Last two segments from MarsCon
Segment 6:
Audience member: [comment cut off]….ants along the side?
Jim: How much was I involved with the back and forth, uh, kinda, the banter between the characters that are in the margins of the role-playing game book. Uh, I went over it, I went over the dialogue to approve it after it was already all done. Uh, and…and basically said, ‘Yeah, this is good.’ You know, so, that was the work of them, uh, and I think it speaks to, uh, their dedication and commitment as to, uh, how well they actually did do that dialogue. (Applause) Yrah, I swear, I mean, some of these researchers that Fred managed to get to put on the books, I mean, they are just spooky. Uh, you know, they had written all these things into…into the rule book that I was like, ‘You can’t…you can’t put that, that, you can’t put that there!’ And they’re, ‘Why not?’ ‘Well, because it’s not going to be out ‘til Book 18!’ (Laughter) But they had put together the pieces and inferred the existence of, uh, certain things, and uh, you know, they were just kind of, you know, throwing them in, and I’m like, ‘Don’t do that, don’t do that!’ (Laughter)
Interviewer: On, on the flip side though, was there anything in there that you looked at and said ‘Oh, I could use that!’?
Jim: Um, not so far, not so far. Uh, there are some things that I’ve looked at and gone, ‘Ooh, interesting!’ uh, and so it’s gone into the cooker, but, uh, I’ll probably…I’ll probably think it’s original. (Laughter) And then at some point I’ll be going back through the rule book and go, ‘Oh! Okay, I got it there, I…I really should send a letter to Fred.’ (Laughter)
Audience member: Um, that was a leading question because there’s a back and forth between Harry and Billy about the werewolves being able to talk to animals, uh, dogs specifically. So….
Jim: Where? Which book?
Audience member: I just got them for Christmas; I don’t have them memorized yet.
Various: [Unparseable comments about what book and section the information might be found in from various audience members]
Audience member: Um, it’s basically, ‘Billy says “Woof”’. (Laughter)
Jim: Right, yeah, yeah, the wolves can’t…I mean, they…just because you can turn into a wolf doesn’t mean you can talk to a dog. It does give you a little bit more insight and perspective into being a dog. Uh, which almost counts as communication. Um, you know, for me, uh, I think I understand my dog pretty well, although I had to subtitle him for a long time in order to do it. So, I had my dog voice when I do my dog’s dialogue back to me when I talk to him. So, you know, ‘What’s going on Fros (sp?), whatcha doing?’ (In a high voice) ‘Oh nothing, I’m not trying to jump up on this chair to get what’s left of your sandwich.’ (Laughter) You know, that kind of thing.
Interviewer: Now that, uh, the SyFy series has ended, uh, what’re…what…what is the state of the rights for the Dresden Files?
Jim: Uh, the rights to the Dresden Files have…I got them back early, so they’re all mineminemine again. (Applause) And we’ll see what happens, we’ll see what happens with them.
Audience member: Uh, considering the experience with the series and how that kind of well, (other audience member: tanked), that happened, uh, what kind of involvement would you insist upon, if anything else were to ever happen again, I mean, would it be similar to the involvement you had with the comic? Final say? I mean, what would you like to have?
Jim: Oh, um, if…the question is: if we do…if there’s another, uh, shot at a TV show or movie, et cetera, what kind of role would I want to have, would I want to play in it. Um, I think it would depend a lot upon, uh, how much I already had on my plate, uh, because I’m kind of at a point in my life right now where there’s enough to do that if I add anything else to it, I’m going to be letting down someone that I care about a lot, and that’s not acceptable to me. Um, so, uh, I think it would depend on what my schedule was looking like and so on for how much I would want to be involved. And, I mean, if you want to get involved in Hollywood, there’s a number of levels to which you can get involved, and some of them I kind of don’t like, I kinda don’t like the, uh, you know, the executive producer level of involvement, where they put your name on it, and they do things in your name but you’re not actually doing things. Although there is an additional paycheck that goes along with it, I understand. Uh, but, uh, you know, as far as that goes, uh, I would…I would either like to be up to…in it up to my neck with, with uh, veto authority over it, or, you know, not involved, you know, except as the, ‘And oh here…and by the way, there’s the author.’ Although I think I would say, ‘I get to appear in the background somewhere, and that’s all there is to it!’ (Laughter)
Interviewer: Everyone caught his cameo in the series?
Audience: Yup.
Jim: Yeah, I got to do the cameo for the…for the TV series, uh, which was fun and cool. And, uh, I got to meet people and so on.
Interviewer: (Pointing) Yeah.
Audience member: At what point in the series are we going to find out about Harry and the island of Demonreach?
Jim: At what point in the series are we going to find out about the connection between Harry and the island of Demonreach? In the last chapter of Ghost Story. (Audience gasps, applauds) Yeah, that came as a shock to the betas who are reading it in progress right now, they’re like, ‘Really? Really?’
Audience member: Is there any plans….Side Jobs was an enjoyable book, do you have any plans to do any other novellas like that or collections…?
Jim: Ok, um, do I have any plans for any more novellas or collections? The answer to that is I originally wrote Side Jobs because I…I wanted to do the anthology because I wanted to get all the short stories in one place; there are people who can’t afford to go buy, you know, a dozen different anthologies, uh, and so I wanted to be able to have them all in one spot for the readers to be able to get them. Um, and, as it turned out, when Side Jobs came out, there was…there was issues at other publishers and I had two stories out that did not make Side Jobs. Um, so, now, the only thing I can do if I wanted to stick to my original goal is to do another anthology, uh, of short stories, because…(Applause), so that’s kind of the idea now, as…I’m writing several more short stories, uh, early next year…early this year…Oh my gosh, I’ve got to…I’ve got to get those written! (Laughter)
Interviewer: Good night, everyone, Jim’s got to go!
Jim: And, uh, and then I’ll also be writing another novella, and, uh, you know, to include, uh, so I’m going to do another few short stories so that I can do another anthology, probably not next year, but maybe the year after.
Interviewer: (Pointing) Yes?
Audience member: What did Margaret LeFay have on Leanansidhe in order to convince her to be Harry’s godmother?
Jim: What did Margaret LeFay have on the Leanansidhe in order to convince her to be Harry’s godmother. Uh, (singsong) I’m not gonna tell you! (Laughter) (Jim nods.) uh, but…but you’ll see.
Audience member: When?
Jim: At some point. (Laughter) At some point. I’m not sure…I’m not sure if that’ll be late in the series or early in the capstone, so….
Interviewer: (Pointing) Yeah.
Audience member: The Alphas have started demonstrating a little bit more than just turning into a wolf, how far are you planning on going with that?
Jim: I’m sorry, what was the first part of the question?
Audience member: The Alphas have started demonstrating…
Jim: Oh, the Alphas have started, uh, to develop, uh, into something more than just turning into a wolf, and how far will I be running with that. Um, a bit. (Laughter) But, uh, but I don’t want to spoil anything for you, so, uh...yeah, they’re…Okay, the Alphas are…the Alphas are us, they’re the gamers who look at this thing…who look…the gamers…the people who show up at the conventions and cosplay and who suddenly get handed this stuff, this cool stuff they can do. Of course they’re not just going to leave it at…at what they’re handed, ‘Look, here’s how you can become a wolf, that’s amazing,’ ‘Oh, that IS amazing! But what else can we do?’ (Laughter) ‘Wouldn’t it be even more amazing if…?’ And uh, yeah, so far nobody’s managed to melt themselves into a puddle of grey goo, that’s sort of the…that’s sort of the ultimate FAIL as a shapeshifter, uh (Laughter) you know, if you get the mega-fail that’s what happens to you, but we’ll see.
Audience member: Will we get to see Ivy grow up a bit?
Jim: Will we get to see Ivy grow up a bit? Oh yes.
Audience member: [Unintelligible]
Jim: Uh, who do I think would play a good Harry. Besides Will Smith, because I’ve always said Will Smith. Uh, this guy in the back (points, to laughter), for one. I really don’t know him but he’s quite tall and he was pointing to himself, so, uh…(Laughter) (suggestions from the audience—“the dude with the hand”) yeah, well, Matt, yeah, he might do it pretty well, actually, he’s got the right look, um, uh, let’s see, Alexis Denisov, uh, I think, could do it, or could have done it, I don’t know what he’s like lately. Marsters could have done it, I don’t know if he could do it lately, he’s getting kind of…you know, he’s getting a little weathered, we might have to cast him as uh, as somebody else. Um….(to somebody in the audience) what? Oh, uh, I would…I would accept Hugh Jackman, (Laughter)…I would tolerate him, I would tolerate Mr. Jackman. Uh, uh, really, it’s not something that I really think about so much, because in my head, he’s never somebody who’s in the movies, he’s the guy in my head who, uh, is the guy in the uh, in the prequel cartoon, that Ardien drew. Uh, in the prequel comic, the, uh, Welcome to the Jungle, that’s Dresden as he looks in my head, that’s very, very close to what he is because they worked so closely with me putting the images together.
Segment 7:
Audience member: Uh, could Ivy…does the Archive read digital? Or is it only print?
Jim: Does the archive read digital, or is it only print? No, she gets it all. Uh, and…yeah, and nobody ever planned for the amount of information that has actually shown up in the past 20 years or so. Uh, so yeah, that’s not a good thing to be throwing on the…the little girl, don’t-have-any-insulation-against-everything-Archive. (Jim chuckles evilly) Like, totally bad timing for that, haha. Uh, I think Ivy would punch me in the nose too. (Laughter)
(audience gets loud)
Interviewer: Could you start again, please?
Audience member: You’ve got all this written down on indestructible scrolls somewhere, [unintelligible]…we still get the end of the story, right?
Jim: Oh, heck no. (Laughter) So it’s in your best interest to see that I am all right. (Laughter)
Interviewer: (Pointing) Uh, way in the back.
Audience member: Any…give us any teasers on the upcoming shorts?
Jim: On the upcoming short stories? Huh. Man, I might have to do a Mister and Mouse one…(Applause) [unintelligible]…although it might really wind up being more Mister, Mouse and Bob (more applause), because that would be really cool. Uh, uh, let me think who else…um…no, I was…I was thinking I’ll probably do another…another Murphy one at some point, and…because, I mean, it was so hard to do, the first one, it was like, okay, I did a lot of work on that I need to get some more mileage out of that one. Uh, and then, I will probably actually do one from the point of view of the private eye…
Audience: Vince?
Jim: Yeah, Vince (Applause). Uh, just because, uh, he’s really…I mean, he is so much my tribute to the late Robert Parker character, uh, it’s really…it was my intention to write…to write somebody who’s totally in that Spencer vein. And uh, Vince….Vince is good for that. Uh, he’d be…he’d be hilarious as a…as a point of view character, but….
Interviewer: Do you have a title for the book after Ghost Story?
Jim: Uh, no not yet.
Interviewer: All right, we’ve got time for one last question.
Jim: Wait! I do. I’ve…I put in email somewhere. (Laughter) I can’t remember right now, though, but it’s digital. (Someone comes up onto the stage and says something to Jim). Oh! Right! Okay, duh. Winter Knight. Yeah, Winter Knight. I mean, come on, obviously. All right, look. Being dead does not get you out of a contract with the Queen of Air and Darkness. It does not.
Audience: …[unintelligible] until he died?
Jim: He cheated. What if he cheated? Somebody must’ve.
Interviewer: So, I guess that kind of answers your other question about being hit by a bus, if being dead doesn’t get you out of a contract. (Laughter)
Jim: Yeah, it doesn’t get you out of a contract with Penguin, either.
Interviewer: All right, we’re coming to the end of the hour, we’ve got time for one last question. (Points)
Audience member: With the Dresden Files is chugging along, and Codex Alera done, are we going to see you doing any other series or are you going to focus solely on doing Dresden?
Jim: Uh, I’m only doing the Dresden, uh, for the next year or so, uh, just because my wife says, ‘Jim, you have got to take some time off or I will kill you.’ (Laughter) Uh, and…and she’s probably right. Um, but I am gong to be starting…I mean, I’m going to be doing another project…I don’t want to be doing just the Dresden Files, I want to be doing other stuff, too. I think, in the future, uh, I think the way I’ll do it next is that I’ll…I’ll write the book and have it written and then sell it. Because that seems to be so much of a less, uh, deadline, stressy, uh, time-crunchy way to get things done.
Audience member: Any change you’ll be going back to Alera?
Jim: Any chance of going back to Alera? Maybe.
Interviewer: Did you come in late? (Laughter)
Jim: Yeah, I kinda talked about that earlier, um, oh, that question doesn’t count, we’ll go one more.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Audience member: Any books coming out on audio?
Jim: Any…?
Interviewer: Any books coming out on audio?
Jim: Oh, the Dresden books on audio? They’re all on audio.
Audience member: Are they?
Jim: Yes. Yeah, James Marsters read them all. Okay, one more, that one didn’t…
Interviewer: Yeah that one doesn’t count either. Sorry Lunacy!
Audience member: If the faerie queen dies, do you get out of the contract?
Jim: If the faerie queen dies do you get out of the contract? No. You just have a different faerie queen show up to…I mean, the faerie queen is an office, it’s not a person, uh, so, I mean, Lily found that out the hard way, you know, so…