Tag: Books

01/25/2026: Book Reviewing, Writing, and a Thank You to Jim Butcher

“Hey Jake, did you get through Twelve Months yet?”

A buddy of mine, evidenced by the use of a childhood nickname, reminded me of a pre-order I’ve had sitting in my Audible account for a week:

Twelve Months. The latest Dresden Files novel by Jim Butcher.

Nearly 17 hours at x1 reading speed, narrated by the excellent James Marsters. If you haven’t discovered this series and are a fan of urban fantasy, I have to first ask how you haven’t heard of it (the series is old enough to rent a car, and saying that is making my knee and back hurt for some reason) and to recommend going to a bookstore and picking up Storm Front, the first book of the series.

When my buddy checked back in with me, two days later, I had just finished listening to the audiobook and was getting ready for the re-listen.

Mr. Butcher, I’d say I’d tip my hat to you, but that’d involve leaving the desk. You’re a master of the craft and I hope to, one day, evoke as much emotion from my stories as you did with this one.

I chuckled, felt introspective, and cried a couple of times (which confused my postal customers, seeing their mailman staring off into space with tear tracks on his face, let me tell you) during the listen. In this series, those usually only happen at key points in a couple of books, but this one was one steady therapy session.

From my experience in writing, evoking emotions is both key and difficult and are typically restricted to the emotions of the genre. Twelve Months, however, evoked emotions for which I know I don’t have the skill level: release. Without spoiling the story, I can tell you that if you’re holding yourself in check against some stress or trying to ‘keep a brave face’ going, you won’t be able to while following the plot… and that such isn’t as bad as you might think.

At one point, I realized that I wasn’t holding my shoulders so tightly, that there wasn’t a feeling of pressure from the corners of my eyes, that I was breathing deeply. For nearly two days, I wasn’t able to worry as much as I usually do. Granted, once I had finished the book and thought about what Butcher had done, the stress did return but didn’t have as firm a grip.

It did, however, throw me off my stride on my own writing. I’ve held to my daily writing, so it’s consistent in that manner, but I shifted over to essays on some background elements that have been just in my head. I don’t know if I’ll make the challenge’s deadline, but once this is posted and my weekly letter is written, I’ll be working on it…

… after I get the chicken in the oven. It’s going to be a rough week, weather-wise. I’ll be needing a lot of food.

Stay safe out there, folks.

-JB Swift

01/18/2026 Out of Desperation May Grow Creativity

I’ve not been too keen for the winter months for a number of years, but not because of the colder weather and that I am a walking beanpole. I actually like jacket weather, since I have an excuse for all the plaid and flannel that people assume (rightly) I like to wear.

But January is usually when I try to prepare something of a budget for the household and come to the same conclusion as I usually do: that I need more work, and I’m not likely to get it from the postal routes. When I was younger, I tried to supplement my income with a second job, something preferably in manual labor that was paid in cash. But that work is hard to come by.

And let’s face it: I’m getting old. I stepped outside this Sunday morning and immediately decided I’d rather clean the stove than yardwork. My joints agreed with me.

So, January is usually a stressful month for me, which in turn pushes me towards my preferred type of escapism: story-telling. Last year, I couldn’t write as much as I had liked, but this year I’m putting my foot down and making the time. But this does lead the question as to how can I find work while needing to write as a therapy against the stress of not making enough to (as much as I’d like) pay for the needs of my family and household?

Lo and behold, the Universe decides to mess with me by showing me a competition I can enter.

I’ve heard good things about these folks, so writers, check them out.

The challenge is to write out a short story with a max of 6,000 words and send it in before the 1st of February. At the time I had stumbled across this, it was 16 January. Do I send one of the short stories I’ve previously written and hope that by some miracle, the judge decides they’re worth publishing (all of them need work, in my honest opinion) or do I test myself and see how much I’ve improved with a new story?

If I write a new story, which world do I go to? Can I put this Legendarium I’ve been in for the past month down (I think I’m going to call it Tales of Eró, but not sure just yet) and dive into a different setting? Could that distract me from my current project? Or do I try sending something from Eró?

…did Professor Tolkien ever have this problem? I bet not. But I’m not at his level, for all that that is the goal.

Now, I do have several stories within this world that might fit the parameters of the challenge. This world has grown much larger than I really ever expected, and I’ve started filling up three different notebooks. The style of those stories, however, might not meet the criteria. They’d be analogous to historical essays, not real narratives. I have one in particular that is done as a narrative, but it reads like a report (because it is a report, but the character doing the reporting is a scribe and what scribe worth their salt would not include dialogue?) and that may not be ‘marketable’.

Lord, but I hate that kind of rejection notice. The last one killed my drive to write short stories for a long while.

But hey, there’s a chance it could be seen as an attempt to bring back older styles of narrative and story-telling. If it isn’t accepted, then at least I’ll have one more bit of world-building to add to Eró.

Stay safe out there, folks. Wish me luck.

-JB Swift

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.