The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Author Interview – Steven Philip Jones

Throughout the Kickstarter campaign, we will be adding brief interviews highlighting the talented authors who have contributed to the anthology. Today we have the excellent Steven Philip Jones.

How did you first get introduced to Sherlock Holmes?

I honestly can’t remember a time when Sherlock Holmes was not one of my favorite fictional characters.  Holmes has become such an intrinsic part of Western society – you hear of him everyone, to paraphrase Mycroft – I imagine I learned about him that way and was just naturally drawn to him.

What was the inspiration for your pastiche?

“The Case for Which the World is Not Yet Prepared” is one of a series of Holmes stories set during the Great Hiatus that I have been wanting to write for a number of years.  Even though there are plenty of Great Hiatus stories, the period seems like a no-man’s land to me.  If I write a pastiche set during any other period of Holmes’s career I am very cautious about how my story fits within the confines of the Canon.  Writing those stories is a little like how Bruce Dern describes acting in an Alfred Hitchcock film: you are relegated to a very small space in which you have incredible freedom to perform just so long as you do not stray outside that space.  When it comes the Great Hiatus, however, my only limitations are the comments Holmes makes in “The Adventure of the Empty House” about his time away that I must be adhere to.  It is very liberating.

What is your story about? Where and when does it take place? 

The story is set in 1920 after “His Last Bow.”  Holmes and Watson have not seen much of each other since the end of The Great War, and circumstances arise where the men have the opportunity to exchange information on separate cases they worked on at the behest of Mycroft Holmes during The Great Hiatus.  During the discussion they uncover that the cases were actually very much related in a way that had a tremendous effect on world events at the time.

What do you believe readers will most enjoy most about your tale? 

Hopefully they will enjoy the adventures presented in the tale and find them to be at least somewhat imaginative.

Which is your favourite story from The Canon and why?

The Hound of the Baskervilles. I am a nut for Gothic literature and Hound is not only one of the best Holmes stories but also one of the great Gothic novels.

Your favourite Sherlock Holmes-related place?

I have never thought about that.  221B Baker Street, I suppose, but if I must choose some place that actually exists I would have to say the Devonshire moors.

Tell us three things about yourself that few people would guess?

I am not sure why anyone would want to guess anything about me, but:

1)      I love antique cars,

2)      I love the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky,

3)      I have always wanted to be a writer, but when I was growing up I also wanted to become an astronomer or a stand-up comic.

Any upcoming projects?

My newest book is Lovecraftian: The Shipwright Circle.  It is the first in a series of Lovecraftian novels that re-imagine H. P. Lovecraft’s weird tales into one epic story.  It is available through my website (www.stevenphilipjones.com), my Amazon author page, and from the publisher Caliber Comics (http://www.calibercomics.com/).

Click here for more details on the Kickstarter campaign.