JIM BUTCHER, AUTHOR OF THE DRESDEN FILES ñ
VIDEO INTERVIEW
JMW: Hello, this is Jean Marie Ward for BuzzyMag.com.
With me today is Jim Butcher, New York Times
best-selling author of the Harry Dresden Series,
the Codex Alera, and very soon something new.
Welcome, Jim.
Jim Butcher: Hi.
JMW: Okay, Jim, getting to that something
new.
Why Steampunk, why now?
Jim Butcher: Steampunk is really hot right
now, and as I get out to conventions I would
be hitting the convention floor and going
shopping with everybody else and just admiring
the costuming and the enthusiasm for the genre.
And it was one of the things that I started
getting interested in and finally said, you
know, maybe I should try writing something.
And I had several projects that I was looking
at starting next, so I put several of them
together and floated it past my beta readers
about a year ago to see which one kind of
got me the best reaction.
And I got the strongest reaction out of the
Steampunk Series.
So I decided Iíd go with that one just because
it had I think the most solid characters,
the most solid story base, and it had gotten
the best response from the readers.
JMW: And the opening scene had a rather interesting
origin story of its own.
Jim Butcher: Indeed.
I was driving home from a live-action road
play event in my Minivan and I had a band
full of sleeping teenagers.
And as I was driving home from between Lawrence,
Kansas and Missouri Iím driving across Kansas
prairie.
We had a good old fashioned Kansas lightning
storm came marching across the plain just
as the sun was coming up.
And so the top of the storm is kind of illuminated
by the sun and the bottom is this huge, dark,
gloomy monstrous black mass with this giant
force of lightning coming down as it advanced
over the plain.
It was coming along parallel to the track
I was driving, or perpendicular to it.
And so as I was racing along this storm the
CD that happened to be in the CD player at
the moment was Nine Inch Nails Downward Spiral,
which is kind of a very industrial sounding
album, with lots of very mechanical noises
to it.
And so as this lightning storm is coming closer
and closer, and Iím driving faster and faster,
and turning Nine Inch Nails up louder and
louder, the first scene from this book kind
of pops into my mind.
And itís the one thatís in the first chapter
as Iím driving along.
It was a very interesting morning for me;
it was one of those mornings where I donít
know, I guess I was accessing my creative
side because I was just so tiredñand fearful.
JMW: Fearful helps.
Jim Butcher: Yes.
And in any case, that was the origin of the
Steampunk universeñthis lightning storm.
And then I started building from this first
chapter that appeared in my head.
I sort of started building outward for the
rest of the universe, and that was where the
story board came from.
JMW: And itís going to be called The Cinder
Spires?
Jim Butcher: The Cinder Spires.
JMW: You mentioned in response to the first
question, your beta readers.
Youíre rather unusual among traditionally
published authors in that you have a really
vibrant and large beta reading group.
Because I remember you invited input on your
stories way back in 2005, 2006.
Are you still doing it?
Jim Butcher: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
JMW: How big is the group now?
Jim Butcher: Right now there are 14 people
in the beta reading group.
There are new people who get added in every
year and there are some folks who drop out
every year, just because they have lives,
too.
But they are the ones who help me as I go
along; they kind of give me an as-I-write
reaction to the writing, because it gets published
to the beta readers chapter by chapter as
I finish it.
JMW: Like a serial.
Jim Butcher: Indeed, chapter by chapter.
And I think thatís one of the reasons that
my novels have kind of been sorts of things
that have people staying up late reading them,
is because I write them in order to drive
the beta readers insane, you know.
Jean Marie: Yeah.
Jim Butcher: If I get to the end of a chapter
itís like, well, what is going to make the
beta readers just absolutely screaming in
frustration at the end of this chapter?
Thatís where I need to end the chapter, and
then Iíll start the next chapter a few days
later.
But I feel bad for them.
I call them the beta through asylum, because
theyíve got to sit through all this stuff.
There are people who complain and say, I had
to wait for this whole line for the next book.
Itís like, well, what if that had happened
to you 50 times during the course of the book,
and thatís what I kind of have to do the
beta readers in every chapter Iím doingñgive
them something to go, but I want to know what
happens next?
But you donít get to know what happens next,
Iím still working on it, you know, donít
look.
JMW: Pay no attention to the man behind the
curtain there, yeah.
Iím going to take you a bit on the way back
machine, right now.
Jim Butcher: Okay.
Jean Marie: Way back in 2004 when we last
talked with a microphone in front of you . . .
Jim Butcher: Right.
JMW: You said that you had a roughly 20-book
plan for the Harry Dresden Series, and a really
good idea for how it was going to end.
Jim Butcher: Yes.
JMW: How well has Harry played along with
that plan?
Jim Butcher: Just fine so far.
JMW: So far?
Jim Butcher: Yes, itís been the supporting
characters that have been throwing things
off.
Dresdenís doing okay.
All of these other people . . . what I need
to do is put on a Josh [Weeden] mask and start
threatening them.
Listen, you people get back into line or youíre
going to get axed.
JMW: Do you think itíll work?
Jim Butcher: No, no it wonít.
JMW: I mean, in your universe they can always
come back.
Jim Butcher: Thatís true.
But so far the story is pretty much on track.
Weíre still going to do 20-ish books of the
Dresden files, kind of like the case books
like weíve seen so far, and then a big old
apocalypse trilogy at the end.
But yeah, things have been working out so
well, sticking to the outline that I made
when I was a college student, planning the
series, that Iím a little superstitious about
deviating from it now.
I mean, it seems to be working; you know,
itís not broken, so donít fix it.
JMW: Yes.
I think everybody would agree that it is working
very well, and please do not break it.
As youíve been going along with the series,
and maybe youíve touched on this, what has
been the greatest challenge?
Your minor characters, or have there been
something else about the series that you have
found unexpectedly challenging?
Jim Butcher: The most serious challenge is
keeping the continuity of the story world,
you know, keeping that in check.
Iíve got this group of very dedicated beta
readers, some of whom have . . . and the thing
is, what Iíve discovered, that fans keep
track of this so much better than a writer
every could, if only because fans for the
most part just get to see the final version.
A writer writes a draft and then another draft
and heís got an edited copy and goes back
and forth between him and the editor and then
thereís a line edit and then thereís a proof
to do.
So maybe there are seven or eight slightly
different versions of the book that heís
seen before the book goes to print.
So there are a lot of small details, and thatís
fine when itís 1, 2, or 3 books; maybe you
can sort of keep track.
But Iím working on book 15 of the Dresden
files here, so thatís about 85 slightly different
versions of books.
And a lot of times details will slip my mind.
And the beta readers have been absolutely
critical in helping me keep that stuff straight,
because theyíll jump right on it and nail
me to the wall with it.
Theyíll say, no, no, you canít do that.
You did this exact different thing; that characterís
always this color, or that color.
And that has been really an enormous boon
to me; itís vastly annoying and I couldnít
survive without it.
Itís one of those things that Iím very grateful
to have.
It drives me crazy, but I say thank you.
JMW: Are you going to turn them loose on something
like a world of Harry Dresden book when the
series is done?
Jim Butcher: Oh, you mean like some kind of
compilation?
JMW: No, like a bible.
Jim Butcher: Oh, thereís been talk of a Dresden
Bible, and I donít know if itís something
that will eventually get done.
Frankly I think the role-playing game made
a really good one.
There are two books to the role playing games
called Your Story, our World, and the Our
World book is basically just an encyclopedic
reference of the Dresden files of all the
different characters, and I will go to it
myself when Iím doing researchñthere and
the Dresden Files Wikipedia, which the fans
keep up.
Because again, they are so much better at
it than I am.
JMW: Okay, when I was listening to your panel
today I did not realize that the Codex Alera
was written on a dare.
Was it really?
(inaudible 9:00) poking it?
Jim Butcher: It was written on a bet, yeah.
And it was the Delray Online Writerís Workshop
in 1999.
It was before I got anything published or
sold, and so I was just one more unpublished
loud mouth on the Internet.
And there was a bunch of us having a big argument
on the writing list, and it was one of those
discussions where you just sort of hit caps
lock, you hit reply, and then hit caps lock
and start typing, you know; it was kind of
one of those talks.
And one side of the discussion was championing
the idea that the grand idea was what was
important in a book, and if you had a great
enough idea no matter how badly you wrote
it your book would be successful.
And they said, look at Jurassic Park; bring
dinosaurs back, itís a great idea.
And that was their example online.
The other side of the argument was saying
that no matter how old or worn out the story
or how many times itís been redone, if you
come at it, if the writer comes at it and
gives it his own perspective and his own spin
and his own creative uniqueness, he could
do that story again and make it awesome.
How many times have we seen good versions
of Romeo and Juliet?
And I was on the writerís side.
And so this discussion went back and forth
and back and forth, and finally the guy who
was leading the charge on the idea side said,
ìWhy donít you put your money where your
mouth is; why donít you let me give you a
bad idea, and then you can write it.
And you could show us how it works, since
youíre such a great writer.î And you know,
I was in my twenties and I didnít know too
much, and I was a loud mouth on the Internet.
So I said, ìOh, I tell you what.
Why donít you give me two terrible ideas
and I will use them both.î And the guy said,
all right, fine.
The first idea is lost Roman legion.
And Iím sick of lost Roman legions; the lost
Roman legions should have been found by now.
And thatís the first idea, lost Roman legions.
And so whatís the second idea?
He says, ìPokÈmon.î And Iím tired of PokÈmon.
And so, I took those two ideas and I started
putting together a story world, and I went
and found about lost Roman legion and I found
out basically what the nine Hibernian legion
was composed of.
You know, it was about half Romans and half
German mercenaries.
And I said, whatís going to happen to these
guys?
When they got lost they went to where?
The land of the PokÈmon.
Okay, great.
And so I started examining PokÈmon, which
is itself an idea mash up.
PokÈmon takes the Shinto religion where spirits
of the divine live in all natural things,
and have a certain amount of power and you
should respect them.
So a mountain has a giant spirit, a giant
Kami in it, and a pebble has little tiny one.
And you should respect them equally, but if
you disrespect the pebble itís kind of tiny
and whatís going to happen?
And they take that idea and then PokÈmon
mashes it with professional wrestling, and
thatís where PokÈmon comes from.
So I decided to take the Shinto part of that
idea and I put all these spirits in the natural
everything and in this world that they went
to, which I named Alert, and then I thought,
Iíve got to have a name for these things.
And I was watching Big Trouble, Little China
in the background and it was just the part
where the guys, the old Chinese advisors are
saying, well, all movement in the universe
is caused by tension between positive and
negative furies.
And I said, furiesñthatís a great word!
I mean, itís even Greco-Roman.
Iíve got to use that.
So I called them furies, and so that was where
I started.
I took this Roman legion and I dropped them
off in this world where these furies are,
and I gave them a thousand years to kind of
ferment to society.
And so they developed this kind of very bifurcating
society; about half of it was centered around
these great big cities, kind of Roman style
city settlements, and the other half was German
freeholds.
They were out in the countryside.
And that was how I built that world.
JMW: Okay.
Are we ever going to see that Space Opera
for viewers?
Jim Butcher: The Space Opera?
Weíll have to see.
Itís still on the table, and I still feel
bad.
Iíve got my protagonist whoís just ejected
from his ship, which had a reaction core that
was going critical.
And indicating orbit over the surface of the
moon, with a solar flare expected at any moment.
And heís been there for, I donít know, like
eleven years now.
JMW: That poor guy.
Jim Butcher: I know.
JMW: Heís just growing older and older . . .
Jim Butcher: Iím sorry, [Glen Cannon], youíre
still floating in that decaying orbit, but
donít worry, Iíll . . .
JMW: Get to you eventually.
Jim Butcher: Iíll get back to you sometime.
JMW: Okay.
I presume that the Cinder Spires is what youíre
working on now, right?
Itís occupying you full time; that an Harry
are occupying you full time now?
Jim Butcher: They are.
Right now Iíve got to get the next Dresden
Files book in because itís due in literally
in about 35 minutes, something like thatñabout
half an hour.
Itís due in 16 minutes.
Okay.
It probably wonít be in quite on time, but
Iím about 70% of the way through it, and
Iím going to finish it up in the next couple
of weeks.
JMW: Anything youíd like to add before we
close?
Jim Butcher: I just want to thank everybody
whoís been a reader of the books over the
years.
My readership has been really much more . . . you
guys have gone out and pushed my books on
more people.
I donít know whether to use drug dealer similes
to say what youíve been doing, or cult similes
to say what youíve been doing.
But either are kind of appropriate and thank
you very much for doing so.
Iíve got some of the coolest readers in the
world.
Interviewed by Jean Marie Ward
