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 2010.<\/p>\n *<\/span>2009 Whisper radio interview<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0audio (interview starts at 49:40) 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 Jim Butcher “Changes<\/em>” Q&A – Powells Books 4\/08\/2010 Part 1 of 6<\/strong><\/a> [introduction]<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Okay, first of all, if anyone’s seen my hair, if you could please call 1-800-Jim’s-Do it would be appreciated.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 My son has it.<\/strong><\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Hey.<\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Alright, we’ll just do questions and answers, I guess, because that’s kind of fun.\u00a0 Hey, no way.\u00a0 Completely bald, you’re first.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 What are your thoughts on The Dresden Files RPG coming out in June?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 What are my thoughts on The Dresden Files RPG coming out in June?\u00a0 That if I DM’d it, it would be too much like work.\u00a0 And that if I played it, I would be a frickin’ nightmare to any GM.\u00a0 “No, it is that way and if necessary, I’ll put it in the next book!”\u00a0 Other than that, though, the guys who worked on it have done a really phenomenal job.\u00a0 They really dug into it and worked their tails off, really unbelievably so.\u00a0 So, it’s gonna be — finally, they are getting it done.\u00a0 My friend Fred says — he’s the one who’s producing it — says, ‘Yeah, we had no idea how big a project this was going to be.\u00a0 In fact, we had to design three other games so that we could build up our company enough to get enough people onboard to actually ramp up to able to do this game.’\u00a0 He’s like, ‘If I’d known that when I got started, I never would have done it.’\u00a0 It’s like that with me, with writing, if I’d known how long it would take.\u00a0 But, it should be fairly cool.\u00a0 I really like the rules system.\u00a0 I don’t think I’ll ever get to play it, but I don’t know, maybe I can just shave off the whiskers, and go bald one day, and not wear my glasses and show up anonymously at a con somewhere and play that way or something.\u00a0 Who’s next?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 So, with the books, it’s been about a year between books-ish and that’s reflected in the story.\u00a0 Have you ever had like some huge leap forward planned?\u00a0 Have you ever had a huge leap backwards?\u00a0 Or is it pretty much going to be the next book’s gonna be a year from —<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 I’ll go.\u00a0 What he’s asking is the storyline has basically been about one book story year per real life year, am I going to keep doing that?\u00a0 Am I going to start jumping back or forward? The answer is yes, I’m going to keep doing that because it works a little bit better on account of it just makes it easier to keep track of what year it is in the story.\u00a0 And am I going to make any big leaps forward or backwards?\u00a0 Well, there is a whole law of magic about messing with time.\u00a0 And given that it’s a Law of Magic, Dresden’s going to have to break it eventually.\u00a0 So, yeah, ‘sort of’ would be the proper answer to the question.\u00a0 Yeah?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 What’s coming out in November?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 What’s coming out in November?\u00a0 November is the short story collection with all the Dresden short — not all the Dresden short stories, but most of them in it.\u00a0 Plus, the novella that I wrote from Murphy’s point of view called “Aftermath” that starts about 45 minutes after the end of\u00a0Changes<\/em>.\u00a0 So, it was fun, although man, Murphy is an alien creature to me.\u00a0 She really is.\u00a0 But we wound up with a pretty good story, I think.\u00a0 Yeah?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 So for those of us who just couldn’t put it once we’d picked it up, what’s coming next?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 For those — what now?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 [inaudible]<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Oh, okay.\u00a0 So what’s coming next in the Dresden Files?\u00a0 I’m not going to tell you that.\u00a0 Come on, you’ve got to give me a break there.\u00a0 Although, I will say that — because we’re trying not to spoiler people who haven’t got to read the book yet — I will say that my contract, they’ve paid me up through book 13, so I have to write at least one more.\u00a0 And my kid leaves for college next fall, so…that’s like another six years after that.\u00a0 Man, I’m never gonna get to retire.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 I was just wondering about the titles of the books, how they’re all two words and both words are always the same number of letters.\u00a0 Why did you choose to do that?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 He’s asking about the titles of the books, why are the books always two words, same number of letters.\u00a0 Answer to that was that I had noticed when I was in college and in my writing courses that all of the really successful, or most of the really successful serial P.I. novels had a naming scheme of some kind attached to them.\u00a0 MacDonald’s books, John MacDonald’s books all had a color in the name.\u00a0 A is Alibi, B is for Burglar, etc. with the Kinsey Millhone books.\u00a0 It was the same way with several different authors that I looked at.\u00a0 So, I said, ‘I need a naming scheme,’ and I was going to use puns because I thought that would be fun.\u00a0 And so I was trying to get pun stuff set up and they didn’t, they didn’t like that.\u00a0 The editors didn’t like that at all.\u00a0 So, the first book, I think the original name was Semiautomagic and then I said, ‘Can we call it Abracadaver?’ and they said, ‘No, we can’t.’\u00a0 And I went through several different names and it finally ended up as Storm Front, which was only kind of vaguely a pun.\u00a0 But they did it in these nice square little boxes with the title all being lined up.\u00a0 And so I said, ‘Well, hey, the next one was already going to be called Fool Moon, so that one will line up too.’\u00a0 And so at that point, then I said, ‘Okay, the only pattern I’m going to have here is where we line up these little boxes.\u00a0 So, let’s at least keep that.’\u00a0 Until we got to this book, which is called\u00a0Changes<\/em>\u00a0and totally breaks the pattern…presumably because there’s going to be some changes. So…yes, ma’am?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 What’s coming as far as the graphic novels and [inaudible]?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Okay, two questions here.\u00a0 She’s cheating.\u00a0 What’s happening as far as the graphic novels and what did happen to my hair?\u00a0 The graphic novels, they just sent me the sketches to approve for issue 7 of Storm Front, and I just read and approved the script for issue 8 of Storm Front.\u00a0 So, I think they’ve got the first 4 issues together for part 1 of Storm Front and now they’re going to do part 2.\u00a0 And that’s how it’s going to progress is about 8 issues per novel, and then turning it into 2 graphic booklets because that’s the way the industry works these days.\u00a0 As far as my hair, I went to bed one night and it went out to fight crime, as it usually does, and it just never came back the next day.\u00a0 So, I have to assume that somebody finally got to it.\u00a0 No, the truth on that is is that I’m kinda carrying a theme through here, so, you know, there’s been some changes.\u00a0 Plus, sometimes you look at your life and there’s all these big parts of it that you can’t control.\u00a0 And I might not be able to control my life, but I can control my hair.\u00a0 So, yeah, and at this point, I just killed it.\u00a0 Razed earth policy, right here.\u00a0 Yeah, right here.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Does the cat make it to the next book?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Does the cat make it to the next book?\u00a0 I’m not going to tell you that.\u00a0 I’m just not.\u00a0 Although, nah, Mister’s just far too cool.\u00a0 We really haven’t run into anything that could kill Mister at this point.\u00a0 Just absolute feline disdain would make him nearly invincible, so….\u00a0 Back here, yes?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Does Dresden actually have a cowboy hat?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Does Dresden actually have a cowboy hat?\u00a0 *shakes head* No.\u00a0 I think I’ve actually made a comment about it a couple of times.\u00a0 I think Murphy commented about it in one book and Dresden did in a short story.\u00a0 I think he did in\u00a0Changes<\/em>, too.\u00a0 ‘If only I had a hat, we could have saved the world.’\u00a0 No, he doesn’t have one, but the Sorcerer’s Apprentice apparently does, and you know, he’s got the hat.<\/p>\n Jim Butcher “Changes” Q&A – Powells Books 4\/08\/2010 Part 2 of 6<\/strong><\/a> Audience: \u00a0 You said that most of the short stories would be in this collection. \u00a0Which ones aren’t?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 Which short stories are not in the collection? \u00a0Let me think. \u00a0One of them is called “Curses”, and it’s the short story — it’s more of a lighter one — it’s a short story about Harry getting hired by the Cubs to get the billy goat curse taken off the team. \u00a0And the other one is called — I was really incensed that it wasn’t in, we weren’t going to be able to do it — the other one’s called “Even Hand”. \u00a0It’s a short story from the perspective of John Marcone, and it sort of shows you what he’s doing behind the scenes. \u00a0And if you read the short story and then go read the scene in\u00a0Changes<\/em>, in Burger King, it has two totally different meanings. \u00a0I was so upset that I wasn’t going to get to put that in the book. \u00a0As it is, I missed two of the short stories, and I know I told you guys I wanted them all together where you could get to all of them. \u00a0So, the only thing that I can do to still keep my word to you is to write a second collection of short stories. \u00a0So, I’ve got to write more of the things. \u00a0But, I’m going to do it because I said I would.<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 Since you finished the Codex Alera series and you’re working on this, are you going to work on other series at all?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 Okay, since I finished on Codex Alera, am I gonna be working on something else to take it’s place? \u00a0Yes. \u00a0I’m sure. \u00a0(laughter) \u00a0I’m just not quite sure what, yet. \u00a0But, yeah, I would have too much time on my hands if I didn’t. \u00a0So, I think what I’m planning on is kind of a post-apocalyptic fantasy thing that I’m going to write with my friend Cam Banks, because Cam is like one of the only guys I’ve ever known who could put up with me long enough to do that. \u00a0But it’s sort of one of those the heroes went forth to face the dark lord and fulfill the prophecy and bravely did they stride in upon him, and he killed them all and the world was plunged into darkness.<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 [inaudible]<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 Yeah, for one. (laughter) That’s exactly what it is. \u00a0Over here.<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 How difficult was it to get the first book published?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 How difficult was it to get the first book published? \u00a0Well, I wrote my first book when I was nineteen, in 1990, and it was awful. \u00a0I wrote book two not too long after that, also terrible. \u00a0Book three, as well. \u00a0Terrible. \u00a0Book four, I’d decided to change things up and write kind of, sort of X-Files-y, paranormal thing, and that was also a dismal failure. \u00a0As was book five, which was a rewrite of book one, which hadn’t been all that good to begin with. \u00a0So, eventually, though, I wrote — I think it was the sixth or seventh book I wrote, which was Storm Front. \u00a0And I sent it off to an editor because I got a recommendation from my teacher, I had an introduction letter to Ginger Buchanan. \u00a0And it stayed there for three years. \u00a0So, I started thinking, ‘Well, maybe I better not wait on that forever.’ \u00a0You know, and so all in all, I finally got an agent in 1999, and it got sold about six months after that. \u00a0And so, basically, it was an overnight project. \u00a0It took me a real long time to get undumb enough to actually do a good job. \u00a0I’m not terribly bright some days, but. \u00a0At the very back, hand up.<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 You’re doing a short story from the point of view of Murphy, and you’ve done one from the point of view from Thomas. \u00a0Will we [inaudible] short stories be done from the point of view of some of the other characters.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 Um, maybe? \u00a0I haven’t got that far yet. \u00a0Maybe. \u00a0Probably not from the point of view of anybody who’s really clued into what’s going on, though. \u00a0Or if i do, then the character will just be standing there going, ‘I’m not going to tell you that.’ (laughter) \u00a0‘You’re just going to have to trust me. \u00a0It was important that we do this. \u00a0Ha Ha.’ \u00a0But we’ll have to see. \u00a0Some of the characters I just couldn’t do that with. \u00a0I couldn’t do that from Mouse’s point of view, for example, because he’s so much cooler than everybody else. \u00a0(laughter)<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 [inaudible]<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 Well, he’s a dog, man. \u00a0Dogs are cool, just kind of intrinsically that way. \u00a0Right here. \u00a0Sitting down. \u00a0Just behind you, yeah.<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 I really love the way you handle the fae, and I’m curious if we’re ever going to meet Titania?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 Are we ever gonna get to meet Titania, Queen Titania, the Summer Queen? \u00a0Yes. \u00a0But probably, it’s going to be awhile. \u00a0It might not be until the last three books. \u00a0She’s heavy duty, so. \u00a0Over here.<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 How many books are you planning to write?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 How many books am I planning to write? \u00a0The original plan — actually, the events of\u00a0Changes<\/em>\u00a0were originally, I originally had had them penciled in for book ten, but it’s taken me a couple books longer to get there. \u00a0So, the original plan was for twenty books and a three book apocalyptic trilogy capstone ending *dunh duh duh dunh* with music by John Williams. \u00a0(laughter) But, we’ll see. \u00a0We’ll see if I’m still going to be able to get there by twenty. \u00a0It might actually wind up being twenty one or twenty two, something like that. \u00a0Not a whole enormous high number of books (laughter) but because I want the story to have, like, a beginning and an end, and for everybody to get to read them, so. \u00a0Oh, by the way, people coming through line tonight, please don’t tell me, ‘Just don’t die.’ \u00a0Okay? \u00a0(laughter) Because I think we can all rationally assume that that is sort of implied and you’re just going to jinx it. \u00a0Right here, young man.<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 What does your shirt say?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 What does my shirt say? \u00a0It is Latin for ‘A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away’. (cheers) Or as close as Latin can come to saying that.<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 Are you thinking about selling the movie rights, or did the series take that out of you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 Okay, did I ever think about selling the movie rights, or did the series take that out of me? \u00a0And the answer is: I already did sell the movie rights. \u00a0Lionsgate has them. \u00a0And they have them for another three years and five days, not that I’m keeping track. \u00a0And after that time, they revert back to me. \u00a0I doubt Lionsgate is going to do anything with it. \u00a0I can’t imagine why they would. \u00a0As far as they’re concerned, this was just the show that crashed on SciFi, so…we’ll see what happens later, though. \u00a0Right here, sir.<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 So, I’m on my second read through of the book. \u00a0Why do you hate Harry Dresden? (laughter)<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 You’ve got it all wrong, man. \u00a0I love him. \u00a0I love him and I want him to succeed. \u00a0But for that to happen, he must have great pain (laughter)<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 [inaudible] succeed admirably.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 Joss Whedon — I read an interview about Joss Whedon where they were on the set of Buffy and they had just had to have Buffy do some heart wrenching scene for, like, the fifth time. \u00a0And Joss hadn’t gotten quite what he wanted, so he asked Sarah to go do it again. \u00a0And she turned around and just kind of stared at him. \u00a0And she said, ‘Joss, do you have any idea how difficult this is on me? \u00a0This is really bad.’ \u00a0He puts his hand on her shoulder and says, ‘Sarah, this show thrives upon your pain.’ \u00a0(laughter) I look at that and just go, ‘Mm. \u00a0Joss Whedon is my master, now.’ (cheers) \u00a0Because he had something exactly right. \u00a0If Harry had a happy day, it would be boring. \u00a0It would be a terrible bore. \u00a0Let’s go back over here, first.<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 So, who plays Harry Dresden in this hypothetical movie?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 Who plays Harry Dresden in this hypothetical movie? \u00a0I don’t know. \u00a0There’s been all kinds of different people giving suggestions. \u00a0I always kind of liked Will Smith, just because he has the right attitude. (laughter) \u00a0But now he’s gone to hit the gym and he’s gotten all buff and stuff, now. \u00a0So, I don’t know. \u00a0Right here.<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 Why the frozen turkey?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 ‘K, hang on. \u00a0Why the frozen turkey? \u00a0Why NOT a frozen turkey? \u00a0That’s the question I pose to you. \u00a0I had to kind of Looney Tunes something and I couldn’t readily think of a way to get a safe up above the city. \u00a0A frozen turkey falling out of a plane, though. \u00a0Yeah.<\/p>\n Audience: \u00a0 I was going to ask how often do you get writers block, and what do you do to get past it?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher: \u00a0 I don’t have writers block. \u00a0I have a mortgage. \u00a0(laughter) Honestly, writers block is for folks who don’t have to have their stuff in on time, and I’m not one of those folks. \u00a0So, generally speaking, I really don’t believe in writers block. \u00a0I don’t really get writers block. \u00a0Sometimes I just really, really, really want to go play City of Heroes instead. \u00a0But, uh, really, it’s one of those things that I believe is a point of personal discipline that you just have to sit down and go through it, and start writing until it works. \u00a0There are other people who say writers block is real. \u00a0Maybe they’re right, but I disbelieve. \u00a0I roll to disbelieve. \u00a0Twenty!<\/p>\n Jim Butcher “Changes” Q&A – Powells Books 4\/08\/2010 Part 3 of 6<\/strong><\/a> Audience:\u00a0 What’s your take on the whole Amazon Kindle thing?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 What’s my take on the whole Amazon Kindle thing?\u00a0 This is my understanding of it.\u00a0 Amazon said, ‘Okay, we’re going to have the book available for Kindle.\u00a0 You can pre-order it.’\u00a0 And then they started negotiating with Penguin for getting the rights to the book.\u00a0 And Penguin had already sold electronic rights here, there and everywhere to other people.\u00a0 And then a couple of days before the release, Amazon says, ‘You’re going to give it to us for a real, real low price, or we’re not going to buy it.\u00a0 And what’s more, we’re not going to buy any of your other spring stuff, either.’\u00a0 And Penguin said, ‘Alright.’\u00a0 And that’s my take on it. (laughter) Amazon tried to power play and it, they kind of bounced off without moving Penguin too much, so.\u00a0 You can get the iBook version and there’s some shareware now that converts iBook to Kindle format.\u00a0 So, yeah, I’m just looking at Amazon going, ‘Really?\u00a0 Really?’\u00a0 But I guess we’ll have to see what happens.\u00a0 At the very back in the blue shirt.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 When you first wrote\u00a0Storm Front<\/em>, did you have, like, this entire series somewhat planned out, or did it just kind of [inaudible]?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 When I first wrote\u00a0Storm Front<\/em>, did I have the entire series somewhat planned out?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 I did it for a project, it was a class project.\u00a0 So, I kind of had — well, the first couple of chapters I just wrote one night, and I said, ‘Okay, maybe I’d better plan the book.’\u00a0 And then as I was planning the book, I said, ‘Maybe I’d better plan the world.’\u00a0 And then when I was done with the world, I said, ‘Maybe I’d better plan the time line if this is gonna be a series.’\u00a0 And I did that, and it was one of those obsessive compulsive projects that went on for awhile.\u00a0 But, yeah, I had to go back and write the first book, ’cause otherwise it was gonna be late and I had a grade card, so.\u00a0 Yes, right here.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 [inaudible]<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Yes, the guy with the very short hair.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Harry loves Star Wars and everything like that.\u00a0 Is he a Brown Coat, too?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Is Harry a Brown Coat, too?\u00a0 Not so much, he never got to see Firefly because he watches TV by going to a park that’s across from an electronics store, and watching the TVs that are in the window where they have the closed caption on — because there’s actually, I’ve actually gone to that store in Chicago and looked at it — so, you know, he wanted to go see Firefly, but he kept showing on Friday night and it wasn’t there.\u00a0 It was getting preempted by baseball and…I mean, I remember that.\u00a0 I tell you, I still have’t watched the last episode of Firefly, because if I do that, then they’ll all be gone.\u00a0 So, it’s just sitting there waiting, and one day, maybe.\u00a0 Right here.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 I noticed this kind of sub-genre of urban fantasy seems to be primarily female authors, and I wondered if you had any thoughts on that [inaudible]?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 Urban fantasy seems to be mostly female authors.\u00a0 What are my thoughts on…what?\u00a0 Oh, I thought you said something, sorry.\u00a0 Seems to be mostly female authors and I’m not…demonstrably.\u00a0 So, what are my thoughts on it?\u00a0 Why is it like that?\u00a0 Because the first one to get alot of attention was Laurel?\u00a0 I don’t know, really.\u00a0 Really, I think the publishing industry is mostly women.\u00a0 I mean, there seems to be pretty much an even split of authors but on the other hand, the romance genre sells something like 60%…50% or 60% of fiction book sales is just romance.\u00a0 It’s kind of a girl thing, unless you’re a guy who’s in prison because while you can’t buy porn, you can buy romance novels. (laughter) So, go figure.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Do you have weird writing tics or writing OCD-ness that need to get through your books?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Do I have any weird writing tics or OCD-ness that I use to get through my books?\u00a0 Most of my tics and OCD get in the way of me getting through my books.\u00a0 I do like to write.\u00a0 I do my best writing from around ten at night until around six in the morning, because there’s nobody bothering me.\u00a0 If you’re there during the day, it’s like, ‘Dad, I love you,’ this and, ‘Honey, do you need something to eat,’ that and…you can’t work in that kind of environment.\u00a0 (laughter) And I also like to have either a really bad movie or a movie I’ve seen a gajillion times on the TV while I’m writing so that I can just look up for the good parts.\u00a0 It’s like, ‘Okay, the orcs just broke through the door in Moria.’ (looks up) ‘Back to work.’\u00a0 Like that.\u00a0 Very back, halfway around the corner, there.\u00a0 No, not behind you.\u00a0 You, yeah.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 [inaudible]<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 I’m sorry, what’s that?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Was Empire Strikes Back one of the movies that were watched when writing this last book?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Empire Strikes Back was not a movie on this book.\u00a0 The movies on this book were Watchmen.\u00a0 No, no wait.\u00a0 Watchmen was for the short story stuff.\u00a0 Oh, what were the movies on this one.\u00a0 I don’t remember.\u00a0 It’s kind of a blur.\u00a0 This was over November and December, Thanksgiving, Christmas, et cetera.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Fellowship?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Fellowship was not in there.\u00a0 It was the ones that were on the DVR.\u00a0 Oh, okay.\u00a0 It was Tremors and Army of Darkness. (cheers) There.\u00a0 Now you know.\u00a0 Let’s see, here in the middle.\u00a0 Young lady, yes?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 How long do you spend, like, how long does it take you to write your books now that you’ve got it all figured out?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 How long does it take me to write a book?\u00a0 Somewhere between, apparently, two months and seven or eight months.\u00a0 And it seems to be kind of random which, they don’t like that in New York.\u00a0 But I did all of\u00a0Changes<\/em>, I think all of it but about seven chapters I did in the space of eight weeks between the beginning of November and New Year.\u00a0 And I worked, like, sixteen hours a day every day, including Christmas, and New Year and Thanksgiving.\u00a0 And was oh so charming a person during that time, let me tell you.\u00a0 But, I was able to get it done, though, so.\u00a0 Did I let you ask one yet?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 No.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Okay, well, then.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 You finished up the Codex Alera, but you left it open to possibly doing something in the future with it.\u00a0 Are you thinking about doing that, or…?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 I finished up the Codex Alera, but left it open to possibly doing something in the future with it.\u00a0 Am I thinking about doing that?\u00a0 I don’t have a specific idea yet.\u00a0 The one I’m kind of leaning towards is the one where we go back about two hundred years later, when we’ve had a lot of combination of Canim engineering with Aleran fury crafting.\u00a0 And it would be very steampunky, kind of ‘Furypunk.’ (laughter)\u00a0 When the enemy of the Vord shows up to wipe out life on the planet, exterminate the Vord.\u00a0 But we’ll — I don’t know if I’m ever going to write that or not.\u00a0 That might be something that I go back and write when I’m older to pay off my gambling debts or something.<\/p>\n [something about someone who’s had arms up from the very beginning, followed by confusion over who should ask the next question]<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 I just want to know how old is Harry?\u00a0 You always say thirty something.\u00a0 When is he going to reach his forties, for God’s sake?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 What the hell, man.\u00a0 We’re going at a year per book. (laughter)<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 [inaudible] give us his first age.\u00a0 How old is he?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Oh, let’s see.\u00a0 When he starts off, in\u00a0Storm Front<\/em>\u00a0he was twenty four, twenty five.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Got it.\u00a0 I can do the math.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Okay. (laughter) He’s eight or nine months younger than I am.\u00a0 Or no, he’s about a year younger than I am.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 [inaudible] Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 Yeah, see, that’s why — see how personal I took that. (laughter) When the hell is he going to be forty, because you must be at least seventy five. (laughter) That’s what was in my head.\u00a0 I admit that may not have been what you meant.\u00a0 Alright, we’re cool, then.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Any hints on what the short story in the RPG will be?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Any hints on what the short story in the RPG will be?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 I’ve been trying to write it on my goofy iPad.\u00a0 The iPad type thing does not work so well when you’ve got alot of dialog.\u00a0 I wanted to go get an iMac bluetooth keyboard, but I couldn’t get here in time to go to the apple store which is, like, two doors down.\u00a0 Well, that’s fine anyway because, gosh, I’m so tired, I don’t know what would happen if I started writing right now.\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 You touched on the dragons in the Dresdenverse.\u00a0 Are you going to do anything more with the dragons in the…?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Is there going to be more with the dragons in the Dresdenverse.\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Yeah, otherwise — I’m essentially lazy, so I don’t want to actually create anything that I’m not going to use for something eventually.<\/p>\n Jim Butcher “Changes” Q&A – Powell’s Books 4\/08\/2010 Part 4 of 6<\/strong><\/a> Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 I’m trying to set this city up for the RPG because I want to run it.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 In your opinion, who’d be the seat of power here?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Okay, you’re trying to set up Portland as a setting for the RPG game.\u00a0 Hrm.\u00a0 Who would be the what of power?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Who holds the power here?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Who holds the power?\u00a0 Mm…<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 [inaudible] (laughter)<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 It should.\u00a0 If it was here, I would probably do something with where water met land, is what I would probably…<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 That’s all the city. (laughter)<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 But, I mean, I would have something specifically that — I would go look for some sort of supernatural person who was specifically a shore type entity, for instance, the Leanansidhe is specifically a shore type entity, only she’s in Germany, but, you know.\u00a0 I would hit the libraries and look in the local Native American lore and see what you can find about water creatures.\u00a0 So, that would just be me, though.\u00a0 You can do it your own way. (laughter) Back here, with the beard.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 I was going to ask you, what exactly are Outsiders?\u00a0 Are they the fae or are they something else entirely?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Exactly what are Outsiders?\u00a0 They are something else entirely.\u00a0 No, fae are all — all the fae are part mortal.\u00a0 There is some bit of mortal in every single one of the fae.\u00a0 So, the Outsiders are something that comes from way beyond that.\u00a0 So, you know, they’re more the generic Hellboy fangs and tentacles crowd.\u00a0 Yeah?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Are there things man should not know? (laughter)<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Are there things man should not know?\u00a0 Not only should not, but never seem to. (laughter)\u00a0 Although, it’s mostly my wife who tells me about those things. (laughter)\u00a0 Yeah, in the Dresden universe, there are all kinds of things for the really dark secrets of magic that Harry has absolutely no clue about which, hopefully as he learns about them later in this series, you’ll be able to look back at stuff he was doing earlier and then be going, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe what a maniacal serial killer you-…Oh, wait a minute.\u00a0 Now, I sound just like the Wardens and the rest of the Senior Council.’<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Um, can you that [inaudible]<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 \/Shee\/ (Pronunciation of the word ‘Sidhe’)<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 ‘She?’<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 \/Shee\/.\u00a0 (laughter)<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 [inaudible]<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 It’s Gaelic, man, it doesn’t have to make any sense. (laughter) Let’s go over here.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Have you ever written something that made your editor go, ‘Oh, no, that’s too crazy.\u00a0 You can’t do that.’<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Have I ever written something that made my editor go, ‘Oh, no, that’s too crazy. You can’t do that.’\u00a0 Um, yeah, that last chapter of\u00a0Changes<\/em>\u00a0kinda got to her. (laughter) So, I had to write the first two chapters of book thirteen and say, ‘No, look.\u00a0 See, this is where it fits in.’\u00a0 ‘Oh!\u00a0 That’s cool!’\u00a0 Yeah, but nobody ever gone, ‘Aw, that’s just too wild.’\u00a0 I have had the — the first editor of the books, Jen Heddle, she did kind of give me a nightmare assignment once where she said, ‘Oo, I love these four story lines you’ve got going here in\u00a0Grave Peril<\/em>\u00a0and I want you to expand on them.’\u00a0 Because normally editors go, ‘You need to get rid of this, you need to get rid of that.’\u00a0 She’s like, ‘No, I want you to expand on these four subplots and give us some more on them, and make the book fifty pages shorter.’ (laughter) ‘So, you want it bigger and smaller…’\u00a0 She says, ‘Uh huh, and hurry.’\u00a0 That’s professional writing, people.\u00a0 Right there, that’s a good example.\u00a0 Back here.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 I also read Charlene Harris, and just in my my little universe, I would dearly love for you and her to combine on a story where Harry [inaudible]. (laughter)<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 I — Charlaine is nicest person in the whole world.\u00a0 I would not wish working in tandem with me upon Charlaine.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 [inaudible]<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 What’s that?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 At a book signing for her, I was mentioning what you said about her.\u00a0 She said, ‘Oh, I’ve got him fooled.’ (laughter)<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 No, she’s just sweet.\u00a0 I mean, she is just the nicest person.\u00a0 And if there was anybody in the world I could feel bitter and jealous about, it would be Charlaine.\u00a0 She’s just too nice, so I can’t even do that.\u00a0 All I can really do is, you know, DVR True Blood and have a good time. Let’s see.\u00a0 Right here.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Your books crack me up pretty much consistently, all the time.\u00a0 What’s the funniest you think you’ve written so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 What’s the funniest thing, to me, that I’ve written so far?\u00a0 I don’t know.\u00a0 I just try to be funny, everybody else decides whether or not I succeed.\u00a0 I know the most satisfying things I’ve written were with the dinosaur.\u00a0 I really like that. (cheers)\u00a0 I really loved having Harry show up to the vampire ball dressed as a cheesy vampire.\u00a0 [inaudible]\u00a0 I love how completely overly serious I made the bad guys in “Day Off”, the short story “Day Off”.\u00a0 The bad guys there are kind of like the Scooby-Doo crowd if they were goth and thought they were lead in\u00a0Scanners<\/em>.\u00a0 There was somebody else over here, too.\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 There’s a bunch of people, actually, over there.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 I keep getting there, there, there.\u00a0 Right here.\u00a0 Young lady.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 What inspired you to write the book\u00a0Changes<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 What inspired me to write the book\u00a0Changes<\/em>?\u00a0 Well, I had signed this contract and (laughter) I want to stay in my house.\u00a0 \u00a0But, really, this was kinda the big middle point.\u00a0\u00a0Changes<\/em>\u00a0was the mid-point of this first part of the series.\u00a0 This is where we got to — I finally got to pull the trigger on all these cool things that I’d been wanting to do for a long time.\u00a0 Boom, boom, boom.\u00a0 I felt like the special effects explosives guy in\u00a0Tropic Thunder<\/em>\u00a0while I was doing that. (laughter)\u00a0 But, yeah, it was just the set up, and I wanted to put Dresden into what would be, for him, the ultimate rough situation, you know, the ultimate moral bind.\u00a0 Now, you’ve had all these offers, you could have assembled all this power if you wanted it.\u00a0 Now, we’re gonna put you in a situation where you’re gonna have to help the one person you would most want to help in the world, Harry.\u00a0 Poor guy.\u00a0 You’re right.\u00a0 I do hate him.\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 Yeah?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 In one of your previous books, you describe Portland as being a middle of nowhere city —<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Wait.\u00a0 Did I?\u00a0 Really?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 As a Portlander, myself, I would like to know what you meant by that. (laughter)<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Which book did I put that in?\u00a0 Because, seriously, ’cause I don’t know.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 I don’t remember which one, but like Michael left his truck here.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Oh, oh yeah.\u00a0 Michael had a mission somewhere up here and dropped his truck off in the country somewhere.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Does this have anything to do with your last visit up here? (laughter)<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Do you work for some kind of news blog or something? (laughter)\u00a0 Are you one of those investigative interviewers where I don’t get to answering the question?\u00a0 “You need, you need to shut up.\u00a0 You need to be quiet now.”<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 [inaudible]<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 (laughs) No, I’ve had nothing but a good time when I’m up here.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 We didn’t hear the question.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Oh, the question was ‘In one of your books, you referred to Portland as the middle of nowhere.\u00a0 And was that the result of…please answer the question, Senator.\u00a0 Was that a result of…was that the result of your reception here?’\u00a0 I said, ‘Nah, I’ve never had anything but a good time here.’\u00a0 But, yeah, mid-, you know, you’re up by Portland.\u00a0 You’re in the country within fifty miles of town here.\u00a0 You’re from Chicago and you’ve got to drive to Oregon to pick up your truck.\u00a0 Do you know what you have to drive across to get to Oregon from Chicago?\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Man, there is some long miles on there.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 2200.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 There you go.\u00a0 Okay, let’s see.\u00a0 Back here, sir.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 I just read through the beta pdf for the RPG.\u00a0 Are the anecdotes, the notes from Harry and Bob, did you write those or did they?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 In the RPG, did I write the comments and notes from Harry and Bob that appear in the margins of the rule book?\u00a0 No, I didn’t write those, they did.\u00a0 I went through and approved them, and said, ‘Yeah, why not.’<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Was it Harry and Bob that wrote them, or…<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 No, it would have been Fred and Chad, I believe.\u00a0 Fred Hicks and Chad Underkoffler are all over that game.\u00a0 Really obsessive guys, I don’t see how they do it.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 My little brother [inaudible] texting me all day.\u00a0 But, he wants to know what your favorite tabletop RPG is.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 What my favorite tabletop RPG is?\u00a0 It’s Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.\u00a0 The original from Games Workshop, not the reprint from Green Ronin.\u00a0 Which I was I kinda happily saying that last night and the guy who works at Green Ronin and wrote it was in the audience…(moans) ‘Oh, I fail.’<\/p>\n Jim Butcher “Changes” Q&A – Powell’s Books 4\/08\/2010 Part 5 of 6<\/strong><\/a> Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Um, over here sir.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Me?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Do you have any regrets about the TV series at all or –?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Do I have any regrets about the TV series?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 And would you do it all over again if you had the opportunity?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 If I could do it — well, that’s just it.\u00a0 When you’re a writer — I’m just the writer of the book.\u00a0 I don’t matter anything in Hollywood.\u00a0 The TV series, really, I figure that came in top 2% in terms of writer\/fun experience with Hollywood.\u00a0 I figure that’s in the top couple of percentiles.\u00a0 It could have come out a whole lot worse than it did.\u00a0 You guys didn’t see, like, the second treatment that it was getting when they were planning it.\u00a0 That was the one where his name got changed to Eric and other things…I was looking at that, just going (bangs head on microphone) (laughter).\u00a0 But really, I mean, it turned out almost as well as I could have expected it for anybody that wasn’t going to dump a whole huge budget onto making it.\u00a0 Yeah, it could have been worse.\u00a0 That’s my view on the whole thing.\u00a0 It could have been worse.\u00a0 Let’s see, right back here, blue shirt.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 In the books you have a lot of pretty technical knowledge, forensics, police procedures.\u00a0 How much research do you do on these?\u00a0 Do you read books or — ?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 For forensics, police procedures?\u00a0 Yeah, I have — well, you know, then I go out and kill people and photograph….just so I can make sure that I’m doing it just like real police work. (laughter) Actually, a lot of my stuff originally came from a series of books called “The How Done It Series” that was produced by Writer’s Digest.\u00a0 It’s just a number of books that are — police procedure, and you get to learn all about police procedure, you know, how to find people who are missing, that sort of thing.\u00a0 So, that’s where my initial stuff came from and after I just kind of talk to cops and forensics folks once in a while, who I will meet, and grab it from there.\u00a0 Yep?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 I was wondering if you intended to do anything more with the Alera series along the lines of a graphic novel or –?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Do I intend to do anything more with the Alera series, i.e. like a graphic novel or something like that?\u00a0 That’s one of those things that you kind of — I mean, unless you want to go out and actively sell it, that’s one of those things that you really don’t get to pick whether or not you do it.\u00a0 If somebody comes to me and says, ‘I would like to do an Alera movie,’ I’ll be like, ‘Okay.’\u00a0 That’s kind of how it works.\u00a0 I would be happy to see something else happen with it.\u00a0 It would really be a great cartoon.\u00a0 If they made a movie out of it now, it would probably wind up looking alot like ‘The Last Airbender’ is gonna look, because that’s looking quite cool.\u00a0 I mean, okay, we’re gonna have some action and some cool special effects with the elements.\u00a0 Way to go M. Night…don’t try and put any red door knobs in this one. (laughter) You know, give this a solid movie.\u00a0 Right back there.<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 [inaudible]<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Where did I get the idea for an undead T-Rex?\u00a0 When I was watching and I found out that they actually have the bones of Sue, I mean the actual real bones or the fossils of them, are actually there in Chicago.\u00a0 They’re not the ones that are hanging up, but you know, for the purposes of having fun, I decided they were.\u00a0 I saw a show on the History Channel about digging up Sue, when they found her and so on, and how she ended up there and why.\u00a0 And then when they were doing the zombie thing, I was writing down the rules of what was going to happen when we had the necromancers running around.\u00a0 It’s, like, okay, the older the corpses are, the more power you can put in them.\u00a0 And you don’t use animals, you use people because they can hold more magical energy proportionately, [inaudible] infinitely more.\u00a0 And then I thought, “But, you know, on the other hand…sure, maybe the human corpses are, you know, you get ten points per year in the human and only one point per year in the animal corpse, but sixty five million years…you can get yourself a pretty good zombie out of that.’ (laughter) And once I’d figured out that, it’s like, okay, and there’s no way I’m letting the bad guy have it, either.\u00a0 (laughter)<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 So when does Big Al show up?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 When does what?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 Big Al.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jim Butcher:\u00a0 Big Al?<\/p>\n Audience:\u00a0 ‘Walking With Dinosaurs’<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n2010 Powells Books Signing Q&A<\/strong>\u00a0(youtube vid)
\nPart 1<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 2<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 3<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 4<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 5<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 6<\/a><\/del>\u00a0derek
\n*<\/span>2010 Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego on April 9th<\/strong>\u00a0youtube videos
\nPart 1<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 2<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 3<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 4<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 5<\/a>
\n2010 Buzzy Multimedia interview<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0youtube video<\/del>\u00a0Serack
\n2010 Dragon Page interview<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0audio<\/del>\u00a0LogicMouseLives
\n2010 Question from Dragoncon<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0video (here’s the comic they are talking about<\/a>)<\/del>\u00a0derek
\n*<\/span>2010 Dragon Con Q&A session<\/strong>\u00a0(Part “7” picks up where Part 6 leaves off, but was made by a diff. person who numbered it “8”)
\nPart 1<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 2<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 3<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 4<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 5<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part 6<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0Part “7”<\/a>
\nSuduvu interview<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0video
\n2010 Fantasy authors panel @ NYC Comic con<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Videos
\n2010 NovelsAlive interview<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0youtube vid<\/del>\u00a0derek
\nAbsent Willow Review interview<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Written<\/del>\u00a0Crawker
\n2010 SFBC interview @ NYCC<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0youtube video<\/del>\u00a0derek
\n*<\/span>2010 The Walking Eye Interview about the DFRPG with Fred Hicks (Iago) and Jim<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0podcast audio
\n2010 Brief Side Jobs interview from his Publisher<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0youtube<\/del>\u00a0sjsharks<\/p>\n
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