Monday, April 23, 2012

Violets and Violins

This is the opening chapter for my DIM novel, and it takes place in 1861. It shows Sherlock and Mycroft as orphaned children, and introduces the mystery that Sherlock doesn't know how their parents died. They also interact with their cousin George and their French grandmother. I'm not completely decided on all the names yet, but the family relationships are mostly firm.

Jeremy Brett rewatch

Lately I also have started rewatching the Granada Holmes series on Netflix. The episodes with David Burke have altered the stories to make no references to Watson being married, even in cases that take place after his marriage, like SCAN and BLUE. I don't remember David Burke well, as I started with Edward Hardwicke the first time around. I also notice several references to Holmes's cocaine being locked in his drawer, and the show implying that Holmes has injected during some cases.

My Dearest Holmes again

Criminal Element has a review of Rohase Piercy's My Dearest Holmes. I previously praised this book in my blog, and I still recommend it.

In other news, I'm still reading Lycett's biography of ACD. I still haven't heard anything new about the CBS Elementary pilot, though I obsessively check all the time. I'm also very worried about Nikita's chances of renewal.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Lycett's biography of ACD

Lately I've been reading a biography of Arthur Conan Doyle by Andrew Lycett called The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes. It cost more than I usually like to pay for a book, but considering that it's almost 600 pages long, I think it's worth the price. It's very interesting and readable, full of new information that I haven't read in any other biography of ACD.

I would recommend this book to anyone who's a fan of ACD and craves an enormous amount of background detail about him (and his family, friends, and literary influences). Lycett practically goes month to month though ACD's life, giving vivid glimpses of daily life, such as ACD joking in a cartoon that he was now "licensed to kill" when he earned his medical degree! It really humanizes him to me. To give you an idea of the biography's pace, it took about 150 pages before I got to ACD writing A Study in Scarlet. I'm still not even halfway through the book yet.