Jim Butcher "Changes" Q&A - Powells Books 4/08/2010"

part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4

Hopefully part 5 and 6 will be uploaded soon.

Edit:
part 5
part 6

 

Thanks! I always find these interesting. Going to watch now.

 

Not the hair!

 

I don't have writer's block, I have mortgage - Jim Butcher :-/

 

I felt sorry for the guy at the back on the left that had his hand up for ages. Around 6 minutes into video 4 he just gave up and had this dejected look on his face.

Anyway, some interesting info here. He mentions briefly that he had to show the editor the first few chapters of book 13 so she'd understand what was happening. I wonder what that means for Harry in book 12?

 

Yeah, poor guy. Though he really could have chosen a better place to stand on. Like one where Butcher could actually see him well.

Another interesting thing is that he said that he will keep doing the 1 year jump between books thing. That would suggest that the next book will start 1 year after Harry was shot. I wonder what that means. Will we see Harry alive and with Mab, having been a WK for a year for instance, while all his friends think him dead. I wonder.

I would have expected the next book to start pretty much right after this book and tell us how Harry survives. Unless ofcourse the short story Aftermath describes that. Though that would be somehwhat silly since it would totally confuse those who don't buy the short stories.

 

I'm with CT again.

I dun wanna watch a fucking video, give me a transcript or something.

 

I doubt there will be one. He did not say anything too important about the book or the universe itself though. I suppose I can write down the important bits.

The 1 year thing I mentioned above. Oh and he said (if jokingly) that Dresden would eventually have to break the law against time travel.

He also said that the events of Changes were meant to happen in book 10, so he is behind his plan and as such the series might end up being 21 or 22 books + final apocalyptic trilogy. Originally it was supposed to be 20 books + trilogy.

He did say something about outsiders. I could transcript that I suppose since its short:

Question: What exactly are outsiders, are they Fae or...

Answer: What exactly are outsiders, they are something else entirely. All the fae are part mortal. There is some bit of mortal in every one of the fae. Outsiders are something that come from way beyond that. They are more the generic hellboy fangs and tentacles crowd.

He said that there are some "really dark secrets of magic that Harry has absolutely no clue about". And how he might start sounding/sympathizing a lot like the wardens&SC later in the series if he learned.

About the end of Changes, his editor was "oh no! thats too crazy! Cant do that".(he said this jokingly). Then Butcher showed him the first chapters of book13 and how it all fits and the editor apparently went "Oh! thats cool!".

Butcher did not write the Harry/Bob commentary in the RPG (for those who have it). He approved them though, apparently.

He again confirmed (or perhaps for the first time) that the title of the next book will likely be Ghost Story. Butcher himself wanted it to be just "Dead" but his editors nixed that.

Oh, and if someone cloned a wizard, the clone would have the same chance of being magical as a normal child of two wizard, but it would not be guaranteed. Oh, and someone did ask that (apparently thought about it over many sleepless nights).

Might have missed something but whatever.

 

I think he said something about a short story from Murphy`s point of view that starts 45 minutes after the end of Changes.

I really want to read that.

 

Yes, he did.
Yes, it was mentioned in a few topics on this forum.
Aftermath will be included in Side Jobs anthology.

 

I was about to ask this.

If anyone could post an actual entire transcript, it would be appreciated. ^^

 

I would be an absolute nightmare for any GM... I lol'ed at that...

 

First of all if anyone has seen my hair if you could please call 1800-Jim's do

What are your thoughts on the new Dresden RPG coming out in June?

That if I DM'd it, it would be to much like work, and that if I played it I would be a frigen nightmare to any DM "No! IT IS THAT WAY IF I HAVE TO I WILL PUT IT IN THE NEXT BOOK " Other than that though the guys who worked on have done a really phenominal job, finally they are done, my friend Fred, the one who is producing it he said "yeah I had no idea how big of a project it was going to be, we had to make 3 different games in order to build up enough people to just make this game. If I had known that when I got started I wouldnt have done it" I said "yeah it was like that with me and writing"
I really like the rule system, I dont think I will ever get to play it, maybe if I shave and take off the glasses I can play anonymously at a con somewhere.

The books, they always are 1 year per book, do you plan to have any time skip or flash back?

Yes I am going to continue to do that one year in a book. It works a little better because it makes it easy to keep track of where it is in the book. As for the jumps forward and backward well you know there is those laws of magic about time, and given that it is a law of magic Dresden will have to break it eventually so sort of?

What is coming out in November?

The short stories are coming out in November, with all that dresden shorts but not all the dresden shorts, includeing the novella I wrote from Murphy's POV called "Aftermath" set 45 minutes after Changes. And it was fun although Murphy is an alien creature to me, she really is, but we wound up with a pretty good story.

What is coming next in the Dresden files?

I am not going to tell you that! (laugh) though as not to spoil the book for people who havent read changes, I will say this, they have payed me up to book 13 so yeah, and then my kid starts college this fall so that another 6 years...I am never going to get to retire.

Title scheme: Why 2 words with the same amount of letters?

I noticed that in college that all the really successful serial PI novels had a naming scheme, like all the Mcdonald, John Mcdonald all had color in the name, A for alibi, B is for burglary, so I tried to get puns in the names, the editors didnt like that all, the first name was supposed to be SemiAutoMagic and they said no and then I asked for "Abracadver" but they said no we cant and eventually they named it Storm Front which was kinda a pun. But they put it in these little boxes and it all lined up and the next book was already to be named Fool Moon so I said lets keep it in the boxes, up until this book which means obviously changes.

What is coming out with the graphic novels and what happended to your hair?

The grapic novel, they just sent me the sketchs for issue 7 and I just approved issue 8 of Storm Front. The first 4 issues for part 1 of Storm Front and now they are starting on part 2. And thats how its going to progress 8 issues per novel and then turning it into to graphic booklets because that is how the industry works these days. And about my hair, one day I went to sleep and it went out to go fight crime like it normally does, and it never came back the next day so I have to assume that something finally got it. But no I am trying to hold a theme through here there has been some changes, plus sometimes you look at your life and there are all these things in it you cant control but I can control my hair, so I killed it, razed earth policy right here.

Does the cat make it to the next book?

I am not going to tell you that (laughs) but really Mister is far to cool, we haven't met anything that can kill Mister at this point, absolute feline distain would make him nearly invincible.:awesome

Does Dresden have a cowboy hat?

(shakes head no) I think it has a comment a couple of times I think Murphy made a comment in one of the books and Harry says something about it in one of the short stories, and Dresden said it again in changes too. "If only I had a hat we could save the world" but no Dresden doesnt have a hat but apparently the Sorcerer's Apprentice does, so he has the hat.



That is part one. I dont expect to do part 2 because well it is rather hard to remember what he said off the top of my head. Anyone who finishes will be greatly appreciated.

 

He looks a lot younger in this Q&A then normal.

Edit: And wow, he's a funny fucker. Watching the Q&As from now on.

 

Yeah, I have always thought Butcher is hilarious and can recommend that people watch the ones on youtube. They are not boring.

 

Found another one, enjoy.

Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego CA, April 9th, 2010:

part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5

 

He took Part 3 down for some reason.

 

Did Jim say something about Harry's mother living for 100+ years before she died? Or was he talking about his grandmother?

Also, he kind of used the same jokes as before.

 

Different crowd so he can reuse the jokes if he is asked the same questions etc.

What I found interesting is that he basically confirmed that Lasciels shadow Lash is still inside Harry's head. Supposedly he has said that before but I had not seen it in a video before, and there was some confusion there if he meant Lash-the-shadow or the actual Lasciel. But here he specifically says that its Lash who still has a part to play.

So unless Lash has become somekind of separate entity, she must still be lurking inside Harry's head.

EDIT: Hey! what happened to my unicorn!