Jim has been very gracious in making himself available to his fan base, not only by interacting with us here and on other websites but by doing many interviews, con pannels, and Q&A sessions.<\/p>\n
Quite a few of these have been recorded in audio or video format and posted on the internet, and an overall list of everything I know about is posted in the sticky above. \u00a0Several forum members have voluntiered their time to transcribe these for those that have trouble with audio recordings (some of our fellow forum members can not hear), and also for ease of reference for when we discuss what Jim has said about his works.<\/p>\n
This is a continuous project. \u00a0At the moment (I am writing this shortly before the\u00a0Ghost Story<\/em>\u00a0release) more than half of these audio and video recordings have been transcribed, but we could always use help with finishing those left, and Jim being so interactive with his fan base is always generating new ones. \u00a0So if you would like to contribute to this endeavor, please visit\u00a0This Topic<\/a>\u00a0where I have tried to make a list of the ones that need doing, and where you can post your work when you are done, if you chose to help out with this project.<\/p>\n This page is where I am putting the transcripts from 2009.<\/p>\n By the way, it may be quicker to read these transcripts rather than viewing\/listening, but if you have the time I highly recommend you view\/listen as well as read. \u00a0They say some large (IMO usually arbitrary) percentage of communication is actually contained in the tone of a voice and such, and in these cases, I’d say that a percentage of the\u00a0fun<\/em>\u00a0is distilled out when you only enjoy these in text rather than viewing\/listening.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2009 Barnes & Noble Interview<\/strong><\/a> Steve Bertrand: \u00a0It’s Meet the Writers on barnesandnoble.com, I’m Steve Bertrand. \u00a0So, how about that Harry Dresden? \u00a0He’s back in Turn Coat. \u00a0Jim Butcher, the author of a pretty interesting character and some fascinating stories, and he joins us now. \u00a0Jim Butcher, welcome.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Thank you.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0I want to talk about this guy, Dresden, but let’s start with geography. \u00a0You live in Missouri, right? \u00a0Is it Independence, Missouri?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Independence, Missouri, first —<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Little Harry Truman in you?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah, I went to Truman High School, in fact.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Does geography sort of inform at all what you write or the way you write?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah, I mean, generally speaking, yeah. \u00a0I started off my reading career as a fantasy fan. \u00a0And if you read a lot of fantasy, you got to have the map to go along with it, and I’ve been sadly disappointing my own fans by not including a map in my fantasy series. \u00a0But, yeah, I mean, especially when I get to looking right here around Chicago, I will pick a lot of my settings based upon geography.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Dresden lives in Chicago?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Indeed he does.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0How did you figure on that?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0My writing teacher made me pick Chicago instead of Kansas City.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Is that right?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah. \u00a0The first book was originally a class project. \u00a0It was originally set in Kansas City, and she looked at it and said, ‘Well, this is a genre fiction novel writing class and you are already walking close enough to Laurel Hamilton’s toes that you don’t need to set your book in Missouri, too.’<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0I see. \u00a0More geography.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah. \u00a0So, she said, ‘Pick somewhere else.’ \u00a0And I said, ‘Where?’ \u00a0And she said, ‘Anywhere, it doesn’t matter.’ \u00a0And there was a globe on her desk and there were only four American cities marked on the globe. \u00a0And I didn’t want to do New York because Spiderman’s got that all sewn up. \u00a0And I didn’t want to do D.C. because then you would have to write politics and that gets rid of half of your audience right away. \u00a0And then the other city was Los Angeles and I didn’t want to write about Los Angeles, it’s a Hollywood thing. \u00a0So, Chicago was left. \u00a0I said, ‘How about Chicago?’ and she said, ‘Yeah, that’ll be fine.’ \u00a0So, I lucked into picking Chicago.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0And so here we are in Chicago, and as I read it, I recognize different spots and neighborhoods and all of that. \u00a0But how much research do you do into the location when it comes to writing the story? \u00a0Because the story’s not so much about location.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Right. \u00a0The story itself isn’t so much about it, but it does provide the backdrop for when I want to pick a good scene. \u00a0And the answer is I do more research every book. \u00a0Especially as I pick up more readers in Chicago and I get in touch with them. \u00a0There have been several area type message boards where fans have gotten together and said, ‘Hey, can this under city thing that Jim is proposing in his books — it’s complete crap, isn’t it?’ \u00a0And they went out and researched it, they’re like, ‘Actually, no, not complete. \u00a0There’s actually all of these parts of the city where you can go down under a manhole and there’s old city Chicago there.’ \u00a0But, yeah, there’s all kinds of cool tunnels under the city and I just kind of proposed that where the actual, real tunnels stop, that’s where the freaky, monster filled underworld starts, so….<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0You mentioned New York City and Spiderman. \u00a0Compare and contrast — let me give you an essay question — compare and contrast Peter Parker to Harry Dresden.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Oh, Peter Parker actually gets to have flash moments of cool, at least he’s got the Spiderman costume he can get into. \u00a0But Peter Parker and Harry Dresden are very similar because Peter Parker was one of the characters who inspired me when I was putting Harry Dresden together, one of the main characters, in fact. \u00a0Poor Pete, you know, all the superheroes would do something big in New York, and after it was all over, everybody would be flying home in their jets, or their fantastic cars or under their own power. \u00a0And poor Peter, he doesn’t have a costume made out of unstable molecules. \u00a0He’s got the one he made at home. \u00a0And it’s all shredded and he’s got a paper bag over his head to maintain his secret identity. \u00a0And he’s like, ‘Can somebody loan me cab fare so I can get back home?’ \u00a0‘Oh, I’ll give you a ride.’ \u00a0‘I kind of have this secret identity where I want it to be secret, so I don’t want your ride.’ \u00a0And the Invisible Woman would be like, ‘Oh, Reed, give him cab fare.’ \u00a0And that’s the kind of down on his luck but yet not stopping what he’s doing kind of thing that I wanted to do with Dresden.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Endearing, right? \u00a0They’re endearing.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah, yeah. \u00a0They’re the kind of guys who — it’s, like, you know, I’d would ask him over to my place for a barbecue because he’s funny and nice. \u00a0A lot of heroes are the kind of people you just wouldn’t want to associate with in your actual life.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Right.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0I also wanted Dresden to be the kind of guy that’s like, ‘Hey, you want to go to a ball game?’ \u00a0‘Yeah.’ \u00a0I wanted him to be that kind of character.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0What’s his relationship with women?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Unfortunate, mostly. \u00a0My general writing theory for Dresden is never give him a break, so even if he does get the girl for a bit, there’s almost always something that goes terribly wrong at some point in his life.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0But he seems to be very comfortable with women.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0More or less…<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Don’t you — I mean, I think so.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah, yeah, I think he is in some ways, in some ways he’s still just kind of an awkward nerd. \u00a0It kind of depends. \u00a0If it’s some supernaturally hot, sexy chick who can kill you, literally kill you with a kiss, he’s comfortable with that. \u00a0He knows how to deal with that. \u00a0If it’s an actual girl who’s hanging out around him, someone like Lt. Murphy from the Chicago P.D., that gets a little bit more awkward for him.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0So, maybe it’s almost the inverse of what you would expect, what you would think would be typical. \u00a0Right?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah, he’s much more comfortable with soul destroying things from beyond than he is —<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0I mean, I’ve never been with a woman who could kill me with a kiss, but I think I might be a little intimidated if I were.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah, yeah, exactly. \u00a0But, for Harry, the monsters, that’s just what he does. \u00a0That’s work week.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0You were talking earlier about when you came up with Dresden, and it was in a class, right?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Right.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0And there’s a story you’ve told, I’m trying to remember, but basically you kind of gave in. \u00a0And I don’t know if this is about this story or not, but the teacher was saying, ‘Do this and do this,’ and you just thought it was the wrong thing and finally said, ‘I’ll prove it to you how it doesn’t work.’ \u00a0Tell me that.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Well, I’d been getting very good advice from Debbie Chester for several years and I’d written several terrible novels. \u00a0And I wanted to prove to her — she kept hammering on these same points over and over and I wanted to prove to her how wrong she was. \u00a0And I knew she was wrong because i have an English Literature Degree.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0And you’ve written four very unsuccessful novels at this point.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yes, whereas she had merely published forty novels. \u00a0And so one semester I just said, ‘You know what, I’m just going to do everything you say. \u00a0I’m going to fill in all your papers. \u00a0I’m going to do all these little outlines, all these little worksheets before I get started, and you’ll see what terrible stuff comes out of it.’ \u00a0And that was when I wrote the first book of The Dresden Files.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Things have turned out for both of you, then.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah, yeah.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0What was it like when you held a book that you’d published?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0It was like when you go to the amusement park and you get your picture taken, and then they put it on a gag headline newspaper. \u00a0When I first got the books, it was that exact feeling, like this was some sort of gag gift that I got from an amusement park somewhere. \u00a0It was very — it was kind of an unreal thing. \u00a0It was like I was looking at it going, ‘Well, I know this isn’t actually real…’ but it was.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Turns out it was.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah, as it turns out.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0When did it sink in?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0I don’t know that it has.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Really?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah, I mean —<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0I mean, you’re an industry now, right?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Uh, I guess, yeah. \u00a0I’m even a corporation. \u00a0I don’t know how that happened, but at one point my wife came to me and told me, “We need to do this,” and I said, “Okay.” \u00a0So, now I’m a corporation.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0So how do you keep all of the balls in the air and maintain your writing, as well? \u00a0I mean, it’s all about writing, I suppose, but it seems to me like you’d be pulled in many different directions, too.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah. \u00a0There’s a whole bunch of the professional side of the business now that isn’t writing that I’ve got to keep track of. \u00a0What I try and do is — I have kind of an odd work schedule. \u00a0And when I’m awake during the day, I’ll try and take care of the non-writing part of the business, and then after everybody goes to sleep, that’s when I do the actual writing. \u00a0I start around ten o’clock. \u00a0You know, if you try and write during the day when there are other people in the house around, it’s ‘Honey, you need to eat something,’ this and ‘Dad, I love you,’ that and you can’t be expected to work under those conditions.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0I want to talk to you about your dad, too, because — and I’ve asked you this before, but it’s really a great quote. \u00a0You said of your dad, “He was not really anyone who’d gone out and conquered worlds, but he was the sort of guy who would show up and if your world was shaking, he’d settle it down again.”<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Which I think is a great thing for any dad to aspire to. \u00a0Right? \u00a0Tell me of his influence on you?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0My dad was the kind of guy who really didn’t have a lot to say. \u00a0He never really had a lot to tell me about what kind of person I should be. \u00a0He was the kind of guy who would show me what kind of person I should be by being that way. \u00a0But he was the one in the family who everyone in the family would go to when they needed help, in the extended family, whoever it was. \u00a0When he retired, my sisters actually set up a parade in front of the house where we had three different marching bands, and fifty cars, and several squad cars from the local police force went by the house in a parade. \u00a0You know, they snuck in all these people in from out of town to do it. \u00a0And Dad wound up going out and dancing with the drum major from the Twenty Third Street Marching Cobras. \u00a0And he was, he was a solid man. \u00a0When I was sixteen, I went up into the attic. \u00a0And I was digging around in a box I hadn’t seen before and I pull out this old army jacket. \u00a0I take it down to my dad and I’m like, ‘Hey, whats this? \u00a0And what’s this winged dagger patch on it and everything?’ \u00a0And it turns out Dad was Signal Corps for Army Rangers during Korea, and I’d never known about it. \u00a0He was like, ‘Yeah, here, let me show you.’ \u00a0And he shows me how he was qualified on every infantry weapon that the Army had, on all the British infantry weapons and on the Russian infantry weapons. \u00a0‘Yeah, I was the knife fighting and unarmed combat instructor for my platoon,’ and I’d never even known he was in the service. \u00a0‘And here’s my picture of me meeting General Eisenhower,’ and so on, he shows me all this stuff. \u00a0I’m just sitting here being amazed by it. \u00a0I mean, my dad was Rambo and I never knew.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0And he just did it.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah. \u00a0He’d never chatted about it or anything.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Does that have an impact on how you are as a dad or how you are as a writer?<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Oh, absolutely. \u00a0I mean, a lot of my characters — Dad was the kind of guy that showed me that the people who are really formidable and really dangerous have no need to talk about it. \u00a0They’re the kind of folks who are quiet. \u00a0They don’t need to get out and brag. \u00a0And in the Dresden Files, you can usually tell the really tough characters, because they’re the ones who don’t need to puff out their chests. \u00a0They don’t need to come on strong. \u00a0They’re just doing whatever they’re doing. \u00a0So, that’s been a very good effect for The Dresden Files, for me, for being able to convey ‘This is somebody who’s truly dangerous and competent.’<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Well, it’s all worked out pretty well for you.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Yeah, yeah. \u00a0I don’t know how that happened.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0As you continue to prove your teacher wrong, year after year after year, book after book after book.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Evidently. \u00a0I actually wrote her a letter that says — for her students, to hand out, that says, “Dear students, \u00a0Shut up and do what Debbie tells you to do. \u00a0If somebody had told me that, I would have saved about five years of breaking into the industry, so let me do you a favor.”<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0Yeah, but maybe that suffering made you better in another way.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Oh, more than likely it did. \u00a0I probably needed to have some sense knocked into me.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0The latest book is Turn Coat. \u00a0Jim Butcher, it was nice to talk to you.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Jim Butcher: \u00a0Alright, thank you.<\/p>\n Steve Bertrand: \u00a0I’m Steve Bertrand. \u00a0This is Meet the Writers on barnesandnoble.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n 2009 Jim telling story about his dog in Chicago<\/strong><\/a> Jim Butcher: \u00a0Okay, she’s figuring out what we’ve got going here, but I can tell about the story of how my Bichon saved my son from a bear if you like.<\/p>\n We used to live in rural Pennsylvania, and my kid slept in a bedroom on the ground floor. \u00a0And one winter, apparently, there was an issue — the dog had gotten me up in the middle of the night a couple of times for no reason.<\/p>\n And so, one night he had gotten me up in the middle of the night — one night he’d gotten me up in the middle of the night and — all upset — led me downstairs, and I find the kid down there with 102 fever, shaking and he’s kicked all of his covers off. \u00a0And I’m like, ‘Okay, good dog! \u00a0That’s a very dog thing to do. \u00a0That’s very Lassie of you. \u00a0Well done.’ \u00a0And got the kid covered up, and the dog curled up with him and went to sleep, and there’s no problem. \u00a0The dog always slept with the kid.<\/p>\n Well, a couple nights later, he shows up again having gotten over a baby gate through a shut door. \u00a0I don’t know how. \u00a0Only, he’s upset again. \u00a0I go down again and the kid’s fine.<\/p>\n And so the dog walks over to the kitchen door, which is right opposite the kid’s room, and whining and making noise until I walk over there with him. \u00a0And then he starts walking down the house, and every 10 feet or so he’ll stop and whine until I come up with him. \u00a0So he walks up and down, like, twice doing this and I’m, like, ‘Okay, dog, you’re insane.’ \u00a0You know, he does that then curls up and goes to sleep. \u00a0I’m, like, ‘Dog, you are crazy,’ and I went back to bed.<\/p>\n And the next day I was out walking my kid out to the bus stop and there was a fresh snow on ground and bear tracks on the steps leading up to the house where the bear had been standing looking in the glass window wondering if there was any food in there. \u00a0And then the tracks went all the way around the house twice, and the dog had made me keep pace with bear inside the house so that the bear would know that I knew it was there.<\/p>\n I mean, now granted, that is not sailing into combat with the bear, but that was using his noggin. \u00a0“Good dog!”<\/p>\n But that’s how a Bichon Frise saved my son from a bear.<\/p>\n [inaudible question]<\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0Well, yeah, but it all happens at my expense, so….<\/p>\n [00:02:00 end of story, host awarding prizes]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jim has been very gracious in making himself available to his fan base, not only by interacting with us here … More 2009 transcripts from audio\/video WoJ sources<\/span> 2009 Barnes & Noble Interview (audio)<\/strong><\/a><\/del>\u00a0derek
\n*<\/span>2009 Turn Coat Release Party Interview<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0youtube vid
\n2009 Jim telling story about his dog in Chicago<\/strong><\/a><\/del>\u00a0derek
\n2009 Dayton Book Signing Q&A<\/strong>\u00a0youtube video
\nPart 1<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 2<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 3<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 4<\/a>
\n*<\/span>2009 Kansas City Public Library Q&A<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(Audio)
\n*<\/span>2009 Mr. Media Radio Interview<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(Audio)
\n*<\/span>2009 Whisper radio interview<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0audio (interview starts at 49:40)<\/p>\n
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\nTranscription by\u00a0Derek<\/a><\/p>\n
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\nTranscription by\u00a0Derek<\/a><\/p>\n