The 2015 April Fool's joke on this site is starting to look like not a joke :/

[Tanstar]

April 1, 2027 might be a generous release date for Peace Talks, plus we'd then get each of the remaining books every 6 months.  At this rate that could be an improvement on the timing of the series.

Sorry, I just miss the days of a new Dresden Novel every year with a Codex book every other 6 months.

[Griffyn612]

<queue the dramatic responses>

On a mountain of skulls, in the castle of pain, I sat on a throne of blood!
What was will be! What is will be no more! Now is the season of evil!

[Anubissama]

I have passed the storm of anger and anticipation, and now I have a Zen attitude towards this.

The book will come when the book will come, and the door is ajar.

Also I'm pretty sure Butcher is going for a very cruel Douglas Adams jokes and the book is going to be released in  December 2017, 42 months after the last book.

[Firnatine34]

Priscilla has Cassandra's tears.

Jim Butcher has mine.

[Raven]

I keep looking at Jim's schedule of cons and signings and wonder. Does he have time to write lately?

[Nastycanasta]

I'm thinking he may be taking a page from RR Martin and make us wait 5-6 years in between..
He should be taking a page from King, who was forced into writing himself into the Dark Tower series as punishment for walking away from the series. I hope Jim doesn't fancy long walks on deserted Missouri highways, his story may resemble Ned Beatty's instead of King.

[Rasins]

I think life is happening and he's not on a deadline. 

Stop giggling his elbow and he'll be done when he's done.

[Firnatine34]

     There is a possibility that no one here has mentioned. It is altogether possible that part of the divorce settlement was that Jim's ex would receive a substantial portion of Jim's future royalties. That might make him less inclined to keep pumping out literary works. Maybe he found other employment that would not be affected by alimony.

He did say a couple years ago that the reason he was writing so much is because of "alimony". Now it seems there's been no apparent forward movement on it, but he seems to be doing editing work, and pumping out short stories for different anthologies on the reg.

[Anubissama]

     There is a possibility that no one here has mentioned. It is altogether possible that part of the divorce settlement was that Jim's ex would receive a substantial portion of Jim's future royalties. That might make him less inclined to keep pumping out literary works. Maybe he found other employment that would not be affected by alimony.

Don't say that or Priscilla will show up and call you names

[Firnatine34]

We can feel however we like about the delay, Jim himself put the word on the table. That said Priscilla is his friend, and thats what friends do. We should all be so lucky.

[morriswalters]

Is speculation about Mr Butchers personal life really fair game here?  I wouldn't like it if I were he.  He's written 16 or so books and he may just need to recharge and take a vacation.  Maybe Mab has inserted a ringer who can't write, for the real Jim Butcher.  Maybe he's finishing the series in one sitting so he can be done with it and move on to his Steam Punk series. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

[Anubissama]

     Priscilla strikes me as someone who is level-headed and understanding. I doubt if she would take offence at the mere suggestion of Jim deliberately slowing down, or finding an alternate income. Jim did say that the short stories take as much work as the novels. That is why he dislikes writing them. We fans can only hope for the best for Jim.

You would be sadly wrong.

While I agree that alimony and divorce might be sufficient reason to slow down your work progress although an honest tweet or statement regarding the slow down would still be nice, especially compared to the usual report Butcher has with his fans.

I once (while being very clear that this is just a crazy fun theory and rummer) suggested that alimony might be the reason why Peace Talks takes such a long time, since Butcher would rather work on things of which he can keep all the money (i.e. Cinder Spires etc.). This was on the Dresden Files subreddit.

Everyone responded rather reasonable to my post with things like "well this sucks but makes sense" etc, and then a user with the account name Priscilla showed up (most likely her, since she has a mod account/red name account over on the subreddit) to call me a horrible person and fake fan for spreading such awful rumours. The thread then devolved and the typical "butcher ain't your b*tch" slugfest, and other mods shot it down.

As a cherry on top the next day someone reposted here the interview in which Butcher himself says "alimony" when asked why he writes two series simultaneously again. As we all know "filthy rumours" usually have primary sources from the object mouth themselves. I have yet to receive an apology, despite being completely cooperative with here ridiculous demands like telling her where I heard this story so she can "put out this rumour at it's source".

[flying peach]

I think it is a huge business mistake to delay publishing the book. The money that he will earn from the books can't be invested when he hasn't earned it yet. He also loses the additional royalties that his series would have generated from the books being available to purchase for a longer period of time. In addition, new readers might be hesitant to read the books when there are so many years between new books being released. I also think that as the series loses momentum he'll lose readers which is an unfortunate fact of life. In another two years, a 22 year old college grad might look at the series as something that he read "back in high school." You get the point, people have life happen and move on.

I also think that it would be good public relations to have a brief statement on this forum about his book release and the delay. I think a majority of Jim Butcher's fans like him and want to like him. Having said that, his personal life is none of my business and the details of his divorce decree are also none of my business.   

 

[sparlin]

Man... all the different and off the wall speculations of why Peace Talks isn't out yet are mind boggling. I want to find out what happens to Harry and crew too, but damn...

Speculating if Jim is dressed, has to pay his ex, or reason XYZ is kind of insulting to him. I know if read these boards I wouldn't want to interact based on the stuff that's being talked about.

The book will be done when it's done. Until then pick up another book!

=)

[flying peach]

  I do not scour the World Wide Web for every tidbit I can find about my favorite authors, singers, or movie and television players.

I haven't been able to find any risque pictures of Jim Butcher, but there is a video of him in the gym https://youtu.be/a11k4RA_-L8.

I wasn't trying to pick on anyone for speculating about alimony, it's just the level of detail needed to truly understand his divorce settlement and decree far exceed what I should know about a stranger. For instance, in a non-community property state is the intellectual property of an existing character's future use being divided or just existing royalties on existing books? Or maybe what is being divided is the expected value of a contract existing prior to the divorce that won't be complete until after the divorce (i.e. book deal). Why would any Court award a property interest in work that is performed after the divorce (i.e. book deal). On the other hand, sometimes people feel bad about divorces and put things on the table that they don't need to give away. In addition, none of the prior things actually addressed the issue of alimony which is a flat monthly payout. In negotiating alimony, or taking it to trial, to what extent (if any) do the parties or the Court allow any future royalties to be subtracted from the alimony? I don't actually need to know any of these things.

However, I could use more videos of Jim Butcher comparing himself to Wolverine because that was funny. I'll even forgive him for calling a quarter depth hack bar squat a "squat." Even though I really shouldn't. Alright, I admit it I am going to hold this "squat" thing against him.