New Sherlock Holmes Story Collection Available Soon

 Thank you for your support!

 

 

 

The Kick Starter campaign from Belanger Books is over and a success!  The book earned more than four times the campaign goal thanks to interested readers looking for something a little different in their Holmes collections.

 

Retail sales in print and eBook will be available soon. 

 

I have no way of knowing the names of readers who supported the campaign so I am limited to a generic thank you here and via other social media. 

 

Coupled with my sincere gratitude, please know I wish you the best, always,

 

 

Margie 

The Secrets of Private Families and more...

DETAILS ABOUT THE NEW BOOK

Some kind words for "The Secrets of Private Families" from the brilliant writer and editor, John Linwood Grant:  

A dive into the depths of human deception, as Holmes and Watson expose wicked patriarchs, dysfunctional families, and tragic betrayals in a series of canonical but pleasingly unstuffy exploits. Satisfying and highly readable.”

                                                         John Linwood Grant, author of ‘The Assassin’s Coin’

 

The Secrets of Private Families is a collection of eight Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson adventures, seven of which Holmes deemed unpublishable. Too raw to put before the public, and hardly our best behaviour, he wrote to Watson when questioned upon the matter. 

 

Are they really? Readers of traditional Holmes stories might certainly disagree with him! These adventures are a rich sampling of the kind of stories Watson described in the opening of “The Problem of Thor Bridge”:

“… there are some which involve the secrets of private families to an extent which would mean consternation in many exalted quarters if it were thought possible that they might find their way into print.”

Come along as Holmes and Watson navigate the complexities of these private families while solving some unusual mysteries and, just possibly, leaving a little consternation behind in exalted quarters.

 

Also, I'm hanging out with my friend, the prolific writer Mike Adamson on the Belanger Books  website today. Excellent.

Links:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/belangerbooks/the-secrets-of-private-families

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1606726313/titans-of-the-dawn

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I hear of Sherlock (Doyle, actually) everywhere...

As with most Sherlockians who read a variety of different authors, I often find mentions of Holmes in non-Doylean books I read. Authors can hardly resist "the dog that did nothing in the nighttime" or "when you have eliminated the impossible" or the "three-pipe problem" or "the footprints of a gigantic hound" or the more prosaic "No shit, Sherlock." Over the first few months of this year, almost everything I read had a Holmesian or Doylean reference of some sort. 

Some of the references I remember after I finish the book, most often I don't. Every time it happens, though, I'm always glad to see it. Of this six, the Rupert Hart-Davis and George Lyttelton letters had the most references. I enjoyed these comments the most:

8 March 1956 Lyttelton: "How good Conan Doyle was with names. Jephro Rucastle and Colonel Lysander Stark have a fine villainous ring about them. But, Gosh, how thin some of those stories are. Even the best, e.g. 'The Speckled Band', the house alterations of Dr Grimesby Roylott (another superb name) could hardly have helped raising suspicion. But his women are simple souls mostly, even though one outwitted Sherlock himself."

23 January 1958 Lyttelton: "I have just read Hesketh Pearson's Gilbert--a dreadfully tiresome man--huffy and irascible, and at the same time thinking much of his fame, and despising the achievement which created it. Very like Conan Doyle, who thought highly of A Duet and scorned Sherlock Holmes." 

21 October 1961 Rupert Hart-Davis: "When I was in New York in March I paid £50 for an option to have first look at a full-length biography of Sherlock Holmes, which one of those crazy enthusiasts has compiled from the stories, and now the typescript has arrived--more than 400 pages of it, and my spirit quails a little at the prospect."

25 October 1961 Lyttelton: "I am no judge, but my impressions is that all that clever Holmes investigation--which as you say was rather overdone--has had its day. I too am a fan of the stories (especially Adventures and Memoirs, in which I once could have passed any exam) and S.H. still cuts a brave figure." 

Yes, Sherlock Holmes still cuts a brave figure with me, too. I think I would like to have dinner with these two fellows. I know I've talked about this book too often over the past two months and the kind people listening to me are probably tired of it. I have to stop.

But, quickly, before I stop, here are a couple of wonderful things from the book that have nothing to do with Holmes or Doyle. (Well, not yet anyway.)

These few sentences, written years apart, have inspired me to write a new Sherlockian pastiche:

9 March 1958 Hart-Davis: "I am staying withe octogenarian and stone-deaf (but nevertheless delightful) widow of a tin plate magnate, who lives in this huge and arctic house with her unmarried daughter."

31 October 1957 Lyttelton: "I once asked the late Mr Justice Lewis about Greenwood, and he said it was quite certain Greenwood poisoned his wife (he was a junior for the prosecution) but got off because his daughter swore she had drunk from the relevant bottle of Burgandy. She disliked her father but wasn't going to see him hanged."

And, finally, my favorite quote from the letters:

24 March 1957 Hart-Davis: "Don't you rather like this footnote: 'The remainder of this paragraph, which Coleridge wrote with his gout medicine instead of ink, has faded and is all but illegible." 

Ha! Now wouldn't that inspire some kind of pastiche. 

 

 

 

The Grand Gift of Silence

 

 

 

 

 

"You have a grand gift of silence, Watson,' said he. 'It makes you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are not over-pleasant." --Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson, "The Man With the Twisted Lip." 

  

Several months have passed since I've posted anything here about Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson or Arthur Conan Doyle. I had hoped to return this month with some new thoughts and a new sense of direction for this little obsession of mine but I'm afraid I've found myself with too many thoughts that are not "over-pleasant."  The events in the world around me have left me feeling uncertain and hesitant to the point of near inertia. Sherlock Holmes may have found it valuable to have someone to talk to at the times of unpleasant thoughts, but silence coupled with stillness seems to be the continuing answer for me, for now. 

 

Therefore, the Doting on Doyle hiatus continues. In the meanwhile, here are some lovely books one might consider~~~ Available at Belanger Books & Amazon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Halloa, Watson! What is this?"

 

 

 

What it is, dear Mr. Holmes, is something you are familiar with: a hiatus. While your hiatus lasted a long three years, I plan to come back to these pages in three months. I hope the readers who have been so kind to visit this blog over the past several years will forgive a Doting On Doyle brief absence. 

 

As I've gone on about far too long, I've spent the last year working on Sherlock Holmes into the Fire. The project has taken more time than I could have ever anticipated but it will be out very soon. 

 

The work on the three volumes of FIRE coupled with some family health issues has left me behind from where I wanted to be with the writing of two new story collections. 

 

I've decided the only thing to do is to stop as many other activities as I can until I feel caught up (whatever that means) on the new books. With any luck, July, August, and September will prove to be just the time I need to get back on schedule.

 

Many thanks to those who have supported my fiction writing and this blog. I will return with some new work in hand, hopefully interesting enough to "...just fill that gap on that second shelf."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seclusion and Solitude Were Very Necessary

I knew that seclusion and solitude were very necessary for my friend in those hours of intense mental concentration during which he weighed every particle of evidence, constructed alternative theories, balanced one against the other, and made up his mind as to which points were essential and which immaterial. ---Dr. Watson, about Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles

The need for Sherlock Holmes to be alone and think is mentioned many times in the Sherlock Holmes Canon. I can't think as well as Holmes, of course, but I understand his need for quiet solitude in order to think in a deep and productive way. Due to varying circumstances, I've not made the quiet alone time  for myself to think and work for several months now and my lack of finished work and general moodiness are the results. 

When I first read biographies of Arthur Conan Doyle I was amazed at the mentions of how he could work in a room full of people, keeping track of the conversation while his pen moved swiftly. If I remember correctly, Jerome K. Jerome also mentioned this working style of Doyle in his memoir, My Life and Times. He, too, was amazed by Doyle's ability. 

However, even for Doyle eventually stress took its toll, and he found himself in a different state:

"His moodiness became evident in his work habits. In Southsea and South Norwood, he could write in a crowded room. Now, when he entered his study at Undershaw, the children were instructed to tiptoe past the door." (Teller of Tales,208)

Doyle had problems at the time of a magnitude I can hardly fathom but I still understand the dark feelings. I often feel very discombobulated when I enter my study, and wish the world would tiptoe by for a while. I realize I may sound somewhat foolish typing this today since my last blog post concerned the need to find my way back into more Sherlockian activity. I think both things can be true. 'Tis a matter of balance. 

Thinking of balance puts me back to how to think and work like Holmes because Watson did say Holmes had an  "admirably balanced mind." Well, most of the time he had such a mind. We know that he too was prone to dark periods of inactivity and bad habits. He always found his way back to balancing things out. I suppose I will sort it out, too, but it won't be today.

Today, the study door is open, my dogs are here wanting to be taken outside to play in the sunshine we've rarely had of late, and for the moment they seem to have the right idea.  Homes believed in the "the beautiful, faithful nature of dogs." I did say I want to think like Holmes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"He greeted me back to what had once been my home."

 "He greeted me back to what had once been my home."

OK, yes, yes, I have mixed a quote from "The Adventure of the Creeping Man" with artwork from "The Adventure of the Empty House." Odd, I know, but the combination is representative of my situation at the moment in relation to my good friends, Dr. John H. Watson and Mr. Sherlock Holmes. 

We are all familiar with the events that unfold when Sherlock Holmes suddenly appears in Watson's waiting room after three years "dead" and immediately takes up Watson as a comrade in arms again. They spend an interesting night watching Baker Street from across the way. One of my favorite quotes comes from that evening:

In the dim light I saw his head thrown forward, his whole attitude rigid with attention. Those two men might still be crouching in the doorway, but I could no longer see them. All was still and dark, save only that brilliant yellow screen in front of us with the black figure outlined upon its centre. Again in the utter silence I heard that thin, sibilant note which spoke of intense suppressed excitement.

Watson has Holmes beside him but he is still not clear on what is happening in Baker Street, nor is the place he is watching his home any longer. It is achingly familiar, of course, as is the man by his side in the empty house but the relationship is not quite what it once was, and certainly Baker Street is not home again, yet. But, he wants to be a part of it again; he wants to hear those thin sibilant notes, to have a little excitement related to Sherlock Holmes. I'm feeling much the same way about my relationship with Holmes, Watson and, in many ways, the greater Sherlockian world at the moment. 

Due to unexpected family obligations, I've been somewhat distant from Holmes, Watson, and their living community for weeks and weeks. I've hardly read a word, hardly written a word, hardly had a Sherlockian conversation. I've attended one Sherlockian event since BSI weekend in January. I'm not entirely certain I've attended more than one Sherlockian zoom since then.  If not for housekeeping on the manuscript for Sherlock Holmes Into the Fire and the Terror of Blue John Gap project, it might be realistic for me to say I've not been "Sherlocking" at all. 

I'm not up to date on any meetings, publications, videos, podcasts, or even gossipy arguments going on in the greater Sherlockian community. I feel very separated from it all. I'm ready to come back home. The family issues are not entirely solved or returned to normal, but they are getting closer to being so. I need to have one of those moments like Watson had at the opening of CREE:

It was one Sunday evening early in September of the year 1903 that I received one of the Holmes's laconic messages: 'Come at once if convenient — if inconvenient come all the same...With a wave of his hand he indicated my old arm-chair, but otherwise for half an hour he gave no sign that he was aware of my presence.  Then with a start he seemed to come from his reverie, and, with his usual whimsical smile, he greeted me back to what had once been my home.

Watson said he had become one of Holmes's habits. Their world is one of my habits. It is a rut I long to return to, convenient or otherwise. Here's hoping I find my way back before too much longer. I look forward to being greeted back to what had once been my home, too.

 

 

In That Case We Must Begin Again

 

In that case, we must begin again...Good heavens, Watson, what has become of any brains that God has given me? Quick, Man, quick. It's life or death - a hundred chances on death to one on life. I'll never forgive myself, never, if we are too late!'' ---Sherlock Holmes, "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax"

During the events of "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" we watch as Sherlock Holmes struggles to find the lady before it is too late. He puts his various methods to work, finding he "...must begin again..." a few times before he sorts out the answers. He is not indulging in a "touch of the dramatic"--it really is a matter of life or death. These ideas of beginning again and matters of life and death are rolling around in my thoughts. Last week we had a family member  saved by an observant person who happened to be walking across a parking lot and saw the non-responsive family member slumped over in a car. The kind stranger called 911 and started CPR. The family member survived his medical event despite flat-lining for several minutes. The presence of an observant person with methods changed everything. 

As I suppose is human nature when these sorts of things happen, I'm thinking about the natural order of things. One is here one minute, gone the next. Sometimes, if you're very fortunate, you get a second chance, precious time to begin again. I've been at a crossroads for a few weeks since submitting Sherlock Holmes Into the Fire to the publisher; I've been trying to decide what I'm going to do for the foreseeable future. I have to begin again in my own small way. Since Holmes and Watson seldom lead me astray, I look to them:

Holmes: "The work is its own reward.  Perhaps I shall get the credit also at some distant day when I permit my zealous historian to lay out his foolscap once more - eh, Watson?" 

Watson: "When one considers that Mr Sherlock Holmes was in active practice for twenty-three years, and that during seventeen of these I was allowed to co-operate with him and to keep notes of his doings, it will be clear that I have a mass of material at my command.  The problem has always been, not to find, but to choose.  There is the long row of year-books which fill a shelf, and there are the dispatch cases filled with documents, a perfect quarry for the student not only of crime, but of the social and official scandals of the late Victorian era. "

I'm still here (for the moment) and there is a mass of material in this house about Holmes, Watson and the late Victorian era. I'm interested in the many notes about Holmes doing things, and it is time to choose something from the quarry. I'm going back to work, hopefully in an observant and methodical manner. Time to layout the foolscap. I have an idea to create a little of the late Victorian era in a new book. Maybe it will come to fruition. Again, as Holmes said, "I shall sit in that room and see if its atmosphere brings me inspiration. I'm a believer in the genius loci." 

I've found one very specific piece of inspiration to sit and look at while I think--

Here's hoping for many more days, filled with second chances.

 

"This hat is three years old..."

 

Sherlockians tend to wear a lot of hats within the Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle appreciation community. We volunteer, we step up, we care about people, places and things. I'm no exception, although I have cut my number of hats back in the last few years. Some hats are worn seemingly forever (Peter Blau and his monthly newsletter for 50+ years) and some only for a short time (me, writing a column for Sherlock's Spotlight Gazette for a year). My general rule of thumb is to volunteer for one year for any one specific task and then reassess year by year thereafter. Three years in any one role is generally my max. 

 

This month I am at a three year mark as co-editor for the ACD Society Terror of Blue John Gap annotation project. With the page ten annotations finished and coming to you soon, our project is exactly three years old and about half finished. Is it time for me to leave? The question has been twirling around in my brain since January. Am I going to continue wearing this hat?

When first approached by Ross Davies to co-edit (with the brilliant Nancy Holder) the very unusual project, I had to have a stern talk with myself about the ramifications of considering a seven-year run. It was hard to imagine staying in the work for seven years, despite the quality of the team members. Ross and Nancy are mega-quality teammates but my attention wanders and I don't want to find myself bored with something to the point I'm not producing my best work. If I find myself going through the motions, then I know it is time to get out of the way so someone with fresh ideas and energy can take my place. 

 

When looking back over the work we've done in the last three years, I see myself as having been somewhat as Watson described Holmes in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men":

Sometimes he was making progress, and whistled and sang at his work; sometimes he was puzzled and would sit for a long spell with a furrowed brow and a vacant eye.

The work has been interesting, fun and occasionally annoying. Every page of Doyle's manuscript has taught me something about his world and his writing. Working on the pages with a wide-range of annotators has taught me a great deal about how people work in our time and how we write today. We've worked with people that fascinate me and, in all honesty, we've had one or two who infuriated me a little. 

 

With humans being humans and the conditions in our world, I know I have to take a generous view with the people who volunteer for us. Most of the people we approach to write for the project say yes and then follow through. Now and again, one will say yes, and then forget about us entirely but it doesn't happen too often. A very, very small number never reply to our invitations at all. We are lucky. The rest of this year's work for the project is already in motion; we should finish this fourth year in a good way.  

 

I suppose in the process of writing these few paragraphs I've convinced myself to keep this hat. Perhaps ruminating here is a little like Sherlock Holmes talking to Watson:

 At least I have a grip of the essential facts of the case. I shall enumerate them to you, for nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person, and I can hardly expect your co-operation if I do not show you the position from which we start.

 

"To put colour and life into each of your statements..."

 

"You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing cinder with the tongs, and lighting with it the long cherrywood pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a disputatious rather than a meditative mood - "you have erred, perhaps, in attempting to put colour and life into each of your statements, instead of confining yourself to the task of placing upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is really the only notable feature about the thing."

I sat down at the desk tonight to write about the ending of the Kick starter for Sherlock Holmes Into the Fire. I wanted to talk about how much fun I've had working with the marvelous writers who contributed to the book. Even with my grumbling about the countless rounds of editing, I've had a good experience with this project. I wanted to talk about how grateful I am for the opportunity to celebrate some of the work of Arthur Conan Doyle, the Round the Fire collection, and some marvelous new stories written in homage to that collection. I wanted to talk about how grateful I am for the many people who supported us via the campaign. I know how incredibly lucky I am. I hoped to write something full of  "colour and life."

And while I know I feel all these things, I simply can't find it in myself to touch the joy tonight. I look at the state of our country and the world and my heart is heavy. I think I have to regroup. Perhaps in a few days I'll find my way back to writing about the every day things that are wonderful in my Doyle- and-Holmes-and-Watson-saturated life. 

At the opening of "The Man with the Twisted Lip", Watson writes about how he and his wife attempted to help Kate Whitney in her sadness about her husband, "We soothed and comforted her by such words as we could find." I need some comfort from Watson's words tonight. I'm going to turn off the electronics and read, read, read. Perhaps  "...the footprints of a gigantic hound" will help tonight, or maybe, "...a very seedy and disreputable hard felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several places." 

I'm not sure yet what I will read, but I know that sometimes Watson is the "...the best and the wisest man whom I have ever known." Sherlock Holmes can bugger off with his complaints about Watson's words. I like and need Watson's colour and life and comfort.

 

Sherlock Holmes Into the Fire: Illustrating Some of Those Qualities

"With due discretion the incident itself may, however, be described, since it serves to illustrate some of those qualities for which my friend was remarkable."-- Dr. John H. Watson, "The Adventure of the Three Students"

Many Sherlockians, myself included, enjoy writing about Sherlock Holmes; we try, like Dr. Watson, to illustrate some of the qualities for which Holmes is remarkable. Pastiche writers make up one niche of Sherlockian writing as an almost innumerable number of writers attempt to tell stories (with varying degrees of success) worthy of Holmes's abilities. A new worthy collection will debut later this week when the upcoming anthology, Sherlock Holmes Into the Fire becomes available for preorders. 

It has been ten months since I first wrote about the plan for seventeen writers to each craft a Sherlockian adventure inspired by one of Arthur Conan Doyle's Round the Fire stories. Much has happened in the meanwhile. Everyone involved in the project has worked hard to craft stories worthy of Holmes and worthy of our readers' time. A great number of hours have been spent editing the works to a high level and in building a pleasing framework to hold the writings.

The original Round the Fire Stories is an entertaining collection of odd and sometimes weird stories Doyle said "are concerned with the grotesque and with the terrible — such tales as might well be read 'round the fire' upon a winter's night." Bringing Holmes in to make sense of these oddities is a challenge for writers; a challenge our seventeen met with gusto.

I would like to say a lot more today but I will wait until later when the official launch happens. I don't want to say too much until I can say everything!  Today, I do need to practice  "due discretion" as Dr. Watson does. We like to illustrate his fine qualities, too.