I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

Authors Reflect on Part 1 of the World's Largest Sherlock Holmes Story Collection

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<a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/07/behind-worlds-largest-new-sherlock.html#.VbxAx25Viko" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The world's largest collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories</a> is on its way to being realized. While the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1229605719/the-worlds-largest-new-sherlock-holmes-story-colle" target="_blank">Kickstarter</a> campaign is well underway for the collection assembled by <a href="http://mxpublishing.com/" target="_blank">MX Publishing</a>, we thought it would be a great idea to give some of the 64 participating authors a chance to reflect on their involvement. For the next three weeks, I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere will publish the answers of two questions that we asked each author:<br />
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<li>Tell us a little bit about your story without giving too much away.  Where and when does it take place?  Why did you choose that time for your story?</li>
<li>Why did you want to contribute to the anthology?</li>
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In addition to a chance to learn about the authors, their motivations and the stories they've written, you also have a chance to <b>win one copy of the three-volume series from MX Publishing</b>. See below for more details.<br />
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For this week's article, we are posting the answers we received from the authors in the first volume of the anthology.  Here are the responses from the participating authors in chronological order by the time their stories take place:</div>
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<b style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://221beanbakerstreet.info/" target="_blank">Hugh Ashton</a></b><b>  </b></h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTXd1nTWhnl6JTfrTA0KJwrVcLiBB9INC1BDqY3utBiqOPqSfIrXQkqKIUHaXoyFve7uiwNlduk_1Cg9an1HNRRC9l4snvpa78HqdRUOPQ8tBa8BRWOvFNC3Zz4KYdyxMDrtqs8PWGbDQR/s1600/Hugh+Ashton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTXd1nTWhnl6JTfrTA0KJwrVcLiBB9INC1BDqY3utBiqOPqSfIrXQkqKIUHaXoyFve7uiwNlduk_1Cg9an1HNRRC9l4snvpa78HqdRUOPQ8tBa8BRWOvFNC3Zz4KYdyxMDrtqs8PWGbDQR/s200/Hugh+Ashton.jpg" width="200" /></a>It's a classic locked room murder mystery, involving some forensics by Holmes. It takes place in the Midlands city of Lichfield, where I have some personal connections (soon to become stronger!), and you can actually find the scene of the crime on Google Maps, as well as various other locations mentioned in the story. It's an early mystery - in many ways I prefer the early Holmes to the later. Holmes is less blasé in his judgements, and maybe less arrogant.</div>
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It's an extremely worthy cause - and (being somewhat geographically isolated) it's also good to feel that I am part of the wave of Sherlockian enthusiasm which is sweeping the world.<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5827545.Adrian_Middleton" target="_blank">Adrian Middleton</a></b></h3>
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One aspect of Holmes adventures always interested me - his veiled references to various cases for the Vatican. The early years of his career were a curious time for the Catholic Church - recently forced to give up the Papal States to the new Kingdom of Italy, their traditional nemesis - England - was turning into something of an ally. So with all the religious politics of the time - a new Pope, the influence of Cardinal Newman in England, the impending rise of the Rosicrucians and the Golden Dawn, 1881 seemed to be the perfect year to peek into that aspect of Holmes' life, with maybe a hint of the darker trends of that time.   </div>
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It's all about the cause. I've always been involved in regeneration projects, and I feel very strongly that the loss of Undershaw to the nation could be a very real prospect at a time when homes are in high demand and there is little public money available help new heritage causes as they appear. These anthologies are already succeeding in raising awareness, but they also need to raise the funds that will help Stepping Stones preserve Undershaw for the benefit of future generations.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/David-Marcum/e/B00K1IKA92" target="_blank">David Marcum</a></b></h3>
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The story is called “The Adventure of the Pawnbroker’s Daughter.”It’s set in early 1882, about a year after Holmes and Watson meet. By this time, Watson is comfortable working with Holmes, but Holmes still has some tricks to show him. I knew that I wanted to write about that early period, but initially I didn’t know the details of the story. The first idea that came to me was actually for the story’s epilogue, set in the mid-1890s. In it, Watson is carrying out a task for Holmes and sees something that reminds him of the events of the earlier case. The vision of that epilogue scene literally burst into my head, and then I had to try and find out what was going on with that early case. </div>
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I don’t write with an outline. Rather, I just try to transcribe the story as Watson is telling it, and I’m often surprised at the direction a story goes. I’ve talked with several other writers of Holmes stories, and they work the same way – if you trust Watson, it just turns out better. In this case, I had seen that epilogue, but I didn’t know yet why it occurred. As the story unfolded, I was interested to note that Holmes reveals one of his methods to Watson, which coincidentally is something that I learned during training way back in my twenties when I was employed as a Federal Investigator with an obscure U.S. government agency, now long since defunct. It’s something that I still use myself on occasion – when I can remember to do so – in my second career as a civil engineer.</div>
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When I first had the idea for the anthology, I began to contact a wish list of people that I knew produced traditional and Canonical pastiches. That’s what I want when reading about Holmes, and therefore that’s what I asked for. As someone who has also made occasional trips to Watson’s Tin Dispatch Box, I quickly realized that I didn’t want to arrange this little excursion and then not climb on board myself when the train pulled out of the station. As the first person who was able to read all of these stories assembled in their entirety, I can say that they are absolutely amazing, and I hope that my own small channeling of Watson’s voice lives up to the work of all these other incredible authors.</div>
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<b><a href="http://www.sherlockholmessociety.in/" target="_blank">Jayantika Ganguly</a></b></h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3etXHtZWgOu0QSW50aGTsPSB_1VebRQq5jHkMUdg553g1i6swM0kbOOYdYGcK-diAnaHQ7hxvDPo2Q3tTQHzZ40-I5KFqguq6wL3yJR8WPFJw0vE30BmiApA51ACjA3FdBGcUDm8pukBK/s1600/MX-Ganguly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3etXHtZWgOu0QSW50aGTsPSB_1VebRQq5jHkMUdg553g1i6swM0kbOOYdYGcK-diAnaHQ7hxvDPo2Q3tTQHzZ40-I5KFqguq6wL3yJR8WPFJw0vE30BmiApA51ACjA3FdBGcUDm8pukBK/s200/MX-Ganguly.jpg" width="148" /></a>My story is called, "The Adventure of the Defenestrated Princess." That is pretty self explanatory, eh? It's set in London, 1882. Formative years, because that's a fascinating period in the Holmes-Watson dynamic...catch 'em early, as they say! Also, it reveals a softer side to the great detective, much to the good doctor's amusement. Oh, no, Sherlock's not in love or anything! (He'd kill me if I did that!)<br />
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Why contribute? What Sherlockian wouldn't? Brilliant publisher-editor duo, biggest (and most varied) anthology of pastiches ever, supports Undershaw - the list goes on! Sixty authors in one book!<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Denis-O.-Smith/e/B00GSLB9TQ" target="_blank">Denis O. Smith</a></b></h3>
My story – “The Inn on the Marsh” – is set in the early 1880s, at a remote and windy spot on the English coast, in the county of Norfolk. A young married couple stay for their honeymoon at an old inn there, “The Wild Goose”, but when they visit there again, later in the same summer, they find that the entry in the register relating to their previous visit has been removed, and the landlord claims never to have seen them before. Soon Sherlock Holmes is involved, and finds there is more to the situation than meets the eye.<br />
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I wrote this particular story because when David Marcum asked me if I would like to contribute a story to the anthology, I wanted to try to come up with something that I thought would be quite different from anyone else’s story. I myself live in Norfolk, and both the terrain and the weather I describe are true to life. I chose to set it in the early 1880s because to me that is the most interesting time in Holmes’s career – when he was not so well-known as he was later to become, and was still struggling, to some extent, to establish himself.<br />
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As soon as I heard of the proposed anthology, I was keen to contribute (if I could think of anything suitable) as the cause seemed to me a very good one. Conan Doyle’s time at Undershaw was an important period in his writing, and without the work of the Undershaw Preservation Trust it seemed likely that it would all vanish into the dust of history. Also, David wrote me such a nice letter that I couldn’t possibly decline the proposal!</div>
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<b><a href="https://girlmeetssherlock.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Amy Thomas</a></b></h3>
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The story takes place early in Holmes's and Watson's partnership when the two are living at 221B Baker Street before Watson's marriage. The setting is London, a traditional one for a Holmes story, complete with a client who approaches Holmes by coming to the flat. As a reader, I am interested in the entire timeline of the Canon, but when I think about the most traditional, quintessentially Holmesian stories, I usually find myself thinking about the early years. That's why, when I sat down to write a traditional story in Watson's voice, which isn't something I normally do, I gravitated toward an early point in Holmes's timeline. <br />
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First, I hugely enjoy writing about Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, something usually I do in my series of <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1Iv722w" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Detective and The Woman</a></i> novels. Second, I enjoy a challenge. I'm not used to writing in a Watsonian voice with a style that is imitative of Doyle, and I was attracted to the challenge of producing a story in that style. Third, I care a great deal about Undershaw. I worked with the Undershaw Preservation Trust to help save the property from destructive development, and I'm thrilled that the new owners are committed to preserving his legacy for the public. I'm delighted to contribute to a project that will provide practical help with the restoration.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.scandalousbohemians.com/" target="_blank">Kevin David Barratt</a></b></h3>
I am a member of a group called The Scandalous Bohemians based in Yorkshire who meet every other month to discuss all things Holmes over a few drinks. For our Christmas meeting last year I decided to write a Christmas ghost story. Taking "The Adventure Of The Speckled Band" as my starting point, I wrote "The Haunting Of Sherlock Holmes." John Hall, another group member, liked it and wanted to share it with a friend. That friend was David Marcum who also liked my story. Although I have given talks to our group, this is my first published story and I am absolutely thrilled and excited to be involved in this wonderful project.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Luke-Kuhns/e/B009Y7ZPC8" target="_blank">Luke B. Kuhns</a></b></h3>
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"The Allegro Mystery," is about a French ballerina who is performing in London. When something from her past comes to haunt her, it could be deadly, and possibly end her career! It's up to Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson to help save her life before things turn dastardly. The question is, will they?<br />
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The story takes place in Autumn-ish 1885. Originally it was an undisclosed time because I wanted to avoid any clashes with other stories, but my main reason for setting it officially in 1885 was down to the fact that I love the early years of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. When it's just the two of them solving mysteries, and back in time for supper in the warm study of 221b Baker Street. <br />
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I loved David's idea of having a new series of short stories. I've got several collections of shorts that range from classic pastiche to Sherlock Holmes Meets the mind of H.P. Lovecraft. The world loves Sherlock Holmes and it was Nicholas Meyer who said something along the lines of we write more Sherlock Holmes because we want more Sherlock Holmes, and these three massive volumes of stories reflect that desire. But I also like that David wanted traditional stuff. I love a bit of Sherlock crossovers, whether that's Sherlock meets Frankenstein or Churchill or battles supernatural elements. As long as the characters are true to what Doyle did and the story is good, I'm happy. But nothing ever beats that classic Victorian or Edwardian setting that made Sherlock Holmes so popular. So, I'm happy that these volumes are kept to that setting. The Victorian era was bizarre enough, there's a lot to have fun with!<br />
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<b><a href="mailto:slperkinswrites@gmail.com">Summer Perkins</a></b></h3>
My story, "The Deadly Soldier," is set in the mid-1880s in London. Someone has been hired to make an attempt on Professor Moriarty’s life and it’s up to him to use his powerful skills of deduction to find out the man’s identity in order to save himself. I chose to set the story in the 1880s as that is one of the classic Holmes decades in history, and I wanted it to have the same sort of historical feeling as the original Conan Doyle stories. <br />
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I’ve been a fan of Sherlock Holmes—and Professor Moriarty—in their many incarnations in books, film, and television for years, and I wanted the opportunity to put my own spin on a Sherlock Holmes tale. I’m also proud to do my bit to help the Undershaw Preservation Trust, because they’re doing incredible work, and I feel it’s important to preserve historic sites for future generations.<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5873437.Deanna_Baran" target="_blank">Deanna Baran</a></b></h3>
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My favorite moments in the canon tended to happen when Holmes was in disguise. His feats of observation and deduction were always eagerly anticipated; it would take more skill than I have to write a Holmes story, omit them, and convince the reader that the detective is indeed Holmes. Those were a given. But Holmes also needed opportunities to assume various identities like the skilled actor he was, and discourse like a credible musician. For such a Holmes, an appropriate setting incorporated Christmas pantomimes and the song-and-supper clubs of the era. Knowing Watson's reputation for unreliable chronology, it was also important to give "The Case of the Vanishing Stars" a solid grounding in time. After research turned up weather reports and concert reviews, I could find no better placement for my story than early December, 1885.<br />
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As someone who has been a museum curator, librarian, teacher, and rehabber, the MX project hit upon so many of my pet enthusiasms: children's education; the restoration and protection of a historic house; taking a neglected building and making it useful once more while maintaining its original integrity. It was a privilege to participate in this remarkable project.<br />
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<b><a href="http://eyestrainproductions.com/">Shane Simmons</a></b></h3>
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"The Song of the Mudlark" has Wiggins of the Baker Street Irregulars bringing Holmes a mystery he hopes will intrigue the detective. A body has been discovered along the banks of the Thames, leaving yet another small child orphaned and at the bottom rung of London society. The police show little interest, and even Holmes dismisses the death as a mundane drowning until he learns the dead man has suffered a terrible head wound that's been inexplicably stuffed full of rusty coins. The story takes place in 1886, between the first appearances of the Irregulars in <i>A Study in Scarlet</i> and <i>The Sign of Four</i>. It was important to set it in this period if only to keep young Wiggins from aging out of his role as leader of the juvenile spy network.<br />
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I came to this anthology in a roundabout way, after being recommended by another Sherlockian anthology editor. I jumped at the chance to participate in such a prestigious collection, both for the content and its role in helping The Undershaw Preservation Trust. It pains me to watch grand old buildings of historic significance being left to rot and then suffer further indignities at the hands of developers and wrecking balls. Preserving Conan Doyle's home and putting it to good use while maintaining its integrity and links to the past is the obvious and best solution for the property.<br />
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<b>C.H. Dye</b></h3>
I decided to write about one of the cases Watson mentions as happening in 1887, which set my date pretty quickly, although I did  play with a few chronologies to get to decide which cases surrounded mine.  It was a little frustrating, as my original idea needed a lot more words than would fit, but I was able to narrow things down and discard the research I didn't need along the way. (It will turn into another story, sometime!)<br />
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I've written fanfiction for years under a nom de web, and I was lucky enough to be asked to write a story based on the strength of a recent fanfic I'd done.  It was a challenge, too.  Most of my writing has not been about cases which needed clues and deductions. It's much easier writing drabbles!<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.markmower.co.uk/">Mark Mower</a></b></h3>
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My story is entitled "The Strange Missive of Germaine Wilkes." It’s set in the late summer of 1887 and has Holmes and Watson assisting Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard with a weirdly coded message. It gave me the chance to write about corruption, counterfeiting, villainy and a marvelous new piece of Victorian technology (I can’t elaborate any further as it might spoil the story!). My first degree was in Modern History and I focused on the politics, economics and social history of the nineteenth century – all of which came back to me as I set out to write the tale.<br />
<br />
I found the whole idea of contributing to the preservation of Undershaw absolutely irresistible. That alone would have been inducement enough. But the chance to be in a new volume alongside many writers I have admired for so long (Denis O. Smith and Andrew Lane) and others who I have been introduced to and inspired by more recently (David Marcum in particular) made this something I would not have missed for the world. Unlike most of the other contributors, I am principally known as a non-fiction crime writer, but the whole experience has made me want to focus more and more on fictional tales.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Derrick-Belanger/e/B00LG13FY0">Derrick Belanger</a></b></h3>
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While staying in Cody, Wyoming on a trip to Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 2014, I learned that Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show had performed in London during the summer and autumn of 1887.  I thought it would be perfect to have Mr. Cody hire Sherlock Holmes to solve a case.  The story involves a murderer who, after ascending to a building rooftop, appears to have vanished into thin air.  One of the members of Mr. Cody's troupe has been accused of the crime, and it is up to Holmes and Watson to clear his name and find the true killer. The story also has a brief appearance from the Baker Street Irregulars, and it involves my own invented member of Scotland Yard, Sergeant Rousseau, who returns in my forthcoming novella, <i>Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Peculiar Provenance</i>.<br />
<br />
When David Marcum contacted me, and I found out that the proceeds for the anthology were going to help restore Undershaw, I did not hesitate to get involved.  As a middle school teacher myself, I am thrilled that Doyle's former home will host a school for special needs students and will become a bit of a museum for us Doyleans at the same time.  Kudos to Stepping Stones for finding a unique way to preserve this building, yet make it useful to the children of today. I believe Arthur Conan Doyle himself will be quite pleased with the results.<br />
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<br /></div>
<h3>
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Daniel-D.-Victor/e/B003D1RUO2">Daniel D. Victor</a></b></h3>
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In "Writing Great Fiction," an excellent lecture series in <i>The Great Courses</i>, novelist James Hynes had occasion to mention  Henry James' novella, "The Aspern Papers."  Intrigued enough to read the story, I was immediately struck by its sinister undertones.  So devious was the action that I concluded the mild-mannered James must have sanitized a mystery that I judged would require no less than Sherlock Holmes to unravel.  Since the original story was published in 1888 and reportedly based on actual events, I had to make my version take place earlier.  Thus, my story, which I call "The Adventure of the Aspen Papers," begins in 1887 with Henry James laying out the details of a case that involves Holmes and Watson in a murder investigation.<br />
<br />
Preserving Undershaw is a worthwhile goal, especially to fans of Sherlock Holmes. What's more, as a retired teacher, I like knowing that the building will be used as a school. I've also never written a Holmes short story and was curious to see how length-restrictions might affect my writing. And then there's the exhilaration I suppose all writers experience when seeing their names in print.<br />
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<h3>
<b><a href="http://www.stephen-wade.com/">Stephen Wade</a></b></h3>
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I’ve always been interested in the fictional possibilities of writing Lestrade into a kind of fascinating anti-heroism. The idea for this story- set in the late 1880s – came from photography. I wanted Moriarty and Lestrade to meet, and after seeing a carte de visite of a Victorian gentleman, I had the core of the tale. So it’s about vanity, the power of the arch-enemy himself, and the human comedy that is so full of potential in the little bungling sleuth.<br />
<br />
What Sherlock Holmes fan would turn down the chance to contribute? I think the possibilities for extending the Sherlock Holmes narratives are endless, and let’s celebrate that. David Marcum asked me to contribute, and this was to hand. Now I’m in the middle of a collection of Lestrade stories. Moriarty, let’s say, has some fun with the little man.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Investigations-Sherlock-Holmes-John-Heywood/dp/1780926073">John Heywood</a></b></h3>
A shoot is in progress on a Norfolk estate. One of the many distinguished guests is a South African mining magnate known as the King of Diamonds. Along with the other sportsmen, he takes his lunch in the field; within minutes, he is lying dead in the grass. His servant is arrested for murder, but was it really him? Or was the victim killed by one of the guests, perhaps somebody from his African past? And what part was played by the shadowy anarchist group to which the dead man’s servant belonged?<br />
<br />
In this story I have tried to picture the world of late Victorian England, both its opulent<br />
surface and its darker side. The story takes place in 1888, a year when:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The South African diamond merchants De Beers was founded</li>
<li>Anarchist bombs shook respectable society from St Petersburg to New York</li>
<li>Jack the Ripper was at work in Whitechapel, and</li>
<li>Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were sharing a flat in Baker Street.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
Why did I contribute?<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I was asked, and I thought why not?</li>
<li>I liked the idea of being involved in a collaboration with sixty other Holmes authors.</li>
<li>I support the preservation trust’s efforts to save Undershaw.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b><a href="http://www.darkregions.com/books/sherlock-holmes-the-impossible-cases-by-daniel-mcgachey">Daniel McGachey</a></b></h3>
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My story - or novelette, as I believe is the more accurate term for what it grew into (and I had to check the differences between a novelette and a novella, which, in this instance, is somewhere about 500 words) - is "The Adventure of the Seventh Stain." As you may very easily deduce, this has strong ties with an existing tale in the Canon. Rather, it begins by exploring the reasons why a certain narrative, when it finally appeared in print, had no real connection to the teasing hints to that story's contents made in a couple of previous accounts, before then going on to reveal a tale which "deals with interests of such importance and implicates so many of the first families in the kingdom that for many years it will be impossible to make it public." So this is Watson in 1904 looking back to the events of the summer of 1889.<br />
<br />
I didn't originally plan to do something which amounts to an unrecorded case based on a canonical reference, but the idea that there were potentially not just two but probably three and possibly even more accounts in Watson's dispatch box bearing the same title set me off and running... even though I had very little idea what I was running towards to begin with. But it was certainly a fun, if sometimes exhausting, journey to find out.<br />
<br />
Being invited to contribute to something by someone you didn't previously know on the basis that they've read and enjoyed your previous work is one of the best ways to be commissioned, I think. So when David Marcum got in touch out of the blue and explained what the project was, some of the names already involved, and what it was intended to raise money for, I jumped at the chance to get involved. <br />
<br />
My previous Holmes stories (and the novel I'm currently at work on) involve the supernatural - though carefully balanced, I hope, so as not to veer too far away from the Conan Doyle characters and world - so it was an exciting idea and a fresh challenge to attempt a non-supernatural, traditional Holmes and Watson adventure.<br />
<br />
That initial approach in no way suggested the size the project would grow to, so it's been thrilling to see a single volume expand to two and finally three books, and David's tireless enthusiasm and support have obviously been a huge part of that. And the biggest driving force has been to do something in aid of both Stepping Stones and the Undershaw Preservation Trust. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gave a great gift to the world, and one that millions are still enjoying to this day, with his writing, so it's an honour to help in some way to thank the man, however belatedly, by preserving this important part of his life and legacy.<br />
<br />
Also, I just really want to see a massive great collection of traditional adventures for Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, so even if I hadn't been involved, I'd have been rushing to buy it.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7482894.Martin_Rosenstock">Martin Rosenstock</a></b></h3>
My story is entitled 'The Two Umbrellas' and takes place in London in 1887. Moriarty has succeeded in manipulating a government employee who is smitten with a young actress into stealing some secret documents. Will Moriarty and his henchmen be able to smuggle them out of the country and thus compromise British security? I wanted to write a story that features Moriarty, so my story had to be set quite early, before his death in 1891.<br />
<br />
I decided to contribute because I liked the cause to which the money goes and I'm proud to be published alongside so many accomplished writers.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Craig-Janacek/e/B0050PQ2KW">Craig Janacek</a></b></h3>
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"The Adventure of the Fateful Malady," is set in 1889, with Holmes at the heights of his pre-Reichenbach powers. The entire tale takes place within the confines of central London, ranging between 221B, Charing Cross Hospital, and Harley Street, and features Holmes' first encounter with a man whose services he later calls upon in "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier." My hope is that this tale, by highlighting the medical aspects of Holmes' deductive powers, pays homage to the physician whose amazing diagnostic skills seemingly inspired Holmes' to develop his own special talents.<br />
<br />
I was thrilled to contribute an original work to this extraordinary collection for many reasons. First and foremost, it is a great cause - supporting education for disabled children - which is near and dear to my heart as a practicing pediatrician ("my day job!"). Secondly, this will be my first fictional manuscript to appear in a printed edition. While I can no longer travel without my Kindle, and I love seeing my other stories exist, if only in electronic format, there is simply no substitute for holding a real book in your hands. I hope that this is the first of many more to come from my desk.<br />
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<h3>
<b><a href="http://www.michaelkurland.com/">Michael Kurland</a></b></h3>
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My contribution is a short poem called "Sherlock Holmes of London," a verse in four fits and the opening lines are:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If you’ve a missing heir to locate, or a bank you have to guard, /<br />
There’s only one detective, and he’s not from Scotland yard.</blockquote>
<br />
And I wanted to contribute to the anthology to help preserve the physical memory of Sir Arthur. I have written five books and a bunch of short stories featuring Professor Moriarty, and where would Moriarty be without Sherlock Holmes?<br />
<br />
<br />
That concludes this week's spotlight article.  In <a href="http://ihose.co/mxauthors2nd" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the next installment</a>, we will post the responses from the authors in the second volume of <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1229605719/the-worlds-largest-new-sherlock-holmes-story-colle" target="_blank"><i>The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories</i></a>. <br />
<br />
<b>If you would like to be entered to win a copy of the three-volume anthology, here's how you can qualify:</b><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>You must be <a href="http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub&publisher=445106&sitescope=45933" target="_blank">subscribed to our email updates</a>; and</li>
<li>You leave us a comment below describing why you're excited about this new anthology.</li>
</ol>
<br />
One winner will be selected at random from all entries. Drawing will take place on Wednesday, August 19, 2015.<br />
<br />
And don't forget: the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1229605719/the-worlds-largest-new-sherlock-holmes-story-colle" target="_blank">Kickstarter campaign</a> will be active until Sunday, August 16, 2015 at 6:59 pm EDT. There's still plenty of time to pledge and get your copy of all three volumes before they are available to the public.<br />
<br />
--<br />
<br />
<b></b></div>

Authors Reflect on Part 1 of the World's Largest Sherlock Holmes Story Collection

"they reflected the thoughts which possessed him" [STUD] The world's largest collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories i...

+ Read more »

by Belanger Books

The Scandalous Sherlock Holmes Copyright Issue

<h4 style="text-align: center;">
"They are not very hard to deceive" [LAST]</h4>
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<br />
Much has <a href="http://www.sherlockian.net/acd/copyright.html" target="_blank">already been written about Andrea Plunket</a> (see Sherlockian.net), the woman who claims that she holds the rights to the name Sherlock Holmes and the stories, and who repeatedly has been told in court that she doesn't. But it is one thing to claim something, and it is another to have people actually buying licenses from you - <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/08/7th-circuit-orders-conan-doyle-estate.html#.VbmbF_lViko" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">as the Conan Doyle Estate found out last year</a>.<br />
<br />
It is true that Plunket has registered a number of trademarks concerning Sherlock Holmes, but strong doubts remain that these trademarks can be used to demand license payments from publishers when they want to publish Sherlock Holmes pastiches. However, many have accepted her trademark claims and believed that she is the copyright holder of Sherlock Holmes, and among them are some major book publishers, e.g. Penguin Books, Simon & Schuster and Oxford University Press.<br />
<br />
The Case of the Confused Copyright starts in the 1950s with Sheldon Reynolds, an American TV producer who was contacted by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's sons, Adrian and Denis, and after Denis' persuasive dinners in Paris, Reynolds agreed on buying a license for the Sherlock Holmes TV rights, and thereafter made a TV series in 1954 with Ronald Howard playing the great detective.<br />
<br />
<h3>
"You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins" [REDH]</h3>
We move on to the mid 1970s. Sheldon Reynolds was thinking about making a new Sherlock Holmes TV series and for that reason he contacted the copyright holder. At that time the copyright holder had for a few years been the Baskervilles Investments Ltd, which was owned by Princess Nina Mdivani Conan Doyle Harwood. She had been married to Denis Conan Doyle, who died in 1955, and then remarried his secretary (who was not really his secretary, but rather Nina's protégé) Tony Harwood. She was definitely not a princess, but she had claimed to be that all since the 1920s (along with her siblings, all of them "princesses" and "princes" who had fled from Georgia). The fascinating story of "<a href="http://wwd.com/eye/people/mdivanis-the-marrying-kind-3595202/" target="_blank">the Marrying Mdivanis</a>," who became famous for marrying the richest and most famous of heiresses and film stars, is unfortunately beyond the focus of this article.<br />
<br />
Reynolds contacted the Baskervilles Investments Ltd, only to find out that the company was held by a receiver, Mr William G. Mackey, appointed by the Royal Bank of Scotland. And Mr Mackey wanted to sell the complete Conan Doyle literary estate. So Sheldon Reynolds didn't walk away from the meeting with just a license to make a new TV series, but he decided to buy the whole estate. However, he didn't have any money. But his wife Andrea had. Or rather her mother, who had inherited a fortune from her late husband, an heir of Pfizer chemicals.<br />
<br />
For the next few years, Sheldon and Andrea Reynolds - together with her parents - ruled over the Sherlock Holmes copyright, until it ran out, fifty years after the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A new copyright act had by then come into use in the US, which made it possible for Conan Doyle's only surviving child, Dame Jean Conan Doyle, to get the copyright back for some stories that were still in US copyright.<br />
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<h3>
"no claim on it at all" [SHOS] </h3>
And this is where it starts to get complicated. Andrea Reynolds, who nowadays is remarried as Andrea Plunket, says that a number of juridical errors were made when forcing her to give away the remaining copyright to Dame Jean. In the late 1990s, after the death of Dame Jean, Andrea Plunket started to sue companies who used Sherlock Holmes without paying her. She always lost in court. But that didn't keep her from continuing to run something that she called the <a href="http://www.sherlockholmesonline.org/" target="_blank">Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Literary Estate</a> and claim on her web page:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson, Mrs. Hudson, Professor Challenger, Brigadier Gerard and the Hound of the Baskervilles among others are trademarked by the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Estate. Use of any character or any book not in the public domain for any purpose whatsoever is prohibited without a license from the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Literary Estate." </blockquote>
The web page is now under re-construction, so this text is from the old web page. It's a mix of trademark and copyright claims.<br />
<br />
The trademark business is a complicated one, and it is difficult to completely protect a name like Sherlock Holmes with a trademark. A blog post from the <a href="http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/Blog/detail.aspx?g=645b6180-c549-4a61-8945-2a4239865fb2" target="_blank">World Trademark Review</a> tells more about the Plunket trademark case and her company Arthur Conan Doyle Characters Ltd.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.conandoyleestate.com/index.php/copyright/" target="_blank">Conan Doyle Estate Ltd</a> - whom you may remember from <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/%23FreeSherlock#.Vbmg1_lVikp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">its recent legal battle</a> with Leslie Klinger, BSI ("The Abbey Grange") - warns people about Andrea Plunket on its web page. One of its issues is that so many publishers accept Andrea Plunket's copyright claims at face value and believe that they are buying a legitimate license from her, often through her British agent Jonathan Clowes Ltd. It is not far-fetched to believe, thanks to the evidence presented, that a license from Plunket is totally worthless.<br />
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I have no insight at all into the money being paid, but I can clearly see that Jonathan Clowes and Andrea Plunket are mentioned on the copyright pages or in the acknowledgements of many books. And it's probably a good guess that money has been involved, since that is the aim of their business. We should also remember that outside the U.S., money never has to be paid for a license to write about Sherlock Holmes or to publish Conan Doyle's stories. There is no trademark or copyright stopping that. In the U.S., the situation was previously rather more complicated, until recently when <a href="http://ihose.co/freesherlock" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Leslie Klinger succeeded</a> in his lawsuit against the Conan Doyle Estate Ltd. - with a few exceptions - couldn't force publishers to pay a license to publish Sherlock Holmes pastiches.<br />
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<h3>
"a question which has puzzled many an expert" [STUD]</h3>
So which authors and publishers have believed in Andrea Plunket's copyright and trademark claim? A quick search through Google Books gives an interesting list.<br />
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It's not surprising to find some self-published books on such a list. The author pseudonym Radkris, who has written <i>The Adventure of Black Drop</i>, published by AuthorHouse in 2011, mentions that the characters are used with permission from Clowes and Plunket - and actually also from Jon Lellenberg at the Conan Doyle Estate Ltd.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mxpublishing.com/category/Sherlock+Holmes+Books" target="_blank">MX Publishing</a> - the biggest purveyor of Sherlock Holmes pastiches at the moment - published Kieran Lyne's <i>The Last Confession of Sherlock Holmes</i> in 2014. From the Acknowledgements page: "The characters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are used here by the kind permission of Jonathan Clowes Ltd, on behalf of Andrea Plunket, Director of the Arthur Conan Doyle Trademark (EU)." However, on the copyright page it says: "Use of the Sherlock Holmes characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by permission of Conan Doyle Estate Ltd, www.conandoyleestate.co.uk". The matter is indeed complicated.<br />
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In 2012, the British independent publisher Robert Hale published <i>Sherlock Holmes and the Queen of Diamonds</i> by Steve Hayes and David Whitehead. Holmes and Watson are used with the kind permission of Clowes/Plunket. That is also the case in the Hale book <i>Sherlock Holmes at the Breakfast Table</i> by L. F. E. Coombs (2013).<br />
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It is a surprise to find Oxford University Press among the publishers who have accepted Andrea Plunket as the copyright holder - and has done so twice! In 2000 they published <i>The Book of Heaven: An Anthology of Writings from Ancient to Modern Times</i>, edited by Carol Zaleski and Philip Zaleski. Among the texts is an excerpt from Conan Doyle's <i>The Land of Mist</i>. Reprinted by kind permission of Jonathan Clowes Ltd., London, on behalf of Andrea Plunket, Administrator of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Copyrights.<br />
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In the same year, 2000, Oxford University Press published <i>The Oxford Book of Detective Stories</i>, edited by Patricia Craig. "The Blue Carbuncle" was included and again with a permission from Clowes and Plunket.<br />
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Other anthologies etc. mentioning permissions from Clowes/Plunket are <i>Jesus: Authors Take Sides</i> (HarperCollins, 1999; from Conan Doyle's "My Religion"), <i>Wildest Dreams: An Anthology of Drug-Related Literature</i> (Arktos Media, 2014), <i>Authors in Depth: Gold Level</i> (Prentice Hall, 2000), <i>The Practical Guide to Writing</i> (Pearson Education Canada, 2007), and <i>Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes</i> (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2002).<br />
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I find it a little bit sad to find such a great author as Robert Ryan on the list. His <i>Dead Man's Land</i> is a really good Doctor Watson story. In the Acknowledgements he writes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Very early in our discussions about writing a WWI historical thriller, my editor, Maxine Hitchcock, came up with the idea of a detective in the trenches, and had the patience and tenacity to wait until I had worked out it had to be a doctor and a famous one at that. David Miller, my clear-headed agent, then pointed out that Dr Watson has been trademarked by the Conan Doyle Estate. So thanks to him and to Olivia Guest of Jonathan Clowes, which administers the estate. She listened while I pitched the idea over the telephone, and supported its progress through to permission being granted." </blockquote>
A permission that, as we have seen, was rather worthless. The book was published by Simon & Schuster in 2013. On one of the first pages of the book, there is a "Note from the author" telling about the permission Ryan has been given to use the character Doctor Watson.<br />
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In a preface for <i>The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes</i> by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 2013 by Simon & Schuster, Robert Ryan wrote more about the process of getting the permission:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"And so we started on the road to <i>Dead Man's Land</i>, the story of the good doctor's adventures in World War One. But there was one fly in this petroleum jelly ointment, in that Dr Watson has been trademarked by the Conan Doyle Estate, along with Holmes, Moriarty and Professor Challenger (although the tales themselves are all technically out of copyright in this country). So it seemed worthwhile getting the Conan Doyle Estate's blessing. I contacted Olivia Guest at Jonathan Clowes Agency (which represents the ACD estate), who asks me to pitch the story (at that point rather sketchy) over the telephone. She liked the concept enough to take it to Andrea Plunket who rejoices in the title Administrator of the Conan Doyle Copyrights and Director of the EU Trademarks. After a few tense weeks I received a green light." </blockquote>
I don't think the Conan Doyle Estate Ltd are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/books/19sherlock.html?_r=3" target="_blank">especially happy about the confusion</a> that makes Ryan use their name for Plunket's company. He evidently has no idea that there is another, true Conan Doyle Estate Ltd.<br />
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The list of authors and publishers who have paid money to Clowes/Plunket is probably much longer. These are just the examples I have found at Google Books.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit: <a href="https://flic.kr/p/7Efws7" target="_blank">opensource.com (Flickr)</a></td></tr>
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But maybe the most exceptional book to be found on the list is <i>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i>, published by <b>Penguin Books</b> in 2011 (a reprint of the 1981 edition). In the book the following text is found:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Copy<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">right <span style="background-color: white;">©</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;"> </span>the Copyright holders of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle works, reproduced by kind permission of Jonathan Clowes, Ltd, London, on behalf of Andrea Plunket. Trustee and Administrator. All rights reserved." </span></blockquote>
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This text is not found in the 1981 edition. Penguin, with their long history of Conan Doyle books, should not make such a mistake. And they should indeed know that there is no copyright protection of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, wherever in the world they wish to publish it. And that is a minor scandal.<br />
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(Thanks to my Twitter friends <a href="http://twitter.com/jankathecat">@jankathecat</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/raywilcockson">@raywilcockson</a> for research help!)<br />
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<i> Image source: <a href="https://flic.kr/p/9RQRd5">Christopher Dombres (Flickr)</a></i><br />
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--<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>

The Scandalous Sherlock Holmes Copyright Issue

"They are not very hard to deceive" [LAST] Much has already been written about Andrea Plunket (see Sherlockian.net), the wom...

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by Mattias Boström

You Say Sherlockian, I Say Sherlockian

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<span style="text-align: start;">"Each pigeon-hole had its label" [LAST]</span></h4>
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<br /><br />When the BBC series starring Benedict Cumberbatch first aired in 2010, it garnered fans very quickly, and they naturally enough called themselves Sherlockians. What was the name of the series, after all, but <i>Sherlock</i>? <br /><br />And that would have been fine, if there hadn't already been a group of people called Sherlockians. The word "Sherlockian" has been in use since — well, I'm not quite sure since when, but for sixty years at the very least. "The ardent Sherlockian is a being apart," Edgar W. Smith wrote in one of his editorials in the <i><a href="http://bakerstreetjournal.com/" target="_blank">Baker Street Journal</a></i> in 1955. He was not, I'm pretty sure, talking about television fans, or even movie enthusiasts, but about those who read, enjoy and discuss the authentic Sherlock Holmes tales by Arthur Conan Doyle, which we have come to call "the Canon."<br /><br />Some of the Sherlockians in the BBC-fan group soon became Sherlockians of the Canonical kind as well. (Don't doubt it. I'm currently reading <i><a href="http://wessexpress.com/html/fixedpoint.html" target="_blank">The One Fixed Point in a Changing Age</a></i>, an anthology of serious writing by "a new generation", and believe me, it straddles the divide impressively.) Others, however, emphatically didn't. I heard a story recently of an old-line Sherlockian who got to know a new-style Sherlockian and suggested that they spend some time looking intensively at one of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Stories? the younger enthusiast asked. What stories? Not interested in stories. Only interested in Cumberbatch and Freeman.<br /><br /><h3>
"by some circuitous route" [LADY]</h3>
Let me say it another way: for some of the current generation, <i>Sherlock</i> is the gateway drug that leads them to the real Sherlock Holmes. For earlier generations, the gateway drug may have been Jeremy Brett, or even Basil Rathbone... or, one suspects, William Gillette. And for those who made the jump, read the Sherlock Holmes stories and got serious about them, it's perfectly reasonable to say that they became Sherlockians in the sense in which we've always used the word.<br /><br />I do think there's room for cavil about just how much somebody has to know before the label "Sherlockian" will stick. Does he or she need to know which story refers to the Netherlands-Sumatra Company and which one mentions Holmes's Stradivarius? (Those are the kinds of questions that, supposedly, were used by the early Baker Street Irregulars to determine who was going to buy the next round.) At a minimum, it seems to me, a Sherlockian has to be somebody who has read all four novels and 56 short stories with some attention. If you fall much short of that criterion you are, let's say, a Sherlockian-in-training. Which is a very fine thing to be, by the way.<br /><br />But there's no hope of taking the label "Sherlockian" away from the people who are dedicated only to television programs, so the ambiguity is likely to persist, and Sherlockians (type 1) will be rubbing shoulders with Sherlockians (type 2) at events like the GridLock con in Washington for quite some time to come.<br /><br />Honestly, it's enough to make you wish that old-school Sherlockians had adopted the name Holmesians instead. As it happens, their (our) British counterparts already did, and thereby avoided all sorts of misunderstanding.<br /><br /><br /><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image credit: <a href="https://flic.kr/p/aBNn9D" target="_blank">Tatiana Vdb (Flickr)</a></span></i><br />--<br /><br /><div>
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You Say Sherlockian, I Say Sherlockian

"Each pigeon-hole had its label" [LAST] When the BBC series starring Benedict Cumberbatch first aired in 2010, it garnered fan...

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by Chris Redmond

EXCLUSIVE: Video Trailer to William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes (1916) and Giveaway

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"an object of interest to be celebrated" [SCAN]</h4>
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Last year, the world was taken by storm by <a href="http://ihose.co/1916film" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the discovery of the 1916 film <i>Sherlock Holmes</i></a> starring William Gillette, long thought to be the Holy Grail of lost films. The film was <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/first-hand-evidence-william-gillette-s-restored-1916" target="_blank">screened first in Paris</a> on January 31 of this year, then <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/06/sherlock-holmes-in-san-francisco.html#.VbFXlvlViko" target="_blank">at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in May</a>, both to excited and sold out audiences.<br />
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This October, Flicker Alley will present the Blu-ray/DVD restoration, in partnership with the <a href="http://sfsff.com/" target="_blank">San Francisco Silent Film Festival</a> and <a href="http://www.cinematheque.fr/" target="_blank">la Cinémathèque française</a>.<br />
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Exclusive trailer</h3>
As part of the preparation for the October 20 release of the DVD and Blu-ray and to celebrate William Gillette's birthday (b. July 24, 1853), I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere is proud to debut this exclusive trailer for the film:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/134142322" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br /></div>
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Long considered lost until a complete dupe negative was identified in the vaults of la Cinémathèque française last year, this William Gillette film is a vital missing link in the history of Sherlock Holmes on screen. By the time it was produced at Essanay Studios in 1916, Gillette had been established as the world's foremost interpreter of Holmes on stage-having played him approximately 1300 times since his 1899 debut. This newly-restored edition, thanks to the monumental efforts of both the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and la Cinémathèque française, represents the sole surviving appearance of Gillette's Holmes on film. Presented with optional French and English intertitles and an original score composed and performed by Neil Brand, Guenter Buchwald, and Frank Bockius, Flicker Alley is honored to bring <a href="http://ihose.co/flickeralley" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes</a> onto Blu-ray and DVD for the first time ever.<br />
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Bonus Materials Include:<br />
<ul>
<li><i>Sherlock Holmes Baffled</i> (1900): Courtesy of the Library of Congress and presented in HD, this is the earliest known film to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes.</li>
<li><i>A Canine Sherlock</i> (1912): From the EYE Film Institute, the film stars Spot the Dog as the titular character.</li>
<li><i>Più forte che Sherlock Holmes</i> (1913): Also from the EYE Film Institute, this entertaining Italian trick-film owes as much to Méliès as it does Doyle.</li>
<li>HD transfers from the Fox Movietone Collection: Interview with Arthur Conan Doyle and outtakes from a 1930 broadcast with William Gillette showing off his amateur railroad (University of South Carolina).</li>
<li>A PDF manuscript of the 1899 play <i>Sherlock Holmes</i> by William Gillette.</li>
<li>A PDF of the original contract between William Gillette and the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company.</li>
<li>A booklet featuring images from the film and information about the restoration project.</li>
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The DVD / Blu-ray is <a href="http://ihose.co/flickeralley" target="_blank">available for purchase directly from Flicker Alley</a>, currently discounted at $29.95 (normally priced at $39.95).</div>
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<b>Contest</b></h3>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">As part of the celebration of William Gillette's birthday, Flicker Alley is holding <a href="http://ihose.co/HBDGillette" target="_blank">a contest in which you have a chance to win</a> a copy of the DVD / Blu-ray of the 1916 </span><i>Sherlock Holmes</i> starring William Gillette. Just <a href="http://ihose.co/HBDGillette" target="_blank">visit their site</a> to enter the contest and to see the full set of rules.</div>
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The contest runs from now until August 7, so make sure you get to the site before it ends. Good luck!</div>
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Thanks to our friends at Flicker Alley for hosting this contest.</div>
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