"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.