{"id":143787,"date":"2026-01-21T23:16:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143787\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T23:16:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:16:06","slug":"jim-butcher-says-grief-and-fatherhood-impact-dresden-files-twelve-months-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143787\/","title":{"rendered":"\u200bJim Butcher says grief and fatherhood impact Dresden Files \u2018Twelve Months\u2019 \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files, an urban fantasy series that has sold more than 14 million copies in the U.S., as well as the Codex Alera, and the Cinder Spires novels. His latest Harry Dresden book, \u201cTwelve Months,\u201d is out this week, five years after the last installment. Butcher is appearing at San Diego\u2019s Mysterious Galaxy today for a sold-out event<\/a> to launch this 18th book in the series. Butcher took the Q&A to talk about the book and his reading life.<\/p>\n

Q. Please tell readers about your new Dresden Files book, \u201cTwelve Months.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwelve Months\u201d is the 18th book of the Dresden Files, an urban fantasy series I managed to sell with the elevator pitch of \u201cDirty Harry Potter.\u201d Its lead character is Harry Dresden, a professional wizard operating out of the city of Chicago in a world where ghouls, ghosts, werewolves and vampires exist in the shadows of modern society.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:\u00a0Like books? Get our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and more<\/a><\/p>\n

In this story, the city of Chicago has been recently devastated by supernatural war.\u00a0Harry Dresden is one of the supernatural players still standing in the aftermath of the battle and must contend with the grief of loved ones lost and grapple with the despair of a lifetime of paranormal conflict while struggling to balance his new life as a father, a political engagement to a vampire queen, while he strives to remain a stable pillar of the supernatural community and rescue his brother from an almost certain death sentence.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s barely a shadow of himself after recent events, but his enemies and the challenges of his world are not going to wait for him to regain his balance. Harry and his longtime friends and allies must find a way to carry forward in the aftermath of the Battle of Chicago.<\/p>\n

Q. What are the biggest challenges of writing a series \u2013 and the benefits?<\/p>\n

After 25 years, 18 novels, and two anthologies of short stories, it can get difficult to track the large cast of characters and the many convoluted plot events. I\u2019ve been very fortunate to work with dedicated beta readers, and for the raw enthusiasm of many fans who, among other things, built a Dresden Files wiki that encompasses the series in far more detail than I\u2019m confident I could have managed on my own.<\/p>\n

Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?<\/p>\n

\u201cWatchers,\u201d by Dean Koontz, virtually any Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker<\/a>, \u201cHonor of the Queen,\u201d by David Weber, the Belgariad by David Eddings, and (inevitably) the Unorthodox Chronicles<\/a> by my son, James J. Butcher, and the Blood Trail novels<\/a> by my wife, Jennifer Blackstream.<\/p>\n

Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe\u201d by C.S. Lewis. It was my very first novel, picked up from a wire shelf at the local grocery store on a whim, and it ignited a love of fantasy that has lasted all my life.<\/p>\n

Q. Is there a book or type of book you\u2019re reluctant to read?<\/p>\n

Anything that gives good financial advice, apparently.<\/p>\n

Q. Do you have any favorite book covers?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dresden Files Omnibus Edition #3, Wizard at Large,\u201d hands down.\u00a0 It features Dresden, carrying his wizard staff and wearing his black leather duster while riding a zombie T.rex<\/a> animated from the bones of Sue, the famous T.rex at Chicago\u2019s Museum of Natural History. I think it\u2019s a great encapsulation of the series as a whole.<\/p>\n

Q. Are you someone who must finish every book you start \u2013 or is it OK to put down the ones you don\u2019t connect with?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to say I can put one down before I finish and that I think that\u2019s OK\u2014I\u2019d really like that to be true.\u00a0But the reality is that if I don\u2019t finish a book, I feel guilty about it, so they really become kind of a commitment.<\/p>\n

Q. What\u2019s your comfort read?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hobbit,\u201d by Tolkien.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files, an urban fantasy series that has sold more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[647,74,76,75,72041,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-143787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-san-diego","10":"tag-san-diego-headlines","11":"tag-san-diego-news","12":"tag-the-book-pages","13":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}