SOME SAY HE NEVER LIVED-I BEG TO DIFFER

What actually happened at the Reichenbach.

"The three most memorable people in the last hundred years are Churchill, Hitler, and Sherlock Holmes."- Alistair Cooke to Jeremy Brett.
        Once a muse tarried in Southsea, London, Plymouth, Norwood, and Surrey. He inspired 60 stories over a century and a third ago. Sherlock Holmes didn't rest during the decade his author waited to write the next story, he inspired an actor who played him on stage and on film for 30 years, and created the first devoted, vocal, and organized literary fan base.
        This wondrous muse didn't stop there, he has since worked with thousands of actors, scribes, and filmmakers in the intervening years. At times adopting an alias to take him through dangerous waters and steer clear of mined copyright bays. He is a tenacious and seductive fellow, once engaged impossible to walk away from. I know many of you know him well.
        Like Dr. Watson, I gratefully invite this muse into my life every day, sometimes he wakes me early, "Come, the game is afoot!" And runs me here, to key in the dialogue he is spouting in my head. He is a worthy friend and gentleman with a keen sense of justice. Some say he never lived, I beg to differ. As a muse, he has lived over many lifetimes and inspired many, many writers and artists over so many generations. He leads us on with the excitement of the chase and the joy of the adventure.
        Drawn to create from reality and imagination, my muse habitually invites me to leap the cliff and trust in the wings of my intuition. Like Watson, I am usually found scribbling on the run to catch up with him. And like Watson, I am an author who writes Sherlock Holmes' stories to set the record straight and bring a little justice into the world.
        I play the Game. Like most Sherlockians and Holmesians, there are two histories I live by the history of Victorian/Edwardian times, and the one created in the Sherlock Holmes stories referred to as the canon. And that begins with: "Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson MD, late of the Army Medical Department" (STUD). We tend to take Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's word that Watson wrote the stories and refer to Doyle as Watson's literary agent. I'd find this disconcerting if it were me, but we Sherlockians and Holmesians are still a bit touchy about the waterfall.
        A mystery writer has to decide whether they will bring more darkness or light into the world. Holmes said to Watson, "Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell" (COPP). There are many, many types of darkness, I choose to define it and light the lantern my hero uses to determine the way in and the way out.
       "I could not wish anything better than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular adventures which were the normal condition of his existence" (TWIS). I thank a just providence for this most spectacular muse.

       I have worked in journalism, advertising, PR, art, theater, and television. I am a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, the John H. Watson Society, and the artist collective, the Dumpster Divers of Philadelphia. My first novel, Sherlock Holmes: These Scattered Houses was published by MX Publishing, London.