I’m Too Ill to Think

I've been sidelined by a pretty wicked stomach virus for the past few days, so this week's post will be a collection of short topics that may or may not be as coherent as a typical week's post.  Here we go...

First and foremost, Brad Keefauver teased that he has a podcast project in the works!  While he's not revealing much more than that, I expect it to have that trademarked Keefauver quality of thoughtfulness, quirkiness, knowledge and passion.

As I mentioned last week, I had my first book signing at Afterwords Books in Edwardsville, IL.  Thinking about it still brings a smile to my face.  One of the many highlights of that evening was being interviewed by a local newspaper (and making it to the front page!).  If you're interested, you can read my interview here.

I am currently reading Bill Mason's "Pursuing Sherlock Holmes" and enjoying it immensely.  Mr. Mason's book is a collection of different writings ranging from a musical toast to a fictional meeting between Mrs. St. Clair and Holmes after the events of The Man With the Twisted Lip.  Two chapters that I really enjoyed were his analysis of Holmes' dressing gown and the parallels between Baron Gruner and Count Dracula.  That second topic may sound far-fetched, but Bill makes an argument that isn't nearly as outlandish as you would think.  I also had the privilege of meeting Bill this summer at the Nerve and Knowledge symposium in Indiana, and as well as being a great Sherlockian writer, he is a genuinely nice guy!

This month, the Insight Theatre Company in St. Louis is performing Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery.  I have been looking forward to this for months since I first heard about it.  If you are in the St. Louis area in October, check it out!

I also recently finished "Sherlock Holmes on the Roof of the World" by Thomas Kent Miller.  I'm not a big pastiche reader because I find it hard to read other people's take on the Watsonian voice (which is a big reason I narrated The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street in the third person).  But Mr. Miller's book takes place during the great hiatus, so his narrator is one from an H. Rider Haggard tale.  If you enjoy quick, adventurous reads, I would recommend checking this one out.

That's it for me.  Back to the couch.

The Daring Speculations of the Writer

Brad Keefauver and I have been going back and forth this past week, debating if Hatty Doran of the Noble Bachelor was truly a villain or not (spoiler: she was).  But something even bigger happened this week also, so it's time to change topics, and I will leave with his Thor quotes and republican straw men for now.

Friday night was my first book signing for The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street.

You guys, I can't even describe how awesome it was!

Deep breath.  Okay, begin at the beginning.

When I first announced my contract with MX Publishing on Facebook, my local independent bookstore immediately said they wanted to schedule an author signing.  This store is great.  Afterwords Books in Edwardsville has been my go to store for the past 6 years or so when I first discovered it.  Since then they've moved three times (once or twice I got conscripted into helping move those boxes of books), and every year Afterwords has become more and more important to me.  My daughter's three year old pictures were even taken in the store!

Fast forward from that photo shoot to last Friday night.  My wife, daughter and I arrived at Afterwords at 6:00 for the 6:30 event.  After a few minutes of set up talk with LuAnn, the owner, a reporter from the local paper showed up to interview me about my book.  (Side note, this is BY FAR the coolest part of the whole thing for my daughter.  IT'S THE NEWSPAPER!)  I wasn't sure what to expect from the interview, but when she started asking me about Mary Morstan and Lestrade's roles in my book, it was clear this reporter knew her stuff.  It was a real pleasure to talk with her and I will be sure to link to the story once it's up.

And there was cake!

By 6:30, I was seated at my table with a stack of books and a reliable pen, and before I knew it, there was A LINE!  Seriously, enough people came out to buy my book that they had to wait in line to talk to me.  Insane.  Some of my current and former fifth graders came by, which was especially awesome because they HAVE to spend all day with me.  The fact that they drug their parents out to see me again was really meaningful.  And, I got those kids into a bookstore.  Double points.

A lot of the people in attendance were friends and acquaintances, and I think a little part of them is pretty happy to not see me post the event in their Facebook feeds anymore.  Every time I looked up to see another familiar face, it was another jolt of happiness.  It really felt like a homecoming picnic, except everyone was there for books, and a book that I wrote, to boot!

Afterwords did a great job promoting the event, and there were other people there who I'm not Facebook friends with or related to in attendance as well.  It was really nice to meet some other local Sherlock Holmes fans.  I made a few pitches for The Parallel Case of St. Louis, but we will have to see if we get any new recruits.  One memorable exchange I had was with a guy who brought his seventh grade son, and the son started asking me about getting a book published.  About halfway through our conversation, I realized that I was semi-qualified to be giving this guy advice on following a dream he had to write a book.  Whoa.

Of course I was happy to see people buying my book.  But seeing people carry stacks of books and other merchandise up to the register was just as great.  I'm a big believer that it's important to support local businesses that are meaningful to us.  MX Publishing has a great program where independent bookstores get access to titles 2-3 months before Amazon and Barnes & Noble do.  I would really encourage you to get your local independent bookstore to look into stocking some MX titles.  Because you know you're not the only Sherlockian in your town, and buying Sherlockian books from a local independent is a win-win for everyone.

As the night wound down, we realized that we had sold out of The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street!  Afterwords had their stock, and I brought a box of books to the event, just in case we needed one or two extra.  We needed a few more than one or two.  I have five more book signings scheduled over the next month and half, but I can't imagine anything topping this one.  My local bookstore and my Sherlockian hobby coming together for a night was evidently no ordinary party.

In Defense of My Prosecution of Hatty Doran

Chivalry is not dead.  Brad Keefauver has proven that this week in his post defending Hatty Doran.  I will admit that he makes a valid point, calling me out on my use of the word "vile."  I blame that on the three cups of coffee I had before sitting down to write that day.

But I stand by my sentiment.  Hatty Doran was a villain.

Let's look at Brad's points one by one, shall we?

"I am rather proud of Hatty, a fellow American who stayed loyal to her man under the tremendous pressures of British society"

As I pointed out in my previous post, Hatty Doran hardly stayed true to her man.  She reads a report in the newspaper that he might have been killed by Apaches and she is suddenly okay entertaining British lords who come a'calling.  Does this sound like a loyal wife?

"Sherlock Holmes did not invite just anyone to dinner at 221B Baker Street.  And yet he invited Hatty Doran Moulton and her husband. Did he invite Flora Millar? No. Did he invite Inspector Lestrade? No. Did he invite his own brother, Mycroft? No, no, no."

I'm going to handle this one in reverse order.  Mycroft isn't even in this story, Brad!  Plus, he has his rails and he runs on them.  Lestrade and his pea coat are being insufferable in this story.  And Flora  Millar?  Let's just say she's no New Jersey opera singer...

As for Holmes inviting Hatty and her husband to Baker Street, that's not really an accolade.  Let's look at some of the other guests that have graced Baker Street:

Jefferson Hope

James Windibank

Grimsby Roylott

Professor Moriarty

Charles Augustus Milverton

Shinwell Johnson

Well respected members of society, all of them.

Oh, and there's this quote from Holmes: "I should not sit here smoking with you if I thought that you were a common criminal."  Holmes may be the last court of appeal, but he's not above spending time with villains.

"I could draw in Lord St. Simon's testimony of her strength, courage, and nobility."

You could, but then you would also draw in his rebuke of her once her true character has been revealed.

"I say thee nay!"

I don't know what this means.

"...unless you are the sort who would also write a book proclaiming Sherlock Holmes a villain!"

Well, yeah, there is that.

And Now as to the Villains

Quick sidenote before we get started:  I was interviewed by one of my favorite Sherlockians, Leah Guinn, on The Well Read Sherlockian last week about The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street.  You can read the interview on her site, here.

I missed last week's deadline due to the fact that I also needed to put up a blog post recapping The Parallel Case of St. Louis's August meeting.  Seems how each blog post takes me an hour to an hour and a half to do, and that my family wants to spend time with me for some reason, it just wasn't in the cards to get two posts up last week.

I've spoken about my love for my local scion here, but man I love those meetings!  We talk about current events in the Sherlockian world, and then we get right down to the story.  You would think with these stories being over 100 years old, they wouldn't evoke such debate, but here we are, still reading the Baker Street Journal, attending conferences and meetings, and posting our thoughts on blogs and social media.

A conversation I've been having with other Sherlockians quite a bit lately is on the topic of villains.  The Occupants of the Empty House in southern Illinois just had a special meeting to debate who the worst villain of the canon was, and if I had been there after reading "The Noble Bachelor" like I did for the Parallel Case meeting this month, I might have argued for Hatty Doran to be on that list.

Because Hatty Doran sucks.

Sure, she's not Professor Moriarty or Grimsby Roylott, but she's a vile person.  Here's a quick review of the story:  Robert St. Simon is getting married to Hatty Doran.  She drops her bouquet at the wedding, some dude in the audience hands it to her, and St. Simon and Doran get married.  The new couple go to the wedding breakfast, St. Simon's ex-girlfriend shows up and makes a scene, and Hatty disappears.  Holmes finds her and her REAL husband (spoilers) and everything is resolved at a dinner at Baker Street.

Obviously, there's more to the story.  And I would strongly recommend you reread the Conan Doyle original, because he writes a great tale here without the reader ever leaving the confines of Baker Street.  But what I want to focus on here is the real villain, Hatty.

Over the course of this story, Hatty Doran is presented with many choices and she always chooses the one that's easiest for her and causes pain to others.  Her father says she can't marry Frank Moulton when she's a young woman.  Instead of trying to talk to her father or have Frank meet with him, she sneaks off and does it anyway.

Then her new husband goes off and she learns that he PROBABLY died in an Apache attack.  Well, since she never told her dad that she's married, he introduces her to an English nobleman on vacation in San Francisco.  After a courtship, Hattie and dad head off to England for for her to be married to the nobleman.  And the only proof that she has that her husband is dead is a newspaper article.

Has this woman never heard of fake news?

Maybe these slights against her father and husband can be swept under the rug due to the power fathers had over their daughters and the lack of fact checking in the press during this time.  But then comes her wedding day.  Hatty sees Frank among the crowd before her wedding starts.  Here is where all sympathy I could have for her goes out the window.  She sees her husband (who is NOT DEAD) in the church and she goes through with a fraudulent marriage anyway.

Seriously, let that sink in.  That's crap.  And then she runs away!  Here is a direct quote from Hatty: "I know I ought to have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to run away and explain afterwards."  But she didn't explain!  She let St. Simon's ex-girlfriend take the wrap for murdering her and when Frank tells her they should let St. Simon know that she ran off with her rightful husband, she says no thanks.

And THAT is why I think Hatty Doran should be on a list of worst villains in the canon!  At no point in this story does she make a choice that is for the good of others, only what's convenient for her.  The Baker Street Babes had a series of articles that ran for a while called Femme Friday, where they covered kick ass Sherlockian female characters from all versions of the canon.  You know who's not on that list?  Hatty Doran.

“It can’t be a coincidence,” [Sherlock Holmes] cried, at last springing from his chair and pacing wildly up and down the room.

No, Mister Holmes, I don't think it is.   A truly villainous woman indeed.

I Would Call Your Attention Very Particularly to Two Points.

This week's post is a twofer.  After two big weeks, my book release and the Nerve and Knowledge event, life has gotten back to normal as a Sherlockian.  I wanted to highlight two smaller, but still significant events in my life as a Sherlockian this week.

First up, is the current book I'm reading, From Holmes to Sherlock by Mattias Bostrom.  Now, if you're reading this blog, you probably follow some Sherlockian news, so you've probably heard of this book, if you don't already own it yourself.

That's because this book is important.

I am about a half of the way through it,  but can already see how this book will become a new cornerstone of Sherlockian research.  I would imagine people who read William Baring-Gould's Annotated Sherlock Holmes felt the same way when it came out.  What Mattias Bostrom has done in his new book is absolutely phenomenal.  He has taken years of research and stories and combined them into a single volume, adding a lot of information that was new to me along the way.

This book covers everything from Arthur Conan Doyle's life all the way up to the BBC Sherlock and everything in between.  Like I said, I'm about halfway through, and Conan Doyle has died by this point (sorry if that's a spoiler), and Bostrom is taking the reader through the formation of the Baker Street Irregulars, Sherlock Holmes' beginnings in radio, and the Conan Doyle family events at the time.  This isn't just a Conan Doyle biography or a retrospective of Holmes in entertainment or a history of us fans of the Great Detective.  It's all that and more.  Every Sherlockian should own this book.

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On a different note, I spent Saturday travelling across the Mississippi River from my home in Illinois to visit a handful of St. Louis bookstores in hopes of getting them to carry The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street.  Time will tell if my sojourn will pay off financially, but it totally paid off in a different way.

One of the bookstores I visited was The Book House.  Now, I usually only shop at my local independent, Afterwords Books in Edwardsville (It's great, you should totally check it out!), but The Book House is a great used bookstore.  Sliding ladders, stacks of books in front of shelves of books, and a whole section dedicated to just Sherlock Holmes!  I was treated to discussions with two employees there, one of whom was reading A Study in Scarlet for the first time.  I felt obliged to warn him about the jarring sensation he'll feel when he gets to the Mormon part.

So often in life we tread the same path, no matter how good of a path it might be.  While Afterwords will always be MY bookstore, The Book House has earned itself the designation of a store worth visiting, also.  If I hadn't made it a point to search out different bookstores, I never would've known about this delightful place.  It makes me wonder, as Sherlockians, what are we missing out there because we want to keep treading the same path?

Nerve and Knowledge

This weekend, I attended my first Baker Street Irregulars event, Nerve and Knowledge II: Doctors, Medicine and the Sherlockian Canon, hosted by the Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis.

As of Thursday night, I didn't have anyone to go with, and I was weighing the options of going to my first major Sherlockian event by myself, or skipping the thing entirely.  I was able to convince Joe Eckrich, founder of The Parallel Case of St. Louis, to go with me and I am so glad that we made the trip to Indiana on Saturday.

Being the book nerds that we are, we left my house in Edwardsville, IL early enough to allow us time to visit Black Dog Books in Zionsville, IN.  Let me tell you, if you are anywhere in the Indianapolis area, this is a bookstore you want to check out.  There is a shelf just for Sherlock Holmes books.  And we're not talking just pastiches.  If I could have afforded it, I would've walked out of there with an armful of Sherlockian scholarship.  But I live on a budget and my wife is quick to point that out when it comes to books.

Being somewhat deficient in planning skills, Joe and I didn't account for the time change between Illinois and Indiana, and ended up being late to dinner.  Whoops!  Bill Mason, a thoroughly delightful Tennessee Sherlockian visited with us for a while, but it was looking like Joe and I were going to be hanging out in a booth by ourselves.  But we weren't the only ones to be relegated to outside the main crowd.  Luckily, Court Brown of Art in the Blood also showed up after the main seating area had been filled and we got to share dinner with her.  This was my first interaction with someone at the event that involved the phrase, "I know you from Twitter!"  And happily, it wouldn't be the last.

After dinner, the entire group headed to the Indiana Medical History Museum for the night's program.  The Medical History Museum is part of the old Central State Hospital, built in 1895.  Stepping inside the building is like stepping back in time.  The program took place in the teaching amphitheater where autopsies were performed.  And other rooms in the building hold a variety of medical instruments and specimens from that time.  Including lots of samples of brains (My daughter was not impressed with this picture when I showed it to her the next day).

But the main event were the night's speakers.  The 70 or so members of the audience were treated to two great talks by Sherlockian medicos.  Carlina de la Cova spoke first about the use of anthropology in the canon.  She took us through the history of anthropology and phrenology in criminal work and why some people would be considered a hereditary criminal just by the shape of their skull (including Christopher Eccleston).  Her talk was titled "I Covet Your Skull," and for anyone familiar with The Hound of the Baskervilles, that line immediately strikes a familiar tone.  After writing my own novel about criminals, her attention to the description of Moriarty's heredity features and skull were especially interesting.

After a brief intermission where I was able to buy another book, this time a copy of Out of the Abyss from the BSI Press, it was time for that book's editor to speak.  Bob Katz gave an entertaining talk on Holmes' own knowledge of medical studies throughout the stories.  By highlighting the philosophy that it's not what's said but what is NOT said in the stories, he highlighted a instances from The Creeping Man, The Solitary Cyclist, The Lion's Mane, and The Blanched Soldier.  Using these inferences throughout Holmes' career, Bob argued that Holmes had studied medicine while at university.  Not only did Bob have to convince a room of Sherlockians that he could prove Holmes' collegiate studies, he also had to do so as the room darkened as night fell and only one overhead light worked!

The program wrapped up, and the crowd milled around and started to disperse.  I admit, I didn't want the night to end!  I had gone to Indianapolis to meet new Sherlockians and the night was young.  So when Steve Doyle suggested we head to a local restaurant to keep the night going, I was ecstatic.  A nice crowd of Sherlockians headed out including myself, Joe Eckrich, Leah and Brett Guinn, Bob Katz, Court Brown, Steve Doyle, Carlina de la Cova, and Mike and Mary Ann Whelan.  Of course we covered Sherlockian topics (like an upcoming BSI Manuscript that sounds phenomenal), but talk around the table covered all kinds of topics ranging from medical school stories to basketball arenas and social media.

At one point, I took a copy of The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street down to Steve, the publisher of The Baker Street Journal.  The next thing I know, Mike Whelan has pulled up a chair and the three of us are discussing the importance of Moriarty in the Holmes canon and why he is such a prominent character outside of the canon.

Less than 48 hours before this conversation, I was considering not going to the event.  I decided to go and ended up swapping canonical theories with the editor of the BSJ and the head of the BSI.  How could I have been thinking about not going to this event?  That was an insane thought!

In the end, the night wrapped up and everyone went the separate ways.  But travelling to meet with other Sherlockians was something I'm very glad that I did.  The Illustrious Clients and the BSI put on a great program, but the real highlight of the event was all of the people in attendance.  Sherlockians really are the best people.

Book Release

Once everyone is done viewing today's solar eclipse, there's another important phenomenon happening:

YOU CAN BUY MY BOOK!

As of today, my book is available at the MX Publishing website!  If you would prefer to buy from a local independent bookstore, MX Publishing has also made it available to independents before its wide release through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

I've gone into more detail of the book in a previous post, so I won't rehash that here.  But take a minute to check out the MX site and if the book sounds interesting to you, give it a shot.