The Dresden Files

[Nyssa]

Yes, I realized after your first post that many of the characters were being pulled from the fairy tales of old. I just thought it would be cool to mention the ones that reside in both Dresden's world and The Iron King's.

From Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream there is also Puck and Oberon - Titania's husband and King of the Seelie Court.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Yes, I realized after your first post that many of the characters were being pulled from the fairy tales of old. I just thought it would be cool to mention the ones that reside in both Dresden's world and The Iron King's.

From Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream there is also Puck and Oberon - Titania's husband and King of the Seelie Court.

Yeah, Rob Thurman has cast Puck as a main character (he's a used car Salesman) in the Cal Leandros series.

[alansplace]

Steve Bertrand on Books

Jim Butcher on becoming a fire hazard
This is just a snippit from an interview located at dailymotion.com



where you can view the entire video. Dailymotion.com is nice enough to include HTML code so that you can embed the video in blogs and in forums that allow HTML code.

But alas, MobileRead does not allow the HTML code to work!!

So if you are interested in viewing this interview (it's worth it IMHO [If you've not finished reading Changes yet you might want to avoid this interview till you have]) you'll have to go there to view it, sorry!

[alansplace]

Quoted from Bitten by Books, Wednesday April 29, 2009.

Interview with Jim Butcher

April 29, 2009

A big welcome to our readers today! Be sure to read to the end of the interview to find out how to WIN the fabulous prizes being offered up. The contest is open to readers worldwide. [THIS CONTEST IS LONG OVER]

NOTE: This is not a fixed time event, the post just goes live at 10:00 am CDT. You can stop by any time during the day or evening and leave your questions and comments all day, until Jim collapses or decides he has no more answers. LOL. However the CONTEST portion of this event runs for FIVE days and ends at 11:59 pm PDT 5/3/09.

PLEASE KEEP SPOILERS TO A MINIMUM. Not all of the readers today have read the most recent book or even all of the books in the series. Thank you!!

Interview:

Hi Jim!

Welcome to Bitten by Books, we are excited to have you here today!

I would like to thank you taking the time to join us for the question and answer session with our readers. It has been very interesting to get to know more about you and what makes you tick as a writer! Readers, if you haven’t done so already please stop by and get your copy of Jim’s AWESOME release book 11 in the Dresden Files series and also a #1 NY Times best seller, Turn Coat.

BBB: What do you find the most challenging and the most rewarding aspect of writing?

JB: Challenging: Clocks. I’ve never been real good with clocks. I think I might have been attacked by one as a child. But seriously: writing a good story is one thing. Trying to write it with a clock steadily ticking in the background is another thing entirely. Every time you finish a chapter, you have to question whether or not you’re going in a right direction for the story–and since time is such a critical issue, you know that there isn’t going to be time to make major repairs if you wander afield by several chapters. So, you watch each new piece of the story like a hawk, tempted to pounce on it immediately if it shows signs of going astray. It creates this sense of self-questioning and self-doubt that just isn’t there when there’s no time pressure.

Rewarding: People. When I go out on public appearances and so on, there are all these very friendly people around who say really nice things about me and my work. But even more than that, sometimes I get to hear how what I’ve done has made a difference in their lives. A soldier asked me to sign the manually-printed copy of three of my books, bound into a big old 3-ring binder, which he carried with him in his pack while in service in the Middle East. Another gave me one of his dogtags, confiding that my writing had been one of the things that helped him stay sane and positive over there. A man who had been teaching a martial arts class on the roof of the hotel building between the towers on 9/11 wrote me to tell me that in the aftermath, when he was counseling survivors to help them stay sane, the Dresden Files helped /him/ stay sane, giving him an escape when he desperately needed one.

When I get to hear stories like that, it does more to make me feel good about myself an my work than anything else in the world. It makes me think that maybe I’m doing more than writing dumb little wizard books for fun–that maybe I’m really doing some folks some Good.

I like that feeling.

BBB: What kind of research did you have to do to create the story world for The Dresden Files. How much of your research has actually been used throughout the life of the series?

JB: I raided my local bookstores and prowled their metaphysical sections. I read up on several systems of the practice of magic as embraced by various systems of faith who incorporate them into their belief. I read about magical practitioners in a historical perspective, throughout multiple centuries. I read books coming out against the practice of magic as well, and tried to gain a general understanding of the principles the various systems had in common. That’s how I built the basic magic of the Dresden Files–by taking those common elements and combining them into a polyglot whole, based upon a skeleton of Newtonian physics.

I wanted the magic o the Dresden Files to be simply a part of the story universe, a source of energy just like heat or electricity, and one which obeyed certain universal laws that governed its interaction with reality. I didn’t want Dresden to be a mystic, shamanistic wizard. I wanted him to be a plumber, a carpenter, an engineer. Only instead of working with water, wood, or physics, he was working with magic.

It’s all come in somewhere, though it’s hard for me to point out exactly what has gone where. I had the whole thing formed in my head when I started writing, and it just kind of started breathing on its own as the first story got rolling.

BBB: Was there a primary source you used for magic research initially? Obviously you have changed it to Harry’s brand of magic, but I assume you based it on some known practices.

JB: See above re: visiting many systems of faith. I can’t point at any one of them and say “oh, I based it all on Faery Wicca belief” or “this is pure Crowley” or “totally Kabbala over here.” I suppose it would be fair to say that I based Dresden’s magic on a model similar that to used by modern neo-pagan faiths, but there are so many of them, in such variety, that it really wouldn’t be saying all that much.

BBB: How do the images in the graphic novel of Welcome to the Jungle fit with what you imagined while writing it?

JB: Very closely. I mean, super close. I spent a lot of effort summarizing each image for poor Ardian, and then he had to produce it from my description–sometimes three or four times before I was happy with it. But as the story went on, we really seemed to hit some kind of common mental vibe. These days, I hardly ever have an issue with his work.

BBB: What do you feel are the benefits of the new electronic readers such as Kindle 2or Sony Digital Book Reader to the environment?

JB: Not knowing much of anything about environmental science, I’d say that my opinion is pretty much irrelevant. I suppose it all comes down to how much damage gets inflicted during the creation of the reader, its power supply, and the necessary supporting hardware when compared to the production of paper, ink, adhesives, etc, for the paper books.

I own a Kindle 2 myself, though, and they are pretty freaking nifty. I last charged mine more than two weeks ago, I use it every day, and it still has better than half of its battery life remaining. I’ve got a bunch of my favorite re-reading books downloaded to it, and I occasionally even pick up a new one for the reader. I keep it in a courier-bag along with my phone, ID, etc, so it goes everywhere with me. I like knowing that I always have a library of favorite reads with me wherever I go.

BBB: What impact do electronic readers create on the bottom line for authors in the end? Do you feel they have a negative impact or positive, or no impact at all that you can see?

JB: Thus far, the impact has been minimal. There are a lot of folks using e-readers, sure, but they’re still a tiny minority compared to real-book readers. As far as protection of the electronic rights goes, my books have been readily available for illegal download on various file-sharing programs since 2000. They’re easy to steal, and have been for years. I don’t see that I’ve been horribly wounded by that fact–I’ve chosen to regard it as a PR investment. Sure, there are a lot of folks who might grab the pirated copy online, but I imagine that most of them are folks who would have trouble affording a book in any case. And if a few of them enjoy my work enough to then go out and grab physical copies to become regular readers, I count it as a win.

I’m not bothered by E-readers at all. I think that, by and large, anyone who can afford an E-reader probably isn’t going to have an issue with paying an author for his work.

BBB: With 11 books in the Harry Dresden series so far, We are interested to know how you keep track of characters and world-building details. If you need to know the eye color of a minor character you haven’t used for 2 books, what does you do? Is it all in Excel? Is your mind a steel trap?

JB: Wikipedia.

No, seriously. Fans have built up a number of Dresden Files wiki-type databases. I can go there to dig up information when I need it. If wiki fails me, I’ll consult my notes from books past, or copies of the books themselves. And, of course, I rely upon the keen eyes an intellects of my beta readers to notice the small details I might have missed. They are inordinately helpful.

BBB: How much of Harry’s story do you have plotted in your head already?

JB: All of it, all the way through the big apocalyptic capstone trilogy at the end of the series.

BBB: Can you tell us what your next release (s) will be? And do you have stand alone titles forthcoming?

JB: Let’s see. Next out will be the last book of the Codex Alera, First Lord’s Fury, in December. Following that, I’ll be writing the twelfth Dresden File, “Changes,” for next April. Sometime next Summer, I believe, we’ll get the collected anthology of Dresden short stories, which doesn’t have a title yet, but which will include all the Dresden-universe shorts I’ve written.

After that, we’ll see. That’s plenty for my plate at the moment.

BBB: Any chance that Sci Fi might bring the Dresden series back to TV?

JB: None whatsoever.

BBB: Do you plan out Harry’s time and/or have specific ideas about what Harry does in the “off season” between adventures?

JB: Oh, always. I mean, I don’t chronicle his every waking moment, but I’ve always wanted to give the reader the impression that they’re essentially catching Dresden during his worst weekend of the year. Other things happen between books. I’ve written about some of them in short stories, and one of them in the comic book. During the rest of my own year, when I’m not writing Dresden, I’m sort of idly telling myself the story of what he’s up to while he’s waiting around for his life to go to hell again.

BBB: What or who is your greatest inspiration?

JB: My family. They’re a rock.

BBB: Who are some of your favorite UF characters by other authors?

JB: In no particular order:

Simon Green’s leading man, John Taylor
Laurell Hamilton’s assassin, Edward
Charlaine Harris’ norse vampire, Eric
Lily StCrow’s demon hunter, Jill Kismet
Caitlin Kittredge’s shifter detective, Luna Wilder
Dean Koontz’s genius golden retriever, Einstein

BBB: If you could shapeshift, what animal would you be? And why?

JB: Uh. A horse, maybe? I mean, girls like horses, right?

BBB: How do you juggle writing full time, and keep balance in your life?

JB: With a pure and focused determination to get my work done for the day so that I can go play video games, mostly.

I’ve found that if I can manage to get a moderate amount of work in every day, then it’s not nearly as hard on the rest of my life. If I wind up being too pressed and harried as the deadlines loom, that’s when things start to fall apart.

BBB: What is your all time favorite paranormal/urban fantasy book?

JB: Tough call. Maybe Darkfall, by Dean Koontz. Maybe War for the Oaks, by Emma Bull.

BBB: Is there a particular person who you look up to as a role model or mentor as far as personal growth? If so, who is it and why?

JB: My dad. I mean, he was my dad, right? He was an exceptionally decent, reliable, and self-sacrificial individual. He had the respect of anyone who knew him, and I can’t remember him ever letting me down. He died many years ago. I still miss him.

BBB: You are stranded on a desert island and can choose two things to have and endless supply of. Which would you choose beer or books?

JB: Books. I don’t drink.

BBB: What is your favorite quote of all time?

“A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.” — Mark Twain

Followed closely by:

“Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.” — Aaron Sorkin

************************************************** **

Learn more about Jim Butcher here:

Read reviews of the author’s work here.
To visit the author’s website go here.
To visit the author’s blog go here.

************************************************** **

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Here is the synopsis of book 1 as per GoodReads:

Spoiler:

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

I'm about a quarter of the way through, not much has happened as yet - a lot of teenage, "my life sucks" and "ignoring the obvious" angst.

Originally Posted by alansplace

Hmmmm....sounds a little too romancy (probably not a word) for me.

Just wanted to point out that it really wasn't mushy at all. Sure, the main character is/was developing a crush, but it doesn't really go much further than that...yet.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Yes, I realized after your first post that many of the characters were being pulled from the fairy tales of old. I just thought it would be cool to mention the ones that reside in both Dresden's world and The Iron King's.

From Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream there is also Puck and Oberon - Titania's husband and King of the Seelie Court.

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Just wanted to point out that it really wasn't mushy at all. Sure, the main character is/was developing a crush, but it doesn't really go much further than that...yet.

I was reacting to

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I'm about a quarter of the way through, not much has happened as yet - a lot of teenage, "my life sucks" and "ignoring the obvious" angst.

but since then I've thought about it a bit, it's the first book in a series and the main character probably has quite a learning curve to live through. Also here's some info on Puck (who is also known as Robin Goodfellow [the used car salesman in Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series]).

Quoted from Wikipedia.

In English folklore, Puck is a mythological fairy or mischievous nature sprite. Puck is also a generalized personification of land spirits. In more recent times, the figure of Robin Goodfellow is identified as a puck. The Old English "puca" is a kind of half-tamed woodland sprite, leading folk astray with echoes and lights in nighttime woodlands (like the German and Dutch "Weisse Frauen" and "Witte Wieven" and the French "Dames Blanches," all "White Ladies"), or coming into the farmstead and souring milk in the churn. Puck has appeared many times in popular culture.



Examples

Puck's most famous appearance is in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

As Robin Goodfellow, Puck appears in a roughly contemporaneous Elizabethan play, Grim the Collier of Croydon (1600). It is unknown how Shakespeare's Puck appeared on the stage; but the figure in Grim was costumed "in a suit of leather close to his body; his face and hands coloured russet-coloured, with a flail."

Puck is the story-framer in Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling, 1906.

Contemporary fantasy author Rob Thurman writes the puck Robin Goodfellow as a major (albeit secondary) character in the Cal Leandros series.

In Susanna Clarke's short story "The Ladies of Grace Adieu," Robin Goodfellow appears as a mischievous yet caring servant to Auberon.

In Orson Scott Card's novel Magic Street, and in his short film, Remind me Again, we meet Puck, Queen Titania, and Oberon in a modern, urban setting. Rob Thurman's novels Nightlife and Moonshine, portray Robin Goodfellow and Hobgoblin as separate beings, both remnants of the near-extinct race of pucks. In the novels, they are reimagined in a modern setting, the former as the slick owner of a car dealership, the latter as the owner of a seedy nightclub. In Raymond E. Feist's novel Faerie Tale, Puck is a fey being in the faerie court and is portrayed as a jester of sorts, and stays true to the mythology of him as a trickster. At times throughout the novel he is referred to as Puck, Putz, and Aerial, and assists the main characters to prevent evil King Oberon from seizing global power over humanity. In Pamela Dean's Tam Lin (a modern retelling of the Scottish faerie ballad), the character of Robin Armin is implied to be Puck; he used a similar name while performing as a singer and actor for The King's Men, and had been the inspiration for the Shakespearean Puck and several other comic characters, but he and the others of his troupe were unsuccessful in luring the Bard off to the Fair Lands.

In Mercedes Lackey's novel The Wizard of London Robin Goodfellow/Puck steps in to play himself in a boarding school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream when no one suitable can be found for the part. He reappears throughout the novel mainly in his friendlier aspect, but becomes extremely dangerous when crossed.

The Puck who appears in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman is a trickster and maker of mischief.

Puck was an American and then British humour magazine, somewhat similar to Punch.

In the animated series Gargoyles, Puck is a traditional trickster and an important supporting character. During the long exile from Avalon, Puck comes across Queen Titania in the human guise of Anastasia Renard, the wife of David Xanatos' business rival Halcyon Renard. He also meets a nearly emotionless businessman named Preston Vogel, working in Halcyon's employ. Amused with the "wooden behavior" of the mortal, Puck decides play the straight man for a while, and reinvents himself as Owen Burnett, who becomes Xanatos' business manager.

In the 1989 movie Dead Poets Society, one of the main characters, Neil Perry, plays the part of Puck in a secondary school rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In Michael Buckley's The Sisters Grimm series, Puck is an Everafter who takes on the form of an 11 year-old boy. He is described as rude, selfish, and immature, and occasionally plays pranks on the Grimm Family. He helps them solve most of their cases, and lives with them in their house.

Puck plays a central role in Mark Chadbourn's fantasy trilogy, Kingdom of the Serpent, comprising the novels Jack of Ravens, The Burning Man, and Destroyer of Worlds. Puck manipulates the heroes in an epic battle between good and evil over two thousand years of human history.

The children's theater play Robin Goodfellow by Aurand Harris is a retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream from Puck's point of view.

In Kentaro Miura's dark fantasy manga Berserk, Puck is one of the main character's earliest companions. He is a fairy-like elf of the Pisky race, and serves as comedy relief.

Puck, the faerie dragon, is the name of a hero in the game mod Defense of the Ancients and its sequel Dota 2.

Puck is a small rat-boy in Final Fantasy 9 who messes around with other people.

Puck is also one of the lead characters of Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series. When the series begins, he hovers around as the lead character's bodyguard but as it progresses, he reveals himself to be one of the love interests of the heroine.

In the Nightside series by Simon R. Green Puck is only imperfect elf. Born as son of queen Mab and Camelot knight, Puck is only hunchback fairy. He is mischieves and usually deceives main character for long time. Later in serie he ends elf civil war between Oberon and Mab by deceiving and killing his own mother, when she wouldn´t give up her revenge.

[carld]

deleted

[carld]

Sorry, posted wrong information.

[alansplace]

This video is for you fans of Spike & James Marsters' Dresden audio book readings

Published on Feb 21, 2013

James Marsters at the Grand Slam con held in Burbank, CA on Feb. 16, 2013. Some clips from his Q&A. It starts after James had asked fans in the audience to try to embarrass him. So a fan had asked him to sing the female part of a song from the Buffy musical, "Once More With Feeling". He replied that he didn't even remember his own part. Then he started singing the theme to the original Star Trek series, which is where this video starts.

[CWatkinsNash]

I don't do audio books but I do like James Marsters, so thanks!

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I was reacting to

but since then I've thought about it a bit, it's the first book in a series and the main character probably has quite a learning curve to live through. Also here's some info on Puck (who is also known as Robin Goodfellow [the used car salesman in Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series]).

Quoted from Wikipedia.

I can't read these anymore... too many books wanting to jump on m TBR.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I can't read these anymore... too many books wanting to jump on m TBR.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

I don't do audio books but I do like James Marsters, so thanks!

[alansplace]

Interestingly Dana Stabenow uses Puck in a metaphore in her 18th Kate Shugak novel.

Quoted from Though Not Dead by Dana Stabenow.

The flames wavered, and she imagined she could see Old Sam’s face among them, those dark eyes with that customary expression of cynicism she now understood much better. She imagined that shit-eating, devil-worshipping grin spread across that narrow face. He’d been Puck and the Park his fairy land, although that comparison brought an involuntary grin of her own to her face. But he had certainly been a knavish sprite during the time she knew him, and he had lived his life believing what fools his fellows were.

[alansplace]

Quoted from jim-butcher.com

Some Upcoming Convention Appearances
Mar 01, 2013
We are pleased to announce that Jim Butcher will be the special VIP guest at the upcoming Wyrd Con 4 Convention in Southern California on September 12th – 15th 2013! Wyrd Con is a storytelling convention focused on the many levels of interaction including story development, Transmedia, and live action adventures. You can learn more about Wyrd Con at www.wyrdcon.com.

Wyrd Con will also be hosting a Kickstarter campaign to help strengthen the convention and make it bigger, and brighter than ever. For a chance to play an event with Jim, or have dinner with him check out the Kickstarter here, and grab a badge to Wyrd Con!

Other convention appearances coming this year include:

April 5th-7th: Ad Astra (Toronto) Ad Astra is a literary fan-run convention, promoting local talent within the genres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Paranormal, for all media of the written word. Our weekend includes panels on a variety of topics including writing, publishing, media, creative works, comics, costuming and steampunk, as well as many events including Masquerade, writer workshops, and book launches. Complementing our programming, Ad Astra also has a dealer area, featuring many vendors, writers, exhibitors, artists and artisans and an Art Show and auction.

May 24th-27th: MisCon (Missoula, Montana) MisCon is a four-day celebration of literacy and the arts within the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Held each Memorial Day weekend (Friday through Monday), MisCon has something to fascinate, educate, and entertain you at all times.