PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING MAY 14, 2016

OF SHERLOCKS: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

Okay, no computer problems since last time, so I'm well back into my regular routine.

Cover by Terry Pavlet

Let's start with a quick reminder that my latest release can be found within Airship 27's fifth volume of SINBAD: THE NEW VOYAGES
I will be eventually writing a Back Story post in regards to the creation of "Sinbad and the Sinister Statue", but the anthology can be found on Amazon.com in both print and e-formats.





Things are going great on my Sherlock Holmes story for Airship 27 as well, as I finished last week with 7,800+ words on the tale.
Now, considering my last Progress Report only had me slightly above 5,000 words in a target 15,000 word short story, roughly over 2,800 words in a week's time may not seem like a lot to some people; but considering all the research and care one must put into a mystery worthy of the legendary Victorian Era Consulting Detective, regardless of the story's length...
I have "The Adventure of..." (sorry, not revealing the full title at this time) all plotted out in my head and will even be throwing in a red herring or two concerning who is behind everything.
But, regardless of the enigma and who eventually solves it, mysteries do take longer to write than straight action/adventure stories in my humble opinion.
After all, you have to work out the details of not only what the conundrum is, but where all your suspects are at any given moment, along with who the guilty party is and why they committed the crime long before you put anything down on record, whether it's via your computer or the more traditional pen and paper method.

But since I've been promising to discuss this for a couple of weeks now, in my personal opinion, who do I think portrayed Sherlock Holmes the best?

Let me start by stating the obvious.
There are too many actors who have played Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary detective to have seen them all.
There have been classic Holmes (set in the Victorian Era), modern Sherlocks (set in today's world), and even one animated series that revived in him the 22nd century with a robotic Watson !
Holmes is a popular AUDIO character too between the heyday of Old Time Radio and more recent audio book adaptations, so I certainly haven't heard them all either.
For more information on the above, please refer to the "Adaptations in Other Media" listing in Wikipedia's Sherlock Holmes entry.

Now for me, it all comes down to three men.
Modern Sherlock is easily Benedict Cumberbatch from the BBC/PBS Masterpiece Mystery productions. I'm sure there are plenty of people wondering about Jonny Lee Miller on Elementary but let's be honest with each other. While I am a fan of the show, this series could just as easily have been about another detective and his partner, since CBS only started it because they couldn't get the American TV rights to Sherlock.

I will give an honorable mention to Michael Pennington from the 1987 TV movie: The Return of Sherlock Holmes. While not the first attempt to put the consulting detective in the present, it was the first (as far as I know) to partner him with a female Watson.

In regards to classic/Victorian Era Holmes, I am torn between the two most obvious choices: Basil Rathbone (who, by the end of his cinematic tenure as Holmes, was fighting Nazis, thus also making him the first Sherlock of modern times) and Jeremy Brett, who was in the midst of a wonderful series of adaptations of the official Doyle/Holmes canon when he passed away.

By the same token, there are just way too many Watsons to consider singling it out to just one, but that is a discussion for another time.

My opinions may differ with yours but like I said, I can't think of anyone who has actually seen/heard them all.
I better get back to writing now.
See you around the Internet.
Lee Houston, Junior
15 May, 2016

PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING MAY 7, 2016

"IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES. IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES."

Opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

Not THIS bad, but it felt like it!

WHERE DO I START?
Last Sunday morning after breakfast, I returned to my computer to attempt getting some writing done for the day, including posting on this blog; and found that my computer had crashed!
Not the most auspicious start to the day, let alone the week.

After some scrambling, replacement parts, serious system updates, and a few well chosen curse words along the way that will NOT be repeated in a public forum, I was finally up and running again, only to discover that I was now seriously behind.
Why?

During my unplanned down time, I was sent TWO different PDFs, with each publisher wanting me to review my short story for errors and send the search results to them PDQ!

The first is out now, as Airship 27 has released the fifth volume in their ongoing Sinbad anthology series.
Under a beautiful cover by Terry Pavlet with interior illustrations by M. D. Jackson, you will find stories by Barbara Doran, Ron Fortier, and Percival Constanstine accompanied by my own contribution: "Sinbad and the Sinister Statue".
It's available from Amazon.com in both print and e-book formats.

It was great fun working in the creative realm sailed by the legendary Ray Harryhausen, the master of special effects long before the advent of computer generated images, and I hope to make another voyage in the future.


The other PDF happened to be in regards to my story for the upcoming Singularity: Rise of the Post Humans anthology spearheaded by series creator Jaime Ramos, to be released by Pro Se Press.
My humble contribution, "The Rebel", is joined by a lot of talented folks, including David Michelinie (yes, HIM!), Jennie Wood, Nancy A. Hansen, Brant Fowler, and Chris Magee, with Jaime contributing the finale that will set the world of New Southhampton on its ear and make folks wonder how long they can wait for Book 2 to discover what happens next.

And of course, once I took care of reviewing the PDFs, I did manage to get some more work done on my Sherlock Holmes short story for Airship 27, but with everything else I had to report this week, discussing my thoughts on who (if anyone) was the best portrayer of the Victorian Era's original consulting detective will have to wait another week until the next progress report.

So with that in mind, have a great week everybody. I'll see you around the Internet and HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!
Lee Houston, Junior
8 May, 2016