Jim Butcher’s “Changes”

Argh!  I’ve about had it up to here (imagine me pointing to the top of my head) with Firefox.  I think I need to just break down and switch browsers.  The newest versions of Firefox and Vista just do not like each other apparently.  Seriously, if I see this:

one more time, I might scream.

Not to mention the fact that I’ve already written this post once and lost the entirety of it due to the above image.  I guess I just need to decide which browser I want to move to.  I know I don’t want to go back to Internet Explorer, though to be honest, even with its security issues and such I’ve never had problems like I’ve had with Firefox lately.

So anyway.  I wanted to share my recent bout of excitement with you.   Again.

I’ve mentioned several times that I’m a big fan of the author, Jim Butcher.  I actually became a fan of his through Spike from Buffy/Angel fame (a/k/a James Marsters).

One of my favorite scenes:

And the way this girl made this one just cracked me up:

As I was going through clips on YouTube, I laughed several times and am thinking I might have to start watching Buffy again from the beginning.

I think he’s a great actor (not just as Spike) and when I was going through my Buffy/Angel obsession phase, I looked for anything having to do with James Marsters (I still keep tabs on what he’s up to).  Anyway, I discovered that he is the one that does the audio versions of the books in Jim’s Dresden Files series.  I picked up the first audiobook and was hooked so quickly on both James’ reading of the book and the book itself, that I immediately went out and bought the book to read along. You can download the first three chapters of the first Dresden Files book, “Storm Front,” for free here.

Now, 12 books later, I’m still a huge fan of the books, though I haven’t picked up the last several audiobooks.  I will someday when I win the lottery.    Jim Butcher has two series:  The Dresden Files and Codex Alera.  I really enjoy both series, but The Dresden Files has to be my favorite book series ever (which is saying something considering how many different ones I love).  As another fan put it on his website, “Literary crack, that’s what Jim sells.”  I agree wholeheartedly.  But that’s one addiction I don’t want to break.

The 12th Dresden Files book comes out on April 6th.  Can you feel my excitement?!  I discovered through an e-mail update of his website that they are releasing four sample chapters (to tease us) from the book in the weeks leading up to the release.  The first one was posted at midnight last night and I felt drop-kicked to learn that the main character might have a daughter!  Totally wasn’t expecting that, but it should be very, very interesting.  Here’s the cover of the new book:

Yippee!  Okay, now that my little geek flip out is over, I thought I’d also mention that Jim’s wife, Shannon K. Butcher, is also an awesome writer, though I’ve only read one of her books so far.  I’ve been lucky enough to meet both Jim (twice) and Shannon (just once) and both were very friendly and nice.  And Jim’s got one heck of a sense of humor.  Here’s a pic of me with Jim in April of 2008 (sadly, several pounds ago):

So consider me counting down the days….35!
PS: I almost forgot to mention that the Dresden Files were also made into a short-lived (sadly) TV show, as well. Of course, the show doesn’t even begin to compete with the books (not surprising, I’m sure) and changed WAY too much, but it was all right. After doing a search on YouTube, I’ve discovered that it seems you can watch the whole series on there for free.