Vignette : A story from the Dresden Files
Author/Uploaded by Jim Butcher
About the Author Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera, and a new steampunk series, the Cinder Spires. His résumé includes a laundry list of skills which were useful a couple of centuries ago, and he plays guitar quite badly. An avid gamer, he plays tabletop games in varying systems, a variety of video games on PC and console whenever he can make time for...
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About the Author Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera, and a new steampunk series, the Cinder Spires. His résumé includes a laundry list of skills which were useful a couple of centuries ago, and he plays guitar quite badly. An avid gamer, he plays tabletop games in varying systems, a variety of video games on PC and console whenever he can make time for it. Jim currently resides mostly inside his own head, but his head can generally be found in his home town of Independence, Missouri. Jim goes by the moniker Longshot in a number of online locales. He came by this name in the early 1990s when he decided he would become a published author. Usually only 3 in 1000 who make such an attempt actually manage to become published; of those, only 1 in 10 make enough money to call it a living. The sale of a second series was the breakthrough that let him beat the long odds against attaining a career as a novelist. All the same, he refuses to change his nickname. Books by Jim Butcher Dresden Files Storm Front Fool Moon Grave Peril Summer Knight Death Masks Blood Rites Dead Beat Proven Guilty White Night Small Favor Turn Coat Changes Ghost Story Cold Days Skin Game Peace Talks Battle Ground Dresden Anthologies Side Jobs Brief Cases Codex Alera Furies of Calderon Academ’s Fury Cursor’s Fury Captain’s Fury Princeps’ Fury First Lord’s Fury Cinder Spires Aeronaut’s Windlass About this Book Copyright © 2010 by Jim Butcher Dresden Files series #5.5 This Dresden Files short story appeared in the 2010 anthology, Side Jobs, and takes place between Death Masks and Blood Rites. Jim Butcher speaks about the writing this anecdote, in which Harry Dresden and Bob the Skull discuss the relative merits of different approaches to advertising Dresden’s business in the Yellow Pages: “This was a very short piece I wrote at the request of my editor, Jennifer Heddle, who needed it for some kind of promotional thing, one of those free sampler booklets they sometimes hand out at conventions, I believe. I lost track of it in the clutter of life, then realized the deadline was the following morning. “It probably would have been helpful to have remembered at seven or eight, instead of at two a.m. “I’m not even sure I can claim to be the author of this piece, since it was almost entirely written by a coalition of caffeine molecules and exhausted twitches.” The source of the story text is the author’s website. The cover image was borrowed from the Dresden Files graphic novel, Fool Moon, and digitally edited to replace the title. This ebook was created on January 2, 2023 version 1.0 The cover has thick blue borders at the left and top. The author’s name appears top left in uppercase letters in a medium, white sans-serif font, directly below this is the first part of the series name, DRESDEN, in a fancy extra-large, serif outline font. The outline is a cyan blue graduating to white at the very bottom. Beneath the letters “DEN,” FILES appears in a medium, white sans-serif italicized font. The series name overlaps the top of the illustration. The short story title, VIGNETTE, is in a medium, white, sans-serif font rotated counter-clockwise within the blue border at lower left. In the illustration portion of the cover, Harry Dresden is shown with a determined expression, striding towards the viewer against a nighttime backdrop of flame and fire. He is wearing a dark trench coat and has a flaming brand in his right hand and a staff in the left hand. A pendant around his neck features a bright blue glowing stone. Contents Cover Vignette Books by Jim Butcher About the Author About this Book Landmarks Cover Table of Contents Start Books by Jim Butcher About the Author About this Book Vignette A story from the Dresden Files I sat on a stool in the cluttered laboratory beneath my basement apartment. It was chilly enough to make me wear a robe, but the dozen or so candles burning around the room made it look warm. The phone book lay on the table in front of me. I stared at my ad in the Yellow Pages. It read: HARRY DRESDEN—WIZARD Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties or Other Entertainment I looked up at the skull on the shelf above my lab table and said, “I don’t get it.” “Flat, Harry,” said Bob the Skull. Flickering orange lights danced in the skull’s eye sockets. “It’s flat.” I flipped through several pages. “Yeah, well. Most of them are. I don’t think they offer raised lettering.” Bob rolled his eyelights. “Not literally flat, dimwit. Flat in the aesthetic sense. It has no panache. No moxy. No chutzpah.” “No what?” Bob’s skull turned to one side and banged what would have been its forehead against a heavy bronze candle-holder. After several thumps, it turned back toward me and said, “It’s boring.” “Oh,” I said. I rubbed at my jaw. “You think I should have gone four-color?” Bob stared at me for a second and said, “I have nightmares about hell, where all I do
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