Okay. So I'm gonna I'm gonna hit the record button here
Alright. Well, welcome everybody to tonight's Monterey Peninsula College Guest, author, series event I'm thrilled to bring it to you, as as I always am.
But even more so tonight, because our guest is is one of my own favorite writers.
I think I've reread Harry Dresden.
Maybe almost, I'm gonna say, almost almost as much as I've ever read Sherlock Holmes.
I compliment. Thank you.
So that's that's pretty done good yeah, he's an indelible character.
He's when I go back to when I need somebody to hang out with.
Make me feel good. Let me feel good about my own life, because this is rough our our guest tonight obviously is, is known to most of you.
Maybe all of you. He's fantasy.
Author of 3 novel series that I'm aware of the Dresden final series featuring Harry Dresden, the Codex Alara Series, and the Cinderspire Series, and a number any number of short stories and Collections, and Anthologies and Online, I think there are probably
Things on that. You can only read. Online is that right? That happens?
There might be one
Okay, alright. I don't think I've seen that one yet.
Plus I associated a spider-man book for for marvel.
You did
So, yeah, yeah, that was a book called The Dark is book called The Darkest Hours, and I got to.
I got to have the rhino. Have t on at Mace Cow, so it was kind of, you know.
It was a lot of lot of fun to do
Oh, now I have to look for this! When was that
2,004 2,005 more in there
Okay, everybody looked at when I I'm gonna find it.
That's for sure, so so so there you have it.
You can even go back and find Spider-man?
By by Jim Butcher before before we turn this over to Jim, I have to do a little bit of nuts and bolt stuff here.
The Guest Author Series at Monterey Peninsula College is a pure pleasure for me to direct for the college and for its humanities.
Division and creator writing program. I want to thank all those entities for for helping make these things happen.
Every semester. We try to bring 2 writers of pros or poetry to campus or to zoom to do what we're gonna do tonight to to answer questions, to talk about writing and it's it's been a it's been a thrill. And it's been a success.
We've got a lot of good writers on our Youtube page. Npc.
Guest, author series on Youtube you can go there and check it out, and, as I said earlier, Jim has graciously agreed to let us put this event there as well, so I want to thank Npc Overall and I want to thank the humanities.
Division, Creative writing program, the Monterey Peninsula College Foundation, and the Arts Council, for Monterey County, from whom we get a generous grant annually to help us to help us bring writers to you and to bring writers to the world Via Zoom I'm
Henry Marshall, and I'm I'm the director of the series and the creative writing program.
We've got classes online and on campus we're getting back on campus slowly but surely.
But we're going to keep our creative writing classes.
Online so people can take them from anywhere. And if you're interested you can go to Mpc.
Edu: slash creative writing and find out what we got and we don't want to see in our class alright with without further ado.
Tonight. It's a great pleasure for me, as I've said, to introduce Jim Butcher one of my one of my favorite novelists to you, so you can you can Hello, his brain to be picked to your benefit we intend to do this as largely a. Q.
A I think Jim is gonna talk a little bit first and then turn it over to the chat.
So as I said the question and answer session is gonna be via chat.
So if you have questions, please type them into the chat.
Now and when when we turn that way just and I'll be able to see your questions and you'll get to as many as you can alright welcome Jim.
What's it real pleasure to have here
Thank you very much. Good evening. Everyone. I just wanted to open with some remarks.
I mean. This is A. This is a writer's program.
So what this will be. A writers oriented talk, and I just wanted to talk a little about writing fantasy and the particular challenges of writing fantasy let me let me tell you, right now, writing fantasy is dead simple which should not be confused with easy simple and
Easier to very different things. Lifting the engine block out of a car is simple.
It's not very easy, so that's sort of the first place you start, that's sort of the the the the touch point where you gotta start with writing.
Fancy I mean all you have to do is build this believable world.
That is so, you know, so alive and so, you know, so sort of so metabolically active, that people could actually see it in their heads while you do it figure out the history of it all these different characters that are in it work out the the proper settings and all of that and then after you do all
Of that. Then you can start the work of writing an awful which you know is itself is another is another project that is simple, not easy.
There's a number of things that that I think are helpful to to to to know about, or at least to at least to consider before you get going, one of the most useful things pieces of of advice that I've ever gotten for writing came from Mark Twain and mark twain pointed out that when
You're writing it when you're writing in a fantastic element that you need to.
You need 2 familiar or touchstone factors for every fancy one that you have.
So what I'm writing here Dresden. It's like, Yeah, he's a wizard with phenomenal cosmic, power.
But you know he's he's got constant car problems, and he really has to worry about his bills, and that that is something that makes him you know that that makes him a little more reachable a little more familiar for the reader and as you as I've proceeded through the series
I've tried to continue using that, you know, with every for every fantastic element I bring in.
I try and bring in a couple of familiar mondane, everyday things that people will, you know, will will.
Readers will really so. I mean, that's that's one of the that's one of the rules of thumb that I work with a lot the next.
Is the next rule of thumb is the iceberg rule I don't know if if you're familiar with that.
But the idea is that for every you know, first part of a of an iceberg that you can see above the water.
There's 9 parts below the water that you can't see as a writer applying that to your writing.
That sort of means that you've got to do an awful lot of work in terms of knowing what you're world is knowing who your characters are.
You got to know all kinds of things about them that might not ever come out on the page.
But they will change the way that you that you see, and it brace these characters the way you present them, and it's going to create a much greater sense of barrier similitude for those people as you're moving along so the the twain rule.
The iceberg rule. I I applied. I applied both those as much as I can.
Also bar in mind that what you're doing when you're when you're writing a when you're writing a fantasy world and a fantasy story is essentially you're you're creating.
This whole little miniature cosmos of your own.
And then you are people. You're you're populating it with people and creatures, and all the other things that go into fantasy books, and then you're torturing them that's really the basis of writing a good story is people going through things that you wouldn't really want to
Go through with real life. So you you don't have to be an evil overlord to write a fantasy novel.
But it really does help, and I also like to consider the fact.
The idea that you know, maybe, but maybe by the act of creating this possibility, you know this is there by creating this fantastic world.
It could be if the whole parallel universe thing pans out that you're actually creating that world somewhere, and one of those characters might eventually come punch you in the nose sort of depending on how things work out so bear that in mind that's one of the risk we have to have
To accept, to move forward when you're writing.
When you're writing fantasy. It is extremely important that you get out and experience some elements of the of whatever it is you're writing.
It's very difficult to write to write something out of whole cloth, you know, just straight from your imagination.
It could be done. But oh, my goodness is it a lot of work?
So what I recommend is get out and experience some things and I'm not talking about going out and and jumping out of an airplane and stuff like that. All that.
's expensive. When I got started I had nothing, you know.
I was a poor college student who was sort of clunking along through grad school, working in all night.
Computer it job, you know, at the time I didn't have.
I didn't have the resources Stephen, go visit Chicago, the city I was writing about best I could do with some Chicago guidebooks, and then just start talking to people who live there but you can go out and experience things that you might not otherwise have run into
For example, you can drive out to the country some place where there's trees, or or or at least where there's if you're in California, at least where there's hills and get out some place that's away from everybody that's away from all the lights it's away from all the
Trappings of civilization that we have, and just sit down with your back to the forest as the subject goes down, and just let it get dark around you and let yourself feel all the things that you know your body is going to feel as a result of lots and lots of instincts that have been built into all of
us and that while that will not, you know that's not going to show you what it's like to to walk into the darkness of Laura that is going to show. That is going to show you what is it feel like when you know this is coming on we know that there are things coming out you know when
You start to hear the things that make noises. You know you might not be able to have a sword fight with an arc, but you know, you probably can show up at the Park where all those lark people are hitting each other with with foam swords and its phone swords and axes and so on and
Those lunatics are happy to let you join in.
They they want you to come in and get hit with with with phone source and access.
And then you can, and you can experience something of the of the confusion and the excitement of what it's like to be in that kind to be in that kind of confrontation it.
It's wherever you can, as much as you can with what you're writing.
Try and try and actually get out and experience something. Because if you've got that seed of experience, if you just got that little piece of grounding underneath you, then you're going to be able to to use that and to and to grow a a given scene or a given setup out of that
out, of that knowledge that you have by that you've acquired by going out being there.
You know I mean I was a wrangler at a horseback camp for many years, and you know, when I was growing up and and I operated in a a a performance Rodeo group called rodeo kids when I was a teenager and we did stunt and exhibition writing I learned
How to square dance on forceback, among other things, and you know, and that taught me something about square dancing and something about riding on on horses and a lot about getting bruised knees.
But but if you've got those experiences and and look at the stuff that you have in your own life as well, the stuff that you know is unique and and special, to you and look at those experiences and figure out how you can use them as a core, as as like I said, it's like the the seed of a
crystal, because once you've got once you've got at least that little bit you can grow from there and then at that point you know it really helps you make the writing hit on a much more believable and visceral level for your reader let's see, I highly recommend the
study of history, when you're when you're writing, when you're writing fantasy and to look at the different parts of human history, and how human nature is played out over the centuries, because while you know while our political systems may have changed our economic systems may have changed and our social systems have changed
over time, fundamental human nature has not changed. People have been people since, you know.
Since the beginning, and they will continue to be, as far as I could tell, far into the future.
So buys by studying history. You really get start to get an idea of how people operate, and if you can get somebody who's really good at giving history, there there are some people who are able you who just have the ability to make history come alive or make it breathe make it make it
Feel real. So, while you might not have know anything about the the war of the what it would be like to be in the war of the ring you could listen to Dan Carlin podcast he's the one who does hardcore history as he talks about world war one and talks about you know the experience of
What it's like to be in a Belgian village as the German army goes by in the great war so look at look at history!
Look at elimination of history, particularly look at characters and people of history, and remember everybody in history's got an axe to grind.
They all have a lens, and so you have to. And so you have to sort of balance what one person says with what another person says, and then my my final piece of advice for for fantasy off for fantasy authors is don't give too much weight to what Joe Joseph Campbell had to
Say he's the guy. That's the to hear.
With a 1,000 faces. He was a brilliant analyst of of writing and of stories, but he comes at it from the perspective of what is essentially a really really high aware audience member I like to compare him to to a critic of stage magicians.
Where he could go to that show and he could tell you all kinds of things about it.
But at the same time he was never actually creating the stuff.
He was never the magician on stage. He he never had the rabbit of his sleep, and there's so much more to it than just the presentation that the audience can see and you know if you're the writer you are the magician and and you got to know some things about about human psychology. About the way.
That people react to things in order to enforce, in order to present a story that is, gonna grab people and and drag them in
Okay, I think that's about it. As far as my my speaking goes.
I'm but I'm happy to answer questions to talk to you guys
Alright, hey, if if I can shamelessly exploit my position here and ask you a question.
Seems only fair. You set it up
First. Okay. Yeah. Why not? Right? You know you're you're talking about writing fantasy.
And obviously you like I was saying before you know 3 3 novel series, umpteen short stories.
You know my question for you as as a writer myself, and as a teacher.
Writing is
Do stories come from the same seed for you I mean, is it always a character?
You start with the situation setting. What what is it that gets you rolling
It's different things for me. There seems to be a lot of aud auditory queues.
So, for example, when I was trying to figure out the name for my my wizard protagonist that I was writing in this in this project, that I was doing for a college course that's where the dressing files originally came from was it was a it was a course called how to write a genre
Fiction, novel and and and and I wrote it.
For that class and I'm trying to figure out. Figure out a name for Harry Dresden, and I had just gotten done watching a movie called cast a deadly spell that came out on on Hbo.
And around 90 or 91 that that had, you was Gayle and herd produced it.
She was the one who did aliens and all these other things with James Cameron, and so it was this. Really it was.
It was this little th, this. It was a bit of a gem of a little movie.
It's a nice little cult movie. If you want to go watch it.
But at 1.1 of the characters is talking to H.
Philip Lovecraft, that pi that they've got going around fortys, Hollywood, that is full of magic.
You know the only guy there who doesn't do magic and one of the enforcers comes up to comes up to him and it, says Hey, he wants to see you, and and and it was just the the audio of that just sort of stuck, in my head, as I was you know filling out my
My character, sheet working out who this person was going to be, and I had.
I had him down pretty well. I just needed his name, and and so that that movie got over with, and so I started Channel, flipping and and welled up on an episode of Babylon, 5 where Bruce box Lightner with that gravely voice.
Is talking about all these different, all these different targets that the shatters are hitting in Babylon 5 and he and he lists a number of targets throughout history that have been hit for psychological reasons and one of the things he said was dressed in and I'm like Harry
Wants to see dressed in Harry and this like: Oh, wait, yeah, that's gonna work out, Harry Dresden.
That was how it got started. When I got started on the cinders fires that happened while I was on the way home from a lark I had a Mini band full of young men between 13 and 17 who are on the way home with me it was about it was about.
By about about 5 in the morning, and the sun was just starting to come up over in the east and to the west.
There was this huge storm rolling in we had a real low, overcast, and it was a lot lightning storm that was coming in, and and I'm driving north on on on I 35 in the middle of the country as this lightning storm comes closer and closer with these huge you know bolts
Of lightning coming down everywhere like this big monster on huge legs made of lightning coming at me, and and I had 9 inch nails playing in the background and you know it was kind of this industrial rock that was going.
And I'm just driving faster at faster looking at the storm, and because I know that if I get up to I 70 I can turn east and stay in front of it and not have to be driving not have to be driving through it, and as I was doing that the the first couple of chapters, of of the cinders
Fires just started playing out my head, and I got home, and even though I had't slept in a day and a half I got home.
I'm like: okay. I gotta write this first chapter while it's still still there and and got that started.
So you know, that mean your inspiration for for what you're writing come from it anywhere.
The Alera books got started because I got an argument with people online that I really wanted to win.
It was about 1998, and I was in the Del Rey online Riders workshop and at that time we didn't really know how the Internet.
Was going to interact with publishing rights, because, you know, if you publish something to the Internet had you had, you had just given global publishing rights to no one.
You know? How is that gonna work? And so it was.
It was, and the group was a bunch of writers, a bunch of would-be writers.
There wasn't actually a lot of writers there.
Occasionally actual writers or agents would come through.
And it was like Parana around me when the Brazilian, when the group would would would see that they were there.
But the rest of the time it was just a bunch of Internet loud mouths mounting off at each other as you do on the Internet, you know, and I I was one of them and there was a big argument happening and there were 2 sides and I was sort of the champion of one side and it was one of those
Discussions where you hit reply, and then caps, lock and then you start typing.
That's just sort of the way it went, and on one side of the argument was: this was this notion of the holy idea: capital capital!
I that if you're idea was good enough, it didn't matter how badly you wrote it.
The idea would sell, and that you should be pursuing these these incredible ideas, and as an example they held up Jurassic Park as look at the Dinosaurs reconstructed from from DNA that couldn't Miss you know that was there that was their side.
Of the art, and I took the other side of the argument, which was the idea that we only have a a basic number of actual stories, and what really sells those stories is not the story itself, because people are used to all kinds of different stories but the the creative spin that the writer puts on and I and I wrote how many versions of Romeo
And Juliet. Have you seen over the years, you know.
So that was the discussion. You went back and forth the back and forth, back and forth, and finally the other guy turns to me and says, Alright, Why don't you put your money where your mouth is how about I give you?
A terrible idea. Let's see you write it into a book that does well, and B.
I was. You know I was in my I was in my twenties at the time, and a lot more confident about what I knew than I am now, and I and so I kind of I kind of got all cocky and went back at him like and told him no I tell you what how about you give
Me 2 terrible ideas. I'll use them both, and the guys is all right.
Challenge accepted. He says: okay, first terrible idea is lost.
Roman legion. I am so sick of all the lost Roman legions, all the world, Roman legions should have been found by now.
So that's the first terrible ideas. Lost room in Legion. Okay, fine good.
What's the second one? And he says Pokemon, I can't stand pokemon, and so I so I said, Okay, fine. I'll take that.
I'll do it. And I went home and and said, Okay, So lost Roman legion.
I started researching them. They're usually talking about the Ninth tip Bernian legion that marks up north north north into Scotland and never came home and you know the the the smart money is is that either they decided that Scotland.
Was a lot nicer than Rome, and and they wanted to settle down, or else the Scots were proved to be much more ferocious than they expected, and and they got themselves settled that you know one way.
Or the other, but for for purposes of my writing I said, Okay, I'm gonna have a march off into a thunderstorm and vanish.
And where do they go? Land to the pokemon?
So then I went and looked up. Pokemon, and because my kid was watching it every morning, and he was just fascinating he was fascinated with it, and I knew it was going to be he was going.
To be kind of a big thing and Pokemon itself is a fusion of 2 ideas, which is first of all, the idea of commi, of of individual spirits that exist inside of all living things like a tree has its own individual commons a mountain has its own individual Commune a river as its own individual
Tommy, even a pebble has its own little individual spirit.
That which you should respect, but you don't. It's a pebble.
So what's it? Gonna do? But then they they took that idea of Tommy from the Shinto religion, and they merge with professional wrestling, and that became pokemon.
So I said, Okay, they march out to the land. The pokemon and I've got to come up with a I gotta come up with a good name for this and in the background.
There was a movie playing because I I often work with a with a familiar and often a very rhythmic or musical movie in the background, and and the movie that was playing in the background in this case, was big trouble in little china and it gets to the point where egg Jen says all movement in
The universe is caused by tension between positive and negative flooring.
So with furries. It's even Greco-roman.
I can use that and so I named my Tommy Furies and the Romans marched into the land where the Furies exist everywhere, and they immediately started doing road.
What Romans do which was conquering everything inside and building Rome.
And so I gave them about a 1,000 years to develop this very bifurcated society.
The legions at that time were about half Roman citizens, or about half Roman soldiers, about half German mercenaries.
So they developed the society. That was these big metropolitan centers surrounded by these big clouds of free holds around them.
They learned how to use the commie, and and it became sort of a replacement for a lot of their technology.
And I gave them a while to kind of kind of you know, to fight everybody who was around, and then run out of people to fight, and then fight each other for a while, and then settle down and that was where I started that stuff and I remember going back to that group about 3 weeks later, the guy because
It the discussion had been real quiet. The guys like, so what are you?
What are you doing with that over there? What do you think?
And I said, You know I think I'm really onto something here, but I don't want to publish it to the group, because I don't want to sell.
I don't want to sell my by. I want to sell my publishing. I don't want to lose my publishing rights, and the guy goes.
The guy replies to me and says, Oh, so in other words, I was right. And I went. Yeah, okay, Guy, you're right and he got to be right. And I got a 6 book contract and that that was how that worked out.
That's the way you want it to work out very nice alright.
Yeah kind of kind of yeah, I I find that just shutting up and writing does all kinds of good things for me.
You know it's like that. So I I try. And do that as much as I can
Good advice, good advice. What what can you see of the chat is the chat working for you?
Sure.
Let me pull it up here. Yeah, we've got.
We've got about 8 questions here
Sure.
Okay, that's what I've got. So you want to scroll through those and maybe grab something that looks compelling
Alright. Here's the first one from Ben Lilly, Lily.
Hi! Ben! Hey, Jim! In the dressing files, Bob, the skull becomes something of a personality representation of whoever has possession of.
It do you think that Harry is similarly similarly a personality representation of you?
They all are I have to build all the characters and pretend to be all of them.
I mean, it's really writing a book is is like making a movie, but you have to do everything, including including act all the parts you're responsible for the lighting and the mood and the setting and and how how things are framed and dependent you know what the camera angle is going to
Be all of that is, is on you as a writer, and and and that includes the characters themselves.
You kind of have to get into their heads and be able to figure out, you know who they are and what they're doing let's see, he's got a follow up question. Here.
Do you sit down at a specific time of day of day, and write every day?
Or do you need to wait for inspiration also? Do you like to work everything out in your head first, or just kind of flow as you go?
And okay, let me tell you would be writers.
Repeat after me, I don't have a muse.
I have a mortgage. If you wait for your muse, you're gonna be waiting a very long time.
There's other advice that says the Muse will come to you, but she has to find you working.
I either way waiting for inspiration is, it has not been a very profitable path for me.
I've done it occasionally, and it hasn't worked out very well, so I don't sit down at a specific time of day and write every day.
I've got 3 times a day that I I right before I go to sleep.
I write the first thing when I wake up in the morning and I pick another time at the day where I sit down and write.
I don't demand that I get a certain word count done.
What I do demand is that I sit down at those times and make an honest effort to create something new, and sometimes that means that I sit down, and I only get you know a couple of 100 words or something, done, or or maybe I've gone back, through and edited the the chapter that I'm working on and i've added another
Pairograph or 2 at the end. Other times I will find that you know that that the musical the views will find me working, and I might wrap off 2,000, words, in and out but the point is is is you have to you have to give yourself you have you have to balance both the the discipline of getting
The writing done with the freedom of not being too demanding on yourself, because because artists, you know our artistic stuff doesn't always just come out of nowhere.
Now, there's other writers who don't agree with me who work a completely different way, but I've found that I'm getting the most done work lately by by doing that by show it.
I'm gonna sit down in a specific time. I'm gonna sit down with my at my keyboard and I'm gonna make a genuine effort to get something done, even if it's just a page or page, and a half and if you do that 3 times a day, you know right now I'm
Averaging about a 1,000 words a day, and that's still ramping up.
I I hope to be able to do 3,000 words a day eventually, but that is an all that is, that is many pages, and and honestly, if I got done as solid 500 words a day you know 7 days a week that would be you know that would still be an awful lot of work getting
Done every year, and so so I would. I would recommend you gotta find what works for you.
But I was following Terry Cruz advice, where he says, but where?
He says, the first thing you have to do is get in the habit of going to the jym, you know.
Never mind actually lifting weights or anything. Just go to the gym and have a coffee there and sit down and check your mail, in zoom and eventually as long as you're in the habit of going to the gym you know going to actually exercise is going to start happening on its
Own and then you could start learning more about the exercise, and so on.
But what I find is, that if I, if I make myself go to the gym, if I make myself sit down at the keyboard, then that is much more.
That's a much more reasonable way for me to get work done.
Do you work everything out in your head first, or just kind of flows you go.
It's a mix before I sit down and start writing a book.
I always have to know the beginning. I always have to know the end.
I always have to know this big, flashy part in the middle, and then after that it's sort of like driving cross-country like if you just set out to drive somewhere.
And you don't know where you're going. You're never going to get there, but if I'm going to drive from Baltimore to Los Angeles, then I know I'm going to have to get on you know I'm gonna have to get on on certain Highways I'm probably
Gonna be on either route 66, or I 70 along that way you know you.
You know I'm gonna have to go through. I probably have to go through the Rocky Mountains at some point unless I decide to go to go way south and go through Texas.
Instead. But yeah, you will have a certain amount of guide posts, sign posts for you that you need that you need to know it's also helpful to know kind of what's coming up in the immediate future which I compare to having the headlights on your car on and you don't
Have to be able to see all the way to your desk but you do have to be able to say, see a little bit in front of you.
That said when I sit down to write a chapter I often can't get the chapter really started until I can visualize the whole thing in my head my my process is kind of front-loaded, so when I'm writing a chapter.
I I like to compare it to the way that the the samurai used to do painting where they would settle down in front of their canvas and they would stare at it and stare at it and stare at it and stare at it for 2 or 3 h, going over what
They're gonna do in their head, and then go course, and and you it's done so what I'm writing.
I will often have to be, you know, just stare at the chapter and stare at the chapter, and stare at the chapter until I can realize oh, this, is what's this?
Is the picture. This is what's going to be happening here and then, and then it comes out.
It just flies off my fingers and that that tends to work out pretty well for me.
That said, as I get as the series especially addressing files as the books.
There's been more and more books and things about longer and longer.
It's it's required more and more. Looking back at what's gone before to make sure that things stay consistent and believable in the story, and that that I've I've done that with the mixed amount of success.
But at the same time it's been really necessary to do that.
So I always go back through and reread the series before I start to do one, and and you know to kind of keep myself aware of all the different story threads and plates that I've got spinning you know on polls so that they don't slow slow down and
Wobble, and fall off. I don't know if you've ever seen a spinning plate act, but you might. You might.
You might check one out on Youtube. That's a lot of what we' do is, you know you've got one plate spinning on a poll and then you start another one and another, one and then this one over here.
Is wobbling, and you have to run back to it, and you know, Reinstall, the momentum to that plate, and then this one, in that one, and you keep putting more plates up in the air and and the the fun part is how long before the all these plates fall down and as a writer it's your job to
keep them all going until the until the end, you know, until you're a big finish.
Let's see from James Mcdaniel.
How do you adjust when you start? A story centered around a different a specific character, and find yourself putting more focus on a different character.
Well, James, those people work for me, and I've got I've got to get.
I've got a job to get done. I've got a story to get finished and I they've got to.
They've got to get on board and go along when other characters start.
One other care you. It's often happens that you find yourself inspired with specific characters who are tend to you weren't necessarily in your plan or in the foreground, or who are kind of upstaging other characters that happens that's happened to me, a lot and what I generally do
Is, I will go back and I will go back in time into their backstory and find some reason to tone them down a bit, for where we are right now.
But then I promise them. Look, I'm gonna add you into the story a bit more later see Waldo, Butters as a reference, you know.
He started off as a one-shot character. I essentially just ripped him off, ripped him straight out of the movie.
The prophecy with Christopher Walk, and that was another early ninetys movie.
But there was a medical examiner in. There was just who was, you know, just kind of.
He was comic relief and it was his job to be funny and give you information.
And then to move along, and that was what Waldo started off as, but I found myself liking him.
The readers were like, so so I kind of, you know.
In the first book he was in. I sort of tuned in down, but promised. Okay.
Listen. When I come back to you you know you're gonna be.
You're gonna be a full-on sidekick, and you're gonna get to have more time, you know, with the on stage, and and to do the funny things.
You do, and once I did that with them, then, you know, he kept playing out into into into more and more until he finally got to where he is, and and that's cool.
Because then you've got a character who starts off smaller and who grows as you go along, and that's that's one of the things that readers.
Love the most is seeing, the different characters grow and change.
So. Yeah. But remember, remember, those folks work for you. Don't let them.
Don't let them ruin your your business, but at the same time you have to you know they're like precocious children.
You can't just quash their enthusiasm either.
But you have to kind of redirect their energy until it goes into until it goes into something that's a little bit more productive for everyone.
Let's see just a fun question. Where will zoom vampires
Date vampires Mary werewolves that there, that's my advice.
How about that? That was from Zach Buzz. A nice to hear from you, Zack, for Mitchell Olson!
How far ahead did you think when you started the Dresden series, eg.
The outside. It sort of follows your iceberg thought.
Yes, exactly. I did a lot of building on the dressing files.
Essentially what I did was I went through and for each book I sort of wrote what the Oh, my gosh!
What was the midwest arcane the the the the the the tabloid, that actually wrote about real of it.
Supernatural events, or as close to it as they could get with the limited understanding, and I sort of went through and wrote Midwest, arcane headlights of like the major events that were happening in the supernatural world, in all this book and then, and then, once I kind of do what knew what those were going
to be. I went back through and started figuring out how dread and was going to fit into them.
There. I've also done an awful lot of of going back through history, and what is this like in the dressing files and the 7 years war in the Dresden Files was a lot of fun and I really, want to won't write that one but also a Doc Holiday and wider we're all involved in
I mean. That's how wider health got ruined was.
He was got way too involved with supernatural stuff, and you know, so there's all these stories in my head that I go back.
You know George Washington is a night of the Cross, and etc.
Etc. That I that I I really want to write some day.
I don't know if I'll ever get to them, but they sort of exist in my head as part of the background of the story, and and and I keep coming up with more and more and and it's it's at times overwhelming the whole beast of the shutdown situation I don't know if
You know about the beast of Shippa Dan, but it's a it was a in France.
There was a wolf-like beast that was attacking and killing that attacked and killed over a 100 people.
Something like that and that is actual. An actual historical event, and in my head it's like half a dozen different shapeshifters that are fighting for territory and doing all these other things through going on and you know the person who finally shows up to deal with them was an agent for
The White Council, and and and and and you know these things keep happening, and it's like, yeah.
But it's doing me no good for this book that I'm writing right now.
But Harry Dresden, recovering from this huge battle.
But anyway, let's see from Jonathan Oliver or Oligger.
I'm not sure how to pronounce it, but one of those 2.
Can you describe the revision cycles? You go through between starting a novel and sending the final copy to your publisher editor.
Awesome, like in second, the large experience buffer fighters are some of the friendly people I know.
Yeah they kind of are for me because of the way I frontload my process.
I probably have a little bit. It's a little bit the production cycle is a little bit bumpier, but at the same time, by the time I I get a solid chapter out it's usually and so I'll I'll I'll write that chapter I'll go through and scan it
For for grammar and syntax and stuff like that.
I mean all all your basic nuts and bolts rider stuff.
Then I send it off to my batter readers. My beta readers go over it, and the way I have my beta group set up it's it's on a web page.
They fill out a form. The form just says, What did you like about this chapter, and then it has a text box.
They can enter, and the second one is, what did you dislike about this chapter as a text box they can enter, and then the last one is, Do do you have any questions about what about what's going on? And then?
They can put their questions in there, and I find that by, and it's a very it's a very generalized sort of feedback, and and I have found that over time by keeping that same format I've been able to learn kind of how to diagnose their reactions because sometimes you know
there's things that they disliked. It's like I'm like good.
I wanted you to just like that, you know, so nice to things that they like that.
I go? Why would anybody you know what you're the audience?
Okay. I'll figure out how to put more of this in, because that's sort of what you're doing is you're you're riding 2 people, and then, especially the last one the do you have any questions when they come up with questions i'll know his life, if i've sort of poked him
in the right spot to get the reaction that I need for them to be interested in.
What's coming up? And so between those 3 things I usually have a pretty good I usually make a pretty good analysis of how well the chat is working or not. Working.
How well a story is working. You're not working, and then I get all their feedback back and they they will point out inconsistencies.
They will often see things that I that I missed completely.
I've got a couple of people who are so good at at at continuity that you know they'll say okay.
But back here in book 5 page, 4 paragraph, you know.
Page, 14 paragraph, 3. This is what you said in it directly contradicts what's in there, and I'll have to be oh, God!
Yeah, they're right. How do I get around that? I I find that the feedback that annoys me the most is usually the most valuable.
So occasionally I have to walk away until I'm done.
Being in a snit, and then I will come back and look at it and go.
Yeah, they're right. And then have to start fixing it.
But I've got some of my you know some of my best revisions in my best.
You know my best retoolings out of that.
So I get that back from them, and I will.
I will go through and try and incorporate everything they said.
Then? What it's all doing. And then, when the stories I do that chapter by chapter, and then, when the story is all done, I'll go through and sweep it for consistency from beginning to end you.
Know with with a couple of with a couple of read-throughs, and then after that it goes off to the editor, and, generally speaking, I've been able to turn in scripts that are fairly clean and don't have a lot of vending process to do occasionally you know
Occasionally the the professional editors will find things that I'll be like.
Oh, no! I kind of go fix that, and occasionally I run into other problems like I misspelled a character's name the first time I saw the first time it showed up and then the editor corrected.
The name, to the, to the incorrect spelling.
You know, 150 times through the course the novel and I've got to go fix that.
But that's just sort of part of the standard.
The standard frustrating part of of doing the job, and and that's okay.
You just gonna have to learn how to put up with that.
It's all it's all there to to make your work better and stronger in the end, and and so far I've had a I've had a lot of success with it
From Bettina. A draw, Adronia or a dragna.
Hello. You mentioned basic story molds. And I looked at the basic story plots.
How do you use that knowledge and integrate that into your magician?
Strict or process. There's still an awful lot of there's still an awful lot of instinct and and and creative artistry.
That goes into telling a story. There are there are, I think there's like 6 or 7 basic stories I I think there's 7 of them, but one of them is self discovery, and I I don't I don't find that to be a terribly useful.
Story mold for telling fantasy, stories, although other people probably would.
But I'm I'm I'm a little.
I'm a little more blunt and blunt, and more of a blunt instrument than that, as far as integrating it into the process, you have to learn.
You've got to go through, and you've got to learn the craft of of of storytelling, and that's including the for me that is mostly working very hard on incorporating seen proper scene structure and proper sequel structure into the books seems structure is basically just how you set up any given
Scene and the scene is when a character is off pursuing a goal, and runs into some sort of some sort of opposition while while he's going off to do it.
You know Harry's going off to find information. But John mark home and his boons get in the way, and they don't want it.
They don't want to share it with them. And how does that get resolved?
And scenes have scenes have, I think, 4 basic outcomes that you can get, because that there's there's an inherent question in that scene Eric's going off to find information.
Will he get it? And the worst way to end the scene is with yes, because if he just goes out and does things that's not fun to read about, so you you're very used you very rarely have a yes, ending to the scene until you get to the very very end of the story you
Know is he going to save the day? Yes, he's going to save the day.
That's okay. Then you can. Then you can use a yes at the end.
But it's far more interesting to use to use some of the other answers.
The next most non useful answer is No, because you know he's going out to get the information.
Does he get it? No, he doesn't get okay. So which is, you know, there's good there there's good conflict in a situation like that and conflict is always interesting to read about.
But it also kind of hits the wall and sort of kills your momentum and and your character has to stop and circle back and figure out a way around over through whatever that no was that stopped it the far better answers are yes, but you know a a a yes, but answer.
Would would look something like Harry, dressing goes out to deal with John Marconne and Mark home, agrees to give him the information, but he wants something from Dresden, first, and then that gives that leads you on to another bit of story that is going to and Is going to happen very smoothly and
very logically and rapidly. It's going to draw the reader in, and then that my very first, my very favorite answer to the end of the story scene is No.
And furthermore, you know which is not only does he not get the information, but he doesn't get the information, and he he he pisses off Mark Cone some more concepts you know mark Hone warns one of the enemies. That he's.
Coming and makes this whole situation even worse, the more. No. And furthermore, as you can use the more you're torturing your character, and the more I think the more inherently interesting it is, for the readers you go along.
Then you that's that's incredibly important.
Knowing that scene structure. But it's also the easier bit of riding.
The hard bit is writing what my writing teacher, Debbie Chester called sequels and sequel simply means what comes after.
So you get done with the scene. You get your scene.
Answer, and then you start writing. How your character reacts to that scene, intellectually and emotionally, and the the basics of it are the basic webinar that you have to go through the process of writing your characters reaction in the same general psychological process that human beings go through whenever we run
Into something, if you've ever been in an automobile accident, you you know what this process is, and the first reaction you have is instinctive.
It's you know. There's there's been squealing tires and a crash and broken glass, and your instincts kick in, and you might not be fully in control of what you're doing your instincts And your emotions are sort of the first reaction to everything because
that's the way we're built as human beings, you know we if we, if we stop to think everything through it to think everything through our ancestors would have been eaten by saver 2 tigers and what not so the first thing that the first thing that you react with that was your
instincts, you know it's time to fight. It's time to flee that's the sort of that's the sort of reaction that you have first.
Then, after you go through, you have your intellectual reaction to it.
Oh, my gosh! I've just been in a car wreck.
Okay. I've got to look around. Is anybody hurt? Am I hurt?
Do I need to go get help? Do I need to call the police what do I need to do?
And that's your that you know. That's that's that the intellect coming into play after your emotions about their say, and then, after that you kind of can stop and review well, hey?
Wait a minute. Was this wreck my fault. Oh, my gosh!
Or or was there fault? Should I be angry about that?
And you sort of go through and review that situation, and then after you've gone through those processes, then you make a decision about what to do next, and then that decision is okay, I'm gonna get out. Of the car and see if I can help that Guy or i'm gonna stay locked in my car and call
The police right now because he looks really angry. Whatever that is, you decide on your next course of action, and that next step decision leads you into your next scene, because now, your characters decided on the course of act they have a goal and now it's your job as a writer to create the the the opposition to that
goal, and you can just go through I mean you can just go through writing scenes, sequel, scene, sequel, scene, sequel, and and and go through a book and you'll be able to tell an engaging story.
That makes sense that's logically supported that fits in with character, and that people are going to be interested in and enjoy.
And the way that you do different genres is by spending different amounts of time at the various points of that sequel.
So if you're if you're reading a Sherlock Holmes novel, for example, Sherlock spends an awful lot of time in that intellectual portion of the of the sequel he very he doesn't do.
A whole lot of the emotional stuff. If you're writing a romance, you're going to be really really heavy on on the emotions, and the intellect is going to come in in a secondary fashion.
You can see how this, how this mix of you know.
If if you're doing, if you're doing an action novel of some kind, then that just you know, getting to that moment of decision choice and figuring out what the choice is going to be that pushes you forward you know that's going to be vital to you so th those are you know those are sort of
the 2 basic elements it's seen structure, sort or scene structure, sequel structure and once you start learning those and playing with those you really you know, you really get to have a whole lot of fun with your with your with your readers because you get to you get to bring them along on that roller
coaster with the character, and it all makes sense. And that's really kind of the important thing is, the reader doesn't have to agree with your character or think that they are your character, but they do need to see.
That your character is doing stuff that makes sense and is consistent with the with the human experience
Let's see, just in Parker. Hello, Justin!
What advice could you give? Broadly speaking about developing rules for a hard magic system?
Well, my advice to you would be to listen to some of Brandon Sanders lectures on this very topic, because when it comes to developing those kinds of systems, Brandon is the absolute master and he will be able to he will have far more insights for it for you that I will that said when
I'm developing it. I try and do my best to pick the they do when you build the elements of a hard system to make those elements friendly with drama, because you know, if if people are just doing magic in the dressing.
Files, you know, if they they say some words and some things explode.
That's one thing. But if you know that magic comes from their emotions and that they can't do anything that they don't believe that they can and should do with magic then Badge becomes a statement of who carters, are and what they're and what they're doing with their life, and
That you know that that feeds so much more into the story that just than just having them be able to throw a fireball once the Wizard gets to Fifth Level
And but but other than that, you know. Remember, remember that you want to tell a good story and good drama, and build those drama elements into into the your your magic system.
It otherwise. If you just make it just like engineering that is no more complicated than a gun, and you know, while while you can write it that way, I think it's a lot more fun to to to make it play with the characters and who they are myself other people going to disagree with me
in that's cool. If we all wrote exactly the same way with a boring world, let's see from Ray appears what was your favorite book to write in each series.
Tough, which one is my favorite child. You know I will say that somewhere a lot more fun than others I really enjoyed writing battleground just because it was all blood and thunder and epic epic.
Stuff it was my warm up epic, Apocalypse.
Let's see deadbeat was a whole lot of fun to write, because I've been looking forward to doing a software T.
Rex for the longest time I had seen a special on on Sue on the History Channel, because of you know, when the History Channel actually did history, things and that had been something I gotta use that the Dresden Files and I've been waiting like 5 years to use it you know i've got other things
Coming up in the dressing files that I've been waiting 30 years to to hit people with, or close to 30 years, now that I'd be waiting to I mean just these soccer bunches that are coming.
Is like oh, yes, I've been looking forward to this for so long.
So I I think the next book is almost always the the one that I'm looking forward to most, but also changes.
Changes was like that, because I was I was. I was bringing that sucker punch for a long time, and I was.
I was ready to throw that one for a long time, and I'd been putting it off for the right moment, and when I finally found it it's like, oh, yes, here here's here's where how we do it for Alara, I think my favorite book.
Was the third one, which is curses theory, cause that was really the first one where where my protagonist Toby actually gets out and and becomes you know, sort of an actualized adult where he's making life and death decisions and he's got you know he's got these horrible
Choices, to make, and he's you know. He finds himself with all this authority that he's not ready.
For? And how do you handle and for cinders fires I don't know which is, gonna be my favorite yet I'm I'm having a really good time working on number 2 right now.
It should be done by Christmas. Let's see. Let me get some water here
I think one of my favorite books to write of all time was that Spiderman Book though just because I've been, I've been a spidy fan since I was a wee thing and to actually you know my my editor came to me at Dragon, Con one year and said Jim I've been put
in charge of the Spiderman books by Marvel, and I'd like to know if you'd like to.
Yes, yes, I would. I want to write Spiderman, and then, anyway oh, wait!
Were you going to ask me to write Spider-man?
She's like yes, actually I was like oh, thank goodness, I I feel less foolish.
But to actually get to be entrusted with one of those iconic characters, and to and to go I mean I did so much research, on that I read 15 years Worth of Spiderman comic, books because I could justify them and they were tax deductible going back and buying
the and it was. It was perhaps the most fun project I've ever had.
I I really enjoyed that one. Let's see from Christine Mullen.
Hey, Jim! How are you? I'm doing well, Christine, thank you.
What do you do if you get stuck on where to take the plot?
Ig. Eg. You have the beginning the end, and maybe some of the middle.
But but and coming up blank, pulling the threads together.
Thanks so much. Okay this is a this is a dilemma that my writing teacher Debbie, would have called the great swampy middle because the middle of the story.
It's it's often where your story wanders off track, and you've got to kind of you've got to kind of drop pull everything into focus.
You're you're laying out all the elements.
It's like setting up dominance, you know. I mean the setting them up is so boring, and it takes so long, it's so much harder than knocking them down.
But the way that I the way that I get through the big, swampy middle is is that I have my big middle scene planned and the big.
Middle is capital. B. Capital. N. So you know a proper for a proper Bm.
You've got to. You got to have kind of this big event.
Planned in the center of your book that once that that when once it happens you're kind of at the top of the roller coaster, and then, after you hit that big middle of all it sort of feeds into all the rest of your story down your climax, and then you know that part, is easy to
write that parts funder. I easier right. But in order to get to the big metal there's a number of different techniques.
You can employ one of them is to just sort of line everything up toward that big metal.
There's others that are introducing like kind of a mini plot to get you to that big middle that will lead you there that that will be something that will be more or less book ended within within the structure in the middle of your book for example you know oceans
11 the movie oceans 11. When they they, they, they run into the this big problem where the city has discovered how to keep the power on.
If they fix the problem that the robbers will going to exploit, and so they have to go off and steal and emp device from from a university and that's sort of and that becomes sort of this bridge from they've run into all these problems.
And they're, you know, in their plan to okay, here's where the plans going to get going because it's back online.
You can also use characters that get introduced that kind of help carry you forward from one element to the next, and these are characters who generally tend to be very, very noteworthy, very very kind of outrageous and over the top think edna mode in the
Incredible Edna. Mode is what gets is what gets the story from, you.
Mr. Fantastic is, is keeping his superhero identity secret from his family while he's here, Mr.
Credible. It was keeping his identity secret from his family while he's going out and doing all these missions, and Edna is the one who kind of helps.
Blow that that secret, and who gets who gets elastic girl involved in Mr.
Incredible storyline, and then the kids come along for the ride, and that she is the is the device that gets through the to get them through the great swampy middle to the end.
So your own in your own individual, great swampy middle is going to be your own individual problem.
No great, swampy middle is the same, but those are those are 3 different tools that you can use to kind of help you get through it either be aiming for that big middle and just sort of building toward that use that that outrageous character to sort of help you get somewhere or throw in the Mini
Plot that helps breach the gap between. Okay, I've got everything set up to wind. The wind do things really start happening in the story
Yeah, if I may, Jim, since we're coming into the last minutes here, I don't.
Wanna if you past our agreed time. But I think we're looking at chat, so I don't think you're seeing everything I'm seeing, and I'm not seeing everything you're seeing so I don't know how I screwed that up, but if I may just
A lot of these are direct messages or direct message to me, so missing.
Okay.
That is, is there one that you'd like me to hit
Well, there's yeah. There's there's actually a number of questions to touch on the same thing.
Then I think you can probably just answer very darn quickly.
Okay.
But satisfy a bunch of people. People are interested in your thoughts about the existing Dresden files.
TV series, and whether or not there's going to be another one
I hope that there will be another. I would like there to be another one.
However, I'm not going to be involved in one where I am not directly interacting with the writers.
That said the existing series. You know there were so many things they did right. I I but I don't know if you know this story, but about 2 weeks before they started filming.
They they changed leadership on for a for the production team and the guy that they put in charge had just come off of charms.
So he was pretty hot at the in Hollywood at the time, and they put him in charge of the story, and the first thing he said was because originally it was going to be.
A it was going to be a serial, and we were going to do Stormfront and full moon and sort of interweave those plots through the season, and then sort of have this big crazy shadowman and Loop guru confrontation at the end that was gonna be real really
Cool but then they put this new guy in charge, and he said, No, we're gonna do this episodic and they said we've only got 2 weeks before we start shooting we don't have time.
To rewrite everything you just said. Oh, just change the order of the episodes around change the change.
The names of the characters, and give them to different people.
It'll be fine, you know. So I was I was a little disappointed with how that turned out there was, although there were some things they did right. There were some characters they did very well, I really enjoyed my time on the show that production.
Crew was fantastic, but then they they went.
A lot of those folks went over from dressing files to the Murdoch mysteries.
I don't know if you guys know Murdoch mysteries, but it's it's a great Canadian show produced out of Toronto and and that show went on for 15 years and I'm like oh, only they'd let us do the story right so but if we do another one in the
Future. It's going to be with me as involved with it.
At least as involved with it as Martin Luther, King's
So what else do we have
Question about writing, fantasy set in a real world place.
How much Chicago research do you do, and are you meticulous about keeping to the facts, or do you alter Chicago for your stories
I do quite a bit now, because I have. But but then again, I also have more contacts in Chicago.
At this point. So these days I'm quite a bit more meticulous, and not only not only have I actually gotten to visit Chicago often but there's so many more resources online that are available.
Now, when I was writing cold days, I think it was.
I had a scene where Waldo Butters was fleeing down the street, and the Janasqua is there, and he takes a car.
For I think with skin game. He kicks a car in front of butters, and I thought That's that's good story.
And I was writing that up, and I said, Wait a minute.
Let me let me go check, and I went down and got on Google Earth and and you virtually drove down that street.
And as I'm through virtually driving down the street, I'm looking left and right, and seeing no parking signs all the way along this whole stretch of the road, and I'm like oh, gosh I can't have him kick a car in front of him what am I gonna do and then I said oh, they've got
These giant concrete planters. That'll be fine.
That'll work, too. And so I got to, you know.
Make a a better detail in one of the short stories I've got a hostage situation on top on the roof of a building and and so I was able to to again get on Google Earth and kind of go all the way around this building and figure out okay, if I've got a hostage
Situation here. I'm going to want to remove this light and that light.
I'm gonna want to leave this one here so that somebody has to show up in it will be vulnerable, and I can shoot them if I want to and sort of went through.
This whole thing, and and later I got contacted by by a captain in Chicago in the Chicago Swat team, who said, Hey, I need to know who you talk to about setting up this about setting up this hostage thing because we like to keep track of people with that kind of knowledge and
I said, Oh, I'm sorry, man, I just sort of did it myself when I load using Google Earth and and what I know about call of duty.
And the guy goes. Oh, man! I hate the Internet the world is getting so much more dangerous, so that you know stuff like that happens.
But yeah, I I'm doing better research now. I don't mind you know it earlier in the series.
I could afford to go to Chicago. I was just too poor, so there are some things that I screwed up like having a parking lot around Brigley Field.
You know I grew up with a job at Royal Stadium.
You know I was like low on the totem pole as a vendor, but you know, so I would be selling icy cold.
Cokes, when it was 40 degrees and windy, but but you know who would build a stadium without a parking lot around it?
The answer is: Chicago. Chicago would do so now, I know, but I try, and I try to be a lot better now and then things that I miss.
I I I try and find a way to work into this story so that there's there's some reason that things are like that
Well, else we got
Forgot I was muted. I have a question from Eleanor Foreman about the law.
Is that a title that resonates for you
Yeah, that's my that's my most recent that that just came out last summer.
Okay, when will the law be available for libraries to purchase the New York Public Library would like to but have no way to
It's going to be that's gonna be a novella that is going to be working to the next collection of of shorter pieces.
So we you know we've had side jobs and briefcases. And now I'm gonna have to come up with a malady name for a third one, I promise myself I wouldn't but I keep writing these short.
Bits because I get inspired so now I have to write enough to actually go into a collection.
But I'll I'll do that before too much longer. I hope
Okay. Here's a really good question. I don't know how you know.
If you can answer this one concisely. But Carol, Korea, Morris asks what it?
What? What would you tell an aspiring writer not to do?
What are the traps to avoid
Oh, my gosh, well, don't wait for inspiration.
That's one
Don't try and chase trends in the industry like if somebody tells you you know, Thistopia, thistopia novels are really hot right now don't try and chase the Dystopian novel unless that is something that is you know that is going to speak to
you don't abandon a novel because somebody tells you.
Oh, vampires are so out, vampires have been out since the nineties, and yet they keep coming up with new vampire novels.
Your new vampire movies to vampire Sears.
So don't listen to that too hard. LED: I think that's it.
That would be my biggest piece of advice is, don't try and chase don't try and chase things in the industry right?
What is gonna speak to you right. What you believe in what the things that make your that make your creative soul happy, and then make your your child jump up and down and glee.
You know, write those stories because they're you're gonna you're gonna be able to put the most energy into that.
You're gonna be able to to to give that the most effort, and as you're getting started, that's that's one of the more important things.
Even if that story never does sell. If that's the story that gets you into writing and get you get you used to to working with the tools of the craft.
That's the story you need
Please do.
If I may, I'm going to ask one more question, as as we wrap up for this evening, and with with all gratitude, this one's for me, this is just bugging me and maybe the answer will teach us all something about the publishing.
Industry, but in the Harry Dresden books. He doesn't wear a hat.
So why, on every book cover is he wearing a hat
Alright. That is because the art director decided that the perfect visual shorthand for Wizard private eye, because that was the that's the that's what I'm writing.
Is wizard Private Eye. When the series started, and they decided that the perfect visual shorthand for that was the Wizard staff and the Private eye.
Fedora, and then if you put those 2 things together, that was the that was the best way to Grant to to tell people we're looking at the series.
This is what that story is about, and I'm actually I'm going to work the Fedora, and eventually so we'll we'll get there
I was wondering if that was going to be the like.
The final putting on the superman costume sort of a moment.
Yeah.
Yeah, in the big trilogy at the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're we're gonna have the Fedora in.
Okay. Well, thanks for answering that
Certainly no problem. Hey? What a pleasure to be with you guys tonight!
Thank you so much for inviting me
Well, hey, it was. It was a pleasure talking to you and hearing your your really excellent answers to all these questions, and thanks everybody for asking the questions we're we're really grateful to you Jim for being here tonight and everybody please watch for this on on Youtube you can watch it again.
You can tell people to where to find it. I'll try to have it up there within a week, and also, you know, keep in touch with the Npc.
Dot Edu, and watch for our future guest. Author events, we do these twice a semester.
This is the last one this semester, but in the spring we'll have 2 more writers, and we'll you know we'll always meet with you give you an opportunity to ask questions.
Jim. Thanks very much. It was a pleasure talking with you tonight.
Thanks, sir. Alright, be safe everyone. Good night.
Good night. Good night. Everybody.
We're looking forward to more briefcases. Thank you.
Good good night.
Good night!
Thanks for your time.
Thanks, Jim.
Thank you.