The Jim Butcher Files: Dresden . Codex Alera . Cinder Spires & More

[CWatkinsNash]

I'm almost finished with Dead Beat. In some ways, it's my favorite so far.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

I'm almost finished with Dead Beat. In some ways, it's my favorite so far.

With me, my favorite was the one I was reading or had just finished reading. I guess I'm fickle that way.

[alansplace]

From Jim Butcher's Live Journal, December 7, 2011:

Stuff I Been Doin'
Okay, for the folks who want to know, here's what I'm up to lately.

Over the past four months, I've been busy working several different things. First, I've been getting in some quality LARP time on weekends at least once a month. Hooah! It's really cool to not work weekends!

Oh, and some writing too:

First, our LARP organization is putting together a second rules set, one which hopefully will effectively transcend the stickiest problems of the current system. Chapters will be able to run whichever they like, but our hope is to create a system that is so nifty that you can't NOT want to play it. That's been a HUGE amount of work, and is going to be more, but we're getting to the point now where I'm impatient to have it finished because I wanna go PLAY it! It will be some serious fun.

I've done a trilogy of short stories with linked characters in which Bigfoot is Dresden's client. They take place spread out over the length of the series so far. The Bigfoot stories were about 40 percent of a novel in total page length. Then I sat down and wrote out the foundation for two more series: the first was a Black Company-inspired fantasy series which would be a prelude trilogy to my epic epic fantasy epic. The second is a steampunk fantasy series, with lots of airships, crystals, goggles, manners, and Hornblowerism. The steampunk stuff seems to be ringing the beta readers' bells, so I think that will be the next project I go to town on.

But that will probably have to wait. I have at least one more short story to get in before the year is up. It's for the "Dangerous Women" anthology, and I'm leaning toward writing it from Molly's point of view, in the time between Ghost Story and Cold Days. Come the new year, I'll start Cold Days. With any luck, there will be snow on the ground when it happens, and I can write the first few chapters with the only light in the room being reflected from the snow outside. That would be perfect.

Someone have a word with the people who schedule the weather, will you?

I'm just about done writing short stories. I've got two more next year and maybe one more novelette for the second short story anthology, and then I'm done with them. I need to focus on writing, you know, novels.

[Nyssa]

Dizzying! I hope we can track down the short stories when they're all done. Sounds like there needs to be a Side Jobs 2.0.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Dizzying! I hope we can track down the short stories when they're all done. Sounds like there needs to be a Side Jobs 2.0.

I was anxiously looking forward to, in addition to "Cold Days" and what will follow that, Jim's earlier proposal of 'hard scifi' which he doesn't mention here. I wonder if steampunk has replaced the 'hard scifi' idea? Well whichever it is I'll be reading it. Wish he'd mentioned who was the compiling author of the anthology called 'Dangerous Women". I can't seem to find it with google.

[CWatkinsNash]

All I found was this:

June 22, 2011
UPDATE: DANGEROUS WOMEN
Update: It turns out that the initial report was a little garbled. In fact, what GRRM has indicated is that Dangerous Women is the working title of the next themed anthology project he’s working on, and that the next Dunk & Egg story would appear there. The actual title of the story remains unknown, but our speculation about the Wolf Women still seems accurate.

From: http://www.westeros.org/ASoWS/News/Entry/5381/

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I was anxiously looking forward to, in addition to "Cold Days" and what will follow that, Jim's earlier proposal of 'hard scifi' which he doesn't mention here. I wonder if steampunk has replaced the 'hard scifi' idea? Well whichever it is I'll be reading it. Wish he'd mentioned who was the compiling author of the anthology called 'Dangerous Women". I can't seem to find it with google.

I'm hoping Santa is good to me this Christmas with lots of Amazon bucks so that I can continue to buy the Dresden Files series. I intend to read each and every novel, novella and short story in the Dresden universe. I want it to be my first series of 2012, and I had somehow convinced myself that Cold Days would be out next year, but I guess not. I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

All I found was this:

From: http://www.westeros.org/ASoWS/News/Entry/5381/

CWatkinsNash! Wish it gave more info though.

In order to take up the time waiting for a new Dresden Files release, Cold Days, I've been reading G. Norman Lippert's James Potter series which I recently finished. The last book ended in a sort of cliff-hanger way, which made me leave that world kind of abruptly. Now I'm waiting for the 4th book in that series, James Potter and the Morrigan Web.

So continuing with G. Norman Lippert stuff, I started The Riverhouse and though I've been enjoying it quite a lot, I really missed the Wizarding World I'd just left.

In response to this I took a short break and read 2 short stories by G. Norman Lippert that are connected to that Wizarding World, Harry's First Christmas and Merlin's Gift. I liked them both a whole lot. Harry's First Christmas serves as a back story for the Harry Potter books and Merlin's Gift as a back story for the James Potter series as well as connecting in as a back story for several myths and fairy tales.

Anyway, now back to The Riverhouse!! Which, by the way is starting to feel very Stephen King-like!

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I'm hoping Santa is good to me this Christmas with lots of Amazon bucks so that I can continue to buy the Dresden Files series. I intend to read each and every novel, novella and short story in the Dresden universe. I want it to be my first series of 2012, and I had somehow convinced myself that Cold Days would be out next year, but I guess not. I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Oh, I guess so! Based on past publication dates, I'm betting on a release date in the period of time between August and November of 2012 for Cold Days.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Oh, I guess so! Based on past publication dates, I'm betting on a release date in the period of time between August and November of 2012 for Cold Days.

Even though he hasn't started writing it yet? Or do you think there is a rough draft that he needs to fine tune and edit?

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Even though he hasn't started writing it yet? Or do you think there is a rough draft that he needs to fine tune and edit?

Sure, after all it's just my guess, but I'm sticking with it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Dizzying! I hope we can track down the short stories when they're all done. Sounds like there needs to be a Side Jobs 2.0.

I hate it when authors write short stories for series we read and stick them in a book we don't want because we don't want to pay full price for just the one short story we want. We have eBooks these days. Sell it separately and we'll buy it.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I hate it when authors write short stories for series we read and stick them in a book we don't want because we don't want to pay full price for just the one short story we want. We have eBooks these days. Sell it separately and we'll buy it.

I agree with you, except, sometimes we can discover other really good authors if we're lucky enough to pick up a good anthology. Plus, I would be more willing to buy a story collection vs just a single short story. On the other hand, there is no way of knowing the quality of the collection without purchasing the book (unless its at the library, of course), so the frustration is quite understandable.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I agree with you, except, sometimes we can discover other really good authors if we're lucky enough to pick up a good anthology. Plus, I would be more willing to buy a story collection vs just a single short story. On the other hand, there is no way of knowing the quality of the collection without purchasing the book (unless its at the library, of course), so the frustration is quite understandable.

But in those sorts of collections, the other authors are also going to be writing a story in one of their series that we don't want to read because we don't want to spoil that series if someday we might ever want to read it. And if we don't ever want to read that author or that series, then the extra pages are a waste of money (IMHO). No reason we can't get just an eBook short story.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But in those sorts of collections, the other authors are also going to be writing a story in one of their series that we don't want to read because we don't want to spoil that series if someday we might ever want to read it. And if we don't ever want to read that author or that series, then the extra pages are a waste of money (IMHO). No reason we can't get just an eBook short story.

I think if they were going to offer the short story as an ebook, it would have to be .99 or free. I know I wouldn't pay more than that for a single short story. If not, then they need to either have a collection of short stories, or they need to include the short story at the beginning or end of one of their full novels.