I have two interesting videos for you this morning. Both involve Patrick Rothfuss (blog), author of the Kingkiller Chronicles trilogy (the first book, THE NAME OF THE WIND, was reviewed here by me), and Jim Butcher (twitter), author of The Dresden Files (the first book, STORM FRONT, was reviewed here by me). Both also involve urban fantasy: breaking it down, exploring it, and trying to figure out how to write it well.
The first video is a straight up interview of Jim Butcher by Patrick Rothfuss. It took place during San Diego Comic Con in publisher Suvudu’s booth. It’s about 20 minutes long, but in that time, Patrick Rothfuss and Jim Butcher discuss putting limits on magic, describing the world through your character’s eyes, worldbuilding, urban fantasy plotting, as well as getting feedback and revising your story. I think you’ll like it.
The second video is brought to you by Felicia Day’s burgeoning online empire, Geek and Sundry. It’s the first video in The Story Board series. Here, Patrick Rothfuss hosts a Google Meetup of urban fantasy authors Jim Butcher, Emma Bull, and Diana Rowland. This one is a bit longer–running just over an hour long. Because of the length, I’ve been breaking it up into small chunks, so I’m still working my way through it. But in the first half alone, you get discussions of how to define urban fantasy, how to incorporate magic and monsters into a real-world setting, urban fantasy vs. epic fantasy when it comes to scene description and sex (Jim Butcher has written both, so he has an interesting take), and some reading recommendations. I think you’ll like this one too. And be sure to check out the other Geek and Sundry videos.