I WENT TO SEE JIM BUTCHER

[luciazephyr]

And it was awesome, let me just say. It was a great night. I have three pages worth of notes on what he talked about, so there will be spoilers under the cut, though not for Ghost Story as he was extremely tight-lipped on that.

But you're going to want to hear this. I know something about John Marcone that is tres exciting.

What I Learned:

1. Let's just get the biggest out of the way: One of the upcoming books is going to deal with Mirror universes and if JB has his way, it will be called Mirror Mirror, off the Star Trek episode. Harry will break another of the Laws and in the process will maybe meet one of the AU Harrys mentioned in the RPG book and an AU John Marcone. This is where Marcone's real name will come from.



2. Little Chicago and who saved it will come back in around Book 20.



3. RE: breaking the Laws-- JB said he actually has one book dedicated to breaking each Law.



4. The thing with Susan in DM, the sex scene, was inspired by JB hearing about how much flack Laurell K Hamilton got, and about how "a BDSM sex scene couldn't possibly contribute to the plot of a novel" and JB took that as a dare.



5. JB said he would rewrite the first two books if he could, but thinks if he did, they would suck.



6. There's an upcoming short story trilogy wherein Harry gets Bigfoot as a client and has to help him deal with his offspring, sounds funny.



7. His dream casting for Harry is a 1970's Harrison Ford or "Captain Tightpants". HIS DREAM CASTING FOR THOMAS IS MATT BOMER. So the fandom called that one.



8. Okay, any oblique references to events in the books ("someone saw something in a lake in Minnesota") are him leaving him space to spin-off into short stories.



9. JB would like to write a spin-off or short story about Eb and the French-Indian War.



10. The knife Harry uses to kill Slate in Changes is Morgan LeFay's athame. It is not The Athame. BTW, "LeFay" is a title in the wizarding world.



11. Even JB is currently unsure who the Swords are going to. He has a few possibilities in mind and is trying to figure out which would be the most fun.

I got two books signed, GS and a paperback of DM I bought at the event. I walked up and said, "Well, Mr. Butcher, you promised if I showed up, you wouldn't punch me in the face."

He evidentally knew who I was, as he said, "Ah, but I said nothing about kicking!"

Then I asked him about Comic-Con, got my signatures, and thanked him for a great night.

So that was FUN. If nerve-wracking.


but omg those spoilers, holy shit ♥

ETA: Another thing: JB got his hair cut! He looks really good. It's a great look for him, really.

Comments

[greyeyes]

OMG AU HARRY AND AU JOHN AND JOHN'S REAL NAME!

Holy shit is right! You were very brave which doesn't surprise me at all ♥. Thanks for the info!

[greyeyes]

Oh, and argh, I can't believe even he doesn't know who's going to get the Swords! I'd feel better if there was a plan!

[polarisnorth]

JOHN'S REAL NAME. MIRROR UNIVERSE. OMG SO EXCITE. Ah, fuck, I'm finally going to have to finally read Changes, aren't I? I suppose I'll wait to see your reaction to Ghost Story though.

That was pretty damn brave of you! I'm glad he was good about it. ♥

[luciazephyr]

So far I am really enjoying GS, not gonna lie. It's a lot better than some of the previous books.

[thisfishflies]

MIRROR!AU. THIS WILL BE AWESOME.

Like, all the tropes. He needs to hit all the sci-fi/fantasy tropes.

Also fuck yeah more Marcone. Like, we need all of it. Just, maybe a few dozen Marcone books. Plus ore Gard. Actually, Gard needs her own books, too. Just her doing all the paperwork Odin requires (because it is a srs bzns) between kicking total ass.

[jamethiel]

>:(

LKH ruined the good books she'd already written for me. And I am NOT a prude--I like my smut! But this was just bad. Badly written, bad sex. And the heroine became STUPID and turned into a Mary Sue.

I'm only up to the second book, although I have up to book 4? I'm... aware that it's problematic in places, but tell me Harry doesn't turn out to have the penis'd equivalent of the Vagina of Levelling that is present in all LKH books now?

[cyprinella]

Nah, said sex scene is like the last time he gets laid.

[luciazephyr]

No no no. No. There is VERY little sex in these books. Out of the thirteen, I can only think of two semi-explicit scenes.

[jadelennox]

you are so BRAVE. You identified yourself to him!

(Seriously, I've had anonymous altercations with an author -- interestingly, *also* about me pointing out racial ickiness in his work and him basically responding by saying OMG YOU CALLED ME THE WORST THING EVER WAAAH -- and I would never dare to identify myself to him.)

[binz]

Oh man, my SUPER EXCITE also comes with JB DON'T TOUCH THAT WHAT WHAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING?, which is a giant shame. BUT! Mirror universe! All the Star Trek jokes! Official canon for alternative universes! All the John!

And Eb. <3 Grumpy old spy man and his bestie with benefits LTW getting into rousing trouble by way of family tradition!

And considering Merlin is a title (modernly, at least) etc, I am disproportionately chuffed by what it means that LeFay is as well.

I have a DEEP AND PERSONAL CONNECTION to sasquatch (a la b'gwus but not really. i have a 'loved those stories but they belong to a lot more people than me'- connection. and there is Monkey Beach so they are totally for everyone and that's awesome.) so WATCH YOURSELF, BUTCHER. mess with the bull. get pouted at over the internet.

and apparently I've found all the caps.

And I am seriously holding out for a sword for Butters, so at least there's a chance. ;)

[luciazephyr]

LeFay as a title, he said, is basically attributed to people who are considered crazy by wizard standards. In general, wizards either die early or they learn to be careful and conservative and make it to old age. People who don't play it safe and hang out with dangerous beings like the Fae and still survive are LeFay.

About the Swords, he did say he was still trying to figure out which set-ups would be the most fun, so I think Butters has a shot.

[grenegome]

Oh my. In my head, the mirror universe is totally one in which they're dating. I know it's not going to happen, but it totally totally is.

[luciazephyr]

I doubt that, but you KNOW there is going to be buckets of unintended UST and then harry will come back to his own universe, go see John and say, "Hey there, [real name]," and John will stare and I WANT THIS BOOK

[grenegome]

One of his quiet internal freakouts! And another of his secrets binding him to Harry. Eeeee! I am excited.

[killerkaleidoscope]

Holy cats that's awesome! I'm glad it went well!

*laughs* Matt Bomer truly is Thomas in human form. One of the actresses on the show--I think the woman who plays El?--did some good-natured grumbling once about how everyone else in the show is lovely but they still have to spend two hours getting made up, but Matt Bomer, quote, "rolls out of bed looking like a Greek God". It's uncanny. I have a friend who's so unnerved by the man's unnatural prettiness that she refuses to watch a second of White Collar.

MIRROR UNIVERSES. ALTERNATE UNIVERSES. INVOLVING HARRY AND MARCONE and serious UST, c'mon, we all know what Mirrorverse AUs are for. Excellent things are excellent.

I'm trying to think of Butcher writing the French and Indian War and, uh, "not sure if want" definitely applies. But ooh law-breaking! You know what this means, right? A TIME TRAVEL EPISODE. I'm putting money on meeting Murph's dad.

Question: when did Dresden start working in Chicago, exactly? I know he started out as a kind of assistant PI to Nick Whatsisname, but do we have a timeline on how long that was?