[Xfire] Splatteox: Hello! We are very pleased to welcome everyone to chat with Jim Butcher! Please join me in welcoming our special guest!

[Xfire] Splatteox: Our guest will now introduce himself and start taking your questions!

jimbutcher: Hi!  I'm Jim!  And if you don't know who I am, well, odds are pretty good you wouldn't have bothered to show up. :)  But I write some books called the Dresden Files and some more books called the Codex Alera, and I did a Spider Man book for Marvel. :)

jimbutcher: I'm basically a lifetime science fiction nerd.  The first movie I remember seeing is Star Wars and it just gets worse from there.  I checked my kid out of school to take him to the first screening of Return of the King.  It's a cycle that gets passed from generation to generation, you know.  Questions?

jimbutcher: Holy crap, there are a lot of questions.  I'll do the best I can here, guys. :)

 

jimbutcher: Question: How much longer do you plan to continue the War with the Red Court in Dresden?

Answer: Oh, it can't be sustained much longer.  Both sides are strained to the breaking point.  Wars can only go so long before one side of the other grinds to a halt, socially, economically, or militarily--that's one reason the White Court was able to broker a cease fire at the end of White Night.  Both sides need to catch their breath and look for some way to end the conflict more permanently.

 

jimbutcher: Sigh.  Let me try again. ;)

 

jimbutcher: Question: d10273m: First off, welcome. Secondly, what was your favorite experience working with Marvel?

Answer: Thanks!  Working with Marvel didn't amount to much for me, beyond an editor asking me if I wanted to do the job, and then waiting for Marvel to approve the story outline--BUT, I *did* get to meet STAN THE MAN at Comic Con in New York Last year.  He was there to audition for Superhero and I was there pimping Dresden Files.  We met in the green room.  He is a *really* nice guy in person. :)

 

jimbutcher: Rasslefrassling diet dr pepper in my keyboard...

 

jimbutcher: Question: [DB] g0dd13: A lot of science fiction seems to focus on a bleak and dark future, or present at times, did you ever had the urge to write an utopian sci fi? Or would you feel this wouldn't be too interesting?

Answer: I'm not sure a Utopian future wouldn't be interesting--I just don't think there could be any PEOPLE in it.  Or at least, no people like the ones I'm familiar with.  People are dazzlingly imperfect.  Don't get me wrong, I think there's hope for us.  There's a whole lot more stupid in the world than outright evil, and stupid can be fixed.   Unfortunately, stupid and evil amount to the same bad consequences and hard feelings way too much of the time, and it's caused us way too many problems along the way.  All that said, I'm going to give a real sci fi series a shot as soon as my Alera books are done, next year. :)

 

jimbutcher: Question: [DB] g0dd13: How do you deal with writer's block?

Answer: I don't have writer's block.  I have a mortgage.

 

Seriously.  If I don't write, I don't get to keep living in my house.  It isn't a very friendly muse, but it's an awfully effective one. :)

 

jimbutcher: Question: [SF]Geostrike{Mrl}: What author influenced you the most in writing books?

Answer: Um, sort of depends on what sense you mean "influence."  If you mean direct influence, Deborah Chester (a fantasy author) did, mainly because she taught the writing classes at OU that taught me basic writing craft.  If you mean general inspiration, I'll credit Eddings and Tolkein, who gave me my basic love of fantasy in general.  For the sheer love of writing what seems fun and having characters who lip off to whoever they want to, Robert B Parker is followed closely by Laurell Hamilton.  Margaret Weiss walked into my high school library when I was a senior and made me think I might like to try being a writer some day--I wrote my first (bad) book the next summer.  And I want to have Lois Bujold's babies--professionally speaking, of course.

 

jimbutcher: Question: trystan85: You seem more informed about the occult and wizarding in general, something not very many authors have gotten down lately.  My question is did you just do research for the Dresden series, or have you been interested in it for a long time, having studied it over the years prior to the Dresden idea?

Answer: I watched a lot of Scooby Doo.

 

Ahem, but seriously.  No, I did quite a bit of research.  I got in touch with people who were active practitioners of contemporary religions incorporating systems of magic, read books, looked up stuff on the net, and generally tried to find out what a lot of different people thought.  Then I made like the whole thing was one big salad bar.  I took all the parts that I really liked, and tried to find a way to make them all fit together and make some sort of sense (and taste nummy together).  It's up to the reader how well I did, but that was the plan.

 

jimbutcher: Question: [xfire] Princess: At some point do you expect to have writing change from something you love doing for the sake of the art to just work?

Answer: Oh god, I wish my writing was something I did because it was something I loved.  I think I mostly do it to keep from going insane.  Well, these days, to keep from going insane AND to pay the bills.  It's nice to make it do two things at once, since apparently I'm going to be doing it anyway.  I mean, as long as it's going to be compulsory...

 

jimbutcher: Question: Shamps: With there being so many different books/stories out of Wizards and Witches, How did you come up with the idea of the Dresden Files? Were you afraid that it might not become popular or not even pick up at all because of there being so many different ones around?

Answer: I wrote Storm Front in 1996, and there weren't all that many stories like this around.  Anita blake had just come out with her third book, I think.  I hadn't even heard of Harry Potter yet.  And when I wrote the first book (which was titled 'Semiautomagic' by the way) it wasn't a novel I was trying to sell.  It was a project for a class called "Writing A Genre Fiction Novel" in college.  I really wasn't worried too much about selling it, or competition, or where it would go, or anything like that.  I was busy worrying about creating a conflicted, solid hero, a plot that went somewhere, characters with motivations, etc.

 

jimbutcher: Question: [DB] g0dd13: The Dresden Files series takes place in the Chicago. Why did you pick this location? How did you get so much information about actual spots in Chicago and do not live there?

Answer: They're set in Chicago because my writing teacher told me I couldn't put them in my home town of Kansas City.  "Jim," she told me, "You're already walking close enough to Anita Blake's toes that you don't need to set your books in MISSOURI, too.  Pick another town."  The globe on her desk had four American cities on it.  Didn't want DC.  New York was overdone.  Knew nothing about LA.  So I picked Chicago.

 

I have a whole shelf of books about the town, and a whole folder of contacts of people who live there.  I'll send out emails once in a while, "Hey, I need to know about the east wall of Graceland Cemetary!"  "Okay, I'll drive by on the way to work!"  And someone emails me digital photos. :)

 

jimbutcher: Question: GullMoli / Hjalti: You say your first book was horrible, what was it about?

Answer: Why, it was an epic fantasy about a boy who grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere but who was secretly Very Important, and there was a Dark Lord and a Big War coming and there were Secret Wizards and Evil Warriors and all sorts of Mystic Forces moving around.  I remember that there was one good scene that was just before the big horrible battle where most of the Colonial Marines--I mean mercenaries--get torn to pieces by Aliens--I mean evil dark creatures, that was a snowball fight between them and the Elf, a one man killing machine--WELL BEFORE PETER JACKSON'S LEGOLAS I MIGHT ADD--but the rest of the book was kind of blah.

 

I scrapped it for parts, many of which went into the Furies books. :)

 

jimbutcher: Question: Shamps: What is your outlook on the Tv series that was based off the books, Do you think they do the books justice, as well as do you ever get any say in it?

Answer: I really wish that the TV series had gone for a season-long story arch, rather than a monster-of-the-episode formula.  The original story plan was, in my opinion, a lot stronger, and had oodles more potential, but it got discarded in favor of what the network considered to be a more charming formula.  I think the overall strength of the show suffered for that--but that said, I think the actors did a great job on the character level, in building strong interactions between the characters.  Hell, they gave Bob the Skull skin and flesh and a suit and I bought it before the end of the season.  I would have loved to have seen what they would do with more of it, given the chance.

 

jimbutcher: Question: Vossk: Do you have any advice for writers in the sci fi genre?

Answer: Yes.  Write a lot.  READ a lot.  Be INVOLVED in the SF genre and community.  The net is a fantastic place to meet people, to network, and to generally hear opinions, get ideas, and get an idea of what people think.  Meet up with other writers and get their opinions.  Find smart readers and get /their/ opinions of your stuff.  Do a lot of listening and don't talk any more than you have to.  It saves you looking stupid down the road. I learned that one the hard way. :)

 

jimbutcher: Question: [DB] g0dd13: Harry Dresden is such a fantastic anti-hero in the series. He is both humorous and has a certain charming nature that endears him to readers. What inspired you to make him this way?

Answer: I was tired of the overblown windbag thunder-and-lightning, soundtrack-by-Wagner wizards.  I wanted a wizard who was a little more Peter Parker than that--someone who would bleed if you punched him in the nose, and who had to worry about parking tickets and all the things regular people had to deal with in addition to all the supernatural stuff.  To me it was important that Harry Dresden didn't get to just blow off all the problems of regular life with magic.  I wanted his magical life to only make regular life even /more/ annoying and complicated.  I wanted him to have to be careful not to wash his bright colors with his whites, and to worry about bouncing checks.  I wanted him human.

 

jimbutcher: Question: [Vadeka Deathsong]: Did you ever think about appearing in the series/movies as a character yourself?

Answer: Are you kidding?  I *DID* appear in the series!  In "What About Bob" I appear in the background, as one of Butters' lab assistants, standing there with a Blackberry while they open Justin Morningway's coffin.  I don't get to say anything though.  If you talk, you're technically an actor, and they have to pay you, and insure you, and you have to join the actor's guild.  But I DID appear!  I get Stan Lee points!  Appeared, but did not talk!  W00T!

 

jimbutcher: Question: NoBS|RS| Konker!: When first creating the Dresden files, had you ever thought it would be as widespread as it is today? Being it is in the making of an RolePlay game and also the one season TV series?

Answer: My highest ambitions for the Dresden Files when I was first working on it as a class project, honestly, was that it would get a B. :)

 

jimbutcher: Question: Jaran: Have you been approached by any game developing studios and asked to write for one of their games?

Answer: No, although I was offered an opportunity to write for Superman or the Dark Knight.  I had to turn it down 1) for lack of time and 2) because I wouldn't do Supes or Bats justice.  I've always been a Marvely kind of guy. :)

 

jimbutcher: Question: [Xfire] Artaxs: Have you read any of Sergey Lukyanenko's Night Watch series?

Answer: I have not, yet.  But places like this are where I get most of my recommendations for new reading. :)

jimbutcher: Question: May you talk about Small Favor, your newly announced book?

Answer: I can tell you that it's tragically late, that Dresden smarts off to the wrong people, and that he's got a broken nose before the end of chapter One.  Oh, and there's a naked girl in his apartment.  Make of that what you will.

 

jimbutcher: Question: [SF]Geostrike{Mrl}: Does your family gives you support or gave you support in what concerns writing?

Answer: OH, MY FAMILY.  They are the bane of my writing career.  I swear.  It's always, "Dad I love you this," and "Honey, you need to take a break and eat something" that.  YOU CAN'T CREATE UNDER CONDITIONS LIKE THAT.

 

jimbutcher: Question: Jaran: As an author, what would you say was the hardest part of breaking into the business?

Answer: The eight novels and ten years it took me between the time I started writing my first book and the time I actually sold anything. :)

 

jimbutcher: Question: Boojangels: I am new to your writing, any suggestions on what I should read first?

Question: Honestly?  Try "Dead Beat" in the Dresden Files.  It's available in paperback, so you don't have to dump hardback money into it.  Or grab "The Darkest Hours" which is the Spidey book I wrote for Marvel, and see if you like the wiseass dialogue.  If you do, you might enjoy the Dresden Files.  If you like epic fantasy or more military fantasy more, you might like the Alera books better. :)

 

jimbutcher: Okay, I hope all of those answers made sense.  Usually I have several weeks and two or three editors to help me make sure my written material is actually intelligible to human beings. :)

[Xfire] Splatteox: That concludes the chat with Jim Butcher! Thank you very much to our special guest for joining us on Xfire, and thank you everyone for participating.

jimbutcher: Guys, thank you very much for your interest and attention and questions!  Feel free to stop by my web site at www.jim-butcher.com!

[Xfire] Splatteox: Now for prizes...!

[Xfire] Splatteox: The following 15 people will receive a signed copy of White Night.

 

 

1.          pmonster

2.          wickbus

3.          [BDs]SNielacry

4.          Vossk

5.          GullMoli / Hjalti

6.          NoBS|RS|Konker!

7.          =ACE=CptNeeda

8.          Boojangels

9.          Wraith

10.        trystan85

11.        fitz

12.        Rebelgecko

13.        Hirmetrium

14.        {HV}Kukri

15.        Guh

 

 

If you are one of the winners PM me for instructions on how to claim your prize!

 

Thanks again for your participation!

 

Transcripts will be posted on the Xfire Sci-Fi Week site as soon we¡¯re able to get them out.