There’s a LOT going on this week, and we can’t wait to share it with you. If you haven’t yet, join our announcement list and follow @jimbutchernews on Twitter to ensure you don’t miss a moment in the Dresden Files’ 20th Anniversary Spectacular!

Travel Schedule, Part 1

We’re glad we broke protocol and messaged you all about the ECCC 20th Anniversary Party a day early, because tickets sold out in less than four hours! Hell’s bells, you guys are dedicated. 😀

Jim’s publicity team is busy hammering out the dates and details for his signing tour, but to start the ball rolling, here are the first three (of many!) events Jim will be attending in 2020.

Superstars Writing Seminar (NOT a con–a series of workshops on the craft and business of being/becoming a professional writer)
February 5 – 8, 2020
Antlers Hotel
4 S. Cascade Ave
Colorado Springs, CO 80903

Jim’s tentative schedule includes seminars on crafting protagonists and antagonists, dealing with feedback, spinoffs, finding balance, the art of the con, and more!

Pensacon
February 28 – March 1, 2020
Pensacola Bay Center
201 E Gregory St
Pensacola, FL 32502

Emerald City Comic Con
March 12 – 15, 2020
Washington State Convention Center
705 Pike St
Seattle, WA 98101
Unfortunately, the the 20th Anniversary Party SOLD OUT in under 4 hours!

We don’t have information yet about the timing of Jim’s panels and signings for Pensacon or ECCC, but we’ll announce those details as soon as we have them.

Artist Spotlight, Part 2

During the four-week duration of the “Year of Dresden” Fanart Contest, we’ll be spotlighting some of the incredible artists from our official tie-ins to help inspire you to create your own pieces! If you missed last week’s roundup and the rules of the contest, you can view that post here.

This week and next, we’re celebrating some of the artists who contributed to the Dresden role playing games. Today’s crew contributed their talents to the first two volumes, “Your Story” and “Our World,” which you can snag in pdf format from the Evil Hat store! (The hardcovers are out of print.) Click the thumbnail to embiggen.

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Talon Dunning is a freelance fantasy illustrator who has been working primarily in the roleplaying game industry for nearly 20 years.

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Javier Charro is a freelance illustrator and concept artist based in Madrid. His work appeared in the Spanish language edition of the Dresden RPG published by Nosolorol. See more of his DFRPG pieces in his blog!

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Jennifer Rodgers is a New Jersey-based illustrator powered by tea and Indian food. Her work has appeared in several dozen RPGs and comics.

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Ed Northcott is an illustrator, family man, and general curmudgeon.

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Christian St. Pierre specializes in tabletop game and comic book illustration.

Again, all these fabulous official artists are ineligible for the fanart competition, so you don’t have to worry about one-upping them. We want to keep the playing field as level as possible! Submit your entries to yearofdresden (at) gmail.com by February 13th for a shot at the grand prize: a signed ARC of Peace Talks and the print of your choice from Mika Kuloda! Get the rules and the details in our Announcement Post.

Read-Along Revised

We heard your comments, and we’re revising our Read-Along methodology!

First, we’re reducing the discussions for Fool Moon, Grave Peril, and Summer Knight to one week each, so the timing of the release of Peace Talks dovetails with the beginning of its discussion.

Second, we’re creating two discussion threads for each book. The Non-Spoiler thread will contain ONLY spoilers through end end of that book, and the Spoiler thread will be fair game for EVERYTHING up until Peace Talks. That way, long-time fans have the freedom to dissect the how the events of the earlier books echo into later books without spoiling the experience of first-time readers.

And finally, we’re adding additional focus questions to help steer conversation to juicier lines of discussion.

So join us as we dive into Fool Moon for one week only! Here are links to the spoiler-friendly and spoiler-free threads, as well as a new open thread for general discussion of all things Dresden.

Ongoing Goodies

Also, TODAY is the last day to enter the sweepstakes for a signed set of every Dresden novel through Skin Game! US residents only.

And that’s all the news that’s fit to print! See you next week for another Dresden Drop.

Last Thursday, Entertainment Weekly revealed Chris McGrath’s cover of Peace Talks and an exclusive excerpt from the book. So while we’ve got visuals on the brain, we’d love to see YOUR version of Harry’s world. For this week’s Dresden Drop, we’re launching the Official “Year of Dresden” Fanart Contest! 

(What is the Year of Dresden? 2020 is the 20th anniversary of Storm Front, and we’re celebrating with weekly “Dresden Drops” of artwork, microfiction, interviews, sample chapters of Peace Talks, contests, and other goodies every Tuesday throughout the year. Catch up in our introductory post, then join our announcement list and follow @jimbutchernews on twitter to ensure you don’t miss a beat!)

Contest prizes includes a signed ARC of Peace Talks and poster prints by fan favorite illustrator Mika Kuloda (aka Mika Merrylark aka Mika Blackfield). Submissions are due Thursday, February 13^th, and winners will be announced Tuesday, February 18^th. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for all the rules!

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To get your creative juices flowing, over the span of the contest, we’ll be spotlighting some of the fabulous official artists who have contributed their visions of the Dresdenverse to alternate editions and tie-ins. (No need to feel intimidated–the official artists featured in these Spotlights are ineligible for this fanart contest. We want as level a playing field as possible!)

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Artist Spotlight, Part 1

Fans worldwide know and love Chris McGrath’s gritty, iconic style, but he’s not the only artist to lend his talents to Dresden covers! Today’s three spotlight artists have created covers for “special editions” of Jim’s material.

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Dan Dos Santos is best known in the Dresdenverse for creating the illustration of Harry riding Sue into battle, originally commissioned for the SFBC omnibus Wizard at Large, and since enshrined on TV Tropes as the definitive representation of the series’ Crowning Moments of Awesome.

As far as official art goes, he’s also illustrated covers for two other omnibus editions and the short story anthology Naked City (featuring the Dresden story “Curses”). But fans were in for a rare treat when a client commissioned him for another piece, and Dan generously documented his process: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. His unused “sketches” are some of the most striking images in the fandom!

You can buy prints of Dan’s art through his store.

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Mike Mignola, best known as the creator of Hellboy, lent his bold, graphic style to the novella “Backup,” our first taste of the Dresdenverse outside Harry’s point-of-view. This Subterranean Press limited edition is long since sold out, but copies are easily found through used book resalers.

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Vincent Chong has been consistently producing eye-catching covers and dreamlike, evocative illustrations since Subterranean Press began publishing their illustrated special editions of the Dresden novels in 2008. Ghost Story is in preorders now! Check out the full gallery of his Dresden cover work, then enjoy a sampling of his interior art. Inquire about prints here.

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Fanart Contest Rules

Now that you’re all sufficiently inspired, here are the details of the Official Year of Dresden Fanart Contest!

AWARDS

1 Grand Prize: ARC of Peace Talks and 12”x18” print of the Mika Kuloda illustration of their choice, both signed by Jim Butcher

3 Runners-Up: 12”x18” Mika Kuloda art print, signed by Jim Butcher

As Many Honorable Mentions As We See Fit: Eternal Glory and Bragging Rights

Note: We’d love to see entries from all around the globe, but regretfully we can only send physical prizes to residents in the United States.  Therefore, international entries are eligible for Honorable Mentions, but not for the other prize tiers.

HOW TO ENTER

Email the file to yearofdresden@gmail.com. Accepted file types are jpg, png, and gif.  Must be under 30MB.

Please include the name you’d like to be credited as, a link to your portfolio (if you have one), and your country (mostly for the prize tier thing, but also because we’re nosy).

Submissions are due February 13^th, 2020 at midnight Pacific time. 

Winners will be announced February 18^th.

RULES

This contest is open to fans at all skill levels, professional and amateur alike! 

Feel free to create in any medium, though keep in mind that this contest is not for cosplay or fan films.  Creators can submit up to 10 works, though each entry will be considered individually.  Sequential art of maximum 8 pages can be considered a single work.

Entries do not have to have been created specifically for this contest—you may submit prior work.

You’re welcome to make use of characters, quotes, and other elements from the Dresden Files novels, shorts, comics, RPGs, and other tie-ins, but note that the art itself must be your own original work.  If integrating existing imagery, it must be royalty free and follow the rights holder’s terms and conditions for use.  “I found it on Google Images” does not mean “royalty free.” 😀  Photomanipulations of official Dresden artwork and stills from the 2007 SciFi TV series are ineligible.

Try to keep entries at or below an “R” rating, in line with the spirit of the books.  Pornographic, abusive, or excessively vulgar entries will be disqualified.

THE FINE PRINT

This contest is all about elevating the incredible artists who make this fandom a vibrant, thriving creative community. To that end, we want to show our admiration by respecting their rights and not taking advantage of free labor. In submitting to this contest, participants give us permission to post their submissions WITH attribution on our website and various social media platforms, but the artwork remains the artists’ property.  We make no claim on the art and will not repurpose it for merchandise, media tie-ins, or other use without securing additional permissions from the artist and negotiating additional compensation. Because y’all are awesome and deserve nothing less.

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Special Bonus For Reading To The End

To celebrate the upcoming release of Peace Talks, Penguin Random House is giving away a signed set of every novel in The Dresden Files so far! Enter before January 28th for your chance to win.

That’s it for today’s Dresden Drop! Don’t forget to join our announcement list and follow @jimbutchernews on twitter for more Dresden goodness. See you next week!

As we announced earlier this month, every Tuesday in 2020 will feature weekly Drops of never-before-seen artwork, microfiction, interviews, contests, sample chapters for Peace Talks, or other tasty tidbits. Join our new mailing list and follow @jimbutchernews on twitter to ensure you don’t miss a moment in our 20th Anniversary celebration! Check the announcement post to catch up on prior Drops.

This week’s Dresden Drop: The official series reread has begun with Storm Front! Join us on Goodreads for an epic undertaking as we reread and discuss all 15 published novels, then take on the 16th! The schedule:

• #1, Storm Front: 1/13 – 26
• #2, Fool Moon: 1/27 – 2/9 (now on sale for $1.99! See below)
• #3, Grave Peril: 2/10 – 23
• #4, Summer Knight: 2/24 – 3/8
• #5, Death Masks: 3/9 – 22
• #6, Blood Rites: 3/23 – 4/5
• #7, Dead Beat: 4/6 – 19
• #8, Proven Guilty: 4/20 – 5/3
• #9, White Night: 5/4 – 17
• #10, Small Favor: 5/18 – 31
• #11, Turn Coat: 6/1 – 14
• #12, Changes: 6/15 – 28
• #13, Ghost Story: 6/29 – 7/12
• #14, Cold Days: 7/13 – 26 (Peace Talks out 7/14th!)
• #15, Skin Game: 7/27 – 8/9
• #16, Peace Talks: 8/10 – 31

(Note: This schedule may seem counter-intuitive, as Peace Talks comes out just as we’re diving into Cold Days. The advantage is that it gives all fans the opportunity to read and digest Peace Talks before diving into group discussion four weeks later–we know not everyone is going to be able to devour the book the week it’s out! You’ll definitely want to read ahead on your own and make sure you’re caught up before reading the new release.)

Missing any books in your collection? Snag a copy through the jim-butcher.com store! You can also preorder Peace Talks, due out simultaneously in hardcover, ebook, and audio July 14th.

Bonus: get a jump on the Fool Moon discussion by snagging the ebook for only $1.99! Support independent bookstores by buying through Kobo (here’s how to support your favorite local shop!) or Books-A-Million, or order from the following vendors: Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, or Google Play. The sale runs through January 26th.

That’s it for this week! Check out the Storm Front read-along, then come back next Tuesday for the next Dresden Drop!