BEAVERCREEK PART 5

I've got whole armies painted up.  I can field a bunch of different armies - if my son hadn't lost all my models by now.  He likes the game too, so - and the poor kid, he grew up in a family surrounded by all my nerdy friends - he had no chance.

ARE YOU EVER GOING TO EXPLAIN HOW MAC GOT HIS PUB TO BE ACCORDED NEUTRAL GROUND?

Well, he filled out the paperwork and there was a $40 fee - yeah, we'll get into that at some point.

DID YOU ACTUALLY WRITE CODEX ALERA ON A BET?

Indeed.  This was before I had gotten published and I was on several different writing groups on the internet, and there were all these discussions that went on constantly - and these were discussions that went on constantly because these were the kinds of arguments that pretty much you hit the reply button, then your caps lock, then start typing.

And I was a little loud-mouthed kid on the internet at the time with all the other loud-mouthed kids on the internet and there was a big argument that came up over the concept of the sacred idea vs the creator's presentation.  The idea behind the sacred idea is that if you've got a good enough idea you can sell a book that's wildly successful even if you write terribly and the example they held up to embody that was Jurassic Park.  Their example not mine.

Whereas I was on the other side of the argument that said that you could take the oldest, tiredest, worst idea in the entire world and if you had a good enough writer writing it and handling it, he could make it fresh and new and create something new out of that, that was still valuable.  I mean, how many versions of Romeo and Juliet have you seen - it's unreal.

So the discussion went on back and forth and finally this guy said - You know what?  Why don't you just put your money where your mouth is ?  Why don't you just let me give you a bad idea and see if YOU can write a series out of it?  And being the nerdy kid I was at the time, I said - No, Ive got a better idea.  Why don't you give me TWO terrible ideas and I'll use them BOTH. 

That'll learn me to keep my mouth shut.  So the kid says - All right.  First terrible idea - lost Roman legion.   I am so sick of lost Roman legions stories.  All lost Roman legions should have been found by now! 

So the lost Roman legion was the first idea.  So I said - Okay.  What's number 2?  And he said - Pokymon!  So I went and researched it.  I went and researched the lost Roman legion.  They usually mean the 9th Hibernia Legion when they talk about that.  It was the Legion that disappeared while marching in friendly territory - and, marching through a thunderstorm - and never marched out.  And to my way of thinking probably that territory wasn't quite so friendly.  But on the other hand, what if they went somewhere else?  Okay, where did they go?    Land of Pokymon - obviously! 

So I went and researched Pokymon - which is itself a fusion of two ideas, one of which is the Shinto religion with the idea that within all natural things there is a vital spirit of life called a Kami and if you've got like a little pebble there's a little teeny kami  and if you've got a great big mountain, there's a great big kami inside it - and you'd better respect it.  And you should respect the pebble too, but if you don't  - what's it gonna do - it's a pebble.  It's really limited in terms of how it can harm you.

And for Pokymon they took that idea and they fused it with professional wrestling.  So I said - okay.  You know what?  Let's take that Shinto idea and use that and I'll infuse the natural things in the Pokymon world with these spirits and the lost Roman legion will show up there, and I mixed it together and I gave them a couple of thousand years to have a complete apocalypse on their planet, and then form a society, and started growing  and kind of documented everything that happened and then said - Okay.  This is point where I'm going to start.  And I started writing it with a boy on a farm because that's where fantasy starts.  Not my rule - that's just how it started. 

And started writing that.  And then as I got into it, I was like - ooh - this is actually a really good story - I like it - I think I could do something with it .  And I said - You know what?  Im not going to put this up on the list because that's [tantamount?] to publishing it and it could cause me a headache selling it later, so Im just going to keep this.  And I'm not actually going to put that up there, and the guy sent me an email back, and said like - hamf!  In other words, I won.

[And now I can go] yeah - you won - sure.

WHY DOES MORT NOT INFLUENCE TECHNOLOGY THE WAY HARRY DOES?

Mort is not nearly so powerful or disruptive or conflicted as Dresden is.  Mort is very comfortable with being a coward.  He's totally at peace with that - which is one of the reasons why - one of the things that causes the whole magical haywire thing is the fact that human beings in general are very conflicted creatures.  And that sort of tends to put off - with their baser nature conflicting with the better angels of their nature kind of puts off the interference that causes all the trouble around them.  It wasn't always shorting out technology.  100 years ago - or 200 years ago - it was making milk go sour.  Before that you got weird spots on your body.  That sort of thing changes as you go along - the rules of magic are always changing.

And it also means - like if it's a fairy magician - someone like Lea - she could play Nintendo all day if she wants to - because she's not conflicted at all about her nature.  "No - I'll turn you into a dog.  Really - it'll be good for you". 

THE OTHER BOOK THAT  YOU TALKED ABOUT WRITING AFTER DRESDEN - WOULD THAT BE PART OF A WHOLE OTHER 26 OR 27 BOOK OR -?

Oh - the other book that I was talking about writing?  It is a - the way I see it in my head now - it's a trilogy that is actually a threefold trilogy for my epic, epic fantasy epic that Im going to write some day.  It's so epic that it has to be a threefold trilogy -  or maybe it wont be that epic - but I'll end up writing it eventually - when I grow up.

IS IT SET IN ALERA?

No it's not in Alera - we're going off to somewhere else.  It's very heavily influenced by the Black Company - and we'll run with it from there.  It's sort of set in the days immediately after the end of the Giant Apocalyptic Fantasy War, which didn't really end spectacularly well because [the Euros??? ]  there blew it.  And while we're not quite as apocalyptic as a [Brandon Sanderson?] novel - he's happy to write novels where the end of the world came and now you've got to live through it - it's not quite that bad - but it is exploring a little bit different [feelings?] than we normally see.  There wont be any marching to Mt Doom.   It'll be more like how do we put the world back together after these idiots shattered it.

DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE BOTH A STAR WARS AND A STAR TREK FAN AT THE SAME TIME?

Probably - but really - nobody's equal.  You can't tell me anybody is - Oh SW and ST - I like them both.  Unless it's like my wife who doesn't care for either of them.  I mean, she'll watch 'em for me, but she's always got to make fun of 'em.

YOU KNOW  SOMETIMES PEOPLE WILL SAY  - ARE YOU GOING TO DO THIS WITH THE CHARACTERS?  AND YOU SAY -IM NOT GOING TO TELL YOU.  BUT INSIDE, ARE YOU SOMETIMES THINKING - YEAH, I THINK  I WILL, NOW THAT THEY SAID THAT.  DO YOU EVER GET YOUR IDEAS THAT WAY?

Do I ever think to myself - hmmm - and actually take inspiration from that?  My lawyer told me to tell you - no.  But - the fact of the matter is - is that if you did touch off a good idea in my head, yeah I'll use it.  I want to write the best story I can.  Occasionally people have asked me stuff and I went - haaaa - I almost DO have to do that - I've got to get Dresden in a giant bunny costume somehow.  That'd be awesome!

[VERY LONG QUESTION - TOO FAR FROM THE MIKE FOR ME TO GET - SOMETHING ABOUT THE COLORING OF THE FAIRIES/FAIRY COURTS - and unfortunately Jim didn't repeat it]

Yeah but she can make her hair and her eyes any color she wants to.  The question here is that the Leansidhe nature seems to conflict with that of Summer - or with that of Winter - and she seems to be much more Summer-y, since she wears lots of reds and greens and so on.

[FURTHER QUESTION FROM SAME GUY - SOMETHING ABOUT HARRY AND THE GARDEN]

No spoilers! - I'm sure there are some people here who haven't read the book.

END OF PART 5

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]

Here is BeaverCreek Part 1 [and the first question of part 2, which continues from part 1.] I left out things like audience laughter/applause etc.  I'll work on more tomorrow:



BEAVERCREEK SIGNING 7-29-2011  PART 1

[Questions will be all in caps - Jim's answers will have normal punctuation.]

[Applause]

Okay - how are you guys doing?  [Laughter and applause]

Sorry about that - don't kick me out - okay Sorry I get a […] ful standing out there as if Im a teacher or something and I never really liked those people - some of them - some of them were all right.  One of my teachers in 4th grade actually had to bring a bookcase from  home and put it in her office, because every time she caught me reading a book when i was supposed to be paying attention to her lesson she would take the book away and eventually she had no desk so she had to bring in a bookcase and put it in her office, so she had the entire […] series and every science fiction book ever.  It's like being in class and she'd be giving a lesson and well I already read the lesson and I got it so, why shouldn't I read a book.  I always felt she was being -  In retrospect, I think she was very conflicted about that.  Here's this student not paying attention, but Im taking his BOOK away - that seems counterproductive to the education part.  [Laughter]

Is it okay if we do like question and answer?  Is that fine by you guys?  Okay.  But for it to work someone has to ask a question.  Okay - here we go.

WHY DID YOU CUT YOUR HAIR?

Well I thought it was thematic - with the release of Changes when it came out - and I wanted to really shock my wife.  So I left with the hair down to the middle of my back and the full I've-been-writing-for-three-months beard - that's where my inspiration comes from.  My muse lives in the beard.  I went out with all that and got the hair down to the crew cut and had the beard taken off and came back in  and waited for her to freak - and we had one of those conversations that goes on for 20 minutes where she doesn't  look up from what she's doing to notice and finally I got tired of waiting for the bomb to drop and just sort of sat down and started watching TV and maybe 15 minutes later she's like "Oh my God!  If we hadn't been talking I would have shot you. "  A charming woman is my lady.

ARE WE EVER GOING TO FIND OUT ABOUT KINCAID'S PAST?

Maybe a bit more - maybe not.  I'm not sure how we'll do that yet.  I kind of have this vague project in mind of doing the Dresden Files universe version of the French and Indian War - which would be so much fun because it's all the old folks on the Senior Council that  are so angry at Harry for being a punky young wizard - that was when THEY were the punky young wizards.  So that would be a really good time I think, but of course the danger in that is, Im going to have to learn about the French and Indian War.  That's one of those projects I could get into and then forget - Oh, wait a minute!  Im supposed to be writing a book, aren't I? 

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF GETTING ME TO COME OUT AS A GUEST AND SITTING IN ON THE ROLE-PLAYING GAMES AT THE GAMING CONVENTIONS THAT THEY RUN?

Well let's see.  Getting me out there - Im not traveling next year  -  at all  - in honor of the Mayan apocalypse.  I figure maybe Im a little jaded because this is the seventh or eighth apocalypse Ive lived through.  But if we're all here in 2013 then I'll resume my schedule and I try to go to at least one small con, one medium-sized con and one big con every year, because the small and medium-sized cons - even though I don't get to see as many people - they have their own advantages too and I can actually hang out with folks and talk and stuff like that.  And nobody says - "Jim - you've made this room into a fire hazard!" -  like that guy in Atlanta.

I WAS ATTRACTED TO HARRY DRESDEN BY THE S-F SERIES.  ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE WAY IT TURNED OUT OR DO YOU REGRET THAT NOW BECAUSE OF THE CHANGES THEY MADE?

This fella was attracted to the books through the series on S-F .  Was I happy with it or was I upset with the changes they made?  I like to think of my cups as half full.  There's 3 kinds of people in the world - optimists who think the cup is half full, pessimists who think the cup is half empty and engineers who think the cup is overdesigned by 100 percent.  But, I think, all in all, it could have been a lot worse.  And I say that because I saw the first draft, the first treatment  -  which none of you saw if you laughed because there's not enough brain bleach in all the world.  But, all in all, it was okay.  There were some things that I was really annoyed with at the time - what they did with Bob annoyed the hell out of me - but Terence Mann's is a good actor and he's a really nice guy in person and he had a gift - he [had me] sold on it by about episode 10.  If the darned thing hadn't stopped when it did, i think it could have gone on to bigger and better things.  They were getting their stuff together production-wise and so on as they went along.  But on the other hand it might be a good thing that it did stop because - you know - before they did anything completely squirrelly with it, like - you know maybe it's a good thing it got cancelled - I don't know.

But all in all it was a positive experience.  I got to go up and do my Stan Lee appearance in the show - it was fun.   Im in the background in Butters' morgue somewhere, being one of his assistants .  I don't actually get to talk or anything - you have to join the guild to do that.  Man,  Im in too many guilds already.

YOU USE A LOT OF 'M' NAMES IN THE SERIES - MAB, MAX, MAEVE, MOLLY, MICHAEL ETC - IS THERE A REASON FOR THAT?

Uh, maybe, yeah [seems non-plussed]   There's no conscious reason for it although  my beta readers - whenever I show up with a new character named with an 'M' , they're like - "Another 'M' name!  Another "M" name!  It's like - Oh come on!  Get used to it.  Mmmmm - can't  say mmmmmmm without "M" . 

But no - no conscious reason.  Some of them were pre-named for me though.  Mab was pre-named for me.  I didn't name her.  The archangel Michael was pre-named for me. Same thing.  I feel the case has been overstated - the case in favor of too many 'M' names.

WHEN CORPSETAKER TOOK A BODY - LIKE LUCCHIO'S  BODY - DID THEY RESET THE AGES?

No, the bodies are just suits.  And Lucchio's original suit was more worn out than the new one that she got, and that's the only difference.

DID YOU ALWAYS INTEND TO INTRODUCE MOUSE OR DID MISTER JUST NOT DEVELOP INTO THE COMPANION THAT YOU WANTED?

Mister is a cat and cats do not develop into anything.  And I feel that to do anything like that would have been to betray the very nature of cats and they might declare war on me if that happened.  I swear to God Im eventually going to write this theme-park  universe that I run my game in, where the cats have opposable thumbs - and yeah you don't want to mess with a cat with opposable thumbs.  They have opposable thumbs and matches so - better treat them with respect or there's gonna be some trouble.

But yeah - Mouse was created as Dresden's enemies were getting tougher and tougher - and it seemed like it would be a simpler and simpler solution to kill him in his sleep.  So I wanted to be sure that he had a real solid protection […..] for him so that was one of the reasons Mouse kind of got sent his way in terms of the author sending him his way.  But I really like the way he [grew up?] and Mister - Mister's gonna be mighty no matter what - I mean, he's a cat.  He's not a special cat or anything.  He's a CAT.  How much better could he be?  At least that's his perspective.

ARE WE GOING TO HEAR MORE ABOUT MR FERROFAX?

Yeah - later in the series.  Im fundamentally lazy as a writer and I don't like to introduce things that Im not going to use and I like to re-use things whenever I can.  And I think it makes a better story that way too.  But mostly, Im lazy.

WHEN YOU STARTED WRITING I REMEMBER YOU SAYING ONCE THAT YOU WERE TAKING A WRITING CLASS AND YOUR TEACHER SAID - 'WELL JUST TRY THIS FORMULA' - AND YOU FOUGHT AGAINST IT OR SOMETHING AND THEN WHEN YOU FINALLY DID USE THE FORMULA OR WHATEVER SHE WAS TEACHING YOU TO - IT WAS SUCCESSFUL - IS THAT RIGHT?

A course in the University of Oklahoma's College of Journalism called Writing a Genre Fiction Novel, and what the course was, was that over the semester you wrote a novel, and it was a pass/fail course kind of thing.  If you did not finish your novel that semester, you did not pass.  And Debbie had been working with me - Debbie [Chester?] was a teacher - and she had been working with me for several years trying to convince me of some very common sense things about story telling and I was not listening to her because I had a degree in English literature, whereas she had merely published 40 novels. 

So one semester I decided to prove her wrong.  I decided I was going to prove her wrong by being maliciously co-operative with her.   I was going to be her good little writing zombie.  I was going to fill out all her little worksheets and build all these little structures and do these character sheets and outlines - and then she would see what awful, cookie-cutter pablum crap came out of that kind of process.  And I wrote Storm Front.  You know, which showed her - clearly.  Im one of these guys who's been fortunate enough for his stupid mistakes to have worked out well.  Stupidity has been my ally so far so I try not to feel too smart because it might jeopardize my success.

Going back to Ferrofax at the party - yes, it's true he received a gift but Im not sure that means anything.  Every invited [non-RC] guest received a gift - that was part of the etiquette - I dont think the fact that he was a guest and received a gift means he couldnt also be BC. 

The BC used this set-up [of gift-giving] to their advantage to give Lea the "poisoned" knife .  But so far we dont have any evidence that any of the other gifts were tainted.  And every guest there got one - including Mavra, Harry and Thomas.  We havent seen any evidence yet that Thomas was affected, and the headstone was just a headstone.

So I would say, they used the opportunity to specifically target Lea, not necessarily everyone else.

Would not that first part mean that she should indeed not be underestimated 

What I meant was it was more like he's saying - Be very careful - dont get careless or drop your guard kind of thing.  At least that was the way I took it.

No sadly Jim hasnt given us anyone else in the court to compare her to

Im hoping we might see some more in Book 15.

Mavra's been pretty quite about her power level. Remember how in BR Eb  thought she just had a little skill with dark magic? she trained a small timer like Bianca to face off a wizard like Harry with some scary spells which probably refect on some of the stuff she knows but hasnt been seen doing.

Also Ferro is in the same league as Mab (maybe even a little stronger) so unless Cowl or Mavra pull of a power ritual theres no comparing either of them to someone like Ferro. Based on the power thats been demonstrated by the two, we cant really make a judgment one whos  stronger at the moment.

See, my impression based on what we've seen so far is Cowl is stronger than Mavra.  His powers seem far vaster - he put up a much bigger fight the times we've seen him than Mavra did in the homeless shelter.  Yes, she got away, but my impression of Cowl is he wouldnt have run that quickly.  For instance, in WN, instead of retreating when Dresden was getting the upper hand, he called in the ghouls.  But this is just my impression.

Im not exactly sure what you mean in the last part, if Cowls BC and Mavra were an agent to stir up trouble then why does it make sense that the BC would send her to mess up his trip to Godhood? 

Sorry I didnt explain that well - let me try again.  I agree with the op who said they see the actual BC members as a small tight-knit group who tend to use agents to accomplish their aims.  These agents probably know only what they need to and not the Big Picture - and may be total dupes [I have the feeling the Red King was egged on to prepare for war against the wizards but never really told the truth about the BC or their ultimate aims.].

The way I see Mavra [based on what Ive read so far] she is more another pawn/dupe/catspaw they can use as needed.  I think they tell her as much or as little as they need to in order to get her to act the way they want her to act.  IOW she is being manipulated by them.  But that doesnt mean she is ALWAYS  working for them, or has any idea of the big picture.  She's not in their confidence to any great extent.  And when they dont have a "job" for her, she's on her own.

I think in DB she was on her own and wanted the book for herself.  My point was if she was BC herself, she would have realized Cowl was getting the book for them and wouldnt have risked involving Dresden.

But like I said - Im not entirely sure about Mavra.  The only 2 I think are BC for sure are Cowl and Ferrofax.

Though we cant be sure if Mavra's a team player or just playing teams against each other yet from the way Kincaid discribes her as world class bad news i'd be hesitant to write her off as a cats paw yet...remember we are getting this from a mercanary who was the right hand of Vlad Drakul for a time who can apparently take on Mab power wise. I figure Kincaid knows what he's talking about.

That's true - but taken in context he might have just been trying to impress on Dresden how dangerous she could be so he wouldnt underestimate her.

Black Court vampires are supposed to be highly skilled in black magic - that makes them all very dangerous - not just Mavra.  And only the strongest/most dangerous ones survived the purges.  The only other BC vamp I remember was in the short story where Thomas got attacked in the shopping mall.  That was a very young vamp and she nearly kicked Harry's butt, so I think all BC vamps are very strong and highly dangerous.  I dont know if Mavra is any stronger than any other BCV.

So she certainly could be real BC - but I tend to think not.  She doesnt seem to have quite the same level of power or knowledge of someone like Cowl or Ferrofax [who I think are BC definitely.  Plus in DB she was working against the interests of Cowl, which works if you think she's an agent who can be used by BC to stir up trouble, without her being aware of all of their plans/plots.

I really enjoy answering questions like this one. 
I started writing up a potential topic discussing this very thing, so sorry if my response to this topic is a bit long, it’s something I’ve put a lot of thought into.

And I appreciate your taking the time to answer me in so much detail.  It was very interesting to read how this came about.

I wouldnt have guessed this series was plotted out so far in advance - even before he started SF.  The first couple of books are quite simple compared to what comes later and the tone of the books is much lighter, almost humorous.  Kind of reminded me of Nightstalker, if anyone remembers that TV show.  I thought we were in for a kind of magic detective type of mystery novel, and then - very suddenly [starting with Bianca's party, but really coming into its own in SK] - we make this 90 degree turn - the tone gets more serious, the plots get more complex, and we get this extraordinarily rich and creative mythology as a background.  And all the characters became very fleshed out and "real".

I really love this series - it's interesting to read about how it all came about.