TB: I'm Terry and I'm here for Buzzy Multimedia
interviewing Jim Butcher, who is author of
"The Dresden Files".
Jim: I'm Jim Butcher.
I'll be interviewed.
TB: Okay.
I just want to say, I finished reading "Proven
Guilty"
just a little while ago, and I have a real
quick question before
the serious interview.
Justin's behind everything, isn't he?
Jim: Justin's dead.
How could he?
He's dead.
He's dead.
TB: Dead, dead?
Jim: He's dead.
TB: Very dead?
Jim: D-E-D, dead.
TB: Are you ever going to change your answer,
dead?
Jim: Dead.
TB: All right.
All right, what was your reaction when you
heard
that James Marsters, better known as Spike
from the "Buffy and
Angel" series, was going to be the voice for
your books?
Jim: When I first heard that they'd confirmed
it, I was on the phone and I
pretty much jumped up and down and said "Yay!"
I did a Snoopy
dance, and then learned later that at my age
you really ought to
stretch out before you do the Snoopy dance.
TB: Do you like the way he's doing the voices
and giving different
personalities to the different...?
Jim: Oh, yeah.
Yeah, he reads it well.
TB: Okay.
Jim: I really have enjoyed it.
TB: Okay, awesome.
What characters, if any, did you pull on from
personal people in your life?
For instance, how close are Frost
and Mouse to each other?
Jim: My dog Frost is exactly like Mouse, if
Frost was huge and really
secure.
Frost is far tinier, and he's totally insecure.
He's
paranoid about everything, and he's soft and
fuzzy and useless
in a fight.
But other than that, he and Mouse...
TB: Exactly the same?
Jim: Same thing.
TB: All right.
Jim: Oh, yeah.
TB: How do you flesh out a story?
What's your writing process?
Jim: Oh, normally I can see what I want the
story climax to be ahead of
time, so I know more or less where I'm going.
Normally, I have
three or four things that I want to be sure
I get before I get
to the story climax.
Then, usually there's a bunch of little
moments that get thrown in, that I was, "Oh,
I want to make sure
I get that moment in.
I want to make sure I get the gay joke in
between Harry and Thomas, because that's the
only explanation
that possibly makes any sense from an outside
observer."
Once I know all those things, then I'll also
have a general idea
of what I want the plot to be and start figuring
out what
characters I need, which of the ongoing cast
will be best-suited
to actually showing up and helping.
Then after that, I can
design any extra characters I need to get
going and then start
writing.
TB: Okay.
Now this January, "The Dresden Files" has
made it to Sci-
Fi Channel as a TV series.
Did you get to visit the set and take
a look around?
Jim: Yes, I did in Toronto.
It was extremely interesting.
Although I will
say that the movie business has got to be
one of the most boring
businesses to actually work in, in the whole
world.
Because
every time they film something, they have
to film it and then
they film it again and then they film it again.
Then they move
all the cameras around.
TB: Like three times maybe.
Jim: Then they film it again, and again, and
again.
Yeah, like three times
maybe.
I was there in the set for like six hours,
and I got to
see them make about 45 seconds of a movie.
It's like "Oh, my
goodness.
I can't even imagine that".
TB: Wow.
Jim: So, it was really interesting to get
to go see.
Everybody was really
nice.
I got to meet several of the actors and the
crew and the
producers and so on.
They just seemed like really great
[inaudible 00:03:22].
TB: Awesome.
Who do you read when you're not writing?
Jim: Oh, well actually I have to read while
I am writing in order to keep
things going.
I read all the time.
Robert B. Parker is one of my
favorite authors.
I really love Glen Cook's writing, Lois
Bujold.
I still go back to the classics.
I go back and read
"Tolkien", and David Eddings, "Belgariad".
I go back and read
"The Chronicles of Narnia" and Lloyd Alexander's
"Prydain"
books.
I still go back to those.
I loved a lot of the military SF that's out
these days, John
Ringo, David Weber, and Damon Knight.
I've had a good time
reading all those authors.
I keep looking for new authors as
well.
It's always great to find somebody.
Naomi Novik's
"Temeraire" series for example is totally
wonderful.
I've really
enjoyed those.
TB: What do you hope your readers take away
from your books?
Jim: Well, I should probably have loftier
goals.
I should probably be
striving for the benefit of the human condition.
But mostly want
somebody to get reading the book and go "That
was great.
Where's
the next one?"
I want people to read my stuff and have a
good
time reading it.
When it gets to the end of the book I want
them
to be able to go "Wow.
That was a really fun ride."
I want folks to be able to escape into my
fantasy world and to
play the little movie in their head while
they're reading, and
to have a good time with it.
That's pretty much what I'm looking
for.
I mean, I know I'm writing popcorn.
But I'm trying to write
the best popcorn that there is.
TB: Oh, it's awesome.
I read them all.
Honestly, when your books
come out, if you came out at the same time
as Harry Potter, I
would automatically go to your book first.
I think your books -
it's just a bigger world.
It's a richer world for me.
Jim: Are you kidding?
TB: I seriously relate to the characters.
Jim: I'd buy Harry Potter.
TB: No, not me.
Seriously, I'm not just saying that, honest
to God
truth.
Where do you see your writing going in the
future?
Are
there more Harry books coming up?
Are you going to finish up
with the fantasy series?
Jim: If they let me I'll write about 20 books
in "The Dresden Files" and
then finish the whole thing off with a big
old apocalyptic
trilogy, because who doesn't love apocalyptic
trilogies?
I've
got another three books in my fantasy series
that I'm doing
right now.
I've got a science fiction series that I'm
itching to
write.
I'm still developing enough personal management
skill to
be able to do three books a year.
Hopefully one day I'll be able
to do that.
Right now it isn't working.
I've also got a number of fantasy series.
I've got a pretty big
epic fantasy series I want to write one day
when I feel I'm a
good enough writer to do it.
So hopefully, I can write a truly
epic series.
"The Dresden Files" started off as a class
project
and now it's this huge thing.
It's my main success and I kind of
stumbled over it by accident almost.
So, I've just been a little bit lucky and
worked pretty hard.
Hopefully I'll just continue to work as hard
as I can and maybe
get a little bit lucky going into the future.
TB: Okay.
Which character do you think in the "Dresden"
series is
the hardest one for you to write?
Who's the hardest mind to get
in and out of?
Jim: Good question.
The hardest to get into is almost always Murphy.
Aaron
Murphy is a female cop, and is a very different
person than I
am.
I'm not especially feminine.
Perhaps you can tell.
She was
always the most difficult for me to get into
her head.
The
person who's most difficult to get out of
though is Bob the
Skull, because once I unleash the snark, the
inner demon of
snark that is Bob the Skull, it's awfully
difficult to get my
lips under control.
After I've got done with it, I...
Maybe I really shouldn't be saying that out
loud.
Oh yeah, I
better reel back on Bob.
It's always awkward.
Terry: Real fast, we heard that Sharon, your
wife, has a book coming
out next year.
Jim: Shannon, my wife.
Yes, indeed.
TB: Okay.
Do you want to give us a name and release
date, a little
information on that?
Jim: Her first book is called "No Regrets".
It'll be out in February.
It's
a romanticist suspense book concerning a brilliant
woman who's
being pursued by terrorists because she's
the only one smart
enough to unlock this information they need,
and the adult
forces operative who is trying to protect
her.
I really think
she's going to be bigger in romance than I
am in fantasy.
She's
a brilliant woman and very talented writer.
TB: Excellent, excellent.
Last question, just for fun, does Harry
dress left or right?
Jim: Oh, man.
Before or after his left hand got horribly
burned?
Since
then, right.
TB: Okay.
Well, thank you so much for your time and
the questions,
and have a good day.
