Gaslight Grimoire In-stock at Amazon Once Again!

GASLIGHT GRIMOIRE: FANTASTIC TALES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is now apparently once again in-stock and ready to ship from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com

Click here now to order your copy from Amazon.ca!

Click here now to order your copy from Amazon.com!

Ordering Gaslight Grimoire

While Amazon.com appears to be currently sold out of GASLIGHT GRIMOIRE: FANTASTIC TALES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, never fear, you can still order directly from the publisher - EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing - through their website.

Click here to visit the EDGE ordering page.

Gaslight Grimoire Chapters Signing Photos

Editors J. R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec signing copies of GASLIGHT GRIMOIRE: FANTASTIC TALES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES on Saturday, November 15, 2008 at a Chapters-Indigo (Sunridge Spectrum) store in Calgary, AB, Canada. Our thanks to the wonderful Chapters staff and customers for putting together a fun and successful evening.

Gaslight Grimoire Signing in Calgary - November 15

Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes editors J. R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec will be signing copies of the book at Chapters - Indigo Spectrum (Sunridge) in Calgary from 5-9 PM on November 15th. If you're in the area please stop in and say hello!

Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008
Time: 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Chapters - Indigo Spectrum (Sunridge)
Street: #500 - 2555 32nd St NE, Calgary, AB, Canada
Telephone: (403) 250-9171

Click here for Google map.

Gaslight Grimoire Reviewed - Booklist

Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes.
Campbell, Jeff (editor) and Charles Prepolec (editor). Oct. 2008. 336p. EDGE, paperback, $16.95 (9781894063173).

REVIEW. First published October 15, 2008 (Booklist).

This one seems like a natural. It’s well known that Sherlock Holmes’ creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, was deeply interested in the paranormal, a subject bursting with possibilities for the kind of mystery that only Holmes could solve—except that Conan Doyle had firmly established Holmes as investigating only real-world cases with real-world, logical solutions. This anthology, featuring such writers as Barbara Hambly, Chris Roberson, and Kim Newman, purports to present the kinds of Holmes stories Conan Doyle might have written if he had allowed Holmes to become involved with the otherworldly. The stories are a mixed lot, with characters ranging from Peter Pan to a 1940s Los Angeles private eye to old friends like Professor Moriarty and Inspector Lestrade, but unfortunately some of them read not like a story Conan Doyle might have written but like fan fiction—long on imagination but short on execution. Others, however, are a lot of fun, well written and entertaining. Holmes devotees may be a bit disappointed, but fans of fantastic fiction should be happy to see the famous detective stepping into their world.

— David Pitt

Gaslight Grimoire Launch at World Fantasy Convention

Although Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes is already available online and in shops the book is receiving an "Official Launch" at World Fantasy Convention 2008. The convention is held in Calgary, AB, Canada this year and runs from October 30 through November 2. Gaslight Grimoire contributors Barbara Hambly (a Guest of Honor at WFC 2008), J. R. Campbell, Barbara Roden, Chris Roberson and Charles Prepolec are all expected to be on hand for signings and readings during the course of the convention. If you're at the Con be sure to come along to the EDGE booth on Friday morning or to the Saturday afternoon launch and say hello!

GG Authors 5 Sherlockian Questions - Barbara Hambly

Barbara Hambly
Story: The Lost Boy

1) When did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

My Dad is a Holmes fan, so I knew about Holmes from very small childhood. When I was eight I bought (with my own meager allowance) an abridged-for-kids version of about five Holmes stories - Speckled Band, Blue Carbuncle, Case of Identity, Scandal in Bohemia, and Red-Headed League - put out by Classic Comics (though it was prose, not comic version). After that I asked for The Complete Sherlock Holmes in hardcover (which was expensive, for 1959) which I got for Christmas and read pretty much cover-to-cover (I was nine, by then). After that I wrote my own Holmes stories, which were, of course, just God-awful.

2) Do you have a favourite story from the canon?

There are so many in the canon that are favorites, but I think my all-time re-read fave has to be Hound of the Baskervilles.

3) Are you active in any Sherlockian societies?

I am not now nor ever have been involved in any Sherlockian society.

4) Are you involved with any other Sherlock Holmes projects?

I'm not currently doing any Holmes projects, though I've done two other Holmes short stories: "The Dollmaker of Marigold Walk" for Michael Kurland's My Sherlock Holmes collection; and "The Adventure of the Antiquarian's Niece" for the Shadows Over Baker Street collection - Sherlock Holmes meets the Chthulu Mythos, which was a lot of fun. Both of these - like "Adventure of the Lost Boy" - involve Mary Watson in one way or another.

5) Any other of your projects you’d like to tell our readers about?

I've just finished a straight Civil War novel, Home Land, which should be out in 2009; I'm more or less regrouping at the moment. The first volume of my graphic novel for PennyFarthing Press - Anne Steelyard: The Garden of Emptiness - should be out next spring. I also have a Hellboy short story in the new collection, Oddest Jobs. Everything else is still too up in the air to talk about.

Gaslight Grimoire Now Shipping From Amazon.com

Just noticed that Amazon.com is finally listing Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes as being in stock and shipping now. Order your copy today!

Gaslight Grimoire Reviewed in Library Journal

Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes was recently reviewed in the Library Journal.

Excerpt: "....an excellent addition to the Holmesian apocrypha. A good addition to any library."

Click here to read the full review.

Gaslight Grimoire - On the Edge Podcasts

Marie Bilodeau hosts On the Edge, a regular podcast feature for EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing writers, artists, editors, etc...and currently up on the EDGE website are two podcasts related to Gaslight Grimoire.

First up is Gaslight Grimoire cover artist Timothy Lantz. Click here to access the podcast directly.

In the second podcast Marie chats with Gaslight Grimoire editors J. R. Campbell and me, Charles Prepolec. Click here to access the podcast directly.

If you prefer, you can also visit the EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing website and listen there. Both interviews can be found a little ways down on the right side of the page.

Gaslight Grimoire: Now Shipping from Amazon.ca and EDGE

Just a brief note to indicate that Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes is now in-stock and shipping directly from both the publisher, EDGE, and Amazon.ca. Expect it to appear in more outlets shortly.

GG Authors 5 Sherlockian Questions - Martin Powell

Martin Powell
Story: Sherlock Holmes in the Lost World

1) When did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

It was in the sixth grade, I think. Conan Doyle's "The Norwood Builder" was in our English text book and we were assigned to read it. I remember being very excited by the story, especially impressed with the Great Detective's solution to the mystery. I really admired his cleverness. Still do.

2) Do you have a favourite story from the canon?

Several come to mind. I think "The Speckled Band" is the perfect, iconic Holmes adventure. It's the first one I always suggest for new readers. I love "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Dying Detective", too.

3) Are you active in any Sherlockian societies?

I'm not, actually. Perhaps I should be, though.

4) Are you involved with any other Sherlock Holmes projects?

Always. SHERLOCK HOLMES IN THE LOST WORLD was my seventh Holmes adventure and my eighth and ninth tales of the Great Detective will see print very soon, including a graphic novel adaptation of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, from Stone Arch Books. That one is, by the way, the only Conan Doyle adaptation I've ever done. The others have all been original stories. It was lots of fun, returning to the source.

5) Any other of your projects you'd like to tell our readers about?

Well, I'm sorely tempted, but I won't. Sherlock Holmes is the star here, and that's as it should be.

Gaslight Grimoire - J. R. Campbell's Lady Sannox Radio Play

Gaslight Grimoire co-editor and contributor J. R. Campbell (The Entwined) has written a number of scripts for Imagination Theater's THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES radio series. Jeff's latest script produced by Imagination Theater - The Lady Sannox Investigation - can now be heard for free online at the Imagination Theater site. Sherlock Holmes investigates the events depicted in Arthur Conan Doyle's non-Sherlockian short horror story The Case of Lady Sannox.

Click here to visit Imagination Theater now.

GG Artist 5...erm...4 Sherlockian Questions - Phil Cornell

Phil Cornell
Gaslight Grimoire Interior Illustrations

1) When did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

In 1964, when I was nine, my parents gave me The Readers' Digest Young Peoples' Annual which contained 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band'. When Holmes rattled off his series of deductions about how Miss Stoner had travelledby dog-cart (even though I had no idea what a dog-cartwas), I was hooked. Discovering the rest of the Canon in the John Murray editions at my local library cemented the fascination!

2) Do you have a favourite story from the canon?

'The Sign of the Four' is the epitome of everything I love in a Holmes yarn. A fair client in distress, a spooky old house, a hidden treasure, romance, a death in a locked room, some great Holmesian dialogue, the thrilling pursuit down the Thames...what more could one ask for?

3) Are you active in any Sherlockian societies?

I am the "expedition artist" for 'The Sydney Passengers'.

4) Are you involved with any other Sherlock Holmes projects?

I am currently working with fellow Sydney Passenger Chris Sequeira, cover artist (and Oscar nominated make-up artist) Dave Elsey, and penciller Tim McEwen on a new dark and gritty Sherlock Holmes comic for new comics publisher Black House Comics. Watch out for 'Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes'

Two full page illustrations by Phil Cornell from Gaslight Grimoire.

Gaslight Grimoire Reviewed at SF Revu & Gumshoe Review

Gaslight Grimoire is clearly something of a genre-bending book as Gayle Surrette has reviewed Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes for both online mags SF Revu and Gumshoe Review. Click here to read the review on Gumshoe Review or here on SF Revu. Same review either way.

GG Authors 5...erm...4 Sherlockian Questions - Chris Roberson

Chris Roberson

Story: Merridew of Abominable Memory

1) When did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

When I was a kid, my father introduced me to all of the classics that he’d read as a child. So while other kids my age were reading Judy Blume and the like, I was working my way through Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Wells’s The Time Machine, or The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I drifted away as I grew older, as we all do from the things of our childhood, only to return to the fold a few years later after a chance viewing of Jeremy Brett in the role of the great detective in the Granada Television adaptations. I’ve been here ever since.

2) Do you have a favourite story from the canon?

I have approached the canon several times, and I think I come away with a different favorite each time. It probably says more about me at various ages than it does about the stories themselves. But my most recent trek through the canon was a few years ago, while researching for a novel, and the story that most connected with me at that point was “The Red-Headed League.”

3) Are you active in any Sherlockian societies?

Sadly no, but then I would tend to question the wisdom of any organization that would have me as a member...

4) Are you involved with any other Sherlock Holmes projects?

My forthcoming novel End of the Century features as one of its three plot-threads a gaslight mystery set in London during the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, in which consulting detective Sandford Blank and his companion Roxanne Bonaventure are called upon to uncover the truth behind a string of grisly murders that may just be motivated by a search for the Holy Grail. Any resemblance between Blank and any other consulting detectives may not be entirely coincidental.

GG Authors 5 Sherlockian Questions - Chico Kidd

Chico Kidd
Story: Grantchester Grimoire

1) When did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

In a radio series in around 1960 -- the first tale I heard was "The Speckled Band" and it scared me for years: Over my bed was a ventilation grille.......

2) Do you have a favourite story from the canon?

I like the almost-supernatural ones such as "The Devil's Foot", but my favourite has got the be "The Hound".

3) Are you active in any Sherlockian societies?

Afraid not.... I don't have the time!

4) Are you involved with any other Sherlock Holmes projects?

Not at present, but I must say I enjoyed this one tremendously and would do it again!

5) Any other of your projects you’d like to tell our readers about?

My Captain Da Silva is Holmes's contemporary (at least in the great detective's later years), and the short stories will be published by Ash-Tree Press in two volumes at some stage; the first novel featuring the Captain will appear in Portugal fom publishers Saída de Emergência (publishers of George R R Martin & many others -- http://www.saidadeemergencia.com/) probably next year. You heard it here first!

Gaslight Grimoire Advance Review at Critical Mass

Don D'Ammassa has reviewed Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes at the "Critical Mass"site. Click here to visit Critical Mass and read the full review.

GG Authors 5 Sherlockian Questions - Bob Madison

Bob Madison
Story: Red Sunset

1) When did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

Oddly enough, I first encountered Sherlock Holmes on radio. Though I am way too young to have been part of the old time radio generation, when I was a boy of 10 or so, a local radio station rebroadcast the Norman Shelley/Carleton Hobbs Sherlock Holmes radio show. I was hooked. Very soon after that, I came across the Basil Rathbone Holmes films on television – and I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be Holmes or Rathbone when I grew up.

I devoured the stories at a rapid clip, and had the openings of many of them memorized while still in grade school. I was doubly-fortunate as it turned out the Chris Steinbrunner, a great Sherlockian and historian of the mystery genre in general, was a very near neighbor of mine. He was the author of The Films of Sherlock Holmes, so you could say I learned at the feet of two Masters. We were working on The Films of Charlie Chan shortly before Chris became unwell and died – sadly, the project was never completed.

2) Do you have a favorite story from the canon?

Without a doubt, my favorite story in the Canon is The Sign of Four. Holmes is at the absolute top of his game, Watson is at his most active, the boat chase is a wonder, and … well, who can resist pygmies and blowguns and unknown poisons? Also, it has the Baker Street Irregulars, touches upon Holmes’ drug addiction and it all seems fresh and new; you could tell Doyle was having a great time and not slogging on to meet demand (see Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, most of which are execrable).

If I can pick multiples, I would have to say Scandal in Bohemia, Second Stain, Illustrious Client, Thor Bridge, Creeping Man, Yellow Face, Devil’s Foot and Copper Beaches are all top-notch.

Valley of Fear is interesting without being particularly good; I think Hound is vastly over-rated.

3) Are you active in any Sherlockian societies?

I was the youngest-ever member of the Priory Scholars, and New York-based scion started by Chris Steinbrunner and others, but have not really been active for many years. I am still slavishly devoted to Holmes, but my interests broadened and I could either continue to write books or take painting and drawing lessons (some of my work has been displayed at the Arts Students League), or continue on with Sherlockiana. (Which reminds me, many years ago, I illustrated the souvenir book for a Sherlockian cruise to Bermuda!)

4) Are you involved with any other Sherlock Holmes projects?

I am currently developing a script for a one-shot Sherlock Holmes radio play for WBAI in New York.

5) Any other of your projects you’d like to tell our readers about?

I am currently shopping around a historical novel about Buffalo Bill Cody, called Buffalo Bill’s Last Interview.

Gaslight Grimoire Final Cover Art

The full cover design for Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes featuring the striking artwork of Timothy Lantz.

GG Authors 5 Sherlockian Questions - Christopher Sequeira

Christopher Sequeira

Story: His Last Arrow

1) When did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

Probably at about 8 to 10 years of age, via the Rathbone Holmes movies being re-run once a week on TV in Sydney when I was a child.

2) Do you have a favourite story from the canon?

I have more than one favourite! HOUN is great, but from a social justice point of view, and being the son of a (white) Irish-Australian and a very brown Indian-Australian, The Yellow Face is a remarkable effort that means a lot to me.

3) Are you active in any Sherlockian societies?

You bet! Australia's premier one, The Sydney Passengers! Twenty-five or so years of membership, I think.

4) Are you involved with any other Sherlock Holmes projects?

You get a scoop -

http://www.blackhousecomics.com/

Will be doing a Holmes comic that I will be writing, Tim McEwen and Phil Cornell will be drawing, whilst Academy Award Nominee Dave Elsey does covers and story and design elements!

5) Any other of your projects you’d like to tell our readers about?

The Black House project grew out of a screenplay Dave E and I are working on intermittently. Forget Guy Ritchie! Our stuff is something fresh yet totally respectful of Doyle by two blokes who KNOW the material, not some upstarts (OK, just joking - I wish Mr Ritchie the best of luck. In fact, if he really wants luck, tell him to email me so he can have a good script).

Also, you might enjoy my blog:-

http://comicbookwriter.blogspot.com/

GG Authors 5 Sherlockian Questions - J. R. Campbell

J. R. Campbell (Co-editor)

Story: The Entwined

1) When did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

I remember my Grandmother asking, when I was quite young, who my favorite detective was. My answer, (Coloumbo), won me an approving nod. Growing up everyone in the family was expected to have a favourite detective, I didn't think anything of it. Sherlock Holmes was always there, a familiar figure, and I do remember reading a story or two as a schoolboy. It wasn't until I'd read the stories as an adult that Sherlock earned topdetective ranking. At the time I was very keen on reading short stories and it was in that format that I truly discovered Holmes. Not to take anything away from the novels but it's in the short stories that Holmes really comes to life. Found myself fascinated by Holmes' eccentric nature and the way he evolved over the course of the stories. Holmes doesn't just evolve in Doyle's writing but throughout pop culture as well, making Sherlock just too fascinating a character to pass up.

2) Do you have a favorite story from the canon?

'Silver Blaze'. I love the quote about 'the incident of the dog in the night'. Impressed when the mystery was solved not by a clue but by the absence of a clue. Holmes in this tale isn't a terribly upright citizen, waiting until after he's cashed in a bet before bringing the guilty parties to justice. For some reason that appeals to me.

3) Are you active in any Sherlockian societies?

Sadly no, although the good folk at the Singular Society of the Baker Street Dozen here in Calgary very kindly allow me to tag along to some of their functions.

4) Are you involved with any other Sherlock Holmes projects?

This is the third Sherlock Holmes anthology I've co-edited with Charles, each of which has been great fun.Whenever an opportunity arises allowing me to take up a pen and write for Holmes and Watson I'm quite willing to do so. As well as contributing stories I've had the good fortune of working with the talented folk at Imagination Theater contributing to their radio drama 'The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'. It's great fun to hear the Great Detective speak your words.

5) Any other of your projects you’d like to tell our readers about?

Well, I'm always writing and have been lucky enough to have stories turning up in anthologies and magazines now and again. I work mostly in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres but whenever a murder clever enough, or a thought scary enough, enters the imagination I've been known to cross the genre boundaries. Among other places, I've been published in Challenging Destiny , Spinetingler Magazine and in the forthcoming anthology Fantasical Visions IV . Imagination Theater looses me on the airwaves now and again, broadcasting my Holmesian and non-Holmesian work with reckless abandon. Enjoy putting together anthologies so you may tumble across my name there. Would love to do another Sherlock Holmes anthology, something in Science Fiction or Horror sounds like great fun.

Gaslight Grimoire Advance Review in The Harrow

Dru Pagliassotti has reviewed Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes in "The Harrow: Original Works of Fantasy and Horror", Vol 11, No 9 (2008). Click here to visit The Harrow site and read the full review.

GG Authors 5 Sherlockian Questions - M. J. Elliott

M. J. Elliott
Story: The Finishing Stroke

1) When did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

When I was growing up, the BBC had an annual tradition of screening the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce movies... and I had an annual tradition of watching them. When I was about 10 or 11, I checked a copy of His Last Bow out of the library... and I was lost forever.

2) Do you have a favourite story from the canon?

An unexpected choice: Wisteria Lodge. I suppose everybody has a fondness for the first story they read, but I admit, at age 11, I didn't have the faintest idea what this one was about! It was all horribly confusing. Now, I read it again, and it seems to be the Sherlock Holmes story with a bit of everything: murder mystery, international politics, voodoo...

3) Are you active in any Sherlockian societies?

I host the annual film evening of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, screening rare Holmes movies for the members. Of course, in this DVD age, it's getting harder to find anything really rare.

4) Are you involved with any other Sherlock Holmes projects?

For the past five years, I've provided scripts for Imagination Theater's Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes radio series, starring John Patrick Lowrie as Holmes and Lawrence Albert as Dr Watson. I've also dramatised several stories from the Canon for their series The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The achievement of which I'm proudest must be my three-hour version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (in which I had the small role of Cartwright, the boy from the District Messenger's office!). The shows can be heard and purchased here: http://jimfrenchproductions.com/zc137m/

5) Any other of your projects you’d like to tell our readers about?

I've just finished a three-part radio mini-series for Falcon Pictures Group entitled The New Adventures of Mike Hammer, in which Stacy Keach will re-create his famous role. I'm also scripting several new episodes of Falcon Pictures Twilight Zone series - it's hoped at this stage that Mena Suvari, star of American Beauty, will play the lead in my first show. You can read more about it here: http://twilightzoneradio.blogspot.com/ I'm also working with the cast of cult TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 on their new project, Rifftrax. If you were a fan of the show, you'll be pleased to hear that Rifftrax is much the same. I've recorded commentaries for two movies thus far, Dark Water and House of Wax (in which Paris Hilton has a metal pole thrust through her head - anywhere else on her body, and it could've done some real damage). At the moment, I'm preparing for a collaboration with MST's very own Mike Nelson. Visit their website: http://rifftrax.com/ I've edited five volumes for Wordsworth Editions: two collections of H P Lovecraft stories, two of Robert E Howard, and the forthcoming Charlie Chan Omnibus. You can find out more here: http://www.wordsworth-editions.com/jkcm/default.aspx?pg=34 For Imagination Theater, I supply scripts for many series, including my own creation, The Hilary Caine Mysteries. Other shows include Raffles the Gentleman Thief, The Adventures of Harry Nile and Kincaid the Strangeseeker. For Colonial Radio Theatre, I've scripted a sixteen part series based on G K Chesterton's Father Brown mysteries. I've also written the second in a continuing series based on the original Perry Mason novels of Erle Stanley Gardner. Colonial's website is here: http://www.colonialradio.com/ and the first eight episodes of The Father Brown Mysteries can be purchased here: http://www.blackstoneaudio.com/ If, after visiting all those links, you have any strength left, you can follow the trials and tribulations of a writer's life on my MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/matthewjelliott

GG Authors 5 Sherlockian Questions - Kim Newman

Kim Newman
Story: The Red Planet League

1) When did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

Probably first in some comedy sketch program on UK TV in the late 1960s - maybe Peter Cushing on the Morecambe and Wise Show, just possibly a forgotten Welsh comedy team called Ryan and Ronnie who did a knockabout serial with Holmes and Watson versus Dracula. My copy of the Complete Short Stories was given to me for Christmas in 1971 by my grandmother. I also have early memories of a radio Hound of the Baskervilles with Carleton Hobbs. I think the first Holmes film I saw was the Hammer Hound, on TV in the early '70s, but I remember seeing the posters for The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes up on the London underground during its first release.

2) Do you have a favourite story from the canon?

Not really.

3) Are you active in any Sherlockian societies?

No

4) Are you involved with any other Sherlock Holmes projects?

I seem to have three or four loosely-related series of stories that relate to the subject - the story in this book fits in with a series I've been doing about Professor Moriarty ('A Shambles in Belgravia', 'A Volume in Vermillion' - with 'The Hound of the d'Urbervilles' due next); Irene Adler was in the first of a series of stories ('Angels of Music') about the Phantom of the Opera in J-M Lofficier's Gentlemen of the Night books; and the Diogenes Club, Mycroft Holmes and others appear in the Anno Dracula novels and, in a slightly different way, the stories collected in The Man From the Diogenes Club and Secret Files of the Diogenes Club. To date, the only time I've actually written Holmes himself has been in a chapter ('The Private Files of Mycroft Holmes') I deleted for structural reasons from my novel The Bloody Red Baron (it's appeared a few times since).

5) Any other of your projects you’d like to tell our readers about?

I've just finished a science fiction play for BBC Radio ('Cry-Babies'), and am working on a couple of book notions in fiction and non-fiction. I'm also fiddling with some film projects. Eventually, I'd like to glue the Moriarty series into a book.

GG Authors 5 Sherlockian Questions - Peter Calamai

Peter Calamai
Story: The Steamship Friesland

1) When did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

Not a date fixed in my 65-year-old memory but I suspect on the silver screen with Rathbone rather than in the books. My childhood detective was Freddy the Pig and then I graduated to the Swallows and Amazons series (Arthur Ransome) from England.

2) Do you have a favourite story from the canon?

The Hound. But you'd expect that from someone whose BSI investiture is The Leeds Mercury, wouldn't you?

3) Are you active in any Sherlockian societies?

The Bootmakers, BSI, Sherlock Holmes Society of London, The Sydney Passengers

4) Are you involved with any other Sherlock Holmes projects?

Yes.

5) Any other of your projects you’d like to tell our readers about?

Very slowly compiling a collection of the original newspaper accounts about SH's cases, some snippets of which are also quoted by John Watson in the cannonical versions.
Also travelling to Portsmouth, England to take part in a SHSL weekend there Sept 5-7

GG Authors 5 Sherlockian Questions - Barbara Roden

Barbara Roden
Story: The Things That Shall Come Upon Them

1) When did you first encounter Sherlock Holmes?

My first encounter with Sherlock Holmes came when I was eight; I remember being ill in bed, and my mother brought me a volume of Holmes tales from the library, perhaps figuring that as I'd exhausted my store of Nancy Drew mysteries I might appreciate another type of detective story. Sad to say, what stood out for me were the Paget illustrations, although I do recall being thrilled by 'The Speckled Band'. A year later my grade 5 class did a radio play of 'The Red-Headed League', and I was cast in the minor role of Major Duncan Ross. However, come the day, and the classmate cast as Holmes got a severe case of stage fright; so it was decided that she would swap with someone who had a smaller role. Thus it was that I played Holmes; but even that didn't quite do the trick. It wasn't until my grade 7 year, when we were assigned 'The Speckled Band' as an assignment in English class, that I was well and truly hooked. I immediately went out and bought all nine of the original canonical volumes, and it wasn't long before I was immersing myself not only in the canon, but in any books about Holmes and Conan Doyle that I could find. I wrote a Holmes play (shamelessly ripped off from the plot of 'The Speckled Band'), began writing - or at least trying to write - Holmes stories, and watched the Rathbone/Bruce films whenever they appeared on television, back in those far-off days before VCRs and DVD players. I can still recite the pubkeeper's eerie opening monologue from SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH at the drop of a deerstalker: 'There's folks hereabouts swear they've seen corpse-lights round the old greenhouse, and heard a wailing, like lost souls, in the Lime Walk.'

2) Do you have a favourite story from the canon?

Of the novels, my favourite would be THE SIGN OF THE FOUR, because it seems in many ways to be the novel where Holmes is most fully integrated as a character. Of the short stories, probably 'The Final Problem'; it isn't much of a mystery, but the introduction of so great a villain as Professor Moriarty, and the climactic confrontation at the Reichenbach, makes it a gripping thriller from start to finish, overlaid with sadness on the part of Watson, who knows at the beginning what the tragic outcome will be, but still feels compelled to write it down in vindication of his friend.

3) Are you active in any Sherlockian societies?

I've been a member of the Bootmakers of Toronto since the mid-1980s, and was made a Master Bootmaker in 1990. In 1987 I co-founded The Stormy Petrels of British Columbia, and have belonged to the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and The Northern Musgraves, although at the moment am a member of three societies in addition to the Bootmakers: The Norwegian Explorers of Minnesota, The Pondicherry Lodgers of 44th Street, and the Baker Street Irregulars , in which I was investitured, as 'Beryl Stapleton', in 2005. Since 1992 I've co-run, with my husband Christopher, The Arthur Conan Doyle Society, which examines the life and work of Holmes's creator.

4) Are you involved with any other Sherlock Holmes projects?

For the past year I have been editor of Canadian Holmes, the journal of The Bootmakers of Toronto; I've been a regular contributor to the journal since 1988, and in 2002 was awarded the Society's Derrick Murdoch Memorial Award for my contributions to the journal. I've contributed numerous articles to Sherlockian publications in three countries, have spoken at many Sherlockian conventions and meetings, and co-edited, with my husband Christopher, several books about Holmes and Conan Doyle for our Sherlockian imprint, Calabash Press, as well as for The Arthur Conan Doyle Society.

5) Any other of your projects you’d like to tell our readers about?

In addition to my Sherlockian work, I co-edit All Hallows, the World Fantasy Award-nominated journal of The Ghost Story Society. My husband and I run Ash-Tree Press, an award-winning press which specialises in the publication of classic supernatural fiction. Amongst the 140 or so books we have published are four—soon to be five—anthologies of original supernatural tales; the third of these, Acquainted With the Night, won the International Horror Guild and World Fantasy Awards for the Best Anthology of 2004. I've been writing short supernatural; fiction for several years; in 2005 my short story 'Northwest Passage' was nominated for the Stoker, International Horror Guild, and World Fantasy Awards for short fiction. In fall 2009 a collection of my dark fiction, Northwest Passages, will be published by Prime Books.

Gaslight Grimoire on YouTube

Having a bit of time, for a change, I figured I'd try to get the feel for a bit of software I had available to put together a book trailer for Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes. The result of my testing, rather overlong I'm afraid, is the video below. If nothing else, it certainly gives a glimpse of Phil Cornell's excellent interior art.

Entering the Fray

Well, it appears the time has arrived for me to start testing out Blogger. Let's see where this goes...