Ahhh, Holmes

I've made no secret of the fact that I love Sherlock Holmes: some of the old TV shows, inspired-bys like House, the new BBC adaptation, and, obviously, the original stories. In fact, I'm obsessed with pretty much anything Holmesy, except for those hideous stains upon filmmaking (otherwise known as the Robert Downey Jr. movies: sorry, fans!)

So when The House of Silk came out, I was excited and very, very doubtful. Excited because, you know, it's a NEW Sherlock Holmes novel and I really like Anthony Horowitz. Doubtful because, deep down, I suspected it wouldn't be all that great.

I was wrong. It's awesome. 

I read an awful lot of YA, being a YA author and all that, but that doesn't mean I don't read and love plenty of adult fiction too, and I read and loved this. Seriously, it is hands down the best thing I've read in the last few months.

So, yeah. Go read The House of Silk.

Anyone read it already?

(Thanks for all the lovely comments on my German cover and reviews last week, everyone! And thank you to those of you who gave me book reccs: I have several more amazing-sounding books on my to-read pile now.)

Sherlock, Sherlock, Sherlock

I've always been somewhat addicted to Sherlock Holmes. The stories, I mean. The adaptations have been somewhat hit and miss. I like the TV series with Jeremy Brett, hate the Robert Downey Jr. movies with a passion, and love, love, love Sherlock, the new(ish) version with Benedict Cumberbatch. The second series just ended and I'm already suffering from serious withdrawal symptoms.

But I'm not here just to swoon over handsome detectives and profess undying love for Sir Arthur's original tales. No, I'm going to try and be useful for a change. 

Sherlock is awesome. It's also an example of great storytelling. Here's how I figure we can absorb the winning formulae-

Be funny. Sherlock may be the star, but John's exasperated expression and his doomed efforts to curb Sherlock's rudeness make for some of the best and funniest moments in the series. Everyone likes a laugh. No matter how grim or dark or tragic a story is, it needs some levity somewhere. You wouldn't call THE HUNGER GAMES light reading, but it has a few laugh-out-loud moments. We, as readers, need a respite. The odd funny line or outright dose of hilarity can turn a good book into a great one.

Make your protagonists loveable. No matter how rude, callous and cold Sherlock is, we love him anyway. Because he's clever. Because his characteristics make us laugh. Because underneath it all he so clearly cares about a few important people in his life. And John has his flaws, but he's steadfast and loyal and oddly sweet. By the time we've spent an hour and a half with them, we love them. 

There's no secret to creating a character every reader will love - and maybe that's not possible - but if you can make your readers love a character so much that he or she can make them laugh and cry, you're already on to a winner.

Be clever. This is hard. Even harder than being funny, because the only thing worse than a writer who is obviously trying and failing to be funny is a writer who is obviously trying and failing to be clever. The brilliance of Sherlock Holmes has been the character's selling point for a hundred years and Sherlock's detective is no different. But it's the cleverness in the actual storytelling that's truly brilliant. A good twist, surprise or neat puzzle can make a book sparkle.

Don't take it too seriously. I have no doubt Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have a blast every time they sit down to write an episode of Sherlock. Have fun. If you have fun writing it, people will have fun reading it.

And while you're at it, casting Benedict Cumberbatch won't hurt either.

Any other Sherlock fans out there?

And in come the predictable New Year's Resolutions that will probably be defunct in two weeks flat

 

...but I'd very much like it if I could stick by my resolutions this year! Unlike previous years, where I've done the usual 'go to the gym' (ha!) and 'stop biting nails' (double ha!) route, I've tried to be a bit more realistic about my goals for this year.

1. Be a better and more attentive daughter, friend, fiancee. As a writer, it's so easy to get lost in your book's world and to forget that sometimes people in the Real World need you a whole lot more. So, here's to a better balance and a little less of my work-frantically-then-collapse-in-exhaustion-burnt-out Sherlock Holmes Syndrome!

2. Write a completely new novel. Finish its first draft. Not an unachievable goal, considering I have a year.

3. Make WOVEN the best it can be. I'd bleeding well better too, considering my editor expects the finished revisions by June.

4. Stop comparing myself to other people, whether in terms of writing, book deals, or how much or little cellulite they have (damn you, Kate Moss with your perfect legs). I'm me. It's time to stop holding myself up to other people's standards.

5. Stop biting nails. Sigh.

6. Eat better. Oven chips are rapidly becoming my 'easy to make' food. Slippery slope, that. 

7. Get laptop fixed. It's had an overheating problem for months now, but it's survived. Last week, clearly overexcited with all that Christmas eating, it just turned itself off and refused to come back on, leaving me without a whole lot of stuff I need. I am now stuck using Steve's laptop for things like blogging, and Steve's laptop is on its last legs too. Alas.

How did everyone's Christmas and New Year go? Have you made any resolutions? Do you think you'll stick to them?

Holmes and Watson, Sherlock Holmes (Themed Week Day 4)

Okay, so I'm somewhat loosely playing with the idea of a love story here. No, I'm not going to start telling you how I think Sherlock Holmes and John Watson have a homoerotic relationship. But I am going to say that I think there are aspects of this friendship, and the way it's portrayed to us, that are more effective than many typical 'love' stories.

I've written a post about Holmes and Watson before, so this one will be rather short because I don't want to just go over every single I've said in the past. I just want to highlight some key details and talk about them, so that we as readers can appreciate them or try to work out why we appreciate/don't appreciate them. Also, so that we who are writers can see if we can apply the same principles and strategies to make our own character relationships as immortal.

 

First, another snapshot-

HOLMES

Watson, mate, we're going out.

WATSON

Ugh, Holmes, I'm trying to sleep. But okay.

HOLMES

Watson! The game's afoot!

WATSON

Yeah, I'm coming, would you just stop being so untidy and erratic already?

HOLMES

Watson! I'm busy with this Really Important Case, so could you head over to this Remote Part of the Country and meet with This Person in Distress and Observe Things For Me? (Of course, though I'm not going to tell you this, I'll probably be lurking there myself, in secret, and you'll suspect me for some time, only to realize it's really me! By which point I'll have solved the case! Hooray!)

WATSON

Yeah, why not?

If Watson had been a woman, I have no doubt there would be many an outcry today about his devotion to Holmes and Holmes's taking of Watson for granted. However, it must be noted that for all the hilarity in this formula, Watson doesn't just help Holmes for Holmes; he does it for him, yes, but also because he likes it himself. He likes the mystery, he likes the excitement, he likes being put in charge of things, even if it's Holmes who always finds the answers. He enjoys being the chronicler.

So lest anybody think Watson is Holmes's flunky, I have to point out that they need each other equally, and their relationship, for all its appearance, is one of relative equals.

Which, of course, is why it works so well and is still such an appealing relationship. Equals, whatever appearances suggest.

While Watson never refuses Holmes his help, whatever the unnatural hour, it's equally obvious that Holmes needs Watson; Watson is the only one he trusts and relies on. There's also a wonderful scene in the story of the three Garridebs, where Watson is shot and Holmes's reaction gives Watson - and the reader - all the satisfaction we need.

As I see it, and bear in mind this is just me, I think characters need to be equals for their relationship to really stick with us or mean something to us. Sure, the power's got to shift from one to the other in a story. This is for drama, for tension, for conflict. But ultimately they must be equals - in the reader's eyes, in other characters' eyes, in each other's eyes - for it to work. They must be worthy of each other for it to be a relationship or love story that a reader can get invested in.

Literary Relationships

Having (vaguely) fixed my dreadful and erratic sleeping pattern (I fell asleep last night before 5 AM for the first time in two weeks), I was up and about during the day and spent three hours in the afternoon packing boxes as part of a part-time job. Feel a little bit achy now.

So it was only about half an hour ago that I finally managed to get onto the laptop and do my usual Internetting. While running through my usual list of agency, publishing and other random blogs and websites, I came across this post by agent Jessica Faust on the BookEnds blog. I thought it was an incredible post, especially how touched she is by a dedication in a client's book. It made me think about relationships in the literary world, real-life and fictional, and about how wonderful and memorable these can be. Obviously, there are the great agent-author relationships (and oh, how I long for one of these...) and there are author-editor relationships and author-character relationships. The latter are probably the most fraught and complicated.

But there are also character-character relationships, and in the spirit of that theme, I'd like to point many fingers at the compelling, funny, touching and all-round amazing friendship between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. 

Right, seriously. Watson's devotion, loyalty and nagging must be celebrated. The man is not only patient, he's astonishing. Of course, while reading the stories, his exasperation, confusion and devotion regardless is obvious and funny. This relationship is the building block upon which other great fictional relationships have been based - notably the relationship between House and Wilson in House. I love House, not least for that relationship.

I think one of my favourite moments in the entire series (Holmes, that is, not House) is from 'The Three Garridebs'. Watson is shot in the course of catching a criminal, and Holmes's reaction, viewed through Watson's eyes, really reminds the reader that the good doctor's devoted friendship is not by any means one-sided: It was worth a wound, Watson/Conan Doyle writes, to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. A furious Holmes then informs the criminal that if he had killed Watson, Holmes would have killed him. Aw.

*feels a surge of nostalgia coming on, and glances at the massive Sherlock Holmes volume on the shelf* Erm, yes. So, where was I?

I really can't recommend the stories highly enough. But, for now, this post is my small tribute to one of my favourite fictional literary relationships of all time.

I'm a sucker for Greek gods

I've managed, by and large, to recover from my sleepless night. I caught a few hours in the late morning and am now looking forward to an early night. 

Have just been into town with Lindsey, where we dropped into a bar for a drink or two. Minor hitch in this plan: apparently, I managed to walk all over Asda, town and the bar with a hairband stuck to my back (well, below my back actually) and only realized it was there when a group of older men with tankards of beer decided to ask me if it was deliberate. My face went so hot you could have scrambled eggs on me.

Steve's started a blog, and has a few posts up already. It's focused on sport and his opinion of current sport news and updates, so if you like that kind of thing, do see him. He manages to make it sound interesting to me, which is a feat, because I'm very un-sport-y. So I reckon someone who likes that stuff would love it.


I've decided to attempt an experiment in writing Half. There are certain things I absolutely love, and I've decided to include them all in the novel, and see if they work together. If I could read my ideal book, it would have all of these things, so I thought: why not write something with all these things I love? Can I make it work, even if they seem incompatible?

So into my slightly dystopian premise, I'm planning to infuse:

• Sherlock Holmes
• Greek mythology
• Clothes/shoes
• Slightly Victorian language
• A sexy love interest and an electrifying romance
• A man who growls. I love men who growl. See my previous mention of my love for Kevin McKidd. He growls, in a nice way.

I've loved Sherlock Holmes and Greek mythology ever since I discovered them, separately, as a child. I've never been able to really use that love in my writing yet. Obviously, the book will not at any point be about any of that list. It will just include them. Can it work? I suppose we'll have to wait and see...

Ruminations

Today I thought I'd briefly ponder something I just read on Twitter, tweeted by author extraordinaire Neil Gaiman:

Great meeting with Moffat & co. Spent 10 mins on how to rewrite the script for next series, 30 on fantasy casting. Ace new title sequence.

Perhaps I'm dense and uninformed for not knowing this already, or not being sure, but does this perhaps refer to Steven Moffat of Doctor Who writing fame? Is Neil Gaiman, one of my favourite writers, writing Doctor Who episodes for the new/next series? From some general Twitter stalk-age, I gather (but please don't take this as fact) that he is writing episodes and that it might well be for the series starting this weekend, with the new Doctor. 

This is kind of exciting if it's true. Between Steven Moffat, who wrote the amazing 'Blink' Doctor Who episode among others, and the other writers, and Neil Gaiman, I think the new series could be fantastically written.

I love David Tennant's Doctor. I'm going to miss him grievously. However, I'm willing to give Matt Smith a chance. I loved him in the BBC Sally Lockhart adaptations.

Now what are the odds that we can get Neil to write episodes for a new, compulsively faithful adaptation of Sherlock Holmes?

It really never rains, it...

A veritable heap of writing-related and like updates today. First, a note on this blog and blogging in general. I'm amazed by how much I enjoy doing it! It's really grown on me, and posting once a day (or more often) has been easy so far. Of course, there will be exceptionally busy days and days when I'm away, but it's been fantastic, and a big thank you to the small handful of people who have been reading my posts so far!

I've been meaning to write this post for the last two hours, but was repeatedly delayed by a number of extraordinary and bewildering factors: checking various accounts, reading other blogs, explaining to my mother how to comment on a blog (she worked it out eventually, as evidenced in my previous post), three different conversations on Facebook, a Twitter update, writing an article on a website... and, at last. I managed to work my way back here. My head reels. I kid you not, it spins and boggles and does peculiar things to my eyes. I glimpse worrying signs of crow's feet and forehead wrinkles, borne of the hours I spend frowning at the screen as a multitude of tasks continue to boggle my brain.

But let's steer away from my encroaching age and move on to the meat of the post, which I am rather excited about...

It's amazing how I can have dry spells for weeks, where I won't be able to write anything except what I have to (read: essays, dissertation chapters, portfolio self-reflections and other painful necessities), and then, out of the blue, I'll find myself with not one, or two, but three things to write. 

1. This blog, of course, which readers will have known about already. While the elite may not count this as writing, I think it's very useful. It keeps me practicing, and it forces me to (try to) be interesting, scintillating, honest, witty, and more, all of which are key to writing novels. It also inspires me with ideas.

2. A website called HubPages.com, where people write up articles about just about any subject they can think of or find interesting. It's a little bit like blogging, only it involves being a lot more detailed, clear-cut and academic, in a sense. There's less freedom, obviously, than blogging, but it's a place where people go to find information about certain things and that's useful. I've just written my first article, which was, of course, about Sherlock Holmes and I hope anyone who likes the subject will go have a look. 

I realize I haven't mentioned Sherlock Holmes on this blog yet, which is a travesty considering my love of it. I am obsessed, addicted and thoroughly enamoured of the stories, the characters and the Holmes/Watson dynamic. Occasionally, I'll re-watch episodes of House just because the House/Wilson dynamic is so deliberately intended to echo Holmes and Watson. My ultimate quest is to one day write a detailed guide to the stories and the world created by Arthur Conan Doyle. What fun. One day. When I'm not a student, when I don't have a dissertation scowling at me, when I have that imaginary thing known as Lots of Free Time.

Anyway, I've started up on HubPages, and will hopefully enjoy writing articles and reading them as and when I feel like it. Sometimes, I think I deliberately add things to my plate just to distract me from the fact that Steve isn't here much.

3. And the third and, to me, the most exciting thing I'm writing: a new project! I began writing it on Friday and although I've only written about a page and a half so far, I'm very excited about it. It's not technically a new project, because it's sort of been in the works and stewing in my head for months now. But with ECHOES pretty much done, dusted and its sequels temporarily shelved during my quest for its publication, this is the first time I've really started a new project with the intent of plunging into it full-tilt.

It's tentatively called HALF at the moment, the title inspired by the enormously significant fact that the two protagonists are half siblings. I'd classify the novel as fantasy or science fiction, but it really only deserves these tags because it takes place in a dystopian future where Britain is ruled by the Lifeblood, a Nazi-like government that believes all people of colour and disability have no place in Britain. The novel is narrated by Seira, a half-Indian girl who struggles to survive in this world, builds fragile relationships and, ultimately, fights back. Key characters will also include Kenneth, Seira's half-brother; Isabella, niece of the Lifeblood's Prime Minister; and Remy, a poet and secret revolutionary.

Of course, all of this is subject to change, because I'm still in the early, first draft stage, but it's exciting to jump in and see where this goes.

Finally, a few other small writing-related updates. First, most people will remember my post where I talked about putting some of ECHOES online on WEBook. A few hours after that post, I put a page of the novel up for WEBook's PageToFame contest, where readers rate the first page of a story and vote whether or not to send it through to the next round. Although I had to pay a few quid, I thought it was a useful way to find out whether or not ECHOES (first page or more) is popular with anonymous readers. My first ratings on that first page were posted for me today. 

*drumroll*... 

...It turns out that, so far, 60% of readers want my submission elevated to the next round! Of course, in the interest of being scrupulously honest, I ought to add that 20% think my first page was 'not great'. Still, first pages can be polished and reworked, and I think the first statistic is pretty exciting! Will let people know how this goes. 

On a different note, an update re. queries to agents. Of the ten I have now written to, only two have replied as yet. One was, as I mentioned before, a request for a partial followed by a rejection. The other response, received this week, was a rejection of the query. It stings, but the great thing about writing and being excited about HALF is that it keeps me optimistic and stops me from letting every rejection depress me for days.

And wouldn't you know it? I had at least one other update to post, but it has been swept clean out of my head. I really and truly can't remember! Such is my absent-minded brain. Ah well. I'll post again when or if I remember. Until then, I'll sign off with an apology for how long this post has been and with the hope that everyone has had a lovely weekend!