From Mortality to Reichenbach

As you FF.N readers will know, the last chapter of Mortality has been uploaded. Even with the climax past, there was enough room for some treats in the final chapter, particularly one face-off that I just have not seen in fanfiction. (Yes, you will have to go read the chapter to find out who the players are.)

And I’ve actually had the epilogue sitting on my hard drive for a few days now (muchas gracias to Riandra for her encouragement to go ahead with the rather different style!). The title is simply “War,” regarding The War That Never Was between Scotland Yard and Moriarty’s empire (or family, as it would have been called at the time). The whole thing is written looking towards what is inevitable—or, in the terminology of the piece, “Reichenbach.” I’ll be uploading it soon, and I am so excited.

As a side note, the epilogue rounds the current total word count off to 80,000 words. Officially, the longest work of fiction I’ve ever written. And with all the bonus material coming, I think I can look forward to a final total of 90,000, at least.

Now for a shout-out. I started out last week with definite depression, for a variety of reasons and no reason at all. (I am an artist; this, sadly, is my definition of “normal”.) Someone on FF.N helped not only to pull me out of depression but also to pull me back in to Sherlockiana, in general. Azolean. Azolean started off my week by reviewing a couple of my Sherlockian fics and going so far as to buy AMM off of Amazon.

Wow.

Now, if it had ended right there, it would have been really cool. But this person went further than that, going on to pick up Mortality and review the entire thing chapter-by-chapter.

Yes. Seriously.

In one week.

It was fantastic. It was one of the best things that had happened to me in a long time (alongside finding out that a certain idol of mine was actually reading the book, as well). Let’s rate it up there right below being introduced to Doctor Who (as far as great things this summer go). Yes, really!

I was practically living from review to review, and I truly missed the reviews when Azolean had gotten to the last chapter. But what an uplifting experience! Everyone loves getting praise on their stories, and even something simple, along the lines of “I loved this!” can be encouraging. But Azolean, despite reading the entire thing in a week, took the time to praise details (and sometimes criticize, and even that was very respectful and very welcome).

It was absolutely magnificent.

So borne up on a wave of glorious feedback, I actually went on to type out the prologue for The Road to Reichenbach. In fact, I’ve even started the first chapter! As I told Ria in answer to a question on the prologue, 90% of the dialogue is Canon, most of the body language is Granada or Granada-based, and then all the introspection is me.

Mortality is the book that I’ve been wanting to do since halfway through AMM… and Road is the book that I’ve been wanting to do since halfway through Mortality.

Road has also been, by far, the most difficult book of the three to plan. AMM was so easy—short, character-centric pieces. Quite often, I was churning out two or three in a day. From beginning to end, half a year… and only four months were actually spent in intensive writing and editing. Mortality, on the other hand, has always had a pretty loose outline, with plenty of room for improvisation. I knew the general direction I wanted the story to go, and I kind of gave the characters free rein.

In fact, the one time that I didn’t was the time that the entire thing had ground to a halt smack-dab in the middle. I then backed up and rewrote a few chapters, and moved on. The epiphany, the element that kept the book going from that point on, was Watson. Watson wanted to be the hero, and, seriously, who was I to deny him? The rest you readers know: Watson’s search-and-rescue operations make up Act II of the story.

Anyway, Mortality is a fairly-straightforward story. It needed more plotting than I’ve tried to give a story in a long time, but, even so, it’s not very complex. Its real strength lies less in plot (surprise, surprise) and more in characterization, not merely of Holmes and Watson, but of Lestrade, Mycroft, Wiggins, Moriarty, Moran…

And while I’ve been excited about The Road to Reichenbach, I’ve also been frustrated and worried. Think about it: Holmes has an ostensible plethora of cases that keep him in France from early January to late April. Plus, in FINA, he describes the past few months thus:

“[I]f a detailed account of that silent contest could be written, it would take its place as the most brilliant bit of thrust-and-parry work in the history of detection.”

You do see my problem, right? I still can’t write a mystery to save my life, and Mortality was hard enough for me to figure out, at times. How in the name of all that’s wonderful was I supposed to try to match that kind of genius vs. genius?

Bottom line: I couldn’t. I don’t have the mindset required for that kind of story. Which was what I knew all along, and I was trying to force myself to do something I knew I couldn’t manage. Well, that’s pretty self-destructive, isn’t it? So I stopped. I stopped and remembered my strength.

Characterization.

January to April 1891 needs someone who can really do that “silent contest” justice. That person is not me. However. However, I can do the characters justice. Yes, we’ll still see Holmes in France. We’ll get to see some of what he’s doing. And we will indeed be seeing the build-up to the infamous Monday mass-arrest.

Honestly, I think the Yarders are going to be much stronger characters in Road. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of Bradstreet, Hopkins, and MacDonald—and, of course, more of Gregson. Morton, I can’t speak for just yet. But I expect we’ll see him, however large or small his role is.

Thus far, my chapter outline has seven chapters to detail events that Doyle depicted in one short story. It will probably grow as I reach that point. Honestly, the entire thing is really even more open for improvisation than Mortality, and it’s both scary and exciting. I’m not entirely sure where this road will take me, but I can’t wait to find out.

And now that I’ve gotten you all excited for The Road to Reichenbach, let me just remind you… Mortality still isn’t finished. There’s a lot of editing to be done. And that’s my first priority, up until I submit it for publication.

Next up, a review of Daniel Smith’s Sherlock Holmes Companion. Stay tuned!

Sherlock Holmes Meets Peretti/Dekker: No Ghosts Need Apply

     For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Ephesians 6:12

We all know that infamous line: “No ghosts need apply.” The Great Detective did not want to get mixed up with business potentially involving “vampires”. Since that line was published in 1924, however, there has been no end of stories forcing Holmes to deal with the paranormal. From battling Count Dracula to being half-fairy himself and defying the queen of fairies to going back in time to witness both the Crucifixion and the risen Christ, Sherlock Holmes, with his staunch heroism and vast intellect, has found himself a magnet for the supernatural.

Stories, both published and fanfiction, have made Holmes deal with ghosts, whether debunking their reality or being forced to admit it. But… what if the ghosts Holmes is hired to investigate… are not human, either living or dead? What if they were something much more powerful?

Recently, I was looking over an old Christmas present from my grandma: Haunted Castles of Britain and Ireland. Once, last summer, I had the vague idea to write a short story in which Holmes debunked the reality of ghosts in one of England’s documented haunted castles. This time, however, I had a bigger idea.

What if ghosts are real, but not actually the spirits of dead humans? What if they’re actually demons? What if they were causing people to die or go insane in the late 1890s in a particular area, and what if Holmes figured out the truth?

Well, you get something that’s a cross between Sherlock Holmes and the works of acclaimed Christian authors Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker, known for their tales of spiritual warfare.

It’s a wild idea, I know, but I have a page’s worth of story outline, including some fairly thought-out, mentally-constructed scenes. One such is a rather intense moment when Holmes, Watson, and Lestrade witness a man actually being possessed by a demon—need I say that even Holmes is left shaken? Anyway, it’s an idea that I really like, and it’s going on my list of future Sherlockian novels. Which reminds me: next time, I’ll have to draw up a list for you all, complete with storylines and a tentative schedule. This will include the novel ideas you’ve seen in various posts in the past as well as quite a few novel ideas you haven’t seen before. The length will probably shock you—for that matter, it’ll probably shock me!

     Watson glanced over his shoulder at Holmes, and smiled. Sherlock Holmes was now standing, head thrown back, arms flung wide as if to touch the sky.

Deliver Us from Evil... Underway!

Yes, the first book of Deliver Us from Evil has actually appeared on FanFiction.Net!  Well, to be precise, the first book has been online since the 1^st of August.  Somehow, I never got around to making an announcement ‘til now—my blushes, Watson.

So!  This first installment is titled Mortality.  Rating is T.  Genres are Crime/Friendship (there are several genres into which the story could fit, I think, but these two seemed to be the best).  The main characters are listed as Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Lestrade.

Hold the ball!  Lestrade?  Why is Lestrade one of the two stars?  It’s not a pre-Watson story!

Well, dear reader, we’ll get to that in a minute.

The summary is as follows:

Late 1890: a young gentleman hires Sherlock Holmes to investigate his step-uncle, Culverton Smith. As Holmes digs deeper, he finds links to a powerful old enemy—and must come face to face with his own mortality. The first part in a series.

However, I’m thinking of changing that summary in order to draw more interest—the first nine installments have garnered only 22 reviews.  That, m’dears, is the worst review ration I’ve received in a long time—compounded by the fact that I’m getting about 100 hits per chapter.  A big shout-out to MadameGiry25 for her faithful and constructive reviews—and to VHunter07 and RachelG, as well, for their enthusiastic encouragement in their reviews!

Now, every story should be able to be condensed into one sentence—this is called a storyline, and it’s vital to getting a novel from the laptop screen to the bookstore shelves.  Here’s the current storyline (though I’m also going to rework this):

Late 1890: A murder investigation tangles Sherlock Holmes and those around him in a conflict that has been years in the making with a powerful enemy.

So how about this for the FF.N summary:

In November 1890, a murder investigation sparks off a chain of events that will end at a Swiss waterfall. Scotland Yard and Watson struggle to stop Moriarty’s most devastating plan: the destruction of Sherlock Holmes. First in a series.

Sound good?  Now, how about this for the storyline:

Scotland Yard and Dr. John Watson struggle to prevent the goal of London’s greatest crime lord: the destruction of Sherlock Holmes.

So, let’s return to the little (forgive the irresistible pun) matter of Lestrade as one of the stars, and why he’s listed as one of the two main characters on FF.N.  Frankly, it’s all due to his “bulldog tenacity,” as Holmes so aptly puts it.  Lestrade committed himself early on in the story and has refused to stay off the stage since—he still doesn’t mind being the follower, but he’s pretty keen about seeing this mess through to the end.

The same can be said of Davy Wiggins, Holmes’s grown-up leader of the Baker Street Irregulars, but this young man is more than just tenacious—he’s positively fierce in his loyalty.

So where does Watson fit into all this?  I was asking myself that question for months, because he most definitely was not getting enough screen-time.  That wasn’t fair—after all, we wouldn’t have the Canon if not for Watson!  Of course, he’s had four scenes thus far in the FF.N version, but four scenes in eight chapters… yeah, a bit not good.  But with the way the story was shaping up, he didn’t seem to be absolutely necessary oftentimes, which was appalling.

Then inspiration struck.  Don’t ask me how exactly—even though it was only this past weekend, I’m no longer sure of how that lightbulb turned on in my brain.  It was the solution to both my dilemmas: that of less show than tell and less Watson.  Originally, about three weeks were glossed over.  No longer!  The train has left Paddington Station, and this author has just barely gotten aboard in time!

But I’m excited, and this turn of events should certainly excite you, dear reader!  One word: undercover.  Let’s just say that… we know Watson will go to the ends of the earth to find Holmes if he’s missing, right?

Last but not least, I had originally planned to get Mortality finished by Christmas and out on Kindle sometime this coming winter.  I say originally because my plans have changed since then, and my audience might have to wait a few months (or even a year!) longer than originally planned.  That’s because I may well try to get Deliver Us from Evil to a publisher.  AMM hasn’t made any sales this month, and sales in August were few and far between—i.e. self-publishing is not yet a viable means of making a living for myself.  (Kindle is currently my sole source of income.)  So I’m going to get Mortality finished and spit-polished and go through the torture of writing a query letter & proposal, etc. and see if I can sell an agent and/or acquisitions editor on the book.  If you know or know of any agents or publishers who would be interested in a Sherlockian pastiche, please let me know!

Weeell, that’s all for now, folks!  Please keep track of Mortality, and please let me know what you think of it!  A little encouragement would not be amiss.

MORT status: 13 out of 20+ complete.

Favorite 10 Sherlockian Characters

HELLO, INTERNET!

So, I have a chance to be online right now, and I am so taking it!  I’ve just recovered from a terrible case of writer’s block which overtook me before I took an enforced break from writing—but a week’s absence from the creative world has left a terrible mark on my thought processes.  I’ve still been having severe difficulty in writing anything.

However, reading an old issue of Writer’s Digest inspired me to do a top 10 list, Sherlockian-themed, of course.  It was my first piece of writing in a week, and it felt bloody marvelous.  So, here we go!

FAVORITE 10 SHERLOCKIAN CHARACTERS

1. Sherlock Holmes!

No duh, right?  ;D

1.5 John Watson, M.D.

‘Cause you just can’t have the one without the other…

2. Inspector G. Lestrade

Small, feisty, sensible, smug, hardworking, willing to admit that he’s wrong… and Colin Jeavons, FTW!

3. Mycroft Holmes

The original, lazy, lovable Big Brother.  (Plus, Mark Gatiss.  Yesss, my preciousss.)

4. Mary Watson

A fairytale-esque heroine who gets neither her castle nor her happy ending.  But she is strong, smart, compassionate, loving… and she does not object to her husband’s gallivanting off with a certain private consulting detective, who appears to admire her in turn.

5. Professor James Moriarty

The very first super-villain, his coldness, cunning, and overall intelligence still outshines the vast majority of villainy.

6. Inspector Tobias Gregson

From “That’s Lestrade’s fault, not mine” to “Ha-ha, that idiot Lestrade!”—he’s just plain adorable when we first meet him in STUD.  Later, however, he’s as serious and dedicated a detective as Sherlock Holmes could wish to work with.

7. Wiggins

The original BSI director whom fans seem determined to keep forever young.  (He was old enough to lead the gang in 1881—he had to have been an adult in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s!)

8. Alec MacDonald

One of the very first Holmesians!  Listen to him at the beginning of VALL—he’s a fanboy!

9. Maud Bellamy

This oft-overlooked character from Casebook is that delightfully attractive combination of beauty and bravery—and just look at the reaction she invokes in Holmes!  (Sherlock/Maud, anyone?  *ducks tomatoes*  Well, it’s not impossible…)

10. Irene Norton

Like her successor Maud, Irene is beautiful, brave, sensible, and smart.  Far from being a criminal or a lady of the night, Irene is much closer to the quintessential American heroine of the time (think of the women of the American West—there’s a definite resemblance).  She’s been knocked down by a royal she once loved, but her never-say-die attitude allows her to find love again and her smarts show her her misstep in revealing the photo’s hiding-place.  And… Sherlock Holmes calls her The Woman.  No lady ever was before and ever has been since so privileged.

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November!

Okay, why am I, an American, referencing Guy Fawkes Night now, at the end of June?  And what does the Halloween-esque English holiday have to do with Sherlock Holmes?

Oh, my goodness, you will not believe this…  It’s tied into the chronology of the Canon.  Seriously, it is.

1887, December: The first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, is published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual.

1888, September: The events of The Sign of the Four take place.

1889, early: John Watson and Mary Morstan are wedded.  I have no concrete evidence for this assumption, but the stories that take place in the months following the wedding (e.g. “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The Naval Treaty,” etc.) seem to place the happy event in early 1889 rather than late 1888.  ’89, then, is the first year of Watson’s marriage.

1890, October: “The Red-headed League.”

1890, November: “The Dying Detective.”  Watson places the event “in the second year of my married life,” which would be 1890 if it is true that he and Mary were wedded in ’89 and that the marriage referred to is his first rather than his second.  (No bringing up the 3+ wives, please—I’m sure Doyle meant for Watson to have had only two.)  Also, Mrs. Hudson informs Dr. Watson that Holmes cooped himself up in his room on Wednesday, three days before she came for Watson.

Now, here’s where it gets really cool.

My reason for DYIN being during Watson's marriage to Mary is twofold: one, the story potential of Culverton Smith working with Professor Moriarty is staggering; two (and far more importantly), Holmes would not have pulled such a stunt on Watson after all the consequences of Holmes’s faking his death.  He would not have fooled Watson so a second time.

That being said, can there be a specific date for DYIN?  Well, not actually, because we're never told whether it was early, middle, or late in the month.  Still, there’s no reason why DYIN could not have taken place early in November, no matter the year, and that got me thinking.  There’s a particular British special day that occurs early in November…

I checked out a calendar for the year 1890.  It was a normal year (non-leap year) starting on a Wednesday.  November 1^st that year was a Saturday.  Are you doing the math?

Guy Fawkes Night fell on a Wednesday in 1890.

When I saw that, I could have screamed my excitement.

Culverton Smith tried to infect Sherlock Holmes on November 5^th.

This is, of course, assuming the year is right and the events took place early in the month.  But what better day could Smith choose to defeat the Great Detective than a special day on the English calendar?  Especially one associated with the words:

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November.

Culverton Smith would have ever after heard that and smiled at his victory over Sherlock Holmes, had the detective not beaten him at his own game.  (And we already know it was in his character to gloat.)  It was perfect timing!

In the end, it really is mostly conjecture with only a little bit of deduction, which naturally goes against Holmes’s grain.  But if it were so, ah! if it were but so…

It’s certainly something neat to think about.

Merged: Comparing Time-Travel Traits

This is not a post glorying about how Merged will be better than any other girl-travels-back-in-time story out there.  It’s simply making some points about how it’s different from other such stories (and why, therefore, you should read it).

1. The Heroine Is a Detective.

Now that’s a pretty big deal.  I’ve only ever seen one other story in which that was the case, and… the plot wasn’t really that similar to mine, which is good.  =)  More specifically, Kathleen Stewart is an independent investigative consultant, a.k.a. private consulting detective.  She is not an official part of law-enforcement, but neither does she choose to identify herself as a P.I.

2. The Novel Uses a Canonical Story.

You don’t see too much of that, though nomdeplume30’s awesome A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Set did actually send Jeremy Brett and David Burke to the events of “The Dancing Men.”  Anyway, Merged uses “The Final Problem” in a very important way—in fact, the modern-day characters go back about a year before the events of FINA.

3. The Method of Time-Travel Is a Machine, And the Government Is Involved.

A crucial plot-point.  Some time-travel stories basically use supernatural means to cross time, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  But the reason we have an adventure in the first place is because the CIA’s secret superweapon, a time-machine, is stolen by the (fictional) mastermind criminal of our day.

4. The Modern Big Bad Seeks Out Moriarty.

Yesss.  Indeed.

5. Both the Modern Heroine And the Modern Villain Are Sherlockians.

Sometimes the girl is a Sherlockian; sometimes she isn’t (though that doesn’t seem to be often).  But what you’ve never seen before is a modern bad-guy who’s actually a fan of Sherlock Holmes (no, Sherlock!Moriarty doesn’t count—different circumstances).

6. Sherlock Holmes Is the Heroine’s Hero.

Hero, role-model, and longtime fangirl crush—considering that Kathleen grew up with Jeremy Brett as her Holmes, you can’t blame her for that last bit.  The reason she’s a detective in the first place is because of Sherlock.  And despite her determination to make her hero see that she’s fully as capable as he is, she’s also not afraid to let him and Watson know that she’s a hardcore fangirl.

7. The Heroine Has Unique Characteristics.

+A: Heroines in these stories tend to be short, 5’4” or shorter.  Holmes is at least 6’ (commonly written as being taller).  Now, there’s always Han Solo and Princess Leia (6’1” & 5’3”) and Anakin and Padmé Skywalker (6’1” & 5’4”), and shorter females tend to be feistier than their taller counterparts.  But Kathleen Stewart is very Scotch-Irish and tall at 5’10”, which comes to her advantage in her line of work.  There’s less than half a foot in height between her and Sherlock.

+B: Heroines are either beautiful or just plain-looking.  Kathleen is neither—simply nicely attractive (although she can look gorgeous if she really dolls herself up).

+C: Heroines are often blue or green or hazel-eyed—anything but the very common brown.  Kathleen has brown eyes courtesy of her Spanish-Jewish mom, and the color works well.

+D: Time-travel heroines typically don’t have the same IQ as the Great Detective.  Kathleen does.  She’s as good as he is at what they do.  And yet, their personalities remain different…

+E: Heroines don’t usually have very much family and/or friends holding them back from staying in late Victorian London.  Kathleen, on the other hand, has parents she adores, eight brothers and sisters (the youngest of which is a full twenty years her junior), a team in the New York Police Department (NYC) with whom she loves to work, and an overall well-developed life that would be difficult to give up.  The two things she does not have are a husband and children of her own.

+F: Heroines tend to be in their early or mid-20s.  Kathleen is 32, the same age as Sherlock when they meet.

8. The Story Takes Place When Watson Is Married to Mary.

As far as I know, this has never been done before.  The heroine either arrives before Watson’s marriage or after the Great Hiatus.  (And there’s always a third bedroom created at 221B that was never mentioned in the Canon, since it’s now three people sharing rooms.  But in this story, since Watson is married and moved out, Kathleen takes his old bedroom.)

9. The Girl Could Hold Her Own Against Holmes in a One-on-One.

This is not Mary Sue-ism.  This is just being realistic.  Kathleen is a private detective who often gets herself deep in trouble.  Thus, she’s made sure she’s gotten the best combat training a civilian can have.  You’d better believe a person with that kind of training could take on the Great Detective.

10. The Girl’s Got a Gun.

Though she’s determined not to use it often in order to conserve on expensive ammo that can’t be replaced in 1890, Kathleen is a dead shot with her customary Glock 10mm (which is a very powerful handgun).  And she is.  Not.  Afraid.  To Use.  It.  Her view on killing and murder differs from the views of a lot of people today, and she has no moral compunction about killing a person to defend herself or others.

11. More Than Just Holmes & Watson Know.

Mary Watson, Inspector Lestrade (and possibly Gregson and maybe Hopkins), Wiggins, and maybe Mrs. Hudson all know the origin of the individualistic American woman living in 221B.  And, of course, Moriarty finds out.

12. “Just Like a Married Couple.”

Oh snap, I just lost half of you, right?  Well, if you’re willing to keep reading, yes, it’s Sherlock/OC—which, I’m well aware, isn’t everybody’s cup of tea.  But I hope to bring something fresh and new to the concept, partially based on the characters’ ages.  Sherlock is 32, old and mature enough to have learned some lessons about a few of the ideas he formed as a young man, and—contrary to popular belief—he is not a misogynist.  He simply doesn’t understand what makes women tick, and he doesn’t like it.  Kathleen, however, has an intelligence equaling his own, character traits not unlike Watson’s, and an overall mature but fun personality that enjoys sharp, witty banter.  He can be at ease around Kathleen, because she lets him be at ease.

Those are the twelve major points I can think of at the moment.  Now that I’m starting to actually post up experimental vignettes for Merged, you’ll probably be seeing more about it in the future.  (Although the very next post may well be about Deliver Us from Evil.)

And just to remind my readers… At the Mercy of the Mind is now available for purchase, and it's begging to be bought!  At least go check out the page!

AMM: Agonizingly Close!

The business aspects are turning out to be so much simpler than I’d originally thought!  Hallelujah!

Oh, wait.  You guys don’t even know yet.

THE BOOK IS FINISHED.

Finished.

This is not a drill.  This is the Real Thing.

All that remains is to upload it to the eBook manager, then upload it from there to Amazon.  It is done.  All the illustrations, all the edits… complete.

I am practically bouncing off the walls.

It is not only possible, but likely, that the book will be available for purchase next week.  When it is, I’ll post up an announcement here right away!

So!  Just to whet your appetite for this momentous occasion, here are some of the things you can expect from the titles that go beyond number 50:

—More tales involving Cécile Holmes.

—More WWI stories, including a post-war reunion.

—A scene from John and Mary Watsons’ wedding day.

—The introduction of two childhood friends for Sherlock.

—A short piece from Moriarty’s POV.

—Tie-ins to “The Empty House.”

—The continuation of the “Holmes-captured” story-arc.

—Tie-ins to A Study in Scarlet…

…and so much more!

AMM and yet ANOTHER Novel Concept

I’m afraid so.  My muse is an odd, capricious creature, indeed—as I am partly Irish, I suspect some Leprechaun blood runs in her veins.  But first, let’s talk AMM.

At the Mercy of the Mind now possesses a subtitle (which is a surprise I’m saving for the release) and some twenty-odd illustrations, including several pictures of a young Master Sherlock E. Holmes.  ^_^  My beta has been cutting a good clip through the stories; the book is 80% edited.  (Actually, as of last night, it’s 90% edited on my beta’s side—and still 80% on my side. *blushes*)  The foreword and acknowledgments are also typed up!

Can we see the book by the end of the month?  It’s entirely possible!

Now, as to the novel concept.  No working title at this time, just an idea brought about by a couple of supernatural fanfics I’ve read recently: The Light of Pure Reason (one of the best Holmes-in-the-21^st-century fics ever!) and Westron Wynde’s duology, The Case of the Dead Detective and The Haunting of Dr. Watson.  All three star Sherlock Holmes as a ghost (the poor dear!).  Of course, my muse would be inspired by this.

The idea?  Holmes is not a ghost, per se.  Rather, he is forced into limbo because a certain mathematical genius tampers with time to ensure that Sherlock Holmes was never born.  However, rather than Holmes’s existence ending altogether, the detective survives in spirit-form, unable to retain his body in a world that no longer knows him.  The workings of time and divine purpose cannot be altered so casually, however; so it is up to Holmes to restore the time-space continuum and return to his physical form.

His helpers?  The only three people in the world who still remember him and don’t understand what’s wrong either with the world or themselves: John Watson, Mycroft Holmes, and Geoffrey Lestrade.

And Sherlock Holmes will find that his struggles are not against earthly powers alone…

Sound good to you?  Personally, the idea intrigues me.  However, Deliver Us From Evil and Merged still take priority.

I promise it won’t be so long ‘til my next post this time, and I’m sorry I’ve been silent for so long!

AMM and Deliver Us From Evil

I’m not even quite sure what sparked the idea for Deliver Us From Evil.  I was fixing up my hard drive copies of Aragonite's Sword for Defense series to transfer to my PDA (reading fanfic in bed all snuggled up under the covers is just about as decadent as it gets, peeps), and the idea was born sometime during that.  I’ve fallen in love with the FINA/EMPT/Moriarty story arch—what could be more natural than to create an epic around it?

So I opened a new MS Word document and started out the list that became last Friday’s blog post.  In fact, I’m rather iffy about that list; it might turn out to be 6 books rather than 5, with a book between To Take Up the Pen and When Cometh the Dawn—just because the Hiatus storyline might be too big to fit into two books only.  But I guess I’ll figure that out once I have a more definite plot.

And that, I don’t have… yet.  Major brainstorming will come later.  Right now, I’ll just record whatever little ideas trickle in.

I am nearly 80% finished with my AMM prompts table.  Once I’m done writing, polishing, sending it off to my beta reader (the lovely teenelizabeth), doing whatever polishing she recommends (hopefully not much), signing up with Amazon, converting the book to whatever format necessary, and getting it put through the Kindle program…  Did that tire you out?  It tired me out just typing it!

Anyway, once AMM is complete and available for you wonderful, voracious readers… I am taking a breather.  I do think I will have earned it—I mean, how many writers out there fill out a 100 prompts table in four months?!  It takes most people much longer than that—and really, I couldn’t have done it myself had it not been for the motivation of getting it done, out there, and making money.  As an unemployed, as-of-yet-unpublished young adult, the idea of finally making a living for myself is highly attractive.  Let’s see if I can get somewhere to Amanda Hocking’s level.  ^_^

Nah, I don’t expect it.  But wouldn’t it be loverly?

So, back to the topic at hand: breather.  I’m telling you: I can’t wait.  I’ll just sit here and bask in the raving reviews you guys leave me (be it here, on FF.N, or even on LJ or dA, if you link me to it).

…Okay, so I won’t be doing that, per se.  I have a college writing course from the Christian Writers Guild that I’m months behind on.  I got behind last summer and never got caught up—last summer.  And it only got worse.  So, I’m going to see if I can kamikaze and get my… eep, anywhere from 10 to 20 lessons caught up.  Holy cow.  Once that’s done and I’m (please, God?) back on schedule, I’ll take Sherlock Holmes back up again.

That’s not to say I’ll be completely silent.  I’ll probably grace you with the occasional Study in Stardom update, though don’t expect them to be as regular as they once were.  A Time to Heal is, unfortunately, on indefinite hiatus due to complete lack of inspiration—I just might write a far-future tie-in just to try to rekindle my muse’s interest (and I warn you, it’ll be… a little shocking, probably).

Oh yeah, and I might finally finish my Star Wars/Grand Admiral Thrawn fic that’s gotten so much love.  I feel bad about that one—I haven’t updated since I got into the Sherlock Holmes fandom.  In September.  Do the math for yourself.  =(

So, anyway, where does Deliver Us From Evil fit into all this mess?  Well, quite simply, I’ll start on the series once I’m caught up with school.  I’ll be doing TONS of research, but I’ll start writing, anyway.  Maybe I’ll post tidbits up on FF.N as actual fics to keep your guys’ interest, and to snag new victims—I mean, readers.  =D  I think I will.  I’ve really already done so, technically, with “Unraveling the Truth”—a scene from either To Take Up the Pen or the aforementioned possible book between To Take Up the Pen and When the Dawn Cometh.

Where’d the series title come from, anyway?  …Well, y’know, I can’t quite answer that one.  Obviously, it’s from the Lord’s Prayer, but how did it get stuck in my head?  Hmm…  I’d bet anything God put it there.  Seriously, I would!

It does fit, though.  I mean, we’re talking about a hidden war the likes of which you generally don’t see without a lot of fantasy elements.  It’s not fantasy, it’s not urban fantasy, it’s not even sci-fi—it’s good, old adventure/historical (somewhat) fiction.  I would hesitate to call it mystery, because we all know who are the bad guys, and we all know where the bad guys end up.

What we don’t know, however, is what happened in-between the lines, in the background, etcetera.  That’s where I want to dig in and flesh out.  So it’s certainly much more adventure than mystery.

But it’s the story behind the mysteries (well, my own version, but hey).

Allow me to quote Aragonite, from the opening to A Sword for Defense: "And I submit to you-the fiction out there that deals with the allegedly glamorous life Sherlock Holmes led while he was avoiding Moran can be measured in hectacres. But there is not a single piece I can find that deals with those three years for Watson and Scotland Yard."

For me, it was a call to action, and now, not only am I going to be writing fiction that does deal with Watson and Scotland Yard during the Great Hiatus, but I’m also going to be dealing with the events before that!  In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that there is very little pre-FINA, non-parody fiction dealing with Moriarty, period.  There is some, but it doesn’t seem to be much.

Cue inspiration.

Aragonite’s marvelous Sword for Defense series dealt with the Hiatus on a two-front level: Watson and Scotland Yard combating Colonel Moriarty, and Holmes hiding from Colonel Moran.  KCS’s fantastic crossover with Star Trek: The Original Series, However Improbable, dealt with a surviving Professor Moriarty bent on controlling the twenty-third century.  Both stories are absolute epics.

But.

Nobody seems to have done a two-front (Holmes and Scotland Yard) epic dealing with the fight against Moriarty in the several months before FINA.  I want to see Moriarty as a running antagonist, as VALL seems to paint him.  There’s only one story comparable to this that I’ve seen thus far, and it’s Protector of the Gray Fortress’s  wonderfully-chilling, Granada-based AU Centre of the Web.  But even that is an AU of the events of FINA, and not an actual hashing-out of the months before.

Enter yours truly.

I’m rewinding the video to six months before the opening of FINA, and I’m starting the story from there.  November 1890.  Can anybody think of any significance to that setting?  Well, if Watson met Mary in 1888 and married her early the next year, DYIN (assuming that it’s Mary as his wife and not the unnamed second Mrs. Watson) falls exactly upon November 1890.  Culverton Smith.

And, being in that time period, Moriarty is involved.

In fact, included in this epic, in Book One to be exact, will be the whole “torture series”—or “Holmes-captured” arch—from AMM.  We’re going to see that captivity in greater detail—that might actually end up being a huge part of that first book.

What a way to kick off the series, eh?  Torture poor Sherlock.

The second book is currently very sketchy.  It starts with Holmes’s investigation in France and ends with a greatly enhanced version of FINA.  That’s about all I know at this point.

The other day, I was going through my AMM stories and tallying up how many would appear—in some shape or form—in Deliver Us From Evil (DUE—I don’t like DUFE).  Guess how many.  5?  10?  Maybe a dozen?

Erm, no.

Twenty.  TWENTY.

A full fifth of the collection.

And I’m not even finished yet.  There could still be more.  (Thus far, I have multiple introspects from Holmes before and after Reichenbach, and that’s only one category in all this FINA/EMPT glory.  One of the stories is actually another account of what happened at the Falls, and I love that installment to pieces.)

Okay, I’ll stop rambling now (and don’t worry, that BBC SH post is coming—just be patient).

Granada & GREE: Deeper Waters in the Climax

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Granada episode.

Months afterwards a curious newspaper cutting reached us from Buda-Pesth. It told how two Englishmen who had been traveling with a woman had met with a tragic end. They had each been stabbed, it seems, and the Hungarian police were of opinion that they had quarreled and had inflicted mortal injuries upon each other. Holmes, however, is, I fancy, of a different way of thinking, and holds to this day that, if one could find the Grecian girl, one might learn how the wrongs of herself and her brother came to be avenged.

—“The Greek Interpreter,” The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Granada takes this ending to GREE and turns it completely on its head.  It was one of the biggest liberties of the Adventures run (seasons 1 & 2)—the only other story changes comparable are the masterminding of Moriarty in REDH and the absence of Mary Watson.  In fact, the ending is really so dark on top of being non-canonical that it’s more in the style of the Memoirs run.

Personally, I always hated it that they turned Sophy Kratides into this coldhearted character who really doesn’t care that her brother has just been murdered by her fiancée.  I like the canon version much better.  Go sisterly justice!

But I was watching the last ten-ish minutes of the episode the other day (because I do love the Brothers Holmes in the climax), and I later realized something.

The climax is all about siblings.  Paul and Sophy Kratides, Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes.

Granada took a Sherlock Holmes adventure and turned it into a story about siblings.

There’s a sharp contrast drawn between the Kratides and the Holmes siblings.  On one hand, you have the brave, steadfast Paul who dies trying to protect his sister; and the sister herself, who says that she’d (in essence) be Harold Latimer’s slave, even though he murdered Paul.  On the other hand, you have the deliciously devious Mycroft, who acts as backup for Little Brother and Little Brother’s BFF, saving them from a potentially sticky situation; and Sherlock, who lets Big Brother (supposedly) sleep, safely away from the impending crossfire.  (In fact, it’s even entirely possible that the ever-perceptive Sherlock actually knows Mycroft is faking sleep and might go do a little legwork—not too much, of course—of his own.)

One set has a loving brother and an ungrateful sister; the other set is a team that banters/bickers a little but works quite well together.

It always pays to watch Holmes’s face.  Though Watson/Doyle often describes Holmes as cold and inscrutable, Jeremy Brett gives us a lovely glimpse into the mind of the Master via his facial expressions.  (This makes him gold for the avatar-makers, yours truly included.)  And Jeremy’s/Holmes’s face as Sophy claims she would have gone with Latimer despite his murdering her brother says it all.  Up until that point, he’s all cautious reserve, watching her, feeling her out.  But once he hears that damning statement, he literally draws himself up, his eyes flutter closed for a moment, and he settles once more into the man who will stop at nothing to see that justice is done.

Watson’s expression is clear shock at Sophy’s confessions, but it’s Holmes’s in the background that you really need to watch.

As she speaks, Sherlock is probably even thinking about his own brother, and contrasting his own family with this messed-up Grecian one.  No doubt he’s grateful that his own brother would never betray him as Sophy has done Paul, and thinking of how he in turn would never betray Mycroft.

Of course, the squee moment for Mycroft fans (myself included) comes when Mycroft shows up behind Kemp, holding him captive with the villain’s own gun that he nicked in a clever moment of purposely-lost balance.  (Though in a horrible blooper moment, Mycroft calls the little two-shot a revolver rather than a derringer.)  The Brothers Holmes and Watson share smiles with each other—you creeps ain’t got nothin’ on this trio.

Back at a train station, Sherlock makes a jesting remark about his lazy big brother going down a path of crime with him—probably just baiting him for a reaction.  Mycroft huffs that the only path he’s taking is the door to the Diogenes Club, and he’s shutting it behind him.  With that, he moves off—typical Holmes.

Sherlock and Watson are left behind, Watson wondering what will happen to Sophy.  Sherlock’s answer is very bitter: she will be released, since she has committed no crime.  He adds bitingly that there’s not a drop of compassion in her cold heart—ironically, Watson says things to roughly the same degree about Holmes himself throughout the Canon, though the “great heart” line in 3GAR might be seen as a ret-con to that.  But Sherlock’s answer might be seen as very revealing, that he detests cold-heartedness and family betrayal.  Here, he is valuing compassion and familial love as being virtues, indeed.

A few more thoughts before I wrap this up.  First of all, the rescue of Paul and Mr. Melas: in the canon, Paul dies shortly after the cavalry shows up; in the episode, he has been dead for four hours (and via sulfur poisoning rather than the canonical smoke inhalation).  Perhaps this change is a bit more sympathetic to Sherlock, who takes the failure hard—but even if he hadn’t been delayed by Gregson, he would still have gotten there too late.  Small comfort, but this time, there really wasn’t anything Sherlock could do.

Secondly, the action that precipitates the climax: Sherlock, Mycroft, and Watson getting aboard that train at all!  In the Canon, all we know is that the bad guys cleared off before the police could arrive—but in Granada’s take, Sherlock, characteristically, doesn’t settle for being beaten and gives chase.  Ironically, Granada’s version in that sense is probably a bit more faithful to Sherlock Holmes than his own author was!

Third, Sherlock has some really great moments in the train sequence, beginning with his urging Mycroft to hurry up (at which Mycroft retorts, “I’m not built for running, Sherlock!”  Lol, we could deduce that, Big Brother.).  Then there’s Sherlock smoking in the compartment when there’s a no-smoking sign on the window.  Ha-ha, I'm even anti-smoking, and I find that bit funny!  It’s just Sherlock ignoring the rules again as per usual—you have to pity his mom.  (Or envy her—I might actually envy her: life must have been pretty neat, raising Mycroft and Sherlock.)

Next, he throws open the B21 compartment door, and speaks to Sophy in her own language!  Obviously, he’s asking her if he take a seat, but…  Sherlock Holmes actually speaks Greek.  How awesome is that?  He shoots VR into the wall, tells you your life-story from infancy, wears an awesome (if, admittedly, monochromatic) wardrobe, beats up perverts, rides horses, plays a Strad, assumes whatever identity he wants to and does it flawlessly, bounds effortlessly over couches, unbends iron pokers, has perfect diction, possesses a delightfully sardonic wit, is absolutely gorgeous… and he speaks Greek.  (And it took me several minutes to finish that list—Sherlock Holmes: HIS AWESOMENESS—lol.)  Remind me WHY this guy is still single?

…Oh, right.  No woman will put up with him.  Can I volunteer?  I grant you I’m a little young, but I’m certainly legally old enough…

Ahem, anyway, last item, and this is (for me) his Crowning Moment of Awesome.  He draws his revolver and cocks the hammer.  He’s deadly serious, and if push comes to shove, he won’t hesitate to shoot Latimer.  Of course, he doesn’t really have to, turns out, as Latimer, in a stupid move, tries to jump off the train and ends up getting literally ripped off by another passing train.  Pretty dark.  What is perhaps darker still is that Sherlock holds back first Sophy, then Watson, from helping Latimer—though you can see something akin to regret in Sherlock’s eyes after the grisly deed is done.  Could it be that Sherlock didn’t want to risk Latimer getting past them and away after being pulled back into the train?  Or worse, actually wounding or killing one of them in a struggle?  It’s possible.

And at any rate, despite the definite gruesomeness of Latimer’s death, he did deserve it for what he had done to Paul.

So, there you have it, folks: Granada’s “Greek Interpreter.”  A tale of intrigue, cruelty, betrayal, and ultimately, family.  All in all, it’s a good adaptation.  Next time I do a Granada review, I promise it’ll be SCAN—maybe Monday.