Editing Holmes

Posted on May 16, 2018 by girlonbridge

Christopher Lee 1

I have a few Holmesian irons in the fire these days. I recently passed the milestone of my first professionally-published poem, a musing on the character of Violet Smith from “The Solitary Cyclist” and her first meeting with Holmes, which leads off a new story anthology. Now I’m working on the creative stages of a promised new pastiche, but I’m also passing through that oft-dreaded stage of another novel: Final Editing.

Except, I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying the strange process of verbal weight reduction, looking at the sum of what’s on the page and trying to figure out what the true figure of the story is without unnecessary fat.

Of course, Holmesian editing has its tedium: eliminating anachronisms, checking plot coherence, banishing repetition. The fun, to me, comes in finding the characters. Both Holmes and Irene Adler figure heavily in my stories, but I find Holmes the more challenging of the two to write. When I read the Canon, I often feel like I’m searching for an elusive man, that the real mystery is in unlocking the inner life of one of the most enigmatic, in some ways, characters ever written. As a writer, the challenge is similar. I write Holmes as I believe he is, and then go back to what I’ve written to see if the angular, charismatic man staring back at me feels like the one I read about. It can feel maddeningly subjective, but it’s rewarding.

Perhaps part of why I continue to write Holmesian novels is simply, in the end, to find Sherlock Holmes.

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How to purchase my Sherlock Holmes novels:

(Book 1) The Detective and the Woman: A Novel of Sherlock Holmes is available from all good bookstores and e-bookstores worldwide including in the USA Amazon,Barnes and Noble and Classic Specialities – and in all electronic formats including Amazon Kindle , iTunes(iPad/iPhone) and Kobo.

(Book 2) The Detective, The Woman and The Winking Tree: A Novel of Sherlock Holmes is available from all good bookstores and e-bookstores worldwide including in the USA Amazon,Barnes and Noble and Classic Specialities – and in all electronic formats including Amazon Kindle , iTunes(iPad/iPhone) and Kobo.

(Book 3) The Detective The Woman and The Silent Hive is available from all good bookstores including Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK, and for free shipping worldwide from Book Depository. In ebook format it is in Amazon Kindle.

My Friend Holmes

Posted on October 11, 2016 by girlonbridge

CushingHolmes

For several years now, I’ve been writing regularly about Sherlock Holmes, more than I’ve ever written about anyone else. That means that he (and Irene Adler, the co-protagonist of my novels) lives in my brain in a way that few characters, if any, ever have.

I’m currently in the editing process of my fourth Sherlockian mystery novel, but what many people don’t know is that I wrote the first draft of it while I was undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer. For a while each day, I escaped the pain, fatigue, and depression the drugs caused by jumping into Holmes’s world and walking with him. He was my companion in the cancer center and a friend who helped me through some very dark days.

Fiction matters, and stories are important, not just the heavy, sad ones. Being able to escape to a mental world populated by Adler and Holmes made one of the most difficult times in my life less bleak.

I have a special place in my heart for all of the stories and characters I encountered and enjoyed during my cancer treatments, but Sherlock and Irene dwarf the rest of them because I didn’t just read about them, I also wrote. I forced myself to enter their world by creating, and in so doing, I found a deeper purpose and a satisfying temporary respite from my daily struggles.

I know that nothing I write will ever be perfect. That is the curse and blessing of the author, because it means flawlessness is unattainable, but that, at the same time, improvement is always possible. Still, though I know I can’t reach perfection, I write–because I know how it feels when a story becomes more than just fiction and a character becomes a friend. The chance to offer that to someone else who might need a new world to escape into and an imaginary friend today? That’s a priceless gift.

.How to purchase my Sherlock Holmes novels:

The Humor in the Detective

Posted on October 10, 2016 by girlonbridge

I absolutely love this photo, which depicts the immortal William Gillette as Sherlock Holmes in a dramatic mood, while Watson looks, frankly, horrified. I could laugh at it for hours.

Quite honestly, there’s a lot about Sherlock Holmes I could laugh at for hours. One of my biggest discoveries when I re-read the Canon as an adult was a treasure trove of dry humor that had gone over my head as a child.

Recently, my fellow Baker Street Babe, acclaimed author Lyndsay Faye, commented that in her view, one of the surest ways for a Holmes pastiche/fanfiction story to fail is to be over-serious, because that’s simply not the tone Doyle created. Her thoughts made me realize that as a writer and reviewer, I completely agree. I can forgive a lot of things in Holmes stories, and generally, my reading experience is celebratory of the fact that we all have these characters we love that we continue to want to explore. However, I have a lot of trouble with stories that treat Holmes and Watson and their world as humorless; those lose me.

As a writer, all of my Holmes stories are partially tongue-in-cheek, and I’m not sure readers always get the jokes. Author intention vs. reader interpretation is a topic for another time, but rest assured, if you’re ever reading one of my books and something strikes you as funny? It’s absolutely supposed to be.

When it comes down to it, I don’t think I could have sustained this many years of ardent love for these 60 stories if they weren’t funny. People often ask me and other writers why the stories have endured in popularity for so many years. I wouldn’t argue that humor is the only or primary reason, but I think it’s an important one.

So next time your love of Holmes starts to get over-serious, whisper “Norbury” to yourself and get over it 😉

(See “The Yellow Face” for context)

.How to purchase my Sherlock Holmes novels:

Holmes for the Holidays

Posted on June 23, 2016 by girlonbridge

I just finished writing “The Adventure of the Missing Irregular,” a Christmas-themed Holmes story that will be published in the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part 5, a holiday story collection coming out later this year.

When one of Holmes’s Baker Street Irregulars vanishes, Wiggins joins forces with his employer and Dr. Watson in a heartwarming tale perfect for reading by a (fake or real) Christmas fire.

My previous story, “The Adventure of the Traveling Orchestra,” is featured in Part 1 of this collection.

Largest Anthology Ever

Posted on July 15, 2015 by girlonbridge

I’m thrilled to announce my participation in a new anthology project that will contain the most new Holmes stories of any collection that has ever been published. The previous record was 30; this book will contain 60 new and traditional Sherlock Holmes tales, among them my new story entitled “The Adventure of the Traveling Orchestra.” I’m joined by fellow Baker Street Babe Lyndsay Faye and many other acclaimed Holmesian authors. The anthology’s proceeds will go to assist the renovation of Undershaw, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s home.

Check out this Radio Times article about the project to learn more. To my surprise and delight, Lyndsay and I are both mentioned.

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How to purchase my Sherlock Holmes novels:

Happy Birthday, Mr. Holmes: An Open Letter

Posted on January 6, 2015 by girlonbridge

TO: Mr. Sherlock Holmes

221b Baker Street

London, England

Dear Mr. Holmes,

As an avowed part of your adoring public, it has come to my attention that today marks your birthday. It is no secret that you are not particularly fond of marking the day, which is understandable. I doubt I would be overly excited to be one hundred sixty-one either.

I wonder how you will celebrate. Drinks at the pub? A trip to the moors? Viewing The Asylum’s Sherlock Holmes with your brother? Or perhaps a quiet day with Mary Russell, who, I hear tell, shares your penchant for immortality.

I think, really, you’ll probably play chess today with the old specter who haunts Baker Street. No one much minds him any more. We live in an age when ghosts are nostalgic remnants of a bygone time. He will walk up the seventeen steps and greet you as an old enemy—after a hundred years, do old enemies become friends?—and the two of you will sit down with kings and pawns between you, remembering the days when the city was your battleground.

We who form your public are fond of saying that it’s always 1895 in your world, but that’s not quite true, is it? That illusion is for us, for those who would escape into the pages of your friend’s embellished words. But you live beyond those pages, and that year cannot define you.

Sometimes we writers try to make you immortal through logical means. We invent serums and spells and incantations, but all we really need are our words and our imaginations. You live in every year when we envision you there; you take any form our narratives can construct; and you live forever because nothing can die that is remembered.

I’m quite sure you find immortality absurd, but lest you deny the power of the words we give you, let me whisper “Norbury” in your ear. You were once a man alone; you became an ink drawing colored in by the softening lines of friendship. You met the world through the pen of another.

You are still meeting that world the same way. Dr. Watson is also immortal, you know, only today he wears more faces than your disguises ever created. He looks out through the laughing eyes of my rainbow-haired friend. He has thousands of Tumblr followers. He works days at an employment agency, and at night his fingers ache from penning the words he can’t keep inside. He rides public transportation, earbuds blasting heavy metal into his brain, journaling the outline of his next story. He’s a university lecturer who narrates your tales to freshmen purely for love of telling them.

Millions mark your birthday—in apartments, pubs, libraries, and schools. After all, who better to celebrate your day than the ones who love you most of all? For being one of the most seemingly aloof men of literature, you certainly played a masterful trick, Mr. Holmes. You made the whole world your closest friend, and in so doing, you made yourself live forever.

Many happy returns to you and to us.

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How to purchase my novels of Sherlock Holmes:

Writers Who Read Interview

Posted on July 15, 2014 by girlonbridge

I’ve been interviewed by the lovely GG Andrews for the Writers Who Read Blog series. Check out the full interview here, featuring Sherlock Holmes, Irene Adler, and the Baker Street Babes.

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How to get my newest book:

How to get the previous two books in the series:

Tips for Editing Your Writing

Posted on December 3, 2013 by girlonbridge

This post is sponsored by Grammarly.

I use Grammarly for proofreading because every time you publish an error in a Sherlock Holmes Pastiche, Professor Moriarty wins.

I’m currently in the editing process for my third novel, tentatively titled The Detective, The Woman and the Silent Hive: A Novel of Sherlock Holmes. Some time ago, I posted about the writing process and my tips for finishing a book, so this time I thought I would tackle some suggestions for editing, whether you’re working on fanfiction, academic papers, or a novel.

Grammarly: Grammarly is a new discovery for me, but it’s one I feel very comfortable recommending. I’ve always been of the opinion that a computer program can’t do what a human can when it comes to understanding the intricacies of the English language, but Grammarly’s program is something new. Rather than providing the rote, unimaginative suggestions of something like Microsoft Word’s spelling and grammar checker, it does a far more thorough and intuitive job of picking up on the actual nuances of language. It’s not a tool to totally replace human intelligence, but it’s a great way for writers to begin the process of taking an unedited manuscript and starting it on the journey of becoming polished and publishable. One of my favorite things about the program is that it doesn’t only mark potential mistakes; it explains in detail the reasoning behind the rules it’s using. I would certainly say it’s at the cutting edge of what technology can offer writers at the present time.

Use Your Own Eyes: Even if you don’t feel particularly strong in the areas of grammar and mechanics, don’t send a story or paper off as-is. Just because you have another editor lined up doesn’t mean you’re absolved of all responsibility for a clean manuscript. As a professional proofreader, I can tell you that it’s much harder to do my job when I get something that is completely raw and unedited. If the writer at least gives it a once-over, that gives me a much better place to start from, and it makes it more likely that I’m going to catch the littler things that make the difference between good and great. The thing is, even if you’re not perfect, your eyes will catch large typographical errors, repeated words, and blatant mistakes so that your editor can focus on the finer points. I usually go over my manuscripts at least twice in detail before I give them to an editor.

Get the Best Editor You Can Afford: Editing needs are not the same for every project. If you’re writing fanfiction to post for free, then it’s not cost effective to hire a professional to edit your work; however, sites like fanfiction.net offer free beta reading services that can help you polish your writing. The same is true of a lot of university and college campuses. Free writing centers often offer not only basic editing, but also suggestions for improving your papers. If you are asked to pay, it’s usually much less than what an editor would charge in the private sector. If you’re writing a book for publication, your publisher may offer line editing; even so, you’re expected to provide a clean manuscript from which to start. If it’s worth publishing with your name on it; it’s worth incurring some editing expense. This is doubly true if you’re self-publishing, because you have a (hopefully diminishing) stigma to fight against, as well as no publisher’s name to hide behind. Using two editors is, in my opinion, ideal. I am fortunate enough to have two professional editors in my family. One edits my manuscripts for basic mechanics, and the other checks them for word usage, plot consistency, and the overall quality of the writing. For me, this setup works very well.

What tips have you found helpful for your editing process?

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The Detective, The Woman and The Winking Tree: A Novel of Sherlock Holmes is available from all good bookstores and e-bookstores worldwide including in the USA Amazon,Barnes and Noble and Classic Specialities – and in all electronic formats including Amazon Kindle , iTunes(iPad/iPhone) and Kobo.

The Detective and the Woman: A Novel of Sherlock Holmes is available from all good bookstores and e-bookstores worldwide including in the USA Amazon,Barnes and Noble and Classic Specialities – and in all electronic formats including Amazon Kindle , iTunes(iPad/iPhone) and Kobo.

Superheroes Among Us: The Secret Lives of Proofreaders

Posted on November 1, 2013 by girlonbridge

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am a superhero.

I didn’t always realize I was a superhero, but I’ve always known I was different. You see, I am a proofreader, compulsively and professionally.

“Ah,” you say, “but grammar is a learned skill not a superpower.”

Not so, my comma-missing friend. (I could hear in your voice that you would have left the comma out of your above statement.)

Some achieve grammatical competence, and most have a vague sense of editorial rightness thrust upon them. There are, however, few who are born great. Like spider webs issuing from our wrists or the power of flight, we are both gifted and cursed with the power of proofreading.

Most of us, like other superheroes, first discover our powers in troubling and traumatic ways. Consider the ordinary-looking child who sits down at a diner with his family. Picking up the grimy menu, he encounters the phrase, “Mashed Potatoe’s.” He is pained! He is incensed! As quickly as he can, he looks around the table to share this moment of affront with his family members, but they are unmoved. Not one of them has even noticed! With utter horror, he realizes how alone he is in this vast and grammatically-challenged universe.

As we grow, we learn to blend in and even, perhaps, earn financial compensation by using our power in small and inconspicuous ways. Like other minorities, however, we continue to be subject to tragic levels of discrimination and exploitation.

Consider our representation in the media. “The Foreigner,” a play that takes as its subject prejudice in the American South, does an admirable job of illuminating racial issues. At the same time, its hypocrisy is unnerving. Its protagonist, a man by the name of Charlie, is the professional proofreader of a science fiction magazine. With utter callousness toward the misunderstood heroism of the proofreaders that walk our streets, he is portrayed as shy, quiet, even, dare I say it, unadventurous! I know, it’s nearly too offensive to be repeated on paper, but we must be made aware of these things if we are ever to progress in the treatment of the persecuted in our society.

Exploitation is an even bigger issue, for it is one that is a daily struggle for all who possess the power to proofread. Consider this anecdote, occurring in the life of an ordinary college freshman. “Jane,” says Natalie, “could you proofread this paper really quick? I have to turn it in fifteen minutes from now.” No, Natalie, you do not understand. Proofread this paper really quick(ly) is what happens when a proofreader edits something for another of her own kind and feels shy about handing it back with the one correction it required, a correction that is probably, really, a matter of opinion. Editing for the ordinary writer is a painstaking, agonizing process in which the proofreader must commune with her inner soul about whether or not clauses are dependant, whether Strunk or Turabian is the true authority, and whether she can bear to leave slight mistakes if they seem intrinsic to the writer’s personal style. It is akin to Sisyphus’s daily journey, a valiant effort that is both grueling and time-consuming. At the very least, Natalie, offer Jane a chocolate bar.

Of course, superheroes also have their special joys. Superman orbits the earth in graceful arcs, and Thor makes mountains shake with Mjolnir’s thunder. We, too, have pleasures that will never be enjoyed by mere mortals. The moment of ecstasy that comes when we turn off “Tracked Changes” and suddenly find a pristine document where disorder and superfluous semicolons once reigned is beyond human description. It is sublime.

Some mutants fly; others read minds; others know exactly when to use affect or effect. All are united in an existence at once beautiful and tragic, exhilarating and excruciating. Proofreaders are often unappreciated superheroes, laboring in silent anonymity for the sake of a future world in which no plurals are accidental possessives and no run-on sentences live to mar the course of human development. It is, you say, only an dream. We agree, but you should have said “a.”

Please Note: This essay is very, very, very serious and should be taken as such.

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