The Dresden Files

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Abtacha

That "date" is merely a guess.
As of now even Jim doesn't know the actual release date (as of his post on February 14).
He posted about this on the official Forum.
The manuscript is due June 1, after that it will take a few more months so it looks like about fall-ish

Edit:
The June 1 Part is after the second to last quote in the linked post.

...and here's the complete post from that link. Thanks to Abtacha for locating it and posting the link.

Quote from: viktorkaros on February 14, 2012, 01:27:44 PM

When he reports it on the "Official Website" and talks about LARPing as his new hobby and not working on a novel it becomes everyones business...

Jim responds:

Actually, man, it isn't anyone's business but my own, and that of the people with whom I share my life.

As the inestimable Mr Gaiman has written, I am not your bitch. I am not a slave chained to a keyboard somewhere, expected to produce original material to the beat of a metronome. I'm not your family. I'm not your friend. I'm a guy who writes stories, and then you decide whether or not you like them enough to pay for them (or steal them). It isn't my job to bring sunshine to your April. It's my job to write stories. That's the extent of my concrete relationship with you, man.

Look, you're probably a decent enough guy. I get that you like the material. I would love it if I had the drive and energy and capability of writing a Dresden File every month. My God, man, if I could do that I'd be making more money than any professional athlete alive. Why WOULDN'T I want that?

But see, here's the thing.

I can't do that. Not "I choose not to do it" or "I could if I gave up enough free time." Can't. It is not possible. The sky is not green, gravity does not pull you up, and I can't write a novel in any amount of time I damned well please. It takes time. Sometimes it takes less time, sometimes more, but it takes time.

Wait, let me clarify that: I probably /could/ turn out something every month if I really, really wanted to do it. But it wouldn't be a Dresden File--it'd be pulp serial, something like Mack Bolan or The Executioner--action, plot, maybe some sex, not much else.

A few things have changed which have slowed my writing pace. First, I started getting involved in other projects: there was the TV show, there are the graphic novels, the RPG and mostly the accursed short stories. Those are a huge time sink for me, because I really suck at actually producing them. Seriously, they're harder to put together than novels, and eat up a BUNCH more time for their size. I've just finished the last short piece I'm going to write for a while, so hopefully that will help.

Second: In the last three or four years as the series has gotten more popular, it's gotten more attention, which means that I have as well. There is a constant stream of interviews, appearances, tours, events, charity requests, autographings and so on. That doesn't happen forty hours a week, but it sure as hell eats up way more time than it did when I was writing Death Masks or Blood Rites.

Third: The process of writing itself has changed for me. As I learn more about the craft, my process has become more involved and it takes a little more time to write up to the standards that I set for myself, and I at least try to keep setting them higher, to keep learning and growing. I can't make it happen any faster and still call it my best effort.

Fourth: I'm just plain tireder and older than when I got started. My self-discipline is greater, but my energy is probably less ferocious than it used to be. I could turn Dresden into Mack Bolan, from a mental-stamina standpoint, but I don't think I'd much enjoy it, and I doubt most of the readers would, either. My wrists and hands hurt a lot more quickly than they used to when I sit down at the keyboard. It isn't a huge deal, but it does put a limit on how much time I can sit and concentrate.

Fifth: There are way more miscellaneous demands on my time than there used to be, as I've gotten older and taken on more responsibility and stuff. Things like, for example, spending an hour of keyboard time writing frustration-driven fan-relations posts to the web site.

As for LARP being a "new" hobby, I've been doing it since I was 18 years old. I LARPed before I started writing, I LARPed when I was in school (and working 2 to 4 jobs on the side to help support my wife and child), I LARPed after my first book was published, I LARPed after my second series got sold, and I LARPed a couple of weeks ago. I plan to be LARPing when I retire. From breathing.

Quote continues:

I just tire of him not meeting his deadlines because he is busy throwing paper balls at people and screaming lightening bolt...."

Jim responds:

I also scream numbers and things like "SHIELD MAGIC" and "I SET YOUR CYCLE TO DEATH!" And I wave light-up boffer weapons around!

I would tell you that I'm sorry about you being tired about deadlines but that statement, coming from someone who only reads the final product, is just too funny. My publisher is way more tired of it than you. Heck, I don't really enjoy that kind of enormous pressure myself.

Quote continues:

Furthermore at least George R. Martin was at least man enough to address the concerns of his fans if not a fan by acknowledging what was going on and making some sort of statement...

Jim responds:

Yeah. It's way more manly to throw language like that around from the safety of internet anonymity, I guess.

Quote continues:

While I do not expect Jim Butcher to be my bitch to quote the article listed above but I do expect him to act like someone who has a job and stop hiding behind his over zealous fans who wish to defend him with conjecture and Oh you are being mean to Jim stop ... you are so mean ... oh my god ... your so mean stopppp ... So yeah I stress my opinion again ... if Jim or his publisher would make some sort of official statement then I would be happy ... even if that statement was we are not going to publish another DF book EVER ... I just appreciate people with jobs to act like they have one and stop advertising what they are doing to waste time... i.e. LARPing..."

Jim responds:

To repeat what I have said more than once, for the record, the manuscript is due July 1. The publisher has not, so far, told me when they plan to publish the finished book. So now you officially know as much as I do about it.

See, the great thing about being a writer is that I really don't have to do anything I don't want to in my career. I don't have a job. Jobs have things like insurance, regular paychecks, and security. I don't have any of those things. If readers stop liking me, or liking my work, or get too furious with me because I'm not dancing fast enough to the tinkle of their hurdy-gurdy, they stop paying me. If the publisher gets too sick of me, they stop taking contracts. If I get too sick of all the miscellaneous hostility I encounter as part of the environment of my success, I can leave the writing business altogether. Heck, Shannon's career is moving along quite well. I could be a full time kept man!

I'm glad you have your opinion. It's ill-considered and self-centered, but it's your opinion. I'm not considering it at all seriously because it's sullen and insulting, but it is definitely your opinion.

Tell you what. If you just can't stand the way I do what I do, and you just can't get enough of the kind of book you like, fast enough, do what I did: Decide to throw away any chance for a steady paycheck or building a successful conventional career, spend ten years working a full time job without getting paid for it, and learn to write books of your own. The odds are about 30k to 1 that you'll ever be able to support yourself, and there is no way to learn to handle the fallout of unexpected success except to have it happen to you--but do that.

And after you've done that, come talk to me about your production schedule.

Alternatively, you can express your displeasure with me by not buying what I write, if you want. And that's cool if you do, man. You and I do not have a contract, implied or otherwise. That's me and Penguin. I want to write a book that you like and which makes you happy to read. I seriously do. But what I do won't make everyone happy, no matter what I do, and I know that. No hard feelings if you decide that what I do isn't for you.

But I'm not the one who formed your expectations. You did that. And you didn't even inform me that you expected me to have a book out, exactly like you wanted, every April without fail, no matter what was happening in my life, before you started writing upset posts about it. That doesn't seem very reasonable.

I share bits of my personal life on Twitter and sometimes here because people seem to enjoy it and it makes them happy for some reason. I don't get that, because I'm just one more nerd at a keyboard in his Jedi Knight bathrobe. But I like making people happy when I can.

Quote continues:

and again I applaud George R. Martin for making some sort of statement ...

Jim responds:

Here's my statement:

I didn't come over to your house, sit down in your living room and start telling you about how fun LARPing is--you came looking for more from me, and I elected to share it. I'm not responsible for adhering to your expectations--you make those, not me. You have absolutely zero interest in my contracts or my deadlines, because you aren't the one taking risks in the hope of reward. That's my publisher and me.

And my personal life is really none of your goddamned business.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by alansplace

2000 Storm Front (The Dresden Files, part 1)

Spoiler:

2001 Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, part 2)

2001 Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, part 3)

2002 Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, part 4)

2003 Death Masks (The Dresden Files, part 5)

2004 Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, part 6)

2004 Furies of Calderon (The Codex Alera, part 1)

2005 Wizard for Hire (The Dresden Files (omnibus editions - Storm Front, Fool Moon & Grave Peril), part 1)

2005 Dead Beat (The Dresden Files, part 7)

2005 Academ's Fury (The Codex Alera, part 2)

2006 Wizard by Trade (The Dresden Files (omnibus editions - Summer Knight & Death Masks), part 2)

2006 Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours (Spider-Man), Science fiction

2006 Wizard at Large (The Dresden Files (omnibus editions - Blood Rites & Dead Beat), part 3)

2006 Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files, part 8)

2006 Cursor's Fury (The Codex Alera, part 3)

2007 Wizard Under Fire (The Dresden Files (omnibus editions - Proven Guilty & White Night), part 4)

2007 White Night (The Dresden Files, part 9)

2007 Captain's Fury (The Codex Alera, part 4)

2008 Small Favor (The Dresden Files, part 10)

2008 Welcome to the Jungle (The Dresden Files), Comics

2008 Backup (The Dresden Files)

2008 Princeps' Fury (The Codex Alera, part 5)

2009 Mean Streets, Anthology

2009 Turn Coat (The Dresden Files, part 11)

2009 First Lord's Fury (The Codex Alera, part 6)

2010 Changes (The Dresden Files, part 12)

2010 Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files (The Dresden Files), Short stories

2011 Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, part 13)

2013 Cold Days (The Dresden Files, part 14) - upcoming at January 3, 2013

Adding a link to the first post.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Adding a link to the first post.

The first post would be this post.

[Pookeysgirl]

just finished White Night...wow he gets himself into some pretty scary predicaments. Starting Small Favor now

[alansplace]

After Abtacha posted a comment on the release date question of Cold Days I browsed around jimbutcheronline.com a bit (as I hadn't been there in a while) and noticed the below (old) comment from Jim and thought it interesting enough to re-post here.

On September 30, 2007 Jim Butcher wrote this (below) on jimbutcheronline.com.

Could J.K. Rowling's World exist within the world of The Dresden Files?


Nah, the very foundations of the story worlds--their magic--are fundamentally incompatible. Potterverse magic is based largely upon the dictates of story drama. It's irrational, capricious, finicky, and generally doesn't make a lot of sense from any rational perspective. (Flick your wand like THIS not like THAT and say the word like THIS and not like THAT and it works.) Magic is a force unto itself, a law unto itself, and while it /does/ operate with absolute fidelity and consistency within the story world, it's beholden to no one.

Dresden universe magic is modeled more closely upon physics. Magic still has to pay attention to fundamental universal laws--such as "matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only rearranged." The energy for all those magical effects has to come from somewhere. There ain't no free lunch.

For instance, you could fly someone on a broom in the Dresden universe, but you'd have to be providing the same kind of kinetic energy you'd see from one of those James Bond rocket packs that they fly into the Superbowl from time to time--IE, a buttload. (Those packs are good for about twenty or twenty five seconds of flight, if I remember correctly, and that's it.) In the Potter universe, dozens of children who know next to nothing about magic can gad about on brooms in the afternoon for fun and recreation, and no one thinks anything of it. There's a foundational difference in the approach to how magic interacts with reality.

And yeah, Voldemort wouldn't have graduated high school in the Dresden universe. Once Tom Riddle started playing with the evil juju, someone in a grey cloak would have shown up to whack off his head and nipped him in the bud.

Unless, of course, someone more highly placed in the Council intervened on Riddle's behalf, and maybe gave the kid a little more guidance and maybe even a chance to choose a different path. Then, who knows.

Old Tom might up and do something else entirely with all that potentially-dark talent. >

Jim

[bizzybody]

More likely something from the nevernever or one of the nastier vampire courts would've sensed Riddle's power and inclination towards the not-nice side of magic and taken him under their wing, protecting him from the White Council.

[Filark]

Verrrry interesting!

So, Tom Riddle = Harry Dresden without Ebenezer (and a conscience! )!

[speakingtohe]

...and here's the complete post from that link. Thanks to Abtacha for locating it and posting the link.

I enjoyed reading that.
I sort of went of Dresden files at book 6 (posted in wrong Dresden files thread about that) but will now try book 7.

Helen

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Last evening I finished re-reading James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing and this morning I began re-reading James Potter and the Curse of the Gatekeeper. Both are written by G. Norman Lippert and are fan-fic sequels to the 7 Harry Potter books.

I finished my re-read of both James Potter and the Curse of the Gatekeeper and the associated short story Petra's Getaway which takes place in the middle of Curse of the Gatekeeper and fills in a bit of information about a character in Curse of the Gatekeeper.

I added Petra's Getaway as Chapter 12a to my copy of Curse of the Gatekeeper as a future convenience.

Now I'm re-reading the novella The Girl on the Dock (takes place between the 2nd and 3rd books in the series) followed by James Potter And The Vault Of Destinies.

[alansplace]

Please excuse me if I ramble just a bit, okay!? This thread was started by Nyssa, midway through last September. It seems to have been pretty successful thus far, wouldn't you all say? Anyway, I've been trying to expand people's interest in the thread by my various posts and hope that you folks have been enjoying these attempts at diversity. So, I'd like to make a suggestion that anyone who, while waiting for a new Dresden Files book to be released, is currently reading either 'Urban Fantasy' or 'Steampunk', post here about these also. Oh, and, of course, Jim Butcher's other series, 'Codex Alera'. What do any of you folks think about this idea?

[bizzybody]

You want steampunk? Read Girl Genius. It's an online comic and graphic novel series by Phil Foglio.

Originally he was dead set against "giving away" the whole thing on the web, until he saw the dead tree book sales success some others were having even though their entire graphic tale was available online for free.

The Girl Genius books' sales have increased a lot since he put it all on the web.

[Pookeysgirl]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Please excuse me if I ramble just a bit, okay!? This thread was started by Nyssa, midway through last September. It seems to have been pretty successful thus far, wouldn't you all say? Anyway, I've been trying to expand people's interest in the thread by my various posts and hope that you folks have been enjoying these attempts at diversity. So, I'd like to make a suggestion that anyone who, while waiting for a new Dresden Files book to be released, is currently reading either 'Urban Fantasy' or 'Steampunk', post here about these also. Oh, and, of course, Jim Butcher's other series, 'Codex Alera'. What do any of you folks think about this idea?

I'm still too busy catching up on Dresden . Just recently finished White Night. I've been thinking of reading some steampunk...it's good to see some recommendations . I'm going to check out the Codex Alera books.

[CWatkinsNash]

Great idea, Alan! I'm not currently reading any UF, but looking forward to what others are reading. I should be starting Dresden #12 in the next week or so. I want to get the series thus far finished before starting on The Hollows. I've also got some other UF lined up for the future, but I tend to be all over the map with my reading selections.

[alansplace]

I was looking for a release date for the fourth James Potter novel, James Potter and the Morrigan Web, and instead found the below letter at the beginning of a 47 page (175 KB) PDF file containing the unedited and unfinished beginning of the unreleased book:

Greetings again, dear reader,

If you are here, then you likely know that I have decided to postpone the completion of this, the fourth James Potter novel, indefinitely. This decision comes at the end of much thought, and it was, you may imagine, a very difficult decision to make. I have enjoyed these stories immensely. If you have been along since the beginning, then you probably know that, and have enjoyed (to varying degrees) the tales as well. As you may imagine, my reason for putting the James Potter world aside, at least for now, is a relatively simple one. I want to write for a living, and trustworthy sources (including some of you) have enlightened me to the unfortunate fact that as long as my name is attached to what is, for lack of a better term, merely a fan fiction anthology, no publisher or literary agent will take me seriously.

I have railed against this for some time, and I am certain that many of you dislike it as much as I do. After all, under the James Potter umbrella, I have written several novels and garnered hundreds of thousands (and perhaps millions, counting all the translations) of readers worldwide. Still, it is undeniable that, as amazing and wonderful as this journey has been, there is simply no way to put a positive spin on it in the “legitimate literary community”.

Thus, for love of my writing, I must put some of my favorite writing aside.

I am sorry to do it, even if it is temporary, because so many of you have been so loyal and encouraging. You deserve to know what happens with Petra and James. You should find out what becomes of the world in the wake of “the Unveiling”. I really want to watch with you to see what happens with Scorpius, Rose, Ralph, Zane and James.

Spoiler:

I want to tell you who the new headmaster is in the wake of Merlin’s untimely demise.

I want to take you to the reality of that strange dream of the graveyard, and learn what really happens there, and what it all means. I want to lead you to the last, final page of the last, final book,

Spoiler:

where we will see poor, lost Lucy one more time

, and perhaps (just perhaps) find a happy ending.

But for now, I cannot, and I apologize.

All I can offer you is this preview. This is the unfinished beginning of “James Potter and the Morrigan Web”. It is not perfect, but I am happy with it. I was (and am) excited about where it is going. It won’t give anything away, but it will offer some interesting (I hope) hints about where this story is going, and what it might feel like as it unfolds. I do hope you will read it, and I will look forward to any speculations you may have about it.

And perhaps, once I do have some published works on the shelves at your local bookstore, if indeed that day comes, perhaps then we will return to where this unfinished tale leaves off. Perhaps we will move on again, refreshed and renewed. I will probably be a better writer then, and this story will surely benefit from that. Either way, as ever:

Onward and upward!

Yours always,

G. Norman Lippert

[bizzybody]

Easy solution would be for Rowling to give her approval to sell the James Potter for a small royalty.

She's already a billionaire, apparently has given approval for the stories to be written and *given away*, so why not allow the author to be able to point to them as part of a successful professional writing portfolio?

Many other authors have allowed other people to profit from their own playgrounds, and none of them are anywhere near as wealthy from their writing as Rowling.