title: Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files
author:  Jim Butcher 
description: Fans of Butcher's long-running and bestselling urban fantasy series featuring Chicago wizard PI Harry Dresden were stunned by the concluding events of the 2010 novel Changes. They'll probably want to skip ahead to the last of this collection's 11 stories, "Aftermath," set just hours after the end of that book. With Dresden's fate uncertain, it's his longtime ally, Sgt. Karrin Murphy, who must help find a kidnapped werewolf. This entry is the collection's strongest, full of powerful emotion. The rest of the book is a mixed bag, ranging from Butcher's first attempt at short fiction--"a novice effort" that "wasn't up to par for professional publication"--to more recent tales set around and between the novels. First-timers will be lost, and this uneven volume mostly makes the case that Butcher's talent is best displayed in longer form. (Nov.) (c) <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  ![Cover](images/cover.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Side Jobs
  
  
    
  
  
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  _( Dresden Files - 13 )_
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Jim Butcher
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Side Jobs
  
  
  ## by Jim Butcher
  
  
  ## Stories from the Dresden Files
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## A RESTORATION OF FAITH
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  **Takes place before** _**Storm Front**_
  
  
  This is the first of the Dresden Files stories, chronologically, and it was
  the first time I tried to write short fiction for the professional market. I
  originally put it together as a class assignment at the University of
  Oklahoma’s Professional Writing program, more than two years before _Storm
  Front_ found a home at Roc.
  
  
  This one won’t win any awards, because it is, quite frankly, a novice effort.
  It was perhaps the third or fourth short story I’d ever written, if you
  include projects in grade school. I had barely learned to keep my feet under
  me as a writer, and to some degree that shows in this piece. Certainly, the
  editors to whom I submitted this story seem