We now have cover art for "My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon!"  Check it out in P.N. Elrod's livejournal, then discuss it on the forums here.

Congrats to Jim for getting top billing among the authors listed!  The anthology is due out December 26th, and it will include his short story "Heorot."

Thanks to P.N. Elrod's livejournal post on the subject, we now have the title for Jim's story in the upcoming anthology My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon!  It will be called "Heorot," which is the name of the mead hall Beowulf defended from Grendel in the great epic.  I think I'm even more curious about the story now!

Read more about the anthology and its contributors here.  We don't yet have a release date for it and it's not available for preorder, but you can buy its predecessor My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding or preorder Many Bloody Returns, the other upcoming anthology featuring a short story by Jim, on Amazon.com.

Discuss the story here!

Chris McGrath, the Dresden Files' cover artist, has posted the cover for Small Favor!  And it's gorgeous.



Check out the droolworthy full-sized version at Chris' website, then decorate your desktop with Small Favor-style wallpaper, assembled by Priscellie: 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, or 1920x1200.

Share your thoughts on the forums!

Check out Chris' website here, and listen to his podcast interview on The Butcher Block #2 here!  You can also pre-order Small Favor on Amazon.

DearAuthor.com brings us good news about the future of The Dresden Files:

You know you are big time when you get to sell unnamed book 12 and unnamed book 13.
Jim Butcher’s DRESDEN FILES 12 and DRESDEN FILES 13, new books in the successful series, now also a television show, featuring Harry Dresden, wizard-for-hire, in Chicago, to Anne Sowards at Roc, in a significant deal, by Jennifer Jackson at the Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Looks like we're safe for the time being!

Jim has stated on several occasions that he is planning to write a total of about 20 Dresden Files "case books" like those we've read so far, then cap off the series with an Apocalyptic Trilogy.  The tenth book in the series, Small Favor, is due out in Spring 2008.

Discuss this at the Forums here.

We have more news of the continuing success of The Dresden Files!

We're proud to announce that White Night maintains a strong position on the New York Times bestseller list!  It began in fifth place, then dropped to seventh in its second week, and now rests comfortably in 11th place in its third week.  Congratulations, Jim!

Additionally, cover artist Christian McGrath revealed on the Forums that Storm Front is slated to be released in hardcover this November!  This is assuredly a product of the success of the books.  You can pre-order the book on Amazon here.

Discuss White Night's bestseller success here and the hardcover edition of Storm Front here.

I am painfully predictable.

We don't have many dates or much of a coherent timeframe yet, so this will be much less orderly than the Book Series Timeline I maintain.  At the moment, it's organized by character, because it just makes more sense to me that way.  Additionally, all episode numbers I use will be in reference to their production order, as opposed to the order in which they were aired.  I realize I'm pretty much the only person in the fandom that uses this convention, but I enjoy being stubborn. 

I'd appreciate any additions, clarifications, or corrections you guys have to offer!  However, this is NOT the place for "discussing" the changes, positive or negative.  There are a dozen other threads for that.  This is also not the place for book timeline discussion.  Please keep this thread restricted to TV series timeline-related discussion ONLY.  I'd like to thank Shiggy in advance for her awesome Transcript-Fu, without which this process would be a lot more painful.

For those curious about the show production timeline, check out this post by Robert.  It details the chronology of the show's development.


Harry Dresden
(do we know if his middle names are kept for the show?)

(1971) His mother, Maggie, dies in childbirth, but Harry is aware at an early age that hers was not a natural death.

1981: Harry is given his mother's shield bracelet.  Soon after, during one of Colm's shows in Atlantic City, Harry uses his abilities publicly.  He quickly comes to the attention of his uncle, Justin Morningway.  We're led to believe Harry is about 10 year old.

1982: Colm dies of a heart attack, and Harry goes to live with Justin, his next of kin.  It was Bob, and not Justin, who taught Harry his magical basics--Justin being far too busy and important for such things.  He let Bob do the dreary part, and then took over once Harry got his magical black belt. --Jim

(2001/2): (Five years before the events of the show)  Harry uses black magic to "self-defense [Justin] to death."  The High Council rules that Harry did it in self-defense, but his probation officer Morgan suspects otherwise. He would be only too happy to catch Harry in another transgression. 

Harry burns Bob's first Grimoire. 

In the wake of Justin's demise, the High Council apparently judged that Bob would be a good Jiminy Cricket for Dresden--and, the way their twisty minds work, they probably planned to use him as a snitch/informer/witness for the prosecution if Dresden started getting out of line again. --Jim

Robert notes: Since we've simplified the backstory a bit and since we have Dresden kill Justin much later in life than in the books, there's not much room for Ebenezar.  In some ways we cannibalized the book version of Ebenezar into Justin and a bit into Morgan and a bit into Mai.

2007:  The events of the show!  Hopefully we'll get some dates to better pin down the episodes.


Constanza ("Connie") Murphy

Date Unknown: She becomes a Lieutenant in the Chicago Police Department.  (The S.I. department does not exist in the show's mythology)

Dates Unknown:  She gets married, then divorced.  We don't know how this corresponds to the dates of when she became a Lieutenant.  The only date we have to deal with is:

1997-8: Daughter Anna is born.  She is 9 years old at the time of the show.


Bob, aka Hrothbert of Bainbridge
"Hrothbert" is old English for "Robert"

A thousand years or so ago:  The wizard Hrothbert wrote his first Grimoire, which includes a nasty little device called a "Doom Box."

Hrothbert went warlock, and wound up taking an axe blow to the back of the head as a result.  Now he's essentially a ghost, cursed to haunt his own skull for all eternity.

When it comes to magic, he can't do it himself any more, and he can't interact with anything physically, but he bears a certain amount of professional pride.  Oh sure, some of the stuff he did was black as hell, but it was frickin' elegant, dammit.  Just look at those formulae!  Sure, he was a fool to go down that road, but since he was going down it anyway, he did it in style! 
 --Jim

The 16th Century:  Hrothbert learns some showtunes.

Time Unknown:  Hrothbert comes into Justin Morningway's possession.  He serves him well.

See Harry's entry for their chronology together.


Other:

1996/1997:  Scott Sharp is born and given to Sheryl Sharp and her husband.  The boy is followed by ravens from day one--we later learn these Ravens are mercenaries, hired the to protect the boy for the Council.  The husband soon leaves.  Scott is ten years old at the time of "Birds of a Feather" (1x03).

Late 2005/Early 2006: Gus Boone serves five years for aggravated assault, gets out, and kills 17-year-old Lisa Harding the next day in the process of stealing the Lock of Anubis.  He then steals the body of wealthy stockbroker and very eligible bachelor, Edward Miller.  One year later, the girl's father, Charles Harding, brings Harry in on a case of haunting in "The Boone Identity" (1x04).

2007:  The events of "Storm Front" (1x01) actually happen first in terms of episode continuity, regardless of viewing order.

2007:  The events of "Birds of a Feather" (1x01).  Melissa and the real Whitney Timmons are killed.  According to Robert, Melissa was a records keeper for the High Council.  A middle class type operator with limited abilities.  She could access the Council records from anywhere with a thought.  Pretty much a one trick pony.

The timeline created in the "Has Anyone Done a Timeline" thread has overstepped the limit of number of characters allowed in a post.  Therefore, I figured it was time to start a new thread, with the timeline broken into chunks.  This should also make it more convenient for new members to find the timeline, as they won't have to scroll through a dozen posts to find my entry.

It's impossible to pin down exactly what year Harry was born due to continuity errors.  One could say Harry couldn't have been born before 1974 because that's when David Copperfield assumed his stage name, but one could argue Harry couldn't have been born after 1972, because that marked end of routine smallpox vaccination in America.  To allow for flexibility of interpretation, let's say "Storm Front" and "Fool Moon" take place in the year 0, and every thing else is either BSF (Before Storm Front) or ASF (After Storm Front).  Smallpox aside, the timeline editor believes the most compelling data points to "Storm Front" taking place in 1999, putting Harry's birth in 1974:

• PRO: Works with mayoral elections
• PRO: Major series events in the war with the Red Court dovetail with major post-9/11 historical events: terrorist paranoia, War on Terror, end or Iraq war, and death of bin Laden
• PRO: Lydia's prophetic dream about the Challenger disaster in 1986 hits at a more plausible age (while still certainly plausible for Harry being born in 1976).  Assuming she's talking about the assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981, this is also the most plausible.
• PRO: Harry's birthday is on a full moon. This isn't mentioned in the books, but it's just cool.
• ISH: David Kotkin (age 18) takes the stage name "David Copperfield" in 1974, though his career doesn't take off until 1975.  Still, if Malcolm knew him from the SAM and even helped him choose a name, this isn't a deal-breaker.
• CON: Butters assures Harry that he's vaccinated against smallpox, but routine vaccination of the American public stopped in 1972 after the disease was eradicated in the United States.
• CON: Doesn't fit with Knight Rider timeline. The show aired from September 1982 (when 1974!Harry was just shy of 8 ) to April 1986 (when 1974!Harry was 11).  In "Ghost Story," Harry watches new episodes of Knight Rider when he's 13.  In order for the timeline to fit, Harry would've had to have been born between 1968 and 1973.  Alternately, Harry could've been watching reruns, but I doubt that was Jim's intention.

Pre-Series (Before Storm Front)

67 MILLION YEARS BSF: Sue roams the Earth!

c 2000 BC: Birth/Rebirth of the Red King, who is about 4000 in Changes.  He doesn't look a day over 3500!

EARLY 1500s:  Paolo Ortega becomes a vampire.  According to Thomas in DM, "living about six hundred years isn't something you do by playing nice," which would have put his siring in LATE 13th/EARLY 14th CENTURY, but that doesn't match up with the timeline of Spanish conquest of the Yucatán.  Perhaps Thomas needs a history lesson!

MID-1500s: The White Council moves its HQ to Edinburgh "just under 500 years ago."

BEFORE HARRY WAS A TWINKLE IN HIS GREAT-GRANDCESTOR'S EYE:  Bob seduces sheperdesses!  Neurovore notes that Bob claims to have "about six hundred years worth of memories to sort through in here" [BR 219], which suggests his origin is somewhere in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century.

~1393: Freeholding Lord Vlad Drakul, father of Dracula, is born.  He is a half-mortal, half-demon scion, and he is formidable, dangerous, and cruel.  Kincaid, called the "Hound of Hell" or the "Hellhound," serves as his right arm for centuries.  NOTE:  This is the state historians attribute to his birth, not necessarily his Dresdenverse birthdate.  As Aluman and Landing noted, he could have been born a thousand years earlier.

LATE 14th CENTURY/MID-15th CENTURY, FRANCE:  Bob's spirit is bound to a random skull by a fellow called Etienne the Enchanter.  Jim, here: "Etienne the Enchanter picked it (Bob's skull) up on the cheap, back in medieval France, and skulls weren't exactly uncommon.  Etienne himself probably had it for the reason that so many writers and sages had skulls hanging around--to make their office look cooler.  Etienne, though, is the one who originally laid out the enchantment on the skull to enable it to be a little home-away-from-home for Bob, and he's been passed down, wizard-to-wizard, ever since."

BEFORE 1600 (Over 400 years ago):  Ancient Mai is born.  [From Jim, here.]

CIRCA 1700 (About 300 years ago):  Ebenezar McCoy and Arthur Langtry (The Merlin) born.  Jim, on the old list: "He's British, brought up during the time of the British Empire, and is old enough to remember when the United States was a bunch of penny-pinching colonials with no sense of loyalty to the Crown.  Ebenezar, btw, is of roughly the same age, and they were young men together, which must have had a fairly high special effects budget, given that both of them were born brawny-wizards, like Harry. "

CIRCA 1716 (About 300 years ago, minus 16): Ebenezar and Arthur Langtry meet when Eb was sixteen years old.

269 BSF (circa 1739):  Aleron LaFortier is born. 

1754 to 1763: The French and Indian War.  According to Jim, this was an eventful time in Ebenezar's life!

BTW APPROX 1797 AND 1810: Maggie LeFay is born. (Source)

CIRCA 1800:  Luccio is born.  Jim, here:  "She can barely remember the War of 1812 (which puts her in the same category with most modern American students), but it was of no interest to her at the time, growing up in southern Italy."

1805, October 21: Admiral Horatio Nelson dies of a gunshot wound suffered at the Battle of Trafalgar.  Gard is present and takes the fatal bullet from his body.  (From "Even Hand")

CIRCA 1810: Ebenezar's wife dies.

1812:  Ebenezar causes the New Madrid Earthquake [BR, 297], the largest earthquake ever recorded in the contiguous United States and an estimated 8.0 on the Richter scale.  Clearly, he's been Blackstaff for a long time!

EARLY 1800s:  The Wardens kill Kemmler the first time [DB, 26].  Bob: "They killed him pretty good. A bunch of times. He'd shown up again after the Wardens had killed him early in the nineteenth century, so they were real careful the second time. And good riddance to the psychotic bastard."

May 31, 1883: A Fistful of Warlocks

August 1883:  Ebenezar makes Krakatoa go boom [BR, 297].  Atmospheric shock waves from the eruption reverberate around the world seven times and were detectable for five days.

FAIRLY LATE 1800s:  Morgan is born. [Jim, here.]

~1900: Kincaid loses Ebenezar's respect in Istanbul.  Previously, both assassins at least shared a professional courtesy.

1908:  Ebenezar causes the explosion at Tunguska [BR, 297].  The energy of the blast was later estimated to be between 10 and 20 megatons of TNT, which would be equivalent to Castle Bravo, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated by the US.

WORLD WAR I:  (Courtesy of a necromancer named Kemmler [DB 25].)  Morgan fights for Britain. Jim, from here.

~1920: Kemmler acquires a certain spirit of air and intellect, bound to a human skull.  Bob works for Kemmler about 40 years before.  [DB ch 3--thanks to neurovore]

~43-48 BSF:  Michael is born.  He's about twenty years older than Harry [GP 315], who was born in 25 BSF.  I imagine he's closer to the younger side of that spectrum, as in GP, Michael jokes about starting a midlife crisis [384--Thanks to DanielleJD], which most commonly occur at 40-45.

1950s: Morgan nukes a skinwalker at a Nevada testing facility. LIKE A BOSS.

1959: According to Harry, the rate of pay for wardens is set.  "the Council hasn’t given it a cost-of-living increase since. I think it comes up for review in a few more years."  (Note: Harry may be making this up.)

41 BSF: Murphy's first husband, Gregory Taggart, is born.  (They marry when she is 17)

1961:  Kemmler is killed (again).  Justin Dumorne acquires Bob the Skull from the smoldering ruins of his lab.

40 BSF: John Marcone born.  Who of course wasn't born John Marcone. (via his 6/1/18 AMA)

~36-39 BSF:  Charity is born.  Dates are VERY approximate and based on pure guesswork.  I'm assuming she was in her early 20s when she was rescued by Michael.  They're supposed to be close to the same age, but that raises big questions of what Charity was doing from her late teen years, when she was sent to "special schools," to the time Gregor tried to sacrifice her.  How old was she when she escaped from the hospital?  How long was she on her own before she met Gregor?  How long was she in Gregor's coven before he tried to feed her to Siriothax?  The dates of "36-39 BSF" correlate with Charity being 22-25 when she was rescued.

~30-35 BSF: Murphy's second husband, Richard Boughton, is born.  (He is in his mid- to late thirties in BR)

31-32 BSF, February 14:  Thomas Raith is born.  He is five years old when Maggie escapes.

32 BSF:  Waldo Butters is born.  Mazel-Tov!

29 BSF:  Karrin Murphy is born.  Harry observes that her first husband looked about ten years older than her, guessing that Murph was 18 at the time [SK 86], so I originally put her at 30 BSF.  However, assuming Lisa has the same father as Karrin and given Karrin's age at the time of her father's suicide (11), I had to adjust the date.

~26-27 BSF: Thomas is given a pentacle necklace on his fifth birthday.  Maggie LeFay escapes Lord Raith.

26 BSF:  Maggie LeFay meets Malcolm Dresden.

25 BSF: Collin Murphy saves rookie CPD officer Rawlins from an unspecified supernatural creature in a dark alley, killing it with a shotgun full of rock salt. (~30 years before Dead Beat)

25 BSF, some time between August and October - Malcolm Dresden and his heavily-pregnant wife Margaret visit the Lincoln Memorial. 

25 BSF, October 31:  Harry is born.  Harry's mother, now Margaret Gwendolyn Dresden, dies in childbirth.  She is murdered by a ritual entropy curse, courtesy of Lord Raith.

19 BSF: When Harry is 6, his father, Malcolm Dresden, dies of a brain aneurism [FM 222].  According to Chauncy, this death was supernaturally engineered, but we don't yet know the specifics.

~19 BSF: (About 20 years before GP) Michael kills Mavra's "children" and "grandchildren," after some three dozen people were killed in the space of a month.  (Thanks to chadu)

~18-20 BSF:  Billy, Georgia, and the rest of the Alphas are born.

~18 ASF: Nick Christian's first missing child case.  As of Ghost Story, he's been working them for 30 years.

~17 BSF: Justine is born.  In GP, Michael puts her at younger than 19 [GP 212].

17 BSF, late Autumn/Early Winter: Murphy's youngest sister, Lisa, is born.

17 BSF: Collin Murphy commits suicide.

15 BSF:  At age 10, Harry manifests his magical abilities and is adopted by Justin DuMorne a few weeks later.  Elaine Mallory is adopted soon after.

15 BSF:  Carlos Ramirez is born, according to Word of God.  He is 17 in SK and 20 in DB.

~13-17 BSF: Amanda Beckitt born.  She is "in her late teens or early twenties" in DM.

13-14 BSF:  Michael rescues Charity from the dragon Siriothrax.  She never uses magic again.  (Charity says in PG that she and Michael had been together for 20 years, which would be 14 BSF, though it's possible she was just rounding off.)

12-13 BSF:  Faith Astor is born.

12 BSF:  At age 13, Harry learns to make a shield, dodging baseballs.

12 BSF: Molly Carpenter is born, according to WN and beyond.  She's suddenly a year too old in WN, and the change is kept consistent for the subsequent stories.

(11 BSF: Molly Carpenter is born, according to DM and PG.  She's suddenly a year too old in WN, and the change is kept consistent for the subsequent stories.)

11 BSF: At age 14, Harry uses his Sight for the first time, on a little tree-spirit being. [SK ch 23]

10-11 BSF: Daniel Carpenter is born

9 BSF:  Harry is 16.  Justin tries to enthrall Harry, but he manages to escape and makes a deal with the Leannsidhe, his fairy godmother, for the power to defeat Justin.  Justin dies in the fire (and is D.E.D. DEAD), and Harry believes the same of Elaine, even though only one set of bones was found and his Subconscious is fully aware that this is crap.  Harry steals Bob from the ashes.  Soon afterward, Harry is brought to trial for Justin's murder.  Ebenezar stands up for him, and he is put under the Doom of Damocles rather than being executed.  Harry lives with Ebenezar for nearly three years, from sometime not too long after his 16th birthday until his 19th or so.

9 BSF:  Murphy becomes a peace officer.  She says in BR, "I've been a peace officer since before I could drink."

8 BSF, late September: Irwin Pounder is born.

7-8 BSF: Matthew Carpenter is born

6 BSF:  After leaving Ebenezar at age 19, Harry roamed around for a while (between nine and twenty months) before winding up in Chicago.  [NB: This is most likely to be on the short side of Jim's estimate]

5 BSF:  At age 20, Harry arrives in Chicago.  Before he goes to work at Ragged Angel, he takes a number of jobs, one of which was as a dance partner with a senior-citizen organization.

~5 BSF: Alicia Carpenter is born

4-6 BSF:  The most recent version of the Unseelie Accords is signed 10-12 years before Proven Guilty [PG 127].  Thanks to Tepick!  I wonder if this coincides with the Unseelie Incursion of 1994?

4-6 BSF:  The White Council holds their last hearing for a known violator of the laws of magic.  In 6 ASF, Molly will be the first wizard to be tried in 10-12 years.

4-5 BSF:  At age 20-21, Harry starts working with Nicholas Christian ("Nick") at Ragged Angel.  He spends three years there.

4 BSF: Susan becomes a reporter at the Arcane [5 years before Grave Peril, DM 198]
-- Ivy (The Archive) is born.  She is about seven in Death Masks [DM 108].
-- The last time Charity sees Harry before the events of "Grave Peril."  Michael is injured, and Charity thoroughly chews Harry out.

~3-4 BSF: Marco Vargassi decides Marcone has become a threat to his father Tony's organization and tries to stage his death. Amanda Beckitt, daughter of Helen and Greg, is shot.  She is about 10 or 11 at the time, and she is in her late teens to early twenties in DM.  Tony Vargassi bribes the medical examiner to forge Amanda's death certificate to protect his son.  The Vargassis are still in power at the time of "Restoration of Faith."

3 BSF: Harry finds Mister the Tailless Kitten in a trash can. [SF 88]  (Thanks, Amber!) 

3 BSF, probably Summer: Amanda Carpenter is born.

~2-3 BSF: Marcone learns of Amanda Beckitt, two years after her "death."

2-3 BSF:  A Restoration of Faith.  Harry meets Murphy.  He has 6 months left of working at Ragged Angel.  Faith Astor is 10.  At this time, the Vargassi family and the Jamacians rule the Chicago mob scene.

~2 BSF: Marcone topples the Vargassis and founds his own empire.

2 BSF:  Harry learns about Undertown (about five years after he moves to Chicago).

2 BSF: At age ~23-24, Harry opens his detective business.  Ortega indicates that this takes place 5 years before the events of "Death Masks," which takes place in 3 ASF.  [DM 13] 

2 BSF: Shortly after that, Harry meets Susan (it's described as a "couple years" before the events of "Grave Peril"). From SF: "She had been tracking me ever since interviewing me for a feature story, right after I'd opened up my business."

1 BSF, Fall?: Murphy is made lieutenant, in charge of S.I.  (Aftermath -- Murphy had been Stallings' boss for almost 7 years.  7 years would've been July of 1 BSF)

Somewhere roundabouts here: Welcome to the Jungle

0-1 BSF, late winter?: Thomas and Justine meet at Zero and become involved.  This is "nearly five years" before the events of Blood Rites, which takes place in late Autumn of 4 BSF [BR 14].  Justine is about 16, and Thomas is in his early thirties. Eww.

0-1 BSF: Hope Carpenter is born