Return from the Hiatus

No, not the Hiatus—my hiatus. But I had a very good reason for that hiatus (as did Holmes, IMHO). Namely, online college (for myself, that is—not Holmes).

But I bear good tidings of great joy for myself and for all my readers!

I AM FINISHED WITH MY ONLINE COURSE!

Finito. Kaput. End of the road.

And just beginning with my Sherlockian road! In fact, my mentor asked point-blank if I had any fiction ideas that did not involve Sherlock Holmes! You can guess what my answer was.

Nope. Mr. Holmes, I'm here to stay.

So! What am I going to be doing now? Read on!

I. UPCOMING FANFICS 

(Warning: Here Be Crossovers!)

1. The Innocence of a Child (Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century)
Beth Lestrade finds herself the guardian of two boys when Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty are regressed in age to learn certain lessons about life in order to tackle the future.

2. Stepping Through the Wardrobe (canon/The Chronicles of Narnia)
When nine-year-old Sherlock enters a snowy wood via a wardrobe, he learns about the importance of family, love, forgiveness, and sacrifice.

3. Enemies Within (SH22/Buzz Lightyear of Star Command crossover)
Professor Moriarty teams up with the Evil Emperor Zurg in the 31st century, and Star Command will have to call upon Sherlock Holmes to defeat the Napoleon of Crime.

4. Case Apocalypse: Left Behind (BBC Sherlock/Left Behind)
Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes come to terms with the vanishing of millions worldwide, including their mother, as they deal with the world’s rising star, Nicolae Carpathia.

II. FICTION TO BE PUBLISHED

1. At the Mercy of the Mind: A Journey into the Depths of Sherlock Holmes
I am going to polish AMM up and edit some bits that do not fit with more recent material, and then see if MX Publishing will accept the thing.

2. Deliver Us from Evil, Book I: Mortality
The fourteenth chapter of Mortality was uploaded to FF.N on New Year's Day. It's coming along a bit slowly, but it's coming. I hope to have the manuscript ready to submit by summer. Unfortunately, I can't promise any sooner.

3. Have Yourself a Chaotic Little Christmas
Those of you keeping track of the Sherlockian part of FF.N probably saw the advent calendar challenge in December. That was hilarious fun, and I plan to edit my own Christmas collection in hopes of publishing it in time for next Christmas. This anthology includes vampires (not what you think, trust me), Jack the Ripper, Moriarty, Mary getting the better of Holmes, picnics in graveyards, WWI, the Irregulars, Lestrade, Irene Norton, Kitty Winter, and whole lot of delicious crack!

4. Deliver Us from Evil, Book II: The Road to Reichenbach
Yes, yes, oh, yes. Once I’m in the editing stage for Mortality, I’m hitting the Road (lame pun absolutely intended). I even have a fairly substantial chapter outline for Road, and it’s looking very exciting, indeed!

5. Greater Love: A Tale of Redemption
Those who have read the AMM ebook might recall an AU short in which a certain young gentleman was a criminal genius rather than a genius detective. Well, for one of my lessons, I had to do a synopsis for a future novel, so I did one for that concept. The results were utterly intoxicating. Upon reading said synopsis, my beloved beta-reader replied, “You have to write this novel now so I can read it.” So I’ll be writing it whilst working on Road.
That’s all I’ll say for now. This will be one novel I won’t spoil for you!

III. THIS BLOG

As always, I’ll be providing you with info on my stories, as well as essays/rants/“scholarly” posts such as “Writing Child!Sherlock” and “Else our universe is ruled by chance.” PLUS, I’ve got a pile-up-a-mile of Sherlockian movies and novels to review, including Without a Clue and The Return of the Hound, respectively.
AND what I’d really like to do is interview various Sherlockian authors. The problem at this point? My wallet, as always. (Big problem when you’re a flailing newcomer to that career that every professional says, “Don’t make your day job.”) By golly, I’ll overcome that obstacle somehow!

So, there you have it! My new year’s resolutions (a bit late, I know) in a nutshell. Now, off I go to watch some more Star Trek… Oh, didn’t I tell you? I became a Trekkie during my hiatus. Blame KCS’s However Improbable and The Next Generation’s “Elementary, Dear Data” (which, btw, is going to get a review in the future). Throw in a dash of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and I’m hopelessly hooked.

No, this will not take my focus away from 221B Baker Street! Eesh , don’t panic!

Laterz!

Writing Child!Sherlock

A few days ago, I wrote three installments for AMM that glimpsed into Sherlock Holmes’s childhood.  It was a lot of fun—not only to get those glimpses but also to break the stereotypes.

There seems to be a general stereotype for writing children in general, and another stereotype for writing child!Sherlock.  The general stereotype is that all young children must either be brats or angels.  The Sherlockian stereotype is that Sherlock must have had an angsty/abusive/negligent childhood to have turned out the way he did.

???

Um, NO.

Before anybody gets all defensive, let me explain.  I agree completely that the average child is bratty, and I also believe that it’s due very much to how they’re raised.  We’ve all a tendency to be bratty, but if we know we’re going to get in trouble for it, well… we have a little less inclination for it.  But while a fictional bratty child is, sadly, realistic, a fictional non-bratty child is also realistic.  Not an angel, mind you—no child is that—but sweet, obedient children do exist.

And, though we can all agree that Sherlock could probably be quite the pain in his younger years, I think there’s a fair possibility that he could also be a sweetheart.

As to the stereotype for childhood!fics… I’m almost willing to say that Sherlock having an abusive-or-what-have-you childhood is unrealistic.  It’s certainly not probable, nor is it canonical.  No, he never breathes a word of his parents, but just from the fact that we see his brother and not his parents in the Canon, we can safely deduce that Mr. and Mrs. Holmes are dead.  If so, the introversive Sherlock probably doesn’t like discussing them—even good memories can be painful.

In my personal canon, the Holmes parents are murdered by a fire.  The ensuing case, with a 19-yr-old private consulting detective on the job, is not a pleasant one by any means.  Is it any wonder that he wouldn’t want to talk about his parents?

Sherlock could well have had a happy childhood with loving parents, and still have turned out the way he did merely because he’s so intelligent.  The way we’re raised plays a large part in our personalities, but on the other hand, we make our own choices.  As we grow from childhood to adulthood, we make choices about what we believe, who we are, what we’ll do… and we change.

As I said before, writing these three childhood stories was a lot of fun.  I was a bit apprehensive about how my parents would like them when they read them, but I needn’t have worried!  My dad said that the stories blew him away—talk about something guaranteed to brighten your day!  He loved it that I could write such stories and draw inspiration from my experience as the firstborn in a large family with several brothers.  ;D

My mom’s response was even more memorable: she was reading the stories last night, and I went to bed before she was finished.  Well, a few minutes later, she came into my room—figuring that I’d still be awake, and I was—and told me that she loved the longest of the three, involving Sherlock’s mother.  I was thrilled.  The situation definitely called for a hug.  It was a beautiful way to end my day.

I plan on writing more childhood scenes for At the Mercy of the Mind when I get the inspiration, and I hope you’ll enjoy this much lighter look at the youth of the Great Detective.  The three aforementioned stories won’t be uploaded for a couple of weeks yet to keep with the order of the prompts, but they all should be up by Easter!

Allow me to give you, fair reader, a challenge: write a child!Sherlock fic that’s fluffy, upload it, and link me to it!  The world needs more of such lighthearted stories.

At the Mercy of the Mind status: 35 out of 100 complete.