Tip the Wink

The weather turned, and it’s been very windy and we’ve had rain, which is welcome. In addition to helping put out the still-burning wildfires, it’s refreshing, Autumnal, and helps with drought.

Reading: I had been reading Grant by Ron Chernow, the 1,100 + page biography. I got to about page 400 (I’m reading the ebook version, and it has those funny location numbers instead of page numbers), at which point the Civil War is technically over, with all armies of the South surrendering, and Grant in Washington demoing the Army and dealing with, and avoiding if possible the politics, as Andrew Johnson has become President following the assassination of Lincoln.

But that was enough for a while. I’ll get back to it later, but for now I needed a break.

So, I read Rufus King’s The Constant God (review forthcoming) and a few short stories. Some of those will appear in posts I do for Patti Abbott’s Short Story Wednesday.

Music: I’ve been listening to CDs, specifically the music of Sir Arnold Bax. Here’s a sample, if you’re interested.

Pongo: Growing like the proverbial weed, he’s up to 8 pounds (!) and getting big. Just the other day he was a little kitten. Here’s a picture.

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part XII: Some Untold Cases (1894-1902 edited by David Marcum, MX Publishing, 2018 trade paper, mystery, Holmes pastiche anthology.

This, and the volume preceding it, collect 33 of the many “untold tales” from the Holmes canon. I picked this one off the shelf for something to read when in the dumps about politics, Covid and wildfire smoke, and as hoped it pulled me, slowly, out of the deepest of my doldrums.

Here’s a nice summary from Goodreads:

“Part XII: 1894-1902 features contributions from C.H. Dye, David Marcum, Thomas Fortenberry, Daniel D. Victor, Nik Morton, Craig Janacek, S. Subramanian, Jim French, Robert Stapleton, Nick Cardillo, Paul D. Gilbert, Mike Hogan, Derrick Belanger, John Linwood Grant, Mark Mower, Jane Rubino, and Arthur Hall, and a poem by “Anon.”

34 new traditional Holmes adventures in two simultaneously published volumes (Parts XI and XII)

“Somewhere in the vaults of the bank of Cox and Co., at Charing Cross, there is a travel-worn and battered tin dispatch box with my name, John H. Watson, M.D., Late Indian Army, painted upon the lid. It is crammed with papers, nearly all of which are records of cases to illustrate the curious problems which Mr. Sherlock Holmes had at various times to examine…” – Dr. John H. Watson

So wrote Dr. Watson in “The Problem of Thor Bridge” – and ever since, Sherlockians have been bringing us new adventures from this legendary tin dispatch box. While his original Literary Agent only edited the pitifully few sixty stories that make up the original Canon, there have since been literally thousands of traditional adventures about the true Sherlock Holmes – and there will never be enough!

Throughout the original Holmes Canon, there were hints and teases of other intriguing cases – The Giant Rat of Sumatra… The Abernetty Tragedy… The Manor House Case. Watson mentions well over one-hundred of these, which have collectively come to be known as The Untold Cases. Now, the latest MX anthologies present thirty-four of those adventures in two simultaneously published volumes, with all royalties going to support the Stepping Stones School at Undershaw, one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former homes.

Join us as we return to Baker Street and discover more authentic adventures of Sherlock Holmes, described by the estimable Dr. Watson as “the best and wisest… whom I have ever known.”

Each volume contains forwards by Lyndsay Faye, Roger Johnson, Melissa Grigsby, Steve Emecz, and David Marcum.”

I know Holmes pastiches aren’t for everyone, but these are good ones and I like them.