MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Volumes XL to XLII - Editor Interview - David Marcum

Today we talk to David Marcum the editor of the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes series who also has some stories in these volumes. The series is currently on Kickstarter as part of the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories XL to XLII campaign.

What’s the name of your story in the collection?

I have three stories, one for each volume:

• Part XL: “The Laodiciean Letters”
• Part XLI: “A Dreadful Record of Sin”
• Part XLII: “The Tracking and Arrest of a Cold-Blooded Scoundrel”

Where did you first discover Holmes?

I was aware of the idea of Holmes from a young age, but I first paid attention to him in 1975, when I was ten years old. I saw part of a rerun of A Study in Terror (1965) on Saturday afternoon television, remembered that I had a truncated eight-story copy of The Adventures, and started reading it, and never looked back. Since then, I’ve collected over 4,000 Holmes volumes, including most of the traditional Canonical pastiches that have been written – but there are never enough of those!

Do you write on any other subjects?

I’m a civil engineer, so I write various reports and memos, but in terms of “fun” writing (although it’s definitely a labor of love), I mostly spend time on Holmes and Solar Pons pastiches and essays, and also the occasional essay or blog entry about other “book friends” like Nero Wolfe, Ellery Queen, Hercule Poirot, etc.

Around thirty years ago, I sat down and learned to write by producing a massive 600+ page Ludlum-esque novel, Civil Servants. This was back when I was a U.S. Federal Investigator for an obscure agency that has since vanished, and the plot is a lot like what I saw every day, but if the Russians had gone desperately full-scale end-of-the-Cold War aggressive. This was in the days of typewriters and paper, and it taught me a lot about plotting and keeping one’s butt in the chair and doing the actual work – and it still remains unpublished, contained in my old government briefcase underneath my bed.

I also have a partial first-person private eye-type novel set around where I live, but it remains unfinished due to lack of time – and also the constant struggle to stop that character from sounding like Watson!

Where can fans find more about your work?

I’ve written a number of my own books which contain most of my published work – over 110 Holmes pastiches and 30 Solar Pons adventures. I’ve also edited around 80 books – many of them Holmes anthologies with over 1,000 new Holmes stories – for MX Publishing and Belanger Books, all of which can be found on the publishers’ websites or on Amazon, and at many other fine booksellers:

David Marcum on Amazon

My blog, A Seventeen Step Program, often contains essays that are too long to be published in journals. It also needs to be updated to include some of my journal-published essays – when I can find a few minutes to spare.