Author Topic: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here  (Read 162287 times)

Offline bookwormsam

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #105 on: July 29, 2011, 09:26:17 AM »
Great stuff bookwormsam  Thank you sooooo much for helping out with this stuff.

I hope you don't mind if I edit it a little bit when I transfer it to the WoJ seciton so that that huge block of text is in smaller more bitesized pieces.

Edit to your hearts content. I'm assuming this is the A-ok so I'll get started on the rest of that event. But not tonight since I'm going to the Dayton/Beavercreek signing tonight.
Sam

Offline Serack

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #106 on: July 29, 2011, 12:33:51 PM »
Yes, that's the point of this thread is to recruit wonderful contributing forum members like yourself to help out with this stuff.  TYVM.

Oh and good job of glossing over any um uh any um over any floundering. 

This line from the Marscon Q&A this year could be faithfuly transcribed as such

Quote
Um, and it…almost all of them come from stuff like that. Um, some characters are…I only needed for a minute, some characters that I only needed for a minute were actually too cool and I had to keep them.


But

Quote
Almost all of them come from stuff like that.  Some characters that I only needed for a minute were actually too cool and I had to keep them.


Is much more easy to read and stays true to what he was saying.

But doing editing like that might be one of the reasons why it takes me a bit longer to do these.  Any work is appreciated.
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Offline Serack

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #107 on: July 29, 2011, 12:42:53 PM »
Oh, and I'm cranking out the Neperville/chicago signing from the other night right now.
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Offline derek

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #108 on: July 29, 2011, 12:58:15 PM »
I'm a bit lost as far as what is and isn't currently being transcribed of the new GS Q&A's, but I can squeeze 15 or 20 minutes into my schedule if anyone needs help with any of it, just shoot me a link to the video/audio.

Offline Katarn

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #109 on: July 29, 2011, 02:27:59 PM »
Oh, and I'm cranking out the Neperville/chicago signing from the other night right now.

I'll help transcribe.  I couldn't hear all of what Jim said but if you give me audio/video I can possibly decipher any parts that are mumble-y.

Offline Serack

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #110 on: July 29, 2011, 03:14:26 PM »
I'm a bit lost as far as what is and isn't currently being transcribed of the new GS Q&A's, but I can squeeze 15 or 20 minutes into my schedule if anyone needs help with any of it, just shoot me a link to the video/audio.

Youtube has videos for the first 45 min or so of the KC signing.  I have audio of the last 15 min or so, but it's a pretty large file and I'm not exactly a pro at sharing 50meg files, or at trimming down audio files.  The videos are still in FFA status I guess you could say.  So if you want to work on those just say so.  Harle1229 has the best videos up so far for that.

I'll help transcribe.  I couldn't hear all of what Jim said but if you give me audio/video I can possibly decipher any parts that are mumble-y.

You could work on the KC signing as well, or On vid1 or vid3 of the naperville signing if you like, but please say so.  I'm half way through #2, which wasn't where I intended to start but hey.
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Offline derek

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #111 on: July 29, 2011, 09:30:15 PM »
Youtube has videos for the first 45 min or so of the KC signing.  I have audio of the last 15 min or so, but it's a pretty large file and I'm not exactly a pro at sharing 50meg files, or at trimming down audio files.  The videos are still in FFA status I guess you could say.  So if you want to work on those just say so.  Harle1229 has the best videos up so far for that.

Okay, I was under the impression someone was already working on it or had planned to start. I'll knock the last video in that series off tonight just in case someone is working on it.

As far as sharing files is concerned, if you don't have a web server to host this kind of thing on, probably the easiest way to do it these days is to install dropbox, spideroak or any other service of that nature.  All of them will allow you to make a file publicly accessible.  Dropbox is probably the simplest (ymmv), as you just put whatever you wish to share in the 'Public' folder of your dropbox and then get the public sharing url out of the right click menu or off the website for that particular file.

If you need to trim an audio file, it's fairly simple to do in audacity.  Open up the file, select what you want to trim out, edit->cut and then file->export to save the newly trimmed copy.  It's quite easy to make working with audacity be as difficult as you want it to be, though. ;)

Offline derek

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #112 on: July 30, 2011, 12:18:53 PM »
Dictation by Derek - I will try to keep an eye on this thread and repost this when the first four are done so they are in order.

KC Q&A - part 5 (harle1229's version)



...extra time to finish this book?


JIM BUTCHER:  This one was really hard to write because Dresden spends a whole big chunk of it not really able to communicate with very many people, which means that I can't write a whole bunch of snappy dialogue which is the easiest, funnest part of my job as a writer.  There was a lot of description written and so on, and that's grindingly slow for me.  That was part of it, was getting Dresden kind of out of that quandary. 

Part of it was actually figuring out, 'Oh, wait a minute.  The actual plot that I thought was happening is not exactly the plot that I thought was happening.'  And that only came together in the last month or so. 

A lot of it was that this book is longer than most of the other ones.  In fact, it's longer than all the previous Dresden Files books. 

And also, life happened.  I had my kid move out on me and all of the sudden I wasn't a full time dad anymore.  That was weird.  That was a rebalancing issue to be dealt with. 

So, I mean, there were a bunch of different things and finally I did get it done.  I remember I called editor and said, "This just isn't gonna happen."  And my editor just said, "Jim, you're a creative person.  You people are squirrelly."  And I stopped and thought about that for a minute, and I thought to myself, 'You know what?  Professionally, what I do for a living is to wander around imaginary places that only exist in my head, eavesdropping on conversations between my imaginary friends and then writing it down.  Yeah, no wonder I'm not severely well attached.  There might be something to that.' 

Hopefully the next one will come out in much better order.  And then I'm working on another fantasy on the side now.  I'm taking a break from that jerk Harry Dresden.  I'm tired of him.  I'm always tired of him at the end of the book, so it's always great to go somewhere else, and play in somebody else's world and play with different imaginary friends.  And then eventually I won't be mad at Harry Dresden any more and I'll say, 'Okay, Harry, I'm not mad at you any more.  Let's put you through another book.' 

And...that doesn't seem very sincere, does it?

question inaudible


Okay, well, I hope you're reading more widely than me because there are so many people out there who are good.  Who I read for fun...and the answer to that is -- I'm going to give you a bunch of names right now and then later I'm going to go, 'Oh, I should have said this person,' somebody I completely forgot. 

The late Robert B. Parker.  I love his work.  I go back and reread Spencer and the Spencer series at least once a year, just because for his use of humor and his ability to turn the occasional really great phrase.  Let me think. 

There's a new guy named Harry Connolly who's got two books out.  I don't know if you've read his series yet.  The first one's called Child of Fire, and it's actually available for $0.99 if you get the electronic version.  So, you should go out and secure that because he's a good writer. 

There's a new guy named Benedict Jacka whose first book is coming out shortly, sometime I think late this year or early next year.  It's called Fated.  Keep an eye out for that guy.  He's good.  His name is Benedict Jacka.  He's coming out from Roc. And the editor sent me the book and gave me a synopsis of it.  I went, '*snort* Okay, synopsis.'  And started reading and was like, 'Oh, oh, oh! This is cool!'  And really, he's one of the best writers I've read in a awhile.  Let's see. 

I recently reread The Deed of Paksenarrion again, which is a twenty year old book from TOR.  I'm not even sure it's in print at the moment but she just went back to the world and started writing again as if she hadn't stopped.  And I went, 'Okay, three months is one thing.  A twenty year break between book three and book four seems a little extreme to me,' but I'm just happy she's back to writing in that world again now because it's alot of fun.  Let me think.  Who else? 

I've been reading a lot of Brandon Sanderson lately.  Brandon Sanderson and I have very similar ideas and kind of philosophy when it comes to putting together fantasy worlds that actually make sense and where things happen for a good reason and there's very little of just the pure mysticism happening in the background, the inexplicable things.  You can get it when it's all done.  You can see how it's all put together when it's finished and I really love Brandon's work for that. 

Pat Rothfuss's new book -- yeah, I did meet Pat at Comic-Con.  Pat is the nicest guy.  There's a video of him riding an electronic bull at one of the local clubs which is hilarious.  You should see it.  But Pat takes himself almost as seriously as I do, so we get got along great when we sat down and started talking.  But yeah, I read his first book and I've been saving his most recent book.  I've been holding it out as a carrot, saying you can read it in your spare time when you're on tour, you know, when you're in the airport or on air planes and stuff when you're touring, and that'll be your prize for getting all this work done.  Okay.  And then I was getting set to start the first leg of tour at Comic-Con and I pack up a bag and went, 'Great, I can take Wise Man's Fear with me.  Ow.  That thing's huge.'  So it was like, 'Okay, where's my iPad.  I'm getting this electronic,' because while I do own the low tech version, which I'll be happy that I have when EMP's go off and the zombie apocalypse begins because you'll be able to defend yourself with the books.  An iPad, that won't drop even a little zombie.  A copy of The Name of the Wind, somebody's gonna go down.  But Pat Rothfuss is another person I enjoy tremendously. 

There are many other authors.  I dug the Harry Potter books, I don't care what anybody says.  The Percy Jackson books were extremely well written.  I know those were young adult books.  I don't care.  They were cool.  But those are just some examples there.

What genre would you like to work in that I haven't yet just due to contracts or time?


I've still got a science fiction series that is sort of Men in Black meets X-Men on the moon.  I had to go through -- it was one of these things that I really researched, that I got inaudible for no good reason, and I had to go through two hundred years of future history just basically in order to be able to call my group of good guys U.S. Marshals.  You know, I had to figure out how we could get there and still able to call them that.  But that's an actual science fiction series, although it's really more space opera than science fiction. 

Actual science fiction at this point looks so weird in the future.  I've actually stopped and started researching for actual where we're going, reading some actual futurists and so on.  There's some spooky stuff coming along and it's...I don't know if I can have fun writing about that.  I mostly want to have a good time. 

The good part is though, the positive part, is that people are gonna be people.  I don't care what year we are.  We've been pretty solid in terms of what sorts of behaviours we'd expect, so I can have a good time with that no matter where we go.  But that would be fun. 

And I think some superhero books might be fun.  I think my superheroes would probably have a good time, wind up using their powers for a bunch of things that nobody ever really thought about before.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2011, 06:16:06 AM by derek »

Offline LogicMouseLives

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #113 on: July 30, 2011, 08:06:11 PM »
Just to let Serak and the rest of you folks know; I also recorded the KC signing Q&A. I hadn't bothered putting it up yet because I saw the other cameras going and didn't think it'd be needed, but I did get all of it. The video is slightly lower quality than harle1229's, but it's better than nothing. I'll try to get the portion she missed up on YouTube as soon as I can. Hopefully in the next few hours.

LML

Edit: Here's the link to my first segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIO0J_wyogw It may not be viewable for a little while. There's apparently some sort of review or moderation process. Or something.  :P

And here's "Part 7" the final installment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLek6oQ5qlg 
Enjoy!
Final edit: had to retry uploading Part 7. And I apologize in advance for the fact that my Nano picked up every single bit of my laughter. But at least you can hear everything else too.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2011, 05:44:14 AM by LogicMouseLives »
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Offline bookwormsam

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #114 on: July 31, 2011, 12:30:56 AM »
Hey Serack, got a question for you. On panels...do you want everyone's stuff or just Jim's?
Sam

Offline Fannan

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #115 on: July 31, 2011, 05:34:08 AM »
You guys are fantastic, and thanks for this work! And wait - did someone say we got confirmation that the parasite is Lash?

Offline bookwormsam

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Jim Butcher Dayton Book Signing 4/15/09- Part 2/4
« Reply #116 on: August 01, 2011, 01:03:11 AM »
2009 Dayton Book Signing Q&A youtube video Part 2
Dictation by bookwormsam


Jim: But if somebody wanted to do something like that, then they could, but otherwise if they wanted to do a more general story like that, then I have to wait until I get the rights back before I do anything. I don't know if anybody has been approaching Lionsgate about doing other stuff with it because I'm not sure they know I exist. <audience laughs> I mean those guys did not even send me a comp [complimentary] copy of the DVD. <audience laughs> I know, right! It is just not at all reasonable. But that's how it worked out. So, we'll have to see. I'd like something like that to happen. I would actually love to see an anime series that just did the stories in anime. That would be really cool but I don't know if it'll ever work out or not. I guess we just have to see. Over here on the right here.

Audience: I'm just curious, why is it on the cover art Harry is always wearing a hat, but in the books he never is?

Jim: Why on the cover art is Harry always wearing a hat? Because the art department decided that it should be so <audience laughs> I mean, like I said man, I'm just the writer. I think they figured that the fedora plus the wizard staff was kind of the perfect visual representation of private eye wizard, which is what the books are about. Although my personal favorite description that I've heard is Dirty Harry Potter. <audience laughs>

Audience: Is that why he's got a .44 Magnum?

Jim: Actually, yeah, he upgraded to a .44 Magnum after I heard Dirty Harry Potter. I just got to give him the "Do you feel lucky, punk?" speech but he'd probably get punched in the nose before he got to the end of it. I can't let him look too cool. That just wouldn't be Harry. Right here, please.

Audience: I didn't see Amoracchius or any of the swords in the book, so why is he holding the sword on the cover of the book?

Jim: Why is he holding a sword on the cover of the book? For the same reason he's wearing a hat. <audience laughs> Dude, I just write the story. The only time the covers have been close to whats been in the book is like when the editor would call and say, "Hey, we need to do the cover for Cursor's Fury and we were kind of hoping to do something with a water fury," and I'm like "Okay, have Tavi in Legionaire armor holding a broken burned standard at the bank of a river with two big lions made out of water coming up out of the river towards him." They were like "Ooh that's fantastic, that's great, thank you, Jim." And the editor hung up. I was literally sitting at the word processor working on chapter three and I said to myself, "How in the world am I going to get this character standing next to a river?" <audience laughs> That's the only way it'll work. So far that I know of to actually get a cover that matches the book. Right here, please.

Audience: I've got a hundred questions, about 90% of them would involve Turn Coat spoilers and I wish to leave here alive tonight. However, we have some involvement in Dresdenverse, if I can use that term without getting hit, of the Norse gods and I was thinking about McAnally and I was thinking about gods and god types and I thought about the Greek gods. Could McAnally possibly be a son of Dionysus?

Jim: What do you think I'm just going to tell you stuff like that? <audience laughs> I got a mortgage to pay. McAnally is not a Greek god nor a scion of the gods, I'll tell you that much. But we probably won't see much about McAnally until the big trilogy at the end. But yeah, the Norse gods and so on are involved and they'll get to do some more stuff and I'm planning on having a lot of fun with that, but we haven't quite got there yet. In the black shirt.

Audience: So I know the conclusion to Codex Alera is coming up soon. Are you planning another traditional fantasy series after that maybe?

Jim: The conclusion of Codex Alera is coming up so am I planning another traditional fantasy series to go with that was the question if you didn't hear it. The next project I do is either going to be a fantasy project that I'm going to write with my friend Cam Banks. Cam is also a writer. He's written a book called The Sellsword, that was part of the Dragonlance universe, that came out pretty recently, which was way cooler than it had any right to be all things considered, especially for his first novel. I hate people who write really well on their first novel. They disgust me. <audience laughs> Somebody like Cam, like John Scalzi, like Pat Rothfuss. I hate those guys. I might be doing something with Cam, in which case we'd probably do one or two books together. I'm not sure if that'll work out next or if I'll be doing my actual science fiction, science fiction book next, which is the next thing I want to take a stab at. Eventually, I'm going to be writing my epic, epic, epic fantasty epic. And it will be epic. <audience laughs> But I'm not good enough to write it yet. I'm still building up to be able to handle a story that big. But I do want to try a big old doorstop fricking fantasy series at some point. And that's what I'm going to do eventually. Its going to be elves, dwarves, and hobbits but I don't think anybody will actually realize that there are elves, dwarves, and hobbits. Except for you guys cause you talked to me. <audience laughs> I mean, come on, the furies are pretty much pokemon <audience laughs> So that's kind of what I'm looking at in the future. I've got enough ideas for stories that I figured up that what I have so far at the rate I'm writing so far, I'd have to live to be like 130 to write them all, so I've been working out. <audience laughs> But I don't know, 130. Right here please.

Audience: In the midst of writing and everything do you ever find it hard to separate the book from your actual reality and at night how do you turn it off so you can actually get some shuteye, if you ever do?

Jim: In the midst of writing, do I ever have trouble separating the book from actual reality and how do I turn it off at night so that I can get some shuteye? I'll answer the second one first and that is, no, I don't sleep at night. <audience laughs> Basically, I don't start working until about 10 o'clock when everybody else starts turning in, going to bed. If I try and write during the day, it's "Jim, you need to eat something" this and "Dad, I love you" that. I can't be expected to create. <audience laughs> in that kind of circumstance, so usually I'm sitting down and its just me and the dog hanging out and its nice and quiet and I get most of the writing done between 10pm and about 6am. And then after that its easy to sleep because my brain's turned to mush by then.<audience laughs> What was the first part of the question again? Oh, do I ever have trouble separating book from reality? When I do, my wife helps me. <audience laughs> It works out. Actually she keeps me grounded in many ways. Its probably good for me. Right here, please.

Audience: I had a couple of questions. First off, you mentioned your wife. I read her novels and I noticed that you had helped her quite a bit with those as she's gone along and I was wondering if you two were planning on doing a collaboration at any point in time?

Jim: Are my wife, Shannon, and I planning on doing a collaboration at any point in time? The answer to that is No. We decided that we want to stay married. <audience laughs> We wrote a play together in high school and nearly gouged out one another's eyes with pencils. I don't think that's coming up in the future. But we do bounce ideas off each other and stuff, when we're in a sticky spot trying to figure out how to get through it, you know, we'll talk to each other about it and then promptly ignore each other's advice. But it helps.

Audience: My next question, about the Codex series. I heard a little bit about how that particular series came about and I was wondering if you had gotten any feedback from the person who had given you those two awkward ideas to put into one novel and to see if he read them and what he thought of them?

Jim: Right, right. Okay, I'm going to have to tell you all the story. The question was, have I gotten in touch with the guy that kind of inspired the Codex series for me? When I started to put that series together, I literally wrote that on a bet. I was in a writing group online. There was a big discussion going on at the time. A bunch of us writing loudmouths were yelling at one another what we thought. None of us were published so it wasn't like we had a great idea of what was going on. One side of the argument was that the idea behind the story is what's sacred; that if you have a good enough idea, that the story will turn out to be good no matter how lame a writer you are and they said, "Look at Jurassic Park". <audience laughs> That's their example, not mine. I was on the other side where I said it doesn't matter how many times you've told the story, if you're a good story teller, you can put your own creative spin on it, you can put your own presentation on it that will make it a good story. How many times have we seen Romeo and Juliet done in many different ways? So this argument went back and forth. It was one of those arguments that you have online where you just hit the caps lock key right after you hit the reply button and then start typing. <audience laughs> That went back and forth for awhile and finally the pre-eminent loudmouth on the other side (I was the pre-eminent loudmouth on my side) said, "Alright, I tell you what, why don't you put your money where your mouth is. You let me give you a bad idea and let's see you write a good story out of it". And I said, "No, I want you to give me two bad ideas and I'll use them both". <audience laughs> Cause, like I said, inspired stupidity.   

Offline Serack

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #117 on: August 01, 2011, 01:34:58 AM »
Hey Serack, got a question for you. On panels...do you want everyone's stuff or just Jim's?
Sam

Honestly that's up to you.  I've seen it done both ways.

If you do go with transcribing everything, I've seen it done so that the names of each panelist was a different color which I think works great.

The format that I like to use for Q&A sessions is to have bold questions and non bold answers, and since frequently it's so hard to understand what is being said by the audience, I usually just write down Jim's repeat of the question as the original question unless the question is quite clear, and there is a noticeable difference between the 2.
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Offline Serack

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Naperville Ghost Story Signing Part 2
« Reply #118 on: August 01, 2011, 02:23:02 PM »
I need help spelling Medah’s (msp?) Bodkin? 

Naperville Ghost Story Signing Part 2
Transcribed by Serack

What’s the most difficult scenes for you to write out of all the books?
I don’t know, it’s gotta be one of those scenes that I wrote on a day when I really didn’t want to write.  Because there are days like that when you are a writer.  I mean you don’t just sit down and go “Aha!  I am feeling the creative spark today and everything is working wonderfully.  And look it’s six hours later and I have a wonderful scene, and now I shall go and play video games.”  It doesn’t work like that.  There are days when you sit down and go “Ugh, I hate this jerk Harry Dresden.  I hate spending time with him.  All the people in this world I could just set em on fire and kill them at this moment.  Arrrararrrar.  But, I have to do work today because there’s a deadline.”  So it’s going to be one of those scenes that I wrote.

To be honest with you, after it’s over, I can’t tell the difference between the scenes that I was all stoked up about and the ones that I just ground through.  Although writing the whole slaughter scene in Fool Moon in the Police station where the Loup Garou gets loose and starts killing everybody?  Totally stole it from Terminator, but that’s ok.  That was one of those ones that after I got done writing that little psychotic bit I was like “Ok perhaps I shall go outside go outside and not be near my wife and child for a while…  I might go walk around the block and maybe go get some ice cream and come back semi normal.

Did you ever run the role playing game?  Also are they planning any supplements?

I know they are planning some more supplements because they keep asking me questions.  So I know they’re doing some more stuff. 

As far as the RPG personally?  Man I would be the worst guy in the world to play that game.  Can you imagine really trying to GM with me… because I’m like this power gaming twink when I play.  “Yes it is that way, if necessary, I’ll write it that way in the next book!”  I’d be the worst player in the whole world.  I guess I could GM it, but… too much like work!

What’s the favorite line you’ve written that wasn’t said by Harry?

Oh gosh…  It’s probably something somebody said to insult Harry.  You know, probably a Bob the Skull line.  I always enjoy his dialogue, because he’s just my inner puerile fourteen year old.  I can just have him say anything I want and it’s cool. 

Can a vanilla mortal become a wizard?

Almost everybody has some measure of talent that they can develop into something.  Like Billy and Billy’s friends were normal people.  And they learned how to do a spell that turned them into a wolf.  So they can go do the werewolf thing.  Although that’s a little misleading because that’s the universe as experienced by Harry Dresden and when you’re a wizard, everything’s a spell.  That’s how he looks at things, that’s his filter.  They look at it a little bit differently but yah, in the Dresden Files, anybody can learn magic, and probably even become dangerous… There are very few people who would qualify as a wizard. 

I mean, you can go out and play basket, ball right now, and start practicing and learning and eventually you would be a good basketball player if you kept practicing and working at it every day.  I mean you’d be good.  But… you might not make the Bulls.  You know, you might whoop up the playground, but when you get up to the NBA, that’s a whole different pail of fish.

Are, we going to get a new beetle?

I don’t know yet.  We’ll see what kind of car Dresden ends up with.  Uh, smashing stuff was just sort of one of the themes of Changes (chuckle).  It was great fun, I felt like I was the guy who spent six months building the tiny model set of Tokyo, and then finally gets to strap on the Godzilla suit and go kick it all down.  That’s what Changes was like for me, I don’t know about ya’ll.  I got to the end of that and was like woooo (hands in the air).  Then I looked around and there was the great scream through the universe as millions of my fellow nerds had cried out in outrage. 

As you go through the creative process for Dresden and Alera, how much does Shannon interact with you and is she part of the process?

Shannon gives me enormous amounts of advice when I’m having trouble-running into something that I have a problem that I need to get through.  Which I promptly ignore and then find a different solution, just because it didn’t come from me.  I return the favor with her work, she promptly ignores all my brilliant advice, which I am sure is brilliant, and does her own thing.  But the process of us explaining the problem to each other, and then rejecting the other person’s idea -that is part of the process, make no mistake- apparently that that helps both of us figure out what we actually need to do.  Other than that, man three dimensions aren’t enough to keep us apart.  We also have to work at different parts of the day.  We have to move to four. 

Are you going to do any more work with characters from the Paranet?

Yes, and no.  There will be some that factor in, and Elaine is kind of the executive president of the Paranet.  So she’ll be involved.  But at this point, I can’t keep layering on new characters and still get to the end of the story I’m telling.  Which I wanna do.  The Dresden Files is a story that actually has a beginning, a middle and an end.  And I have a plan for where it’s going, so I [laughs from the audience] –Yah stories end.  [More laughter]  The ones that don’t end when their supposed to, you know what they end up like?  Last season of X-Files, and that’s (unintelligible).  Seriously.

Does the Black Athame allow the Fae to forswear themselves? 

Ooooh!  Because if it did that would be awfully nice.  Even if it just let them fib wow.  That would be awful.  And the answer to that question is NO, and kind of.  We’ll get there, and actually we will get to part of that in book 14, Cold Days.  I already wrote the first sentence to it and that’s the hardest part.  After I’ve got that first sentence, the rest can usually go pretty good.  [Audience:  What is that?]  What you want me to tell you?!?, I’ve gotta sell I’ve gotta sell a book.  [Audience:  Various affirmations]  Ok the first sentence of Cold Days is:  “Mab has unique ideas about physical therapy.”  And we’ll go from there.

What is the Black Athame, and what is it’s relation to Medea’s (msp?) Bodkin?

The Black Athame was Morgan La Fay’s athame.  That was the one that got traded around in Grave Peril… at the vampire costume party.  Well an Athame is the original knife that was used in magic, and while they aren’t necessarily magical themselves, if you involve them in enough really cool big things that are going on, they start gaining their own sort of power and their own sort of awareness.  Which is not to say they become intelligent or anything, but they become very extremely dangerous tools.  And that one was a very, very dangerous tool, on a level with Ammoracchius, which is why it got traded that way.  Medea’s Bodkin is another Athame that is far older, and is used more classically documented witches.  The ones who actually survived falls of several empires there –you still hear about them- Also a very bad news kind of implement, just so you know. 

There was disappointment that James Marsters was not reading Ghost Story, do you expect that he will be back for the future books?

I have no reason to suspect that he won’t be.  He said that he likes doing them.  Apparently there was some sort of personal emergency that kind of crashed on him at the last second.  So we had to get John Glover.  We had to choose from folks who were:  In New York, Not doing anything over the holiday weekend, and who were willing to get a contract on Saturday and begin recording on Tuesday.  It was a very small field.  They were like hey how about John Glover?  ‘John Glover?  He played my favorite version of the Devil EVER.’  If I ever have the Devil show up in the Dresden Files, he’s going to be played by John Glover.  In fact I might actually have Harry Dresden say sit down and say “John Glover what are you doing here?”  Because somebody did that with Robert Redford at some point and seemed to get away with it so maybe I will too, I don’t know. 

You have a big supporting cast of antagonists in the Dresden Files, are there any you prefer writing over others?

Probably my top three favorites, as far as far as antagonists go are, Nicodemus who is my Archbadguy, they do not come any worse than Nicodemus in my personal way of thinking in my head.  He’s smart, he’s obsessively powerful.  He’s completely without any empathy or emotion at all.  Which makes him just a really, really dangerous guy.  Or a politician, one of the two.  Second is probably Lara Raith.  Who thinks, in principal it might be really nice to be a good guy, but who has time?  There’s a lot of things for her to do, and principals are one of those things you can stop and admire occasionally, if you’re not busy stabbing someone in the back.  And Marcone is also a favorite.  Being able to write the short story Even Hand from his viewpoint was very enlightening for me.  Because I had never really been entirely certain what his take on Dresden was until I actually got inside his head and started writing him for a while.  He’s the guy that looks at Dresden like, you know, the guy that looks at the drunken Sheriff in town who’s just like “I just want the shootouts to stop.”  It’s like, Come on, yes you keep wining them but COME ON, there’s gotta be a better way that brakes fewer windows.  But at the same time he owns the undertaker shop so… [shrugs and waves his hand in front of them like they are balancing scales].
« Last Edit: August 07, 2011, 03:50:17 AM by Serack »
DF WoJ Compilation
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Offline Dina

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Re: WoJ transcription help needed + mention new WoJ's here
« Reply #119 on: August 01, 2011, 07:54:56 PM »
If I am not mistaken, is Medea.
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There are many horrible sights in the multiverse. Somehow, though, to a soul attuned to the subtle rhythms of a library, there are few worse sights than a hole where a book ought to be. Someone has stolen a book (Terry Pratchett)