GenCon 2014 M&G

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Saturday
7pm
Marriott Indy
(NOT JW MARRIOTT)
Florida Room
Supplying food & soda/water
BYOB

Sorry this is so late.
Coulda SWORN I had put in a notice before now.

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Have ordered sandwiches and pizza.

Also, have picked up:

Coke
Diet Coke
Pepsi
Sprite
Dr Pepper
Lemonade
Water

Plus plates, a small amount of plasticware and napkins.

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Just got back from the CoH M&G.
It ran 5 hours (which we couldn't do in a restaurant).
There was much gabbing and reminiscing.
We saw about 35 people.
Good food, good drink, AWESOME SWAG (thank you Black Pebble!).

Hope to see everyone back next year if possible!
Burnt now so no pics.  Will try tomorrow evening after teardown!

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I had a really good time meeting you all.  Took a bit for me to warm up, but everyone was so lovely and nice and funny.  Thank you all for making a con-newbie feel welcome.

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I mentioned to a few folks there that I would type up and post my notes from the Jim Butcher Q&A at Gen Con.

THAR BE SPOILERS HERE!!


The next book has not been started yet, but will be called "Peace Talks" and is to be set in the summer immediately following "Skin Game".  The first line of the book is supposedly going to be 'Summer colds are the worst'.  Apparently poor Harry will start the book ill.  Jim was inspired by con crud.  Basically all the supernatural folks are getting together to address the situation in the wake of all the changes from "Changes" and on.

No current plans to go back to the Codex Alera world, though he actually does have potential story ideas.

His new series will be steampunk and called "The Cinder Spires".  He compared it to Horatio Hornblower and something else (did not write it down).  The first book is nearly done, so expect a release date soonish.  He mentioned intelligent housecats, but I'm not sure if this was serious.

He used to skip class to read in the library and got sucked into an author talk, which sparked his desire to write.

He wrote 7 complete novels before writing the first book of the Dresden Files.  He considers them all crap.

He can't 'not write' and is a creature of habit when it comes to his writing times.  While he does not write EVERY day, he does try to do so.

His two favorite Dresden books are Dead Beat followed by Changes, mainly because of the Sue scene and actually getting to pull all his story threads together in those books.  He actually recommends Dead Beat as the book to read first to people new to the series.  It was the first to get a hardback release, so they wanted to make it easier for new readers to step in.  This was why Butters was introduced so that he could ask all the 'stupid' questions and be a good audience stand-in.

There will be a short story in another anthology relatively soon.  This will be focused on Molly's first mission as The Winter Lady and will include Ramirez.

He has not played the Dresden RPG.  He feels that he's too much of a powergamer and would abuse his knowledge of the world.  Being a GM would feel too much like work.  He has not played the LARPs for Dresden either.

No plans for a Mouse story.  He feels that Mouse is actually one of the most 'good' characters in the entire series.

He actually does not drink alcohol.  He breaks up the writing pattern and does other things to recharge/relax.  The videogames he mainly plays currently are League of Legends and BF4.  He mentioned his name in BF4, but I didn't catch it.

He knew Ebenezer was Harry's grandfather from the get-go, as well as Ebenezer and The Merlin's background.  Some of the characters developed more organically or to fit a need (i.e. Butters).  He does know the general shape of the future of the story.

Lea is the only Leanansidhe (wasn't quite sure what this meant, I guess it's more mythology).  She was a normal sidhe but caught Mab's attention when Mab was still The Winter Lady by gathering power.  She is Mab's right hand and the reason they're never in the same place together is because she takes Mab's place in The War when Mab is elsewhere.

We will get more of Mab's backstory.

Toot-Toot was partially based on Jim's young son.

It is not looking favorable that Murphy will become a Knight of the Cross, though Jim hinted that this was more due to her physical condition at the end of Skin Game rather than anything else.

The Jade Court will stay isolated, but some of their operatives may appear during the final trilogy that will wrap up the series.

He is very excited to finally get to tell the stories that he has been building for years.  Apparently we can expect a big magic battle in full view of mortals in 'Peace Talks'.

Justin DuMourne is dead.  I guess this gets asked a lot...

The universe (Dresden-verse?) is bigger than even Harry realizes.  Leading from this... Jim said that after "Peace Talks" will be "Mirror, Mirror"

God and Lucifer are real entities in the Dresden-verse, just like a certain Greek God in Skin Game.

The magic-tech clash actually came from Jim's annoyance that cell phones made it too hard to build tension.

While it is the job of the Winter Court to protect all from 'The Outsiders', it is the job of the Summer Court to protect the mortal realm from Winter.

Harry will not lose his magic if he loses the Winter Knight mantle, but Jim hinted that the Mantle can have negative repercussions on Harry's magic if he keeps it.

He refused to comment on whether the Wardens would get new weapons.  And also refused to comment on the question "Will they or won't they?" (honest to gawd, someone worded it that way.  No names)

Murphy has come close to dying several times, the closest actually being in Changes.

The film rights have been optioned out again.  He implied it was by 20th Century Fox.