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.