Tie-in Tuesday: Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of Bodmin

Happy Chinese New Year of the Tiger!

In other news, Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes, edited by George Mann, is still available to buy. Why am I telling you this? Because it contains my first published Sherlock Holmes short story, Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of Bodmin.

Here's a little background on the tale.

Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes is available from Titan Books, and via Amazon, now!

Happy Deathday, Sir Arthur!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the world's foremost consulting detective, died 90 years ago today, on 7th July 1930.

Unsurprisingly, my own work has been influenced by his in more ways than I can count, but most obviously there is the character of Ulysses Quicksilver, from my Pax Britannia steampunk novels, the elements of The Lost World that appear in NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!, and of course my contribution to the anthology Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes, edited by George Mann and published by Titan Books, entitled Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of Bodmin.

Lost

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the legendary literary phenomenon Sherlock Holmes, died 88 years ago today. The reason I mention this is because he also wrote The Lost World, in which Professor George Challenger and his companions discover dinosaurs (and other supposedly extinct creatures) alive and well on top of a mesa in the Amazon basin of South America.

I have spent the last few weeks editing NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! And while it is clearing inspired by J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, the gamebook is as much influenced by Conan Doyle's The Lost World. During the course of the adventure, you can explore much of the Skull Island-esque Neverland, which has called for me producing a map of the place.

Just like the adventure itself, there's still a fair bit to do before it's finished, but I've really enjoyed indulging my inner cartographer again after so many years.

To get an idea of what it is like on an island lost in time, inhabited by all manner of prehistoric beasts that want to kill you (or kill you and eat you), you can now play through Tiger Lily's introduction to the adventure, which also contains another Conan Doyle reference, by downloading the extract here.

Tie-in Tuesday: Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of Bodmin published today!

Huzzah! It's new book day!

George Mann's latest anthology of Sherlock Holmes' stories is published today. Entitled Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes, it contains my first published Sherlock Holmes short story, itself entitled Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of Bodmin.

The premise behind the anthology is that each story is told by one of Holmes' associates, in my case Sir Henry Baskerville, the poor put upon subject of the murder plot in The Hound of the Baskervilles (which is one of only four Sherlock Holmes novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).

The following is taken from the book and explains why I chose Sir Henry to be the narrator of my tale.

The Hound of the Baskervilles has long been my favourite Sherlock Holmes story, so it was only natural that I would choose that as my jumping off point. This time last year I was in Cornwall, and crossed Bodmin Moor, which is allegedly home to its own beast.

This year I am in Cornwall again and on the way down visited Lanhydrock House, which could easily pass for Baskerville Hall - or even Trelawny Hall from Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of Bodmin.

Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes is available from Titan Books, and via Amazon, now!

Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes is published today!

Huzzah! It's new book day!

George Mann's latest anthology of Sherlock Holmes' stories is out today. Entitled Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes, it contains my first published Sherlock Holmes short story, itself entitled Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of Bodmin.

The premise behind the anthology is that each story is told by one of Holmes' associates, in my case Sir Henry Baskerville, the poor put upon subject of the murder plot in The Hound of the Baskervilles (which is one of only four Sherlock Holmes novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).

The following is taken from the book and explains why I chose Sir Henry to be the narrator of my tale.

The Hound of the Baskervilles has long been my favourite Sherlock Holmes story, so it was only natural that I would choose that as my jumping off point. This time last year I was in Cornwall, and crossed Bodmin Moor, which is allegedly home to its own beast.

This year I am in Cornwall again and on the way down visited Lanhydrock House, which could easily pass for Baskerville Hall - or even Trelawny Hall from Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of Bodmin.

Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes is available from Titan Books, and via Amazon, now!

Steampunk Thursday: The Curse of the Baskervilles

Well the cat, as they say, is well and truly out of the bag now. Or should that be the dog is out of the bag?

In case you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about, here's the press release from Fringeworks:

Sherlock Holmes, the pipe-smoking, cocaine-taking detective whose adventures were faithfully recounted by his loyal companion Dr Watson, is undergoing something of a make-over. Just as the BBC reinvented him for a modern television audience, now Fringeworks will be reinventing him as a steampunk hero, bringing him to life in the first of an ongoing series of novels revisiting the original canon of Sherlock Holmes. Known as The Moriarty Paradigm, the series will be set in an alternate British Empire created by the genius of James Moriarty, time traveller.

The most famous of all Sherlock Holmes novels, The Hound of the Baskervilles, will be re-imagined as The Curse of the Baskervilles by Jonathan Green, the King of British Steampulp and creator of Abaddon’s Pax Britannia series and Her Majesty knows how many gamebooks. It will be published later in 2013.

You can read a brief interview with me on the Fringeworks blog.

Thought for the Day