Month: July 2020

Book review: Peace Talks by Jim Butcher (Spoiler Free)

It’s been some years of waiting, re-reading (or in my case most often, re-listening) to the rest of the series, diving through the threads on Reddit or the forum on his website, and scouring YouTube for interview bits, but Jim Butcher has put out his next novel, “Peace Talks”, with a follow-up “Battle Ground” hitting my Audible app in September.

A duology within a series that is supposed to end on a trilogy. Dammit Jim, but you’re good.

After taking a hiatus that I know very little details about, and honestly do not want to know; that’s his private life and dammit that needs to be respected, and it’s not like I’m not going to prepare myself for a new book by going through all of the previous stories, but “Peace Talks” hit my phone a few days ago and I gave it my utmost attention.

Peace Talks
Hello, old friend.

To give some personal history, I was introduced to this series back in 2006, when a friend of mine bought me a hardcover copy of “Proven Guilty” as a Christmas present. I made it until Lasciel showed up in the story before I put the book away and decided that I needed to know more about the series and should start at the beginning. From there, I delved into the world of Dresden and marveled at the interpretations of the mythologies I grew up around. I even have my hardcover copy of “Changes” autographed by Jim, done by proxy from a friend who was attending a convention. It’s all but impossible for me to attend a convention, and he knew how much of a fan I was of the writer. Good people are hard to find, so hold them close.

Anyway, “Peace Talks” hit my phone and I listened to James Marsters tell me the story. I reveled in ‘seeing’ all of the people I’ve spent the past 14 years knowing, learning about the fallouts from their decisions and making my personal predictions of where they’d go (by the way, Jim, I friggin’ called Thomas’ outcome back when I heard “Thomas, you idiot” and I want that noted somewhere, hence the blog), and also being totally floored by the new introductions.

Understand, readers: I’m an amatuer historian, but I read a LOT of Irish mythology. I was not expecting to see who I would, and it’s raising a metric fuckton of questions that I’m pretty sure Dresden can’t resolve, and Jim simply won’t (I’m a writer, I understand the perverse joy of denying readers their answers if they don’t figure it out for themselves). Namely because I don’t think Dresden would really survive a conversation with Lugh, if he managed to survive his own problems way back when. But it’d be stupidly awesome to see Dresden trying to manage the Spear of Assal, just saying.

The only problem I really have with the story is the time displacement, and that is honestly just a personal one as I rectify internal calendars. Some of the story elements hit like they’re from 2014 (about the time that we last saw Dresden, or so I’ve been told by good sources), but some others hit like they’re from 2019, and when I notice them I try to place them historically. That’s a crux of writing urban fantasy with real-world settings; I’m looking for the when so I can have a bulwark of personal questions concerning the characters.

All in all, a good book, Jim, and a good read, James. I’d love to go into more detail and discuss particulars, but I will not spoil it for anybody who hasn’t yet had the time to read or the opportunity to listen.

I’m actually about to go through my second listen, to see what I missed. See y’all around, folks.

The Struggle of Writing With a Day Job

Today was my day off! I did not have to be up at the hour of “whatthefuckisthetime”, did not have to make the mad-dash out the door, did not have to mindlessly sort my letters, and did not have to walk 12-16 miles for my daily bread. As it’s a dream to finally finish the novel and send it off for editing/possible publication (and start work on the next one), you’d think I would have taken this opportunity to seclude myself at my desk and plunk away at the keyboard.
Alas, you’d be wrong.
The main reason I don’t use my day off to fully embrace my introversion and write for 8 hours is a reasonable one: I love my family and it kills me that I don’t get to see them that often. A couple weeks ago, my daughter, soon to be 4 years old, was up with me while I readied to head to the office.
“Will you be gone all day?” she asked. I was buttoning my shirt and looking for my satchel.
“I’ll be gone all day,” I said. “But I’ll be home in the evening, at least by dinner-time.”
This little girl stood by the door and gave me a blank stare. “I never see you,” she said. “I wish you were home.”
I’m not going to lie, people. Being told by your child that they miss you, and the reason that they miss you is because you’re gone for most of the day, between 8-12 hours, just fucking hurts. On top of that, when I get home, I’m too exhausted to really play or do anything except sit down and decompress. I’m on my feet all day for my bread, so I take full advantage of the couch when I get home. I have to wait until the late-night hours, when everyone is asleep and my mind is finally clear of the mail, for me to focus on the story. Until that moment, I try my best to be present around the family, which can get troublesome, as both kids are stubborn and don’t like being told things like “we don’t push” or “stop leaping off the couch into the pile of laundry” or, my favorite, “if you don’t stop running without looking, you’re going to hit a wall at full speed”.

But wait, that’s not the only reason I struggle to write.

One of the problems with being in a full-time job of old-school trappings is that it becomes a fight to be both an old-school husband and a modern day spouse. Yes, I work my long hours to provide for the family. But I also want/need to handle my share of the chores, and that has a higher priority than being useless in the house and smacking the keyboard with hopes of entertaining the masses. There’s dishes to do, animals to feed/care for, and the yard to maintain. If I was already a successful writer, and not gone for most of the day, I don’t think I’d notice these chores. They’d all be done before 10. But as I do work a ‘real job’, I have to have the mad-scramble of taking care of all of these things in the few hours I have between “I have clocked out!” and “I’m gonna pass out now!”, thanks to the sheer exhaustion of enduring the elements for the daily bread.

But wait, there’s STILL more.

This one is an honest trapping of the writer’s mind: it’s a bitch to want to write after work, and the day off is such a joy to have that I unknowingly embrace the entirety of a day off. I relax (as much as I’m capable of), I goof off, I play friggin’ video games. This is a discipline issue, but dammit man, I never get to do that and it’d drive me crazy to not.

I’m looking into a possible career change that wouldn’t take me away from home for so long. I’ll stay in the federal field if I can, as I’ve already invested almost 10 years into it. But I’m looking into something like programming or IT, so I’d be able to do more work remotely. That’d be something, right?

I did manage to get almost 800 words down today, in snippets throughout the day. I still need to attend to my lunches for the week, and then, then, I’m going to attempt to write more.

Cheers, folks.