John Ward: Hello, and welcome to, this week's very first urban fantasy fan's hangout. This show is called the Salt Circle, today we have fan favourite Jim Butcher with us and we'll *unintelligible*. Jim is the author of the Dresden Files series and we have had so much interest in talking to him about his books, we submitted a post in the community and asked members of the community to, um, what they wanted to ask Jim Butcher. And so that's what we're going to do tonight, go through question after question for half an hour. And I want to thank Jim for taking the time to be with us. The one thing that I've had been, every single person who's, um, talked to us about, who has met Jim in person, they all say two things about him. They say that he's a really nice guy and they say don't make him mad since he knows karate, or martial arts of some form, so Jim thanks for joining us.
Jim: They're liars, they're all liars. All you people, why would you say something like that?
John: The first thing that everybody wants to know is if you have a name and a release date for the next Dresden Files book.
Jim: The title of the next book is called Skin Game, I'm not sure exactly when its going to be released, I've got to write it, its in progress right now though, which is good, the first two chapters are already off to the editor and they're going to be appearing in the back of the paperback for Cold Days. I believe that comes out in July and everybody will be able to get at least a small sneak peek at that point and then we'll also be putting the chapters up on my webpage as we get closer to the release date, as soon as we know what that is.
John: Do you already have an end in mind for the Dresden Files? If so, how many books do you think there will be?
Jim: The series is going to be 20ish books like we've had so far, it might be a little more, it might be a little less depending on a bunch of different factors like if my kid wants to go to grad school. But, and then we'll get down to the end of the case books and then we'll have a big old apocalyptic trilogy to kind of capstone the series. And those'll probably be pretty big, thick books and there'll be lots of action and fun. And I've kind of been planning that out since the inception of the series, I'm looking forward to writing it and having it done.
John: Do you always see Harry staying in Chicago and what made you choose Chicago in the first place?
Jim: Chicago in the first place kind of more or less happened on accident. I had originally set the series in Kansas City which is my hometown and which I knew, the first couple of stories that I wrote which eventually became the Dresden Files has a different lead character and so on but they were also set in KC and kind of had the same setting. But my writing teacher said, while I was getting these books done, at some point she looked at me and said "Jim, you know you're already walking close enough to Laurell Hamilton's toes that you don't need to set your books in Missouri as well, so you need to find another place to write em". And I'm like "okay, where else?" and she's like "anywhere else, just not Missouri" and I'm like "okay". And there was a globe on her desk and there was only four American cities on the globe and they were New York, which I didn't want to use because, you know, Spiderman and people like him have New York all sown up. And then there was DC and I didn't want to write DC because if you write DC you have to write politics and that loses you at least half of you audience right away. One of the other cities on there was Los Angeles and I didn't want to do Los Angeles because, you know, it's Hollywood and movies and that's all in Los Angeles and I didn't want to do that. The remaining city was Chicago, I said "how about Chicago?" and she says "yeah, Chicago will be fine, just as long as its not Missouri" and I'm like "alright" and that's why its in Chicago.
John: Given the events in the book Changes, the White and the Black Courts are concerned and probably making plans of their own, are we going to see them again in the near future?
Jim: Um, let's see, they're, everybody is pretty busy right now dealing with the Fomor, that's kind of, they're upsetting the balance of things and they're figuring out where people are gonna fit inside the power vacuum that the Red Court left behind them, good job Dresden! (said while rolling his eyes) And um, so while they're not going to be directly involved, we're going to be hearing a little bit more about them in the next book and in the next book we're kinda focused on, you know, just Dresden's part of the world and in Dresden's part of the world there are hijinks afoot and he's gonna be facing them and dealing with them, plus he's got this thing in his head that's about to explode and he's got about three days to fix that by the time we get to the next book, you know, no pressure or anything.
John: Now, a lot of people were asking if there is a real pub that Macanally's is based off of?
Jim: No, no Macanally's place is, the closest thing it's based off of in real life is Cheers. Which is about as much as I know about pubs personally. There was an Irish pub that I would often go to in Norman, Oklahoma where I went to school. And I wound up going there mostly for the chips and salsa because I was the guy in the crew who didn't drink so I always got invited to go everywhere so that I could be the one to drive the car. So while there might be a little bit of influence of that place there which has sadly since then been torn down, beyond that, mostly Cheers.
John: Given the events of Changes through to Cold Days, what's Harry's relationship with the White Council now?
Jim: What's Harry's relationship with the White Council now? He doesn't know yet, I can't really, I don't want to give too much of that away, but uh, goodness, they are not going to be terribly pleased with him. The last wizard that they had that was running around, dying and then coming back again kinda caused them a little bit of trouble. They don't really appreciate that sort of thing too much, so as usual Harry is showing all the signs of being a horrible monster and if you don't know him that's what he looks like. And the White Council, they've never really had any patience for him and I'm sure that they will continue to be their charming and generous selves.
John: And what does that mean for the Grey Council?
Jim: Well, business as usual for the Grey Council, the real question is going to be how are the members of the Grey Council going to react to Harry in the position that he is in now, working for Mab and now mucking about with Demonreach? Everybody is going to flip out about that, at least everybody who knows.
John: And the other popular question and I'm sure you get this all the time but a lot of people want to know, why Dresden is wearing a hat on all the book covers but never actually wearing one in the books?
Jim: Why does everyone ask me that? I don't know. People have this illusion that I'm in control of that stuff and it just isn't so. Pretty much they get the cover and they send it to me and they're like "Jim what do you think?" and I tell them and they're like "great!, we'll out that on the cover" and I go "alright, that's fine". I think someone in the art department decided that that was the perfect way to say "wizard PI" was to have the fedora represent the PI and the staff represent wizard and that was the ideal thing to do. I don't know, I think that's what happened, but they haven't really asked me, that's why I keep making jokes about Dresden not having a hat. But I'll continue to make jokes about Dresden not having a hat and you watch, by the time if I ever get to a point where I actually give him one in the series, that'll be the cover where it's not there.
John: Do you have any plans for making a short story from Johnny Marcone's point of view? Similar to the ones you did for Thomas and Karrin.
Jim: Uh, I did one from Marcone's point of view, its called Even Hand. And it was in an anthology, I can't off the top of my head remember what one, I think it was called Dark and Stormy Knights maybe? (yes it was) I don't remember. But you could find out about it if you go to jim dash butcher dot com, you'll be able to look it up there and people will be able to tell you where it is. So, you can find out about that there. I'm also, if I manage to get a couple more short stories written I'm going to try and get that one and three or four others that have so far only appeared in a couple of anthologies and get them all put together into a second collection of Dresden short stories which I will probably title More Jobs or something like that, I'm so original that way. And uh, and then you'll be able to round them up all together I hope but it might be a while before that happens, I don't know.
John: And rumour has it there's a Bigfoot trilogy floating around out there.
Jim: Indeed, the Bigfoot trilogy of short stories. Which starts off with Bigfoot as the client and he hires Harry Dresden to help him manage some problems with his son who is half human and who is off in the mortal world doing things and so it's a little hard for Bigfoot to show up in the middle of Chicago and try and help parent, so he's got some issues and he hires Dresden to help him with the issues, so the first one is called B is for Bigfoot and it happens when Irwin, Bigfoot Irwin who is Bigfoot's son is in grade school and the next one is called I was a teenage Bigfoot at at that point Irwin is a bit older, he's in high school and then the last one is called Bigfoot on Campus and Irwin has gone off to college where he's playing college football, being half-Bigfoot he's awesome at it. And Dresden has to show up in all of these situations and help.
John: Given the success of the Dresden Files, is there a chance for books covering spin-off characters or secondary characters?
Jim: Yeah, certainly, in the future, I think so. I have several different ideas for books that are set in the Dresden Files world, but I will... but that's a long ways off. I'm really trying to stay focused on this stuff right here, now, that I'm actually doing, you know, the actual Dresden Files and then I can worry about spin-offs after I've done a good job with the Dresden Files. And then I'll do some more
John: Now, I think it was in book 1, we're told very clearly that Harry's father is dead, but the demise of his mother has always been more nebulous, has there ever been a reliable source that saw her die or did she merely disappear?
Jim: Oh no, she died died. I mean she died in childbirth, or shortly after but it was written down and documented and everybody saw it, that was out in the open.
John: Okay, Why didn't Ebenezar take over Molly's training after Changes?
Jim: Ebenezar, he was not able to afford...we'll have to get into some of the politics of it, he was not able to afford to actually show up and do it, he was able to keep the council off of Molly's back and that was as far as he could go at the time. Meanwhile, she was getting trained up by the Leanansidhe so it's not like she was, so it's not like she did not have an instructor. She probably could have had a friendlier instructor, one who didn't throw knives at her, but on the other hand maybe it was kind of good for her to have somebody tough because she wasn't hanging around in the kiddie pool anymore after Harry was gone.
John: Now, prior to Cold Days Dresden still owes Mab one favour, does he still owe her that favour or did the events of Cold Days make up for his obligation?
Jim: Technically yeah, he still kind of owes her that one favour, but on the other hand, he also sort of owes her his complete loyalty, devotion and obedience so the extra favour is, you know, it's like "yeah okay, he also does have a hand grenade in his hand while he's sitting on top of a nuke that's about to go off", so you know, technically she could probably mess with that if he somehow got out of being the knight, But uh, generally speaking that didn't just get wiped away, Mab keeps very good books and that's not something that's going to be, she does not let things slide, it does not happen.
John: For a while there was a girl named Lash who hung out with Harry, is she gone for good or do you think we'll see her again?
Jim: Her story's not over and we're gonna have a bunch more of it in Skin Game.
John: And is there any hope for the revival of the TV series or perhaps a movie? Any other media knocking at your door that you're allowed to talk about?
Jim: There's almost always somebody knocking. I can't say who at this point but its all just talk until the check clears. You know, I mean there's always somebody who is willing to talk it up and enthusiastically get on the phone with you and go over stuff but its not really, nothing really materialises for a long time. And when it does there's plenty of warning and I'll be able to shout it from the rooftops as soon as I will be able to know something about that, we'll see what happens.
John: Given the new friends that Harry made in Cold Days, will he be learning any new magical techniques from them? And how are you going to prevent Harry from becoming too powerful?
Jim: Well the fun part is, I think it was Scalzi? John Scalzi who said in one of his books "you never send a soldier off to war with what you want him to have, you send him off with what you need him to have in order to survive" and historically speaking that's what soldiers get, it's like "here, this is what you need just to survive the conflict". So the things that Dresden is getting, it's like "here, it's what you need just to survive the conflict" because now Harry isn't playing in the kiddie pool anymore either, which he kind of was in the beginning of the series, kind of having these low level conflicts with neighbourhood bullies just within the city of Chicago. Now going to be sticking his thumb in the eyes of things that are truly hideous and uh, really, he's not in any better shape now than he was before.
And that's the first 15 minutes done.
