The Sherlockian Interview - Steven Philip Jones

The final four volumes (49-52) of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories are now on Kickstarter (click here). Every day we will be featuring one of the authors in the collection. Today its Steven Philip Jones.

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

“The Adventure of the Cheapside Secret”

How did the story come about?

I was doing some internet research for another story about a year ago when I stumbled across the Cheapside Hoard.  I’d never heard of it before. Never knew anything like it had ever been uncovered in London. I am big Dirk Pitt fan – please oh please see my book The Clive Cussler Adventures – and this was like something straight out of a Pitt story.

At the time I’d had three Sherlock Holmes scripts produced by the Jim French’s Imagination Theatre radio program, so I asked if they thought a Holmes adventure involving the Cheapside Hoard would be something they might be interested in. They weren’t sure how I could make it work, but if I wanted to write it up, they would consider it. In the end, they accepted it.

Shortly after “Cheapside” was broadcast, David Marcum emailed to ask me if I wanted to submit a story for the final New Sherlock Holmes Stories. Yes, I did, but I didn’t have time to come up with an idea, develop it into a mystery, then write a brand-new story. However, I’d adapted some of my Holmes radio scripts into short stories for New Sherlock Holmes Stories before, and an adaptation of “Cheapside Secret” seemed like a nice way to go out. Especially since Imagination Theatre had pruned and made some changes to my script, all of which made it better; but there were a couple of character changes and one or two plot items that were deleted that I missed. Here was my opportunity to resurrect them, so long as they worked within the confines of a short story.  I guess David thought they did, because here we are.

Do you write on any other subjects?

I’m a genre writer and I’ ain’t picky what  genre I write.  I’ve written mysteries, adventures, Middle Grade, westerns, and horror.  I’m also not picky about media. I’ve written novels, short stories, nonfiction, screenplays, and audio scripts. Actually I’ll write anything that I think I can sell. For what it’s worth, I’ve written and edited almost as much H P Lovecraft material as I’ve written or adapted Holmes stories, but for some reason I’m often referred to as “The Lovecraft Guy.”

Where can fans find more about your work? 

There’s my website: http://stevenphilipjones.com/

My Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.com › Steven-Philip-Jones

You can catch me on Twitter or X:  @StevenPhilipJo1

And I’m on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-jones-739b6710/