500 not out for Requiem

Just a quick note to say that Requiem for Sherlock Holmes notched up 500 sales today (which is an amazing achievement for a self-published book). My heartfelt thanks to anyone who has bought a copy, and if you haven't got yours yet you can follow the link above to help us on our slow push into four figures.

Have a Sherlockian Christmas This Year (Thanks to Lulu.com)

Christmas is nearly upon us so perhaps this is a good time for a little bit of self promotion. Here are some gift ideas courtesy of my publisher, Hidden Tiger (be sure to check the bottom of the post for details on a great discount).

REQUIEM FOR SHERLOCK HOLMES

Sherlock Holmes returns in five enthralling cases. Written in an authentic style, each tale adds new layers to the legend of the great detective.

The Collection opens with the Novella:

When Holmes' father is arrested for the murder of a servant, Sherlock is called in by his brother Mycroft to prove their father's innocence and clear the family name. Holmes reluctantly agrees to help, but the fractious relationship between father and son makes the case doubly a challenge. Will they be able to put aside age-old hostilities and find the true culprit before the accused has his date with the gallows? After decades of forced absence, Holmes returns to his childhood home, in the process unlocking long-repressed feelings which force him to confront his troubled past and threaten to expose his darkest secrets. 

The Collection also contains four Short Stories:

The descendant of a celebrated explorer calls at Baker Street with a curious tale. The late explorer's coffin, interred in the family mausoleum, has been broken into and Holmes, intrigued by the man's story, believes that there may be more to the incident than first meets the eye.

     

Holmes pits his wits against a sadistic killer, a man who had evaded the detective's clutches some years previous. When the killings resume, Holmes must identify the murderer and apprehend him before he strikes again.

Holmes and Watson travel to Paris in pursuit of a dangerous foe, but they soon find that a far greater enemy is lying in wait for them, eager for revenge.

Strange unseen forces are in play when Dr. Watson takes up an offer from overseas. The resulting sea journey brings about an encounter that takes him back to the gaslit streets of London and could solve the most fabled of mysteries.

Requiem for Sherlock Holmes is available in Hardback, Paperback and Kindle editions.

THE THEATRICAL SHERLOCK HOLMES

Sherlock Holmes takes to the stage in four entertaining playscripts written between 1898 and 1921 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William Gillette.
 

Even though Sherlock Holmes had fallen to his supposed death at the culmination of The Final Problem in December 1893, it proved very difficult to keep the great detective down as this collection of theatrical playscripts proves. As the nineteenth century was nearing its end, Sherlock Holmes made his first official stage appearance and that legendary script is presented here along with three others: 

* Written by William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
** Attributed to William Gillette
*** Written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Theatrical Sherlock Holmes is available in Hardback, Paperback and various electronic editions.

MYSTERIES AND ADVENTURES

The first collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works ever published, faithfully reproduced and augmented. 

Originally published in Great Britain in 1890 by the Walter Scott Company, Mysteries and Adventures collected together seven of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's earliest fictional works. Three years later, two international editions were issued and these featured five additional stories. Conan Doyle was not to profit from any of these ventures as, in order to have the stories carried by popular journals of the day, he had signed over all rights to their owners. Prior to their appearance in book form, several had been printed without credit and were not commonly known to be the work of Conan Doyle.

The narratives in Mysteries and Adventures dance confidently across the genres, touching upon colonial life, political upheaval, the supernatural, romance and the furrow he would later plough to great acclaim, crime.

These twelve entertaining tales plot Doyle's development from budding young writer to the great author that he quickly became.

Mysteries and Adventures is available in Hardback, Paperback and various electronic editions.

Lulu.com are offering 25% off on any hardback or paperback orders made before the 25th of December. Just use promotional code KTP4 at the checkout to receive your discount.

Always Judge a Book by Its Cover

I'm pleased to announce that the cover design for Requiem for Sherlock Holmes has just been awarded a semi-final place in the 2014 Authorsdb Book Cover Contest. Of course the plaudits should go to the cover's designer, namely my brother, Alan Hayes. My brother and I are ecstatic that our cover has reached this far in the contest, as there were some very strong entries in our catergory.

Sparklers at the Ready

Remember, remember! The fifth of November,

the Gunpowder treason and plot;

I know of no reason

why the gunpowder treason

should ever be forgot!

Wishing everyone a happy (and safe) bonfire night.
Also, if you are lighting a bonfire, take heed of the sage advice below.

Seeing The Hound in a New Light

Something really nice popped through my letterbox this week. It wasn't a bill, nor a scary brown envelope from the tax office, thankfully it was the Blu-ray version of Hammer Film's 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.

Perfect Halloween viewing (pumpkins not included)

Released as a dual DVD / Blu-ray combo by Shock Entertainment, the DVD is coded to Region 4 and the Blu-ray to Region B. I can't play the DVD version to compare the quality (as I can only play R2 discs) but the Blu-ray version looks amazing.

I'm used to poor prints with washed out colours when it comes to watching Hammer films (admittedly this is my first Hammer Blu-ray), so it was a real surprise to see how good it looked. In fact, the film transfer was so good I could barely believe that the film I was watching was over fifty years old. The only downside on the release is the lack of extras. There is a nice featurette on Hammer stalwart (and Dr. Watson in the film), Andre Morell, but a 'making of' or a commentary wouldn't have gone amiss.

Now, I can't see any point in writing a review of the film, as we've all seen it by now (and if you haven't, you need to rectify this at once). I for one love the Hammer version, and rate it as the best adaptation of ACD's most famous story (as much as I love Jeremy Brett's Holmes, I have to admit that his Hound falls short when compared to Cushing's 1959 effort).

Cushing, Morell and Lee in fine form and in high definition - what more can you ask for?

The Cushing finger in full effect

A Book Fit For a Queen

This month sees the publication of one of Conan Doyle's lesser known Holmes stories, namely 'How Watson Learned the Trick'. The story has of course found its way into print previously (albeit rarely), but this is the very first time it has been released in its original format: a book measuring as little as 38.5mm by 30mm.
The short piece (a shade over 500 words) was written specifically for its inclusion in Queen Mary's Dolls House.

Queen Mary's Dolls House, is as the name suggests, a dolls

Master craftsmen hard at work

house that was built for (yes, you've guessed it) Queen Mary. However, the doll's house is nothing like one you would find in your local toy shop.

Built over a three year period, and completed in 1924, it stands at a staggering five feet tall and over eight feet wide. With a scale of 1:12 (one inch representing one foot), the House and its contents definitely brings the term 'grandiose' to a whole new level.

The doll's house is now owned by Queen Mary's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II and it is on permanent display at Windsor Castle. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyen, a greatly respected British architect in his day. Today he is probably best remember for his design for The Cenotaph, which sits in Whitehall, London. Over a thousand people were involved in aspects of the build in some way or another (be they craftsmen, artists or writers) and the end result of their toils was a fully functioning four-storey Palladian Villa, with
forty rooms, complete with electricity, two working lifts,

Queen Mary (1867-1953)

running water (including flushable toilets), a garage with space for
five working cars, including  a 1923 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (donated
by Rolls-Royce) and a wine cellar armed with 200 bottles of Chateau
Lafitte 1875 and five dozen bottles of Veueve Cliquot (not to mention a strongroom which held miniature replicas of the Crown Jewels).
However, as impressive as this all is, it is of course the library that
attracts the Sherlockian in me.

The greatest authors of the day were asked to asked to contribute to the project and those that obliged included Conan Doyle, M.R. James,
Thomas Hardy, A.A. Milne, Rudyard Kipling,
W. Somerset Maugham and J.M. Barrie (George Bernard Shaw famously rebuffed the invitation).

If you haven't read the story before, it is well worth a view (although you might have to borrow Holmes' magnifying glass to read this version). 

'How Watson Learned the Trick' is published by Walker Books and can be purchased via their website or on Amazon.

Every library should have a Sherlock Holmes book (even a tiny one)

A Miraculous Find, Watson

Startling news! A print of the 1916 film, 'Sherlock Holmes', considered lost for close to a hundred years has recently surfaced in France.
The print was discovered in the archives of the French Cinémathèque and is currently in the process of being restored.

The film, which was produced by Essanay Studios starred the legendary Sherlock Holmes actor William Gillette in the title role and was an adaptation of his earlier stage-play 'Sherlock Holmes: A Drama in Four Acts'. Gillette was 'Sherlock Holmes' to a entire generation, but barring a handful of photographs, little of his work survived - until now.

Two premieres have been scheduled for the restored print. The first being at Cinémathèque Française's Festival of Film Restoration in January 2015, whilst the American premiere will take place at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in May 2015. Barring a lucky few, we lesser mortals will have to wait for its eventual release on DVD or Blu-ray, which will undoubtedly occur some time afterwards. I know the summer of 2015 seems an age away for something that we are all dying to see, but having waited for 98 years another year won't harm us.