Good morning, my lovelies! Welcome to to another Teaser Tuesday featuring the authors of An Improbable Truth: The Paranormal Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Today’s victim is Adrian Croft, some of our fresh blood and author of Time’s Running Out, Watson. Take a look…before time runs out!
THE IMPROBABLE AUTHORS: ADRIAN CROFT
1. What drew you to submit to this particular anthology?
I really wasn’t planning on submitting to ANY anthologies. I had a longer piece of work that had huge amounts of editing and brutal love to get it into reasonable shape. Which isn’t the funnest part of writing and quite possibly why I was so excited to take a break and write a short story for something that got me excited: seeing a fantasy-themed Sherlock Holmes submission call. It really caught my attention. I love the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories, which I’d read a couple of times in my life (although I’m not necessarily an expert on their contents) and I’d just finished binge-watching the BBC’s version on Netflix. Oooh, I thought. That would be so much fun!
Interestingly, I found that flipping through a few pages of the original books on my Kindle as I was writing would allow me to keep some of the “voice” of Watson fresh in my mind. The writing is slightly formal, even though it’s sharp and concise. I enjoyed working in it, as it gave a very “Sherlock” feel to the story.
All in all, it was great fun, and I hope everyone enjoys the final product!
2. Tell us a little about your story.
I love writing fantasy pieces and I also wanted to introduce a mystery into my story, in the traditional Holmes and Watson fashion, that they could then discuss (with Holmes imparting his insights to Watson, as is often the case). It struck me that a cool mystery to solve would be one where a thief abused a time-changing device, to go faster than the eye could follow. And of course, facing off with the architect of any such device would surely stretch even Sherlock Holmes’ talents! He he. The rest just unrolled from there…
3. Who’s your favorite Sherlock?
I enjoy all the variations of Sherlock that I’ve seen, in one fashion or another. Can I cheat and say the original, in the written word? Because, as we all know, if you read a book before a movie ever comes out, you form your own mental image of the character which no actor will ever quite match, no matter their talents. And I think the heart of this enduring story’s appeal is exactly that: the character that was painted on those pages…
But if you really pushed me, I’d say Benedict Cumberbatch. Because his image is nothing like I’d pictured it and yet he does it so well…
4. What else (if anything) have you written?
This is my first published piece, but I’ve written a few things, hopefully improving as I’ve gone along. I’ve written three pieces of novel length work, one of which I’m now trying to go back and improve (the second one). The first was a middle grade humorous novel about a brilliant but frustrated small town boy who advertises himself as a Mastermind for Hire, and the complications that ensue when criminals track him down to take him up on his offer. The second (the one I’m rewriting, very very slowly) is an adult fantasy novel about a one-time gunfighter and fledgling detective who lives in a magical city that jumps through time and place, and his battle with the Earth gods who want to steal his most recent client. (Can I say that one struggle I had with this story was finding a concise one-liner to describe it? J ) And most recently I wrote a young adult fantasy about a boy and his brother who train in magic and secretly plot the murder of their Emperor, in revenge for the assassination of their mother.
To reiterate, all three of those were great to write and could use some extra editing now that I have buffed up my writing skills slightly (hopefully). But maybe one day, people will see a version of these that make it out into the public!
And beside that, I have a ton of other new and cool ideas. J Mostly fantasy related. You might see some of those too!
5. Where can we find you online?
You can find me musing about writing techniques, fantasy writing, and my writing journey at www.adriancross.ca. Hope to see you there!
THE IMPROBABLE TRUTH: TIME’S RUNNING OUT, WATSON
The papers appeared filled with dense curling script, from edge to edge, except where mechanical diagrams were detailed with exact care, some figures so small that I could barely make them out in the dim light. Along the top border was printed: ‘Seven Cycle Temporal Centrifuge’. The rest of the words might as well have been ancient Macedonian, for all they meant to me.
Baffled, I gave them back. “What are they?”
Holmes let them drop. “Clues, Watson. These were found in Mr. White’s rooms.”
I frowned at him. “But a clue to what? What do they mean?”
He looked pleased with himself. “Oh no, I cannot show my hand now. I am expecting a visitor. Do you have your pistol?”
“Do you expect to be in danger?”
“Very much so,” he said cheerfully. “I expect the Engineer to try and kill me this very night. Would you like to leave?”
I drew my pistol. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Splendid Watson. Come then, let us wait together.”…