Some time ago I re-read my volume of the collected Sherlock Holmes short stories. Around the same time I received a fanzine on that subject and the two things, along with one or two other items promptly set off the sort of chain reaction that such events can in the writer’s subconscious. Over the next three week I wrote like crazy, 14 new Sherlock Holmes short stories, (84,000+ words)Â based on the idea that one of the reasons for his success was that people he’d helped, and the friends and family members they’d recommended apply to him, added repeat business. I had huge fun writing the tales, keeping to the original language, background, and fitting new stories in that framework. I didn’t want to modernize the works, I wanted the feeling of the originals, and I believed that I’d caught that.
Two of the stories appeared this year in THE GREAT DETECTIVE: HIS FURTHER ADVENTURES, an anthology from Gryphon Press in the USA. And that produced interest from a different quarter. Last month I was offered a contract for the collection by a different publisher. I’ve accepted, signed, and the contracts are on their way back by post – so, unless things go belly up over a clause I’d like added to cover both parties, REPEAT BUSINESS, is the first book sale of 2013. There is a suggestion that it may be offered to Large Print markets in the UK too. Not as a single collection, but as a duo since they prefer a lower word count. So, as soon as the signed contracts reach their destination and I know the publisher agrees with my clause, I’ll be able to announce who that is and possibly a publication shedule as well. This will be the first of two mystery short story collections contracted to appear in the next 2-4 years, and I’m looking forward to both.