having the effect of preventing Lash from speaking to his conscious mind. Even if the magic of the circle itself didn't help, the act of burying the coin may have had the effect that Harry was hoping for, or most of it, anyway.
From the way things went in Dead Beat, it seemed that Lash was technically capable of communicating with Harry's conscious mind the whole time, but doing so would have broken some sort of rule. And I don't think that's a negligible thing; consider the fact that the entire story of Ghost Story only happened because a Fallen broke a rule and spoke seven words into Harry's mind. Because of that, Uriel was allowed to take his own swing at bat, which ended up not only getting Harry back into his body, but fortifying his will against Mab. To me, the seven words thing in GS made the idea of Lash not being allowed to speak to Harry much more believable and understandable, because clearly Someone up there in the Dresdenverse is keeping track of everything that comes out of a Fallen's mouth. You know, so to speak. And while the shadow may be much less powerful, they still hold some portion of the Fallen's power, and possibly all of its knowledge-- which is a huge portion of its power, all by itself.
83
DF Reference Collection / Q&A - Washington, D.C. August 1, 2011 - Part 6
« on: October 02, 2011, 09:34:40 PM »
Link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRIo4orMrbQ
Q: Is it possible that Susan left a ghost that we might encounter later?
A: No, probably not, not with that much energy flying around when she died. I don't like to do the, "they're dead, they're not dead, they're dead, they're not dead" thing too often, because then it's no fun. So just assume Susan is dead and gone. Although this might not be the last time we see her, now that I think of it. [laughter] I'll have to check my notes.
Q: What was Ebenezar doing during that six month period in Ghost Story? Because we kind of expected him to be doing "something."
A: Yes, he was doing something. He was doing stuff, but since Dresden hasn't found out about it, none of you all can know about it either, 'cause it's all told from Dresden's point of view. That's one of the unfortunate limitations of writing in the first-person. If this was Alera, I'd be showing other things that were going on off on the sidelines, because then it's a third-person book.
Q: Is Ferrovax going to be back anytime soon?
A: Nah, not 'til the very end. Not in the actual trilogy-trilogy[the BAT], but probably the very last of the case books will feature him in it.
Q: Was Mac's beer modeled after any specific beer?
A: No, I don't drink. I had to go to my drinking friends and say, you have to tell me what good beer is like. And they would write me explanations of it.
Q: Ebenezar is the Blackstaff, and we found out that it's not a nickname, it's a title. [Jim: And it's also an object.] Is "the Gatekeeper" a nickname or a title?
A: It is a title. [Q'er: And an object?] Well, just... him.
Q: At what point do you decide that Harry's odds are stacked high enough against him?
A: I'll let you know when I get there.
Q: Harry's pentacle necklace. Thomas had one like it, why didn't he use it to try to find Harry's body?
A: Can't use magic through that much water. Unless you're a water mage, but nobody called Injun Joe.
Q: Out of all the Dresden Files novels, which was the most difficult one to write?
A: It's a toss-up between Death Masks, which I had to write while we were moving cross-country, and this most recent one, which I had to write where Harry couldn't just go around kicking down doors and blowing things up. It was very hard to make that character try and do things in a more indirect and subtle fashion, and yet still be himself. It took a while.
Q: Molly seems to be doing a lot of very-close-to-black-magic stuff. Is she getting, like, totally corrupted?
A: Well... what's "corrupted" mean? [laughter] Yeah, she's playing around with some nasty stuff and it's only a matter of time before that catches up to her. On the other hand, she's doing things she knew Dresden would've done if he could have done them, so it's all Harry's fault.
Q: Is it possible that Susan left a ghost that we might encounter later?
A: No, probably not, not with that much energy flying around when she died. I don't like to do the, "they're dead, they're not dead, they're dead, they're not dead" thing too often, because then it's no fun. So just assume Susan is dead and gone. Although this might not be the last time we see her, now that I think of it. [laughter] I'll have to check my notes.
Q: What was Ebenezar doing during that six month period in Ghost Story? Because we kind of expected him to be doing "something."
A: Yes, he was doing something. He was doing stuff, but since Dresden hasn't found out about it, none of you all can know about it either, 'cause it's all told from Dresden's point of view. That's one of the unfortunate limitations of writing in the first-person. If this was Alera, I'd be showing other things that were going on off on the sidelines, because then it's a third-person book.
Q: Is Ferrovax going to be back anytime soon?
A: Nah, not 'til the very end. Not in the actual trilogy-trilogy[the BAT], but probably the very last of the case books will feature him in it.
Q: Was Mac's beer modeled after any specific beer?
A: No, I don't drink. I had to go to my drinking friends and say, you have to tell me what good beer is like. And they would write me explanations of it.
Q: Ebenezar is the Blackstaff, and we found out that it's not a nickname, it's a title. [Jim: And it's also an object.] Is "the Gatekeeper" a nickname or a title?
A: It is a title. [Q'er: And an object?] Well, just... him.
Q: At what point do you decide that Harry's odds are stacked high enough against him?
A: I'll let you know when I get there.
Q: Harry's pentacle necklace. Thomas had one like it, why didn't he use it to try to find Harry's body?
A: Can't use magic through that much water. Unless you're a water mage, but nobody called Injun Joe.
Q: Out of all the Dresden Files novels, which was the most difficult one to write?
A: It's a toss-up between Death Masks, which I had to write while we were moving cross-country, and this most recent one, which I had to write where Harry couldn't just go around kicking down doors and blowing things up. It was very hard to make that character try and do things in a more indirect and subtle fashion, and yet still be himself. It took a while.
Q: Molly seems to be doing a lot of very-close-to-black-magic stuff. Is she getting, like, totally corrupted?
A: Well... what's "corrupted" mean? [laughter] Yeah, she's playing around with some nasty stuff and it's only a matter of time before that catches up to her. On the other hand, she's doing things she knew Dresden would've done if he could have done them, so it's all Harry's fault.
84
DF Reference Collection / Q&A - Washington, D.C. August 1, 2011 - Part 5
« on: October 02, 2011, 09:27:10 PM »
Link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x349JEPmgJo
Q: Could you tell us about a time where the character surprised you with where they went?
A: Not so much, on account of, those people work for me. And if they start veering off track, all I have to do is go back in and provide them with good enough motivation to do what I need them to do. 'Cause, as far as the Dresden Files universe goes, I'm God there. I can go back and alter the past and everything, and I am a cruel and malicious God, at times. But there are characters who surprised me with how they developed after I created them. It wasn't that they didn't do their job, it's just that they did their job too well to get rid of. You know, I wanted to have the mouthy medical examiner, because I love that kind of figure. So I created Butters, and figured he'd be there once. But after I got done with him, I'm like, this guy's way too cool, I have to find an excuse to use him again. So, yeah, Dead Beat came along, and I'm thinking, oh, man, this character, the medical-- against all the necromancers who are going around animating corpses, who needs to be your side-kick? The medical examiner, who works with corpses! You know, how completely appropriate, yet useless to the hero. And so Butters jumped in, and now he's getting even more involved. Poor guy.
....
How much martial arts experience do you have, and where is it, and how much more do you look into it for the books? ~1:40, Part 5
....
Q: There's a lack of Mouse in this book. Are we going to have more of him, or is he going to be protecting Maggie from now on?
A: ...And the answer to that is: Yes. Yeah, Mouse was one of those characters that I wanted to create so that Dresden had kind of a home security system, 'cause otherwise, there are more and more of these bad guys coming that would just kill him in his sleep. It's like, Oh wait, there's a Foo dog there, that isn't going to work.
Q: Is he going to get Bob back or is he going to stay with Butters?
A: [sing-song]I'm not gonna tell you.[/sing-song]
....
How come you don't mind it when people play your characters on Twitter, and why aren't you savagely defending your intellectual property? ~4:04, Part 5
....
Q: How do you justify saying that the end of Changes is not a cliffhanger?
A: I will tell you this, sir, here is the story: Harry Dresden sets out to rescue his daughter, even if it costs him his life, and it does. The End. From the perspective of storytelling format, that is not a cliffhanger, because you know the end of it. Of course, I do sometimes forget that not everyone knows the whole rest of the story. Sorry.
Q: Did Mab lie?
A: Mab did not lie, Mab was wrong. There's a subtle difference to that, at the end of Ghost Story. As far as Mab is concerned, she's telling the truth, because she's telling the truth from her experience, as she knows it. Dresden, however, is getting an earful of truth on a more cosmic level. So we'll see how that plays out a little bit more in the next book.
Q: Are we going to find out why Jim likes the name "Maggie" so much?
A: If you do find out, let me know. 'Cause then, that way, maybe I'll have a better idea. I don't know, a lot of the names, I just name names.
[same Q'er: --I mean, are we gonna find out the correlation, why it's used more than once, the name Margaret?]
A: Maybe. It very well could be. I'm not sure.
Q: Can we expect a short story from Molly's point of view, ever?
A: Almost certainly. I would probably write it from some point while she was busy being the crazy lady who defended Chicago. Actually, she's still doing that, as of now.
Q: You've mentioned several times that if you use wizard's sight irresponsibly, it can drive you nuts. What happens to the people who are driven nuts, and have we ever seen that in the series?
A: [Jim laughs.] You've read Changes, right? I mean, yeah, too much truth in the face of somebody who is genuinely sincere about their beliefs often pushes them to do really extreme things, like wiping out entire races of vampires. So, yeah, you are seeing it to some degree, but at the same time, while the truth can be painful, it's also liberating. Unfortunately, sometimes it liberates you of your sanity. That's the best answer I can give you.
Q: Could you tell us about a time where the character surprised you with where they went?
A: Not so much, on account of, those people work for me. And if they start veering off track, all I have to do is go back in and provide them with good enough motivation to do what I need them to do. 'Cause, as far as the Dresden Files universe goes, I'm God there. I can go back and alter the past and everything, and I am a cruel and malicious God, at times. But there are characters who surprised me with how they developed after I created them. It wasn't that they didn't do their job, it's just that they did their job too well to get rid of. You know, I wanted to have the mouthy medical examiner, because I love that kind of figure. So I created Butters, and figured he'd be there once. But after I got done with him, I'm like, this guy's way too cool, I have to find an excuse to use him again. So, yeah, Dead Beat came along, and I'm thinking, oh, man, this character, the medical-- against all the necromancers who are going around animating corpses, who needs to be your side-kick? The medical examiner, who works with corpses! You know, how completely appropriate, yet useless to the hero. And so Butters jumped in, and now he's getting even more involved. Poor guy.
....
How much martial arts experience do you have, and where is it, and how much more do you look into it for the books? ~1:40, Part 5
....
Q: There's a lack of Mouse in this book. Are we going to have more of him, or is he going to be protecting Maggie from now on?
A: ...And the answer to that is: Yes. Yeah, Mouse was one of those characters that I wanted to create so that Dresden had kind of a home security system, 'cause otherwise, there are more and more of these bad guys coming that would just kill him in his sleep. It's like, Oh wait, there's a Foo dog there, that isn't going to work.
Q: Is he going to get Bob back or is he going to stay with Butters?
A: [sing-song]I'm not gonna tell you.[/sing-song]
....
How come you don't mind it when people play your characters on Twitter, and why aren't you savagely defending your intellectual property? ~4:04, Part 5
....
Q: How do you justify saying that the end of Changes is not a cliffhanger?
A: I will tell you this, sir, here is the story: Harry Dresden sets out to rescue his daughter, even if it costs him his life, and it does. The End. From the perspective of storytelling format, that is not a cliffhanger, because you know the end of it. Of course, I do sometimes forget that not everyone knows the whole rest of the story. Sorry.
Q: Did Mab lie?
A: Mab did not lie, Mab was wrong. There's a subtle difference to that, at the end of Ghost Story. As far as Mab is concerned, she's telling the truth, because she's telling the truth from her experience, as she knows it. Dresden, however, is getting an earful of truth on a more cosmic level. So we'll see how that plays out a little bit more in the next book.
Q: Are we going to find out why Jim likes the name "Maggie" so much?
A: If you do find out, let me know. 'Cause then, that way, maybe I'll have a better idea. I don't know, a lot of the names, I just name names.
[same Q'er: --I mean, are we gonna find out the correlation, why it's used more than once, the name Margaret?]
A: Maybe. It very well could be. I'm not sure.
Q: Can we expect a short story from Molly's point of view, ever?
A: Almost certainly. I would probably write it from some point while she was busy being the crazy lady who defended Chicago. Actually, she's still doing that, as of now.
Q: You've mentioned several times that if you use wizard's sight irresponsibly, it can drive you nuts. What happens to the people who are driven nuts, and have we ever seen that in the series?
A: [Jim laughs.] You've read Changes, right? I mean, yeah, too much truth in the face of somebody who is genuinely sincere about their beliefs often pushes them to do really extreme things, like wiping out entire races of vampires. So, yeah, you are seeing it to some degree, but at the same time, while the truth can be painful, it's also liberating. Unfortunately, sometimes it liberates you of your sanity. That's the best answer I can give you.
85
DF Reference Collection / Q&A - Washington, D.C. August 1, 2011 - Part 4
« on: October 02, 2011, 09:17:03 PM »
Link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RegkZlLuXBQ
Q: Did you have Maggie and her name planned far in advance, or was she just thrown in?
A: No, I had her planned out, which is why the scene in which she was conceived was actually in the books instead of a fade-to-black. That, and someone had bet me that I couldn't write a plot-relevant bondage scene. But yeah, I planned the kid all along. It was just a matter of when I was going to get a chance to pull it out. [snickering in the audience] And I thought it would be a really great way to get Dresden-- oh come on, you people, grow up!-- I thought it would be a perfect motivation to get Dresden to do things he normally would not ever consider doing. Which is what is getting us into all the lovely trouble in Ghost Story, and will continue in Cold Days.
Q: Is he going to get a new Beetle or is he going to fix up the old one?
A: We'll see. There's no fixing up the old one, it got squished flat. It's possible he can get a new one, I don't know yet. He's not going to have nearly the material resources he had before-- assuming he comes back from Faerie at all.
....
How many of your best ideas came from bad bets? ~1:45, Part 4
....
Why Chicago? ~2:01, Part 4
....
Q: Will there ever be a spin-off series based on another character in the Dresden Files?
A: Maybe. Could be I'll have to pay off my gambling debts or something someday. There's all kinds of different people I could use who could do their own series. I'd actually considered doing a kind of a side-project called "The Dresden Contracts," which I would set during the Dresden Files, only I would have these other people going out doing things. You know, where Dresden more or less subcontracts them to help. But I'm not sure yet at this point. I've never really written a 20-plus volume epic fantasy before, I'm sort of new to that, so I don't want to throw too much more clay on the spinny-thing for fear that it might fall off.
....
Do you have real-life inspirations for your characters? ~3:35, Part 4
....
Q: How much have you plotted out in advance the fates of the supporting cast?
A: I actually have not plotted out what's going to happen to them in the long run; they're vulnerable. And occasionally, writers get bored or frustrated and we kill somebody capriciously. Although, I probably will avoid doing capricious deaths, just because I don't like them, I don't like to read them, so why should I expect anybody else to like them? But, no, nobody's safe. Sorry, that's the best I can tell you.
Q: If we like a character and want to know more about them, could we email him and get more information or get another short story?
A: What you could do is you could send email to me or to the site on the forum I have at jim-butcher.com, and say, "Hey, I would love to see a short story like-- blank; I would like to see more on blank." Because I actually do stop when I'm putting books together, and say, occasionally I'll stop and say, hey, who do you guys want to see more of in the next book? And I'll say it on Twitter or on my webpage, and that's one of the ways that I determine which characters to pick up and stick into the various plots. I'm not promising it will be good for the characters to get them more involved, but I do like to have the people that-- I mean, you guys are essentially-- you know, artists have always had to have patrons in order to practice their art. You guys are my patrons, and I'd be a fool not to listen to your reactions and to what you want to see. And plus, I just, you know, I like doing that, because then your favorite character's there and I get to torture them. That's a good time.
....
If you couldn't be a writer what would you be? [Insane.] ~6:38, Part 4
....
Q: [Where did the name "Fitz" come from, does it have anything to do with the fact that the word means "bastard?"]
A: Yes, it means he's an illegitimate son, and we'll find out more about that later.
Q: Where was Marcone and what was he doing during Ghost Story?
A: Check out "Even Hand." He was doing that sort of thing, if not that specific thing.
Q: Ragged Angel Investingations, is there more to that than Harry ever caught on to?
A: No, Harry was pretty much onto all of it. But it was where he got started, and Nick Christian was a character who I wrote several short stories with when I was learning how to write short stories. Don't get worked up or anything; they were terrible short stories. Plus, they were set in Kansas City. So, I regarded Nick as a learning experience, and made him thirty years older, and I dropped him off as Harry's mentor. Because, you know, I had learned things from Nick, even if it hadn't been so good for him.
....
Have you ever considered a video game adaptation of the Dresden Files? [I have, but I thought it would just take too long to code.] ~9:05, Part 4
....
Q: Did you have Maggie and her name planned far in advance, or was she just thrown in?
A: No, I had her planned out, which is why the scene in which she was conceived was actually in the books instead of a fade-to-black. That, and someone had bet me that I couldn't write a plot-relevant bondage scene. But yeah, I planned the kid all along. It was just a matter of when I was going to get a chance to pull it out. [snickering in the audience] And I thought it would be a really great way to get Dresden-- oh come on, you people, grow up!-- I thought it would be a perfect motivation to get Dresden to do things he normally would not ever consider doing. Which is what is getting us into all the lovely trouble in Ghost Story, and will continue in Cold Days.
Q: Is he going to get a new Beetle or is he going to fix up the old one?
A: We'll see. There's no fixing up the old one, it got squished flat. It's possible he can get a new one, I don't know yet. He's not going to have nearly the material resources he had before-- assuming he comes back from Faerie at all.
....
How many of your best ideas came from bad bets? ~1:45, Part 4
....
Why Chicago? ~2:01, Part 4
....
Q: Will there ever be a spin-off series based on another character in the Dresden Files?
A: Maybe. Could be I'll have to pay off my gambling debts or something someday. There's all kinds of different people I could use who could do their own series. I'd actually considered doing a kind of a side-project called "The Dresden Contracts," which I would set during the Dresden Files, only I would have these other people going out doing things. You know, where Dresden more or less subcontracts them to help. But I'm not sure yet at this point. I've never really written a 20-plus volume epic fantasy before, I'm sort of new to that, so I don't want to throw too much more clay on the spinny-thing for fear that it might fall off.
....
Do you have real-life inspirations for your characters? ~3:35, Part 4
....
Q: How much have you plotted out in advance the fates of the supporting cast?
A: I actually have not plotted out what's going to happen to them in the long run; they're vulnerable. And occasionally, writers get bored or frustrated and we kill somebody capriciously. Although, I probably will avoid doing capricious deaths, just because I don't like them, I don't like to read them, so why should I expect anybody else to like them? But, no, nobody's safe. Sorry, that's the best I can tell you.
Q: If we like a character and want to know more about them, could we email him and get more information or get another short story?
A: What you could do is you could send email to me or to the site on the forum I have at jim-butcher.com, and say, "Hey, I would love to see a short story like-- blank; I would like to see more on blank." Because I actually do stop when I'm putting books together, and say, occasionally I'll stop and say, hey, who do you guys want to see more of in the next book? And I'll say it on Twitter or on my webpage, and that's one of the ways that I determine which characters to pick up and stick into the various plots. I'm not promising it will be good for the characters to get them more involved, but I do like to have the people that-- I mean, you guys are essentially-- you know, artists have always had to have patrons in order to practice their art. You guys are my patrons, and I'd be a fool not to listen to your reactions and to what you want to see. And plus, I just, you know, I like doing that, because then your favorite character's there and I get to torture them. That's a good time.
....
If you couldn't be a writer what would you be? [Insane.] ~6:38, Part 4
....
Q: [Where did the name "Fitz" come from, does it have anything to do with the fact that the word means "bastard?"]
A: Yes, it means he's an illegitimate son, and we'll find out more about that later.
Q: Where was Marcone and what was he doing during Ghost Story?
A: Check out "Even Hand." He was doing that sort of thing, if not that specific thing.
Q: Ragged Angel Investingations, is there more to that than Harry ever caught on to?
A: No, Harry was pretty much onto all of it. But it was where he got started, and Nick Christian was a character who I wrote several short stories with when I was learning how to write short stories. Don't get worked up or anything; they were terrible short stories. Plus, they were set in Kansas City. So, I regarded Nick as a learning experience, and made him thirty years older, and I dropped him off as Harry's mentor. Because, you know, I had learned things from Nick, even if it hadn't been so good for him.
....
Have you ever considered a video game adaptation of the Dresden Files? [I have, but I thought it would just take too long to code.] ~9:05, Part 4
....
86
DF Reference Collection / Q&A - Washington, D.C. August 1, 2011 - Part 3
« on: October 02, 2011, 09:03:28 PM »
Link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xigIxpGVcqc
Q: Are we going to have to wait a while until we find out what's going on on the island?
A: Yeah, you'll have to wait until at least the next book. We should actually be able to get some real stuff on Demonreach in the next book. You'll get an idea of why it's there and why Dresden is probably the worst possible person to be in charge of it. Yeah, really, Dresden is the worst possible person to be in charge of every story, that's just kind of how he rolls.
....
Why did you cut your hair?
....
Q: You're writing twenty books, how much of it did you have plotted?
A: The answer to that is I had twenty books plotted. [stuff about his writing class]
Q: Are we going to see more of Nicodemus or Mavra?
A: Nicodemus will show up on schedule(which you can figure out if you stop to look at things, I think). Mavra's not done yet either, but she eventually probably will be, and I'll leave it at that.
Q: Why did you end the Codex where you did, knowing that the threat was still viable?
A: The threat was viable, but it's not going to show up for a while. They had won the day, and much of the drama that was going to take place afterwards was going to be stuff like, you know, fighting over where the new Fury roads got built, and who got the contracts to do the projects that were going to have to happen in order to rebuild everything. And that struck me as a little bit less quickly-paced than I would be good at writing. I need to blow things up or everyone would be bored stiff with me. That said, if I do go back to the Alera books, which I may well do one day, it'll be a couple of generations in the future. After they've set up the universe, after Tavi's radically altered the way that people use their furies. It'll be a much steam-punkier Alera. That could still be fun, because there are still gonna be some characters that are still alive.
....
How do you fact check yourself with thirteen books? ~5:00, Part 3
....
Q: What was your motivation behind "Curses" and where does it fit into the Dresden universe?
A: I wanted to write a story about the billy-goat curse that the Cubs have labored under for more than a century, just because it was in the news that year. I think it falls just before Dead Beat. That's the story that's not in Side Jobs, it's in the Naked City anthology. I'm gonna put it in the next group of short stories, which I'll probably call, being as original as I am, "More Jobs." But there's gonna be more short stories, because there were a couple that got missed, and I want to have them all in anthologies, so someone can pick up one paperback and say, here, I've got them all.
Q: Is Mac ever going to speak more than ten words?
A: Not for a while. He's not a man of many words, as most truly dangerous people are.
....
How do you come up with names? ~7:45, Part 3
....
How you approach creating new characters? ~8:40, Part 3
....
Q: Are we going to have to wait a while until we find out what's going on on the island?
A: Yeah, you'll have to wait until at least the next book. We should actually be able to get some real stuff on Demonreach in the next book. You'll get an idea of why it's there and why Dresden is probably the worst possible person to be in charge of it. Yeah, really, Dresden is the worst possible person to be in charge of every story, that's just kind of how he rolls.
....
Why did you cut your hair?
....
Q: You're writing twenty books, how much of it did you have plotted?
A: The answer to that is I had twenty books plotted. [stuff about his writing class]
Q: Are we going to see more of Nicodemus or Mavra?
A: Nicodemus will show up on schedule(which you can figure out if you stop to look at things, I think). Mavra's not done yet either, but she eventually probably will be, and I'll leave it at that.
Q: Why did you end the Codex where you did, knowing that the threat was still viable?
A: The threat was viable, but it's not going to show up for a while. They had won the day, and much of the drama that was going to take place afterwards was going to be stuff like, you know, fighting over where the new Fury roads got built, and who got the contracts to do the projects that were going to have to happen in order to rebuild everything. And that struck me as a little bit less quickly-paced than I would be good at writing. I need to blow things up or everyone would be bored stiff with me. That said, if I do go back to the Alera books, which I may well do one day, it'll be a couple of generations in the future. After they've set up the universe, after Tavi's radically altered the way that people use their furies. It'll be a much steam-punkier Alera. That could still be fun, because there are still gonna be some characters that are still alive.
....
How do you fact check yourself with thirteen books? ~5:00, Part 3
....
Q: What was your motivation behind "Curses" and where does it fit into the Dresden universe?
A: I wanted to write a story about the billy-goat curse that the Cubs have labored under for more than a century, just because it was in the news that year. I think it falls just before Dead Beat. That's the story that's not in Side Jobs, it's in the Naked City anthology. I'm gonna put it in the next group of short stories, which I'll probably call, being as original as I am, "More Jobs." But there's gonna be more short stories, because there were a couple that got missed, and I want to have them all in anthologies, so someone can pick up one paperback and say, here, I've got them all.
Q: Is Mac ever going to speak more than ten words?
A: Not for a while. He's not a man of many words, as most truly dangerous people are.
....
How do you come up with names? ~7:45, Part 3
....
How you approach creating new characters? ~8:40, Part 3
....
87
DF Reference Collection / Q&A - Washington, D.C. August 1, 2011 - Part 2
« on: October 02, 2011, 08:52:57 PM »
Link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzs9aU7KEwo
....
Is Harry Dresden going to make it to the screen again? ~0:01, Part 2
....
If you had a choice, who would you have play Harry on-screen? ~1:00, Part 2
....
Q: Do you think Murphy will take up the Sword for good?
A: Um, [sing-song]I'm not gonna tell you![/sing-song]
....
Do you still find time to LARP? ~2:00, Part 2
....
Q: What are the chances of me writing another Alera series, or another series in general?
A: 100%, because I have to get a break from that Dresden guy, or I'll hate him. By the time I get to the end of a book it's like, "Man, I am so sick of hanging out with you." It's not that he's a bad guy or anything, it's just like, you know, when you have family come to visit, and the first three or four days is great, and after that it's just a ticking clock until somebody picks up a knife. But, yeah, I'm working on a trilogy now that is probably going to be the prequel trilogy to my epic Epic Fantasy Epic that I'm gonna write one day. "It's so epic it needs a prequel trilogy!" It's largely inspired by the Black Company.
Q: Who is your favorite author?
A: Robert Parker.
[Audience: You should have said Shannon!]
A: I probably should have said Shannon, but she wouldn't have believed me because, you know, I haven't read her stuff. [Further answer ~4:30, Part 2]
Q: You mentioned Robert Parker, is there any connection between that and the Susan character and her fate.
A: No, not really. I had to name her something, so it was Susan. Actually, I think it was the Tick that influenced that more than anything. "Susan?" "Oh, now you're not even trying!"
Q: Jim: He wants to know the first sentence of the next book. [stuff about spoiling people, then--]
A: "Mab has unique ideas on physical therapy." And we'll kind of go from there.
Q: She writes and she knows there are always 8 billion super-cool things that she comes up with and that she couldn't fit into the book with a crowbar, and wonders if Jim is the same and could he tell us some of them.
A: Really, my process doesn't work like that. I'm a fundamentally lazy writer, I try and build the book as lean as I possibly can, just because it makes the editor's job easier and then they like me and take me out to dinner. There are a few things that have gotten taken out. When I was working with Jan Heddel(sp?) she came back with the manuscript to Grave Peril and said, "This is awesome, and I want you to expand on these four story lines, and cut the book by fifty pages." And I said, so you want me to make the book larger and smaller? And she said, "Yes! And hurry." There was a scene with a ghoul that had I planned on using for ghoul-related foo in Chicago that I had to delete. There was a vampire attack where the vampire tried to tear out the Blue Beetle's engine, and didn't realize that it was in the back, not the front. But those are the only really large things that I dropped.
Q: Is Carlos still a virgin?
A: I'm not gonna tell you.
Q: Are we ever going to see Sue the T-Rex again?
A: Are you kidding? I couldn't just let that sit. It might be awhile, but we're gonna get her out again, because that was just too cool to not do again.
Q: Have we met the people who created the Hexenwolf belts yet?
A: That's another "I'm not gonna tell you" question. I will say, "kind of," "not really," and "yes." But we'll get into more of that during Cold Days as well.
Q: Are we ever going to see the Jade Court get involved in things?
A: They're really isolationist, which means they really don't care what's happening outside of their own sphere of influence, which is largely China. We're not going to see them, definitely, in any of the case books. They might show up in the big old trilogy I'm going to do at the end. That's the plan, in case you didn't know, there are going to be about twenty-ish of the Dresden Files, depending on whether or not my kid goes to grad school. And then I'm gonna write a big old apocalyptic trilogy for the very end.
....
Is Harry Dresden going to make it to the screen again? ~0:01, Part 2
....
If you had a choice, who would you have play Harry on-screen? ~1:00, Part 2
....
Q: Do you think Murphy will take up the Sword for good?
A: Um, [sing-song]I'm not gonna tell you![/sing-song]
....
Do you still find time to LARP? ~2:00, Part 2
....
Q: What are the chances of me writing another Alera series, or another series in general?
A: 100%, because I have to get a break from that Dresden guy, or I'll hate him. By the time I get to the end of a book it's like, "Man, I am so sick of hanging out with you." It's not that he's a bad guy or anything, it's just like, you know, when you have family come to visit, and the first three or four days is great, and after that it's just a ticking clock until somebody picks up a knife. But, yeah, I'm working on a trilogy now that is probably going to be the prequel trilogy to my epic Epic Fantasy Epic that I'm gonna write one day. "It's so epic it needs a prequel trilogy!" It's largely inspired by the Black Company.
Q: Who is your favorite author?
A: Robert Parker.
[Audience: You should have said Shannon!]
A: I probably should have said Shannon, but she wouldn't have believed me because, you know, I haven't read her stuff. [Further answer ~4:30, Part 2]
Q: You mentioned Robert Parker, is there any connection between that and the Susan character and her fate.
A: No, not really. I had to name her something, so it was Susan. Actually, I think it was the Tick that influenced that more than anything. "Susan?" "Oh, now you're not even trying!"
Q: Jim: He wants to know the first sentence of the next book. [stuff about spoiling people, then--]
A: "Mab has unique ideas on physical therapy." And we'll kind of go from there.
Q: She writes and she knows there are always 8 billion super-cool things that she comes up with and that she couldn't fit into the book with a crowbar, and wonders if Jim is the same and could he tell us some of them.
A: Really, my process doesn't work like that. I'm a fundamentally lazy writer, I try and build the book as lean as I possibly can, just because it makes the editor's job easier and then they like me and take me out to dinner. There are a few things that have gotten taken out. When I was working with Jan Heddel(sp?) she came back with the manuscript to Grave Peril and said, "This is awesome, and I want you to expand on these four story lines, and cut the book by fifty pages." And I said, so you want me to make the book larger and smaller? And she said, "Yes! And hurry." There was a scene with a ghoul that had I planned on using for ghoul-related foo in Chicago that I had to delete. There was a vampire attack where the vampire tried to tear out the Blue Beetle's engine, and didn't realize that it was in the back, not the front. But those are the only really large things that I dropped.
Q: Is Carlos still a virgin?
A: I'm not gonna tell you.
Q: Are we ever going to see Sue the T-Rex again?
A: Are you kidding? I couldn't just let that sit. It might be awhile, but we're gonna get her out again, because that was just too cool to not do again.
Q: Have we met the people who created the Hexenwolf belts yet?
A: That's another "I'm not gonna tell you" question. I will say, "kind of," "not really," and "yes." But we'll get into more of that during Cold Days as well.
Q: Are we ever going to see the Jade Court get involved in things?
A: They're really isolationist, which means they really don't care what's happening outside of their own sphere of influence, which is largely China. We're not going to see them, definitely, in any of the case books. They might show up in the big old trilogy I'm going to do at the end. That's the plan, in case you didn't know, there are going to be about twenty-ish of the Dresden Files, depending on whether or not my kid goes to grad school. And then I'm gonna write a big old apocalyptic trilogy for the very end.
88
DF Reference Collection / Q&A - Washington, D.C. August 1, 2011 - Part 1
« on: October 02, 2011, 08:36:37 PM »
It's been a while with no updates on the DC Q&A, so I did most of it today. I haven't transcribed the answer to every question, but the ones I haven't transcribed were about things other than the plot of Jim's books. In those places, I've written down the questions and the approximate time at which they occur, on which video segment. Eventually, I'll go back and transcribe those, too, unless someone else has a burning desire to do so. *looks around hopefully* These questions have a "...." above and below them, to separate them from the others.
I've done my best to transcribe every answer word for word, paraphrasing only when I really needed to in order to make the answer intelligible, because sometimes he gets interrupted by the audience. When I'm paraphrasing, I enclose the statements with brackets: [ ].
Q&A with Jim Butcher at a Barnes & Noble in Washington, D.C. August 1, 2011 - Part 1
Link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wKr8UERpto
Q: Does Ivy know everything Bob knows?
A: Man, talk about an obscure question. Probably the vast majority of it, yeah, although Ivy's more oriented toward things that are happening on Earth, and Bob has sources all over. [messing with the microphone] So, I would say it's more an issue of, they have different fields of information available to them. They don't, like, have a comparable database.
Q: So Ivy doesn't get what Bob gets as soon as Bob gets it?
A: No.
Q: What is the publishing goal for Cold Days?
A: I don't know. It's due next June, I would anticipate it would be around this time. I've got the first sentence done, though, and that's the hard part. Now I've just got like 150,000 more words to go.
Q: Have we seen the last of Lasciel?
A: No, her story's not over. Actually, she's mentioned in Ghost Story, although not by name.
Q: What's with the hat on all the covers of the books?
A: The art department at Penguin thought that was the perfect visual shorthand for wizard detective. 'Cause he's got the wizard stick and the detective hat. So that's why they've done it.
....
What's a typical day of writing for me? ~3:01, Part 1
....
How come Marsters isn't doing the voice acting on the audio of GS? ~3:50, Part 1
....
How much magical theory do you read? ~4:50, Part 1
....
Q: What happened to Toot-toot? Is he getting pizza?
A: I only get to do this to the faces of the readers every so often: [sing-song]I'm not gonna tell you![/sing-song] 'Cause it's way more fun to read in the book.
Q: --he gets pizza, though, right?
A: --maybe, maybe not. You don't know yet. But the next book is going to be much concerned with faeries, so definitely Toot-toot is going to be participating.
....
Do I play the Dresden Files RPG?
....
Q: Who's first on Mab's hit list?
A: That'll be another "I'm not gonna tell you," because we'll find out in Chapter One of the next book. As soon as I write it.
Q: How close is your personality to Harry's personality?
A: Harry is the guy I would like to think I would be if someone handed me his kind of power-- but I think I would really end up one of those giggling villains. Actually, we're not terribly similar. We share a taste in T-shirts and Burger King, that's about it.
....
Q: Am I planning on writing any more material in the near future for the Dresden Files RPG? ~8:01, Part 1
A: Maybe, I have no objection to writing more material-- [but time constraints make it seem unlikely for the near future.]
....
Q: You've established in the books that Morgan's sword is the one used for executions in the books. Does it predate Luccio?
A: No. Morgan's sword was used because Morgan was the guy who would do it and not have nightmares afterwards. Or, you know actually, point of fact, he probably did have nightmares afterwards, but he would tell everybody that he didn't. He was one of those guys who was very big on the, "don't ever give somebody an order that you wouldn't follow yourself," sort of line of thought. So, lopping off heads? Sure, absolutely, somebody has to do it. That's the kind of guy he was. I mean, kind of a jerk, but he had some redeeming features, too.
I've done my best to transcribe every answer word for word, paraphrasing only when I really needed to in order to make the answer intelligible, because sometimes he gets interrupted by the audience. When I'm paraphrasing, I enclose the statements with brackets: [ ].
Q&A with Jim Butcher at a Barnes & Noble in Washington, D.C. August 1, 2011 - Part 1
Link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wKr8UERpto
Q: Does Ivy know everything Bob knows?
A: Man, talk about an obscure question. Probably the vast majority of it, yeah, although Ivy's more oriented toward things that are happening on Earth, and Bob has sources all over. [messing with the microphone] So, I would say it's more an issue of, they have different fields of information available to them. They don't, like, have a comparable database.
Q: So Ivy doesn't get what Bob gets as soon as Bob gets it?
A: No.
Q: What is the publishing goal for Cold Days?
A: I don't know. It's due next June, I would anticipate it would be around this time. I've got the first sentence done, though, and that's the hard part. Now I've just got like 150,000 more words to go.
Q: Have we seen the last of Lasciel?
A: No, her story's not over. Actually, she's mentioned in Ghost Story, although not by name.
Q: What's with the hat on all the covers of the books?
A: The art department at Penguin thought that was the perfect visual shorthand for wizard detective. 'Cause he's got the wizard stick and the detective hat. So that's why they've done it.
....
What's a typical day of writing for me? ~3:01, Part 1
....
How come Marsters isn't doing the voice acting on the audio of GS? ~3:50, Part 1
....
How much magical theory do you read? ~4:50, Part 1
....
Q: What happened to Toot-toot? Is he getting pizza?
A: I only get to do this to the faces of the readers every so often: [sing-song]I'm not gonna tell you![/sing-song] 'Cause it's way more fun to read in the book.
Q: --he gets pizza, though, right?
A: --maybe, maybe not. You don't know yet. But the next book is going to be much concerned with faeries, so definitely Toot-toot is going to be participating.
....
Do I play the Dresden Files RPG?
....
Q: Who's first on Mab's hit list?
A: That'll be another "I'm not gonna tell you," because we'll find out in Chapter One of the next book. As soon as I write it.
Q: How close is your personality to Harry's personality?
A: Harry is the guy I would like to think I would be if someone handed me his kind of power-- but I think I would really end up one of those giggling villains. Actually, we're not terribly similar. We share a taste in T-shirts and Burger King, that's about it.
....
Q: Am I planning on writing any more material in the near future for the Dresden Files RPG? ~8:01, Part 1
A: Maybe, I have no objection to writing more material-- [but time constraints make it seem unlikely for the near future.]
....
Q: You've established in the books that Morgan's sword is the one used for executions in the books. Does it predate Luccio?
A: No. Morgan's sword was used because Morgan was the guy who would do it and not have nightmares afterwards. Or, you know actually, point of fact, he probably did have nightmares afterwards, but he would tell everybody that he didn't. He was one of those guys who was very big on the, "don't ever give somebody an order that you wouldn't follow yourself," sort of line of thought. So, lopping off heads? Sure, absolutely, somebody has to do it. That's the kind of guy he was. I mean, kind of a jerk, but he had some redeeming features, too.
89
Site Suggestions & Support / Searches Limited to 10 Results?
« on: September 07, 2011, 07:30:15 PM »
The subject of the thread pretty much says it all. Searches seem to return a maximum of 10 results. This isn't very effective when searching the WoJ section, because all of the WoJs are in there without being divided into sub-sections. It was fine when I could just set the poster's name to "jimbutcher" and run a search, then sift through all the results until I found what I was looking for, but now, if I don't get lucky, I'm pretty much not going to find things.
90
DF Reference Collection / Re: [Spolers Through GS] Maggie LeFay and the Outsiders
« on: September 06, 2011, 11:58:36 AM »I would expect that sort of thinking from a 20-something trying to get laid, yes. But Luccio is a grownup, and is supposed to see Harry as the same.
Well, the trying to get laid part was mostly a joke. Although, Luccio was the one to point out what a roomy back seat the Silver Wraith had, so who knows?
Given their background, the respect she supposedly has for him, and the stakes of their world? Yeah, I'd expect the straight truth.
Luccio was telling Harry about who Maggie was, not just facts about things she'd done. And that was what Harry wanted to know, and because Luccio cared about him, she understood that and was trying to help. Much the same way that Murphy might have done in her place, I'd imagine.
Other people have told Harry, and us, such things as, "Maggie LeFay was acquainted with this person and this person and this person, and she committed this crime," and then they've left it to Harry, and us, to draw our own conclusions from those statements. Luccio is the only one yet to say, "Maggie was like this and like this and like this, and she loved these things, and believed in these things." Luccio is the only one who has given us any information at all about why Maggie LeFay behaved the way she did, rather than simply pointing out isolated facts and letting us draw our own conclusions from them. Dismissing everything she said just because it seems somehow out of place from your point of view seems like a huge mistake, to me.
Drawing conclusions based entirely on who someone knows and a few things that person has done can lead to terribly flawed results. Here, I can prove it:
"Harry Dresden is acquainted with multiple demons, has summoned a demon on multiple occasions, and struck bargains with this demon more than once. He is intimately acquainted with a Fallen angel, and has received multiple forms of power from that Fallen angel. He is acquainted with several Knights of the Blackened Denarius, has met Denarians several times, and has participated in deals with them on more than one occasion.
Dresden is guilty of breaking the First Law. He has done so at least once, and many on the White Council believe he may have done so more than once. He has summoned a zombie to the certain knowledge of no less than five Wardens, but was able to escape execution by way of a technicality.
He has many times been seen in the company of various members of the White Court, is known to speak an ancient language spoken among their ruling families, and has struck bargains with the ruler of that Court on more than one occasion.
Dresden is known to have had many dealings with the most powerful of the Unseelie fae, and is the personal champion of Mab, the Queen of wicked faeries herself."
--yet all of that would not give someone a very accurate idea of who Harry is at all. Ebenezer, Maggie's father, is the person who taught Harry how to use magic for the right reasons, and what those reasons were. He taught Harry by behaving as an example of the virtues he expected Harry to live by. And yet, Ebenezer is also the Blackstaff, and he has apparently used magic to commit terrible atrocities with magic, in service to the White Council. Both of those behaviors are a true part of who Ebenezer is, despite the fact that they seem to contradict one another.
Given that Harry is as complex as he is, and that Ebenezer seems to be just as complex, why should we expect Eb's daughter, Harry's mother, to be easily defined or simple of nature? According to Luccio, Maggie was at least as smart as Eb or Harry, and maybe smarter. The long-term planning Maggie did on Harry's behalf is a pretty good confirmation of this, in my opinion. So why should she be simple, when neither her son nor her father are?
Also, Luccio's description of Maggie fits what we saw from Maggie's personality imprint in a way that the raw facts from Chauncy or Nicodemus, or even Ebenezer, did not. And since that's the only time we've ever had the chance to see Maggie in action, it seems like one of the more vital sources of information on the subject.