IIRC, from my various times on the LKH mailing list, Jim was working on The Dresden Files while praising LKH for the most part. I never thought of TDF as being a "response" to LKH or Anita Blake at all and I never got that vibe from Jim. That said, I was off and on that list so often that I might have missed something. The thing would implode into flames every five months or so and I hate being in the middle of flamewars when I don't have a dog in the fight.