BEAVERCREEK - PART 3
BEAVERCREEK PART 3
[
.] although it would be easier to work aircraft carriers in if I did it like that. I mean, you know, a [little Hitler??]
IS MAGIC EVER REALLY GOING TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET IN THE DRESDEN-VERSE?
Right here, because, as I said.
[My note - this doesn't make sense to me - but I think something is missing in the transition from Pt 2 to Pt 3.]
I WAS JUST WONDERING - DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF HOW MANY BOOKS OR MOVIES ARE GOING TO COME OUT [of your work?
]
Total books in the DF series 20-ish of the case books - it could be a little bit more, it could be a little bit less, depending on whether or not my kid goes to grad school. And when I get done with the case books there'll be a BAT as kind of a gap-fill thing.
THE MORE THE BETTER.
So YOU say, but when things go on past their expiration date you wind up with things like the last season of X-Files - you've got that zombie show, just sort of staggering on - it should have died, you know, a while ago [monster voice] AWESOMELY!
OVER THE COURSE OF A SERIES DURING THE CREATIVE PROCESS WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST OFTEN GETS LEFT ON THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR?
I've got a pathological aversion to actually chopping stuff out once I"ve gotten it written - see above regarding lazy. The things that do get dropped out are mostly small bits and pieces - pieces of conversation that really weren't relevant to what was going on - descriptions that just kind of rambled on and on too long when I could have done it in like a word and a half. That kind of thing.
Oh - actually - there are actually entire chapters that got scrapped once in a while where I realized - Oh wait a minute! I should have taken a left at Albuquerque and instead I got this chapter which was taking the book in completely the wrong direction so I delete it, and start over. I don't think I actually saved very many of those though. Most of them - I look at them and go ooops! - don't let anybody know you did it - they'll think you're cooler that way.
[WHAT IS YOUR SECRET AS A WRITER TO BEING SO GOOD, SO CLEAR?]
My secret to being so clear - I worked really, really hard to learn how to do it. I mean I wrote for like 9 years before I ever sold anything for any money at all. And I've got half a dozen novels that are so awful I would not have made Osama bin Laden read them.
Mostly the important thing as a writer that you have to learn is don't get too overcomplicated with your language if you're trying to make things clear. My belief as a writer is that if I'm doing my job right, the language should be transparent so that as the story's going, you don't even know you're reading words - you're kind of creating your own virtual reality as you go along. I like the transparent writer. I don't like to do the wordplay thing - or at least not very often. Plus I'm not very good at it. [?Rathless? OOH Rathless?]
ON YOUR BIO YOU MENTION YOUR VICIOUS ATTACK DOG. IS THAT SARCASM OR IS HE REALLY A VICIOUS ATTACK DOG?
He is VICIOUS. He is the most vicious 20 pounds of Bichon Frisee - you have ever seen. 20 pounds of killer white fluff. I never said he was dangerous - I said he was vicious. And indeed he is. OTOH, he's also saved my kid from a bear - so he's worth it.
I can tell the bear story if you want. All right - at one point we were living out in kind of the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. We were about half an hour out of state college -maybe a little bit further - kind of in Amish country. We were living in this long valley - it was like 22 miles long and there were like 3 houses and then Amish farms was the whole thing. Mountains and ridges all around - just gorgeous, but there was actual wildlife about.
Anyway,we've got this little dog and we make him sleep with the boy downstairs in his room which is right off the kitchen. And we put the baby gate up, the boy goes to bed and we put the dog in bed with the boy and they go to sleep and it's adorable.
One night , at about 3 in the morning, the dog somehow manages to knock the baby gate over, climb up the stairs - which he's never done before - he's a puppy - and then he came to the side of the bed and he's throwing a fit at me from the side of the bed [doggie fit noises] . And Im like - what is wrong with you? You've come to [
..] aren't you - that's what it is. And so I take the dog back downstairs, all sleepy and grumpy to put him back in bed with the boy and I find that the boy has kicked all the covers off and he's just lying in bed shuddering like that - he's running like a 101 fever. And Im like - oh my gosh - take care of the kid and give him Tylenol and get him back to bed and he goes back to sleep again . And Im like - Good Dog! That was awesome! I picked him up, put him on the bed, he curled up next to the boy and went right to sleep. But wow! - okay! That's pretty cool!.
A couple of weeks later, the same thing happens. I'm like - What is it Lassie? Did Timmy fall down the well again? And so I go downstairs, and the boy's fine. And I kind of stop and look at the dog and say - It's 2:30 in the morning - what do you think you're doing? [More frantic dog noises] We had kind of this long, narrow house. And he goes about 10 feet down the kitchen and then stops and looks at me. And Im like - What? [More frantic dog noises] I walk over to him, he quiets down. Okay, that's a little bizarre. So he goes another 10 feet and does the same thing. And another 10 feet, and another 10 feet, and we go all the way - up and down - the first floor of the house. We do this twice. And then after that he curls up in a ball and goes to sleep.
I'm like - Okay. You are officially crazy. I pick him up. I put him in bed. I go back to bed. The next morning I"m getting the kid up. I'm getting him off to school and - what you have to realize is - the main door to the house that we use was the kitchen door - and then immediately across from the kitchen door was the door to his room - okay, now this was a glass door. I open the door, cause I was gonna walk the kid out to the bus stop - and I stop and look and on the snow on the steps leading up to the door are bear prints about this big - pawprints. I kind of stopped and I look at those and I look down and I go outside and the pawprints go all the way around the house - twice. And I realized at that point that the dog had known the bear was out there . He came to get me, and then he made me pace the bear up and down the [
..] - so that the bear would know I knew he was there. After that man - I looked at that dog and said - You are IN. All right. [ Laughter and applause]
Now whenever anybody gives me a hard time about having a little dog - "You need to have a big dog - like my german shepherd" - I go like - Did your german shepherd ever save your kid from a bear? Noooo. Well, that little dog DID!
ARE YOU STILL THINKING ABOUT DOING A MISTER/MOUSE/BOB SHORT STORY?
It has been suggested to me it might be fun - it'd be kind of like the DF version of [Funiculai??] which influenced me when I was small and impressionable and I think it probably got taken away by my teacher while I was [there too?].
HAVE YOU READ GEORGE MARTIN'S GAME OF THRONES AND THE SEQUELS AND WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THEM?
I read the first one probably - many,many moons ago - right after it first came out . I read it and went "ummmmm" - for fantasy, this is really low on fantasy - you know, you kind of go through the whole thing and you've got one person that doesn't get burned by fire and a zombie. And it's like - it's a little lower than the fantasy intake that I want. I could probably go back and read them again. I might think they're much better now. The Black Company books were like that for me. First time I read them Im like - whatever - and I went back 10 or 15 years later after I'd studied a lot of history and so on - and Im like - Oh my gosh! These are brilliant! And it's just a matter of perspective I think and where you are. And maybe I'll think Martin's brilliant the next time I go back. I like the series though. Im all [..
.] about the series.
SPEAKING ABOUT THE SERIES, AND I KNOW YOU'VE ALREADY TRIED IT WITH S-F, BUT WITH ALL THESE OTHER BOOK SERIES GOING TO HBO AND [ALLTHAT], HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED DOING THAT, OR MAYBE A MOVIE?
Have I ever considered doing the DF for HBO or for a movie? I shall think about it. [Laughter]. I'm willing to forgive Hollywood for the first iteration of the DF and the Sorceror's Apprentice. I'm just saying if you take the covers of the comic book and the [
.] from Sorcerer's Apprentice and put them next to each other - that's all Im saying.
I think if it had been anyone other than Nick Cage
.. [part 3 ends]
