So, are you interested in submitting a story to a new anthology? And will it be extraordinarily exciting, devilishly clever, cunningly mysterious, and have Sherlock Holmes teaming up with one or more occult detectives? Then read on, for today we have the serious details on pitches, pay and plans. And supernatural fiction historian (and writer) Tim Prasil calls by to suggest a few characters.

As we said in our last article, John Linwood Grant is editing the Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives anthology for Belanger Books. JLG is the author of both Holmes stories and occult detective stories – even the two at once occasionally, as part of his ‘Tales of the Last Edwardian’ series. And as a harassed writer, he also knows that what you really want to hear right now is How Long, How Much, and When. Let’s get those out of the way before we explain exactly what’s required.

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Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives

Belanger Books

Core concept: A 5,000 – 10,000 word traditional Sherlock Holmes and occult detective “team up” story.

Payment: Authors shall receive a payment of $50 plus a percentage of the Kickstarter project profits (expected minimum payment of $100), and a paperback copy of the anthology.

Rights: Authors shall retain rights to their work. We only retain the rights to the story within the publication.

Pitch Deadline: March 15, 2019

Submission Deadline: July 15, 2019

Note: Kickstarter will run in November 2019 and publication of book will occur in December 2019.

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What We Want

This bit is detailed, not because it’s a terribly complex idea, but because it all increases the chances of us taking your story. And it has a few hints. The more in tune with us you are, the more we’ll wag our tails when we read your submission. If you’re confident that you’ve already grasped the concept, or you’re an experienced writer, you might decide to use it just to double-check. We’d still prefer you read it through.

We want stories which have all the following – four straightforward key elements:

1. Sherlock Holmes (and/or Watson) as a key protagonist; a proper, authentic Conan Doyle-type Holmes, in full character.
2. One or more occult detectives, as the other key protagonist(s), ones who could have taken up a case at the same time as Holmes was alive and functioning. This means Public Domain figures from around 1875 – 1925* OR your own original character operating in the same time period. These are also encouraged.
   
3. A strong supernatural, paranormal, occult, psychic or other ab-natural element which is crucial to the story. As mentioned last time, you CAN try a ‘debunking’ tale, where a mundane explanation ensues, but we won’t take many of those.
4. An actual case/investigation – not Holmes and Carnacki happening to see a ghost pass by, whilst they argue about camera techniques over coffee.

We do not want time-travel stories or steampunk – or Lovecraftiana, unless the latter is very clever, subtle and original, in which case we might have a glance. Think Algernon Blackwood, William Hope Hodgson, Arthur Machen, L T Meade and so on. Late Victorian, Edwardian and Twenties scariness.

* Do check the occult detective is in the Public Domain. Seventy years after the author’s death is the usual rule-of-thumb, except for some important characters where an Estate is still active and protecting its copyrights. Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, for example.

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The Pitch

It’s possible to do this sort of thing and end up with blocks of similar stories, however well written they are. Seventeen cases where Holmes and Dr Hesselius prove that the apparition at Gruntling Hall was in fact the butler in a sheet (but that the family was genuinely cursed anyway, because a wicked ancestor ate cheese too late at night). Or ten cases of werewolves, phosphorescent pain and missing boots.

For this anthology, we would like short pitches – say a hundred to two hundred words or so (the paragraph above is seventy words, as an example) – telling us about your planned story:

1. The decade and general physical setting(s), e.g. London; a decaying Cornish farmhouse, before WWI; a fancy hotel in Paris.
2. The sort of supernatural threat/mystery, e.g. classic ghostly appearances; physical monstrosity on the loose; madman possessed by something; cursed item. Get us intrigued.
3. The occult detective(s) involved, e.g. Van Helsing late in his career; John Bell having decided spirits do exist; Carnacki at his wits end and needing a co-conspirator.
4. A hint of plot, to show you have a story broadly in mind.

If you’ve never pitched before, have a go at it, and we’ll tell you if you have something there which we think is worth pursuing. If you’ve done it before, you know the drill.

The authors of the pitches we like will be invited to write up a full submission for possible inclusion, so you’ll then have a further three months. No guarantees, but it means that you’re at least on the right lines, so your chances go up.

PITCHES ONLY TO occultholmes@virginmedia.com BY 15TH MARCH, PLEASE

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The Occult Detectives (aka The Doomed Meddlers)

No, they’re not always doomed, we just like the term. They risk their lives, their sanity or their bank balances in the investigation of the dark and mysterious. Holmes you should already know, but what about the characters he will work with here? You have a wide range of possibilities open to you, and yes, we may well take more than one team-up with the same occult detectives (from different authors), if the stories are that good.

We hand over for a moment to Tim Prasil, a keen anthologist of early supernatural stories and the creator of Vera van Slyke, his own dauntless investigator…

Prasil on Paranormal Protagonists

Some fictional occult detectives contemporary with Sherlock Holmes are well-recognized: William Hope Hodgson’s Thomas Carnacki and Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence lead the team with Arthur Machen’s Dyson and Richard Marsh’s Augustus Champnell close behind. However, there are lesser known characters who, were they to cross paths with Holmes, might result in an interesting adventure. Were one to ask me to name my Top Five Lesser-Known Occult Detectives Contemporary with Sherlock Holmes, I would gladly name them—even if the one asking had a chronic infatuation with a dog-deer crossbreed known as “lurchers.”

1. We start with the hazy and unnamed investigator in H.G. Wells’ “The Red Room” (1896). What brought him to Lorraine Castle to investigate its fearful Red Room? What is his relationship to the young Duke, the unfortunate fellow who “had begun his dying” after merely opening the door to the Red Room? We know Wells’ protagonist arrives as a skeptic (as do others on my list), so how does his experience change him?
2. While we’re on the subject of potentially converted skeptics, let’s consider Lady Julie Spinner, a promising character in a disappointing novella by an anonymous author. The piece is titled “Wanted—An Explanation” (1881), wherein Lady Julie says, “I have been a hunter of ghosts all my life, and have never been able even to meet with a single person who has seen one.” However, after being stymied by the strange events at Hunt House, does her view of the boundaries of reality expand?
3. From Lady Spinner, we move to Lord Syfret. The adventures of this serial character might be a bit tough to locate, but Arabella Kenealy’s series of short stories titled Some of Lord Syfret’s Experiences has been reprinted by Coachwhip Press. That is, seven of them appear in that reprint, and one source reports that eleven tales appeared in Ludgate magazine in 1896 and 1897. Here’s a borderline occult detective that’s awaiting a full resurrection by a literary detective, if not a creative writer.
4. Enough with the nobility—let’s look at a duo that beat Mulder and Scully by roughly a century. Miss Erristoun and Mr. Calder-Maxwell investigate the title room in Lettice Galbraith’s “The Blue Room” (1897). The story is remarkably Victorian in that Miss Erristoun is reduced from a gutsy rebel to a wilting maiden-in-distress (one who marries the man she earlier waved off as wanting to tame her). But what if that marriage crumbled quickly, and she rejoined the scholarly Calder-Maxwell to investigate other cases of ghosts-that-aren’t-really-ghosts-at-all?
5. I end with what would amount to a crossover of Arthur Conan Doyle and Arthur Conan Doyle. Dr. Hardacre, in ACD’s “The Brown Hand” (1899), is a doctor whose hobby is psychical research and who, upon solving his rich uncle’s otherworldly problem, winds up in a very nice position to make probing occult mysteries his full-time job. No doubt, he and Dr. Watson might have a jolly time debating diagnoses: demon possession or delirium tremens—lycanthropy or laryngitis?

Links to all of these stories—except the mildly elusive Lord Syfret ones—can be found on either the Chronological Bibliography of Early Occult Detectives or the Legacy of Ghost Hunter Fiction bibliographies at my Brom Bones Books website.

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We have our own set of perhaps lesser known potential characters, such as:

• Gerald Canevin, of Henry S Whitehead’s Caribbean tales;
• Alice & Claude Askew’s Aylmer Vance
• The young woman of Ella Scrymsour’s stories – Shiela Crerar, Psychic Investigator;
• John Bell, the confirmed and determined sceptic of L T Meade & Robert Eustace**;
• Dr. Martin Hesselius created by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu;
• Flaxman Low, from the pen of ‘E & H Heron’.

** L T Meade & Robert Eustace also wrote three tales of a palmist, Diana Marburg.

And the pages of the magazine Occult Detective Quarterly might provide more general inspiration – there are great period tales therein of Aaron Vlek’s Geoffrey Vermillion (ODQ #4), Amanda DeWees’ Sybil Ingram (#1 & ODQ Presents), Joshua M Reynolds’ Charles St.Cyprian (# 1 & #4), Melanie Atheron Allen’s Simon Wake (#3), Aaron Smith’s Miss Mason (#3) and more. You can’t nick their characters, though.

NOTE: Ace storyteller Willie Meikle, who has chronicled Carnacki’s further adventures at length, even provided a supernatural Holmes story, ‘The Ghost Shirt’, in ODQ#3, and Brandon Barrows wrote a tale of Carnacki in his earlier years, ‘The Arcana of the Alleys’, for #2 .

Please note that we don’t want lots of laboured and archaic speech, or an excess of Cockney chimney-sweeps and ridiculously posh-talking nobility. Moderate and appropriate use of contractions and period slang, cant and vernacular, please.

A Note on Inclusivity and Discrimination

It was perfectly possible in late Victorian, Edwardian and 1920s Britain to be active and respected whilst being a feminist, being black, being gay or being restricted in physical ability (as just a few examples). Don’t limit the scope of your characters’ personal nature, situation or views. Whilst limited situational discrimination may occasionally be relevant in context of the period – in order to reflect characters’ life histories or traumas – sexism, racism etc. in general will not be accepted.

REPEAT REMINDER: PITCHES ONLY TO occultholmes@virginmedia.com BY 15TH MARCH, PLEASE.

General queries on the anthology for JLG (but NOT full submissions) can be sent to the same email address.

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More news of other Belanger Books opportunities, strange fiction, supernatural stuff, and goodness knows what in a couple of days…

or ‘Ghosts May Apply’. Interested in flexing your fountain pen, dear listener? Today we give you some initial guidelines for submitting short stories to a brand new anthology, to be edited by John Linwood Grant, old greydog himself, and coming from Belanger Books, as part of their exciting ‘Great Detective Universe’ project. But you need some background first, for this anthology is no random, unplanned outing for sudden cold drafts and occult apparitions in the night…

Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives will be about detection, logic and technique, and will concern an authentic Sherlock Holmes, but with one simple twist. It will include a Holmes who was aware of potentially supernatural elements in the wider world, and as with ‘The Giant Rat of Sumatra’, felt the world was not ready for such knowledge. He preferred to leave the field of the ab-natural to others, but on occasion had recourse to work with some of those worthies, and was drawn beyond his usual world. Dr Watson was never allowed to include any such references when he wrote up his friend’s cases, but now these instances can be brought into the light.

Does this ruin the core of Holmes’ position? Not exactly, so don’t run off in a canonical panic. Do you remember ‘The Sussex Vampire’? That particular Conan Doyle story contains the famous lines, where Holmes tells Watson:

“This agency stands flat-footed upon the ground, and there it must remain. The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply.”

But as we have oft said before, Holmes’ most quoted comments on the supernatural are not quite as definitive as some think. In ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, what he actually states is that normal investigative techniques and logical deduction would be of no use in supernatural cases.

“If Dr. Mortimer’s surmise should be correct, and we are dealing with forces outside the ordinary laws of Nature, there is an end of our investigation. But we are bound to exhaust all other hypotheses before falling back upon this one.”

In a sense, we might say that Holmes’ fear was that none of his peculiar intellectual talents could be of value in a situation where normal logic was overthrown. If there were such cases, genuine ones, who did deal with them? More foolish, credulous or cash-hungry consulting detectives perhaps. Fraudulent psychics, mayhap. And here and there, the genuine occult detectives, those who had developed a different blend of investigative skills and a knowledge of matters apparently ‘outside the ordinary laws of Nature’…

Not so long ago, the ever-active Sherlockian writer and scholar David Marcum edited The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part VII: Eliminate the Impossible (MX Publishing), a grand idea which featured tales of Holmes’s encounters with seemingly impossible events – ghosts and hauntings, curses and mythical beasts, and more. Except… every case had to have a mundane explanation of some sort.

For a classic example of this approach, you could also turn to L T Meade and Robert Eustace, whose 1898 collection A Master of Mysteries contains a series of investigations into apparently supernatural events which have other explanations –

“To explain, by the application of science, phenomena attributed to spiritual agencies has been the work of my life.”

John Bell, in A Master of Mysteries

John Linwood Grant contributed ‘The Second Life of Jabez Salt’ to Eliminate the Impossible, with a slight additional conceit contained therein, the hint of another well-known detective:

“If,” he said at last, “You are convinced that this is a supernatural affair, then I can be of no use to you, Mrs Salt. I neither give credence to such things, nor do I investigate them.”

She sighed.

“I understand. Mr Carnacki said that you might not help.”

Holmes looked up sharply. “Carnacki? You have been to see him?”

“I have corresponded with him. He is presently otherwise engaged, and ventured that I might seek you out. ‘A sharper mind than mine,’ he said, ‘And one which might better discern if this is merely man’s devilry. He is a proud chap, though, averse to matters ab-natural, and may not help.’ After his latest letter, I took his advice and came down to beg assistance from that ‘sharper mind’.”

My friend’s face was a mixture of pleasure and disdain.

“Well, Holmes?” I prompted.

Of all the supernaturalists in London, Holmes had most time for young Thomas Carnacki, whose scientific methodologies had already proved a number of hauntings to be mere trickery. Holmes applauded the young man’s application of science and logic, and yet abhorred Carnacki’s conviction that the supernatural might still be in play at times. Knowingly or not, Mrs Salt had placed my friend in a dilemma. A certain degree of pride was at stake.

Carnacki (the Ghost Finder) being, of course, the occult detective created by William Hope Hodgson in Edwardian times. Crucially, anyone who has read Hope Hodgson will remember that about half Carnacki’s cases were proved in the end, by the use of investigative methods and equipment, to be quite mundane after all (although one was both natural and supernatural, just to up the stakes).

And JLG’s short novel A Study in Grey (18thWall productions), falls within the same universe, where a canonical Holmes joins forces with military intelligence expert Captain Redvers Blake. Here, the tale can be read as one of spies and dire deeds in Edwardian Britain, and/or as a possible occurrence of ab-natural influences. You’re free to choose and interpret events, as Holmes does in the tale (you don’t need to guess – the Great Detective chooses to take the non-supernatural approach, and stays within Conan Doyle’s boundaries).

Team Occult

What has this to do with the price of fish? Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives will be an anthology of new stories exploring some of the above points, but with free rein for those who wish to go completely supernatural whilst retaining some investigative element and rigour. We expect the preponderance of tales to have genuine psychic, paranormal or ab-natural aspects, but a well written ‘debunking’ might also sneak in.

Belanger Books and greydog will be looking for adventures which involve Holmes teaming up with an occult detective such as Carnacki, John Silence, or Professor Van Helsing. There are plenty of “public domain” occult or supernatural detectives to choose from, or you may already have your own. In our next article, in couple of days, we’ll even suggest some possible team-ups – and point out (this is Women in Horror Month, after all), that female protagonists are indeed encouraged. We have a few existing, period examples of women investigators you could use, but we know that a number of contemporary writers have created fine characters who might well fit.

The submitted stories, which will be in the range five to ten thousand words, must draw directly on the canonical Sherlock Holmes, not the BBC version of the character on Sherlock. For example, Watson should address Sherlock Holmes as “Holmes” not “Sherlock”. Go back to the original Conan Doyle, not TV or film adaptations. And no, we’re not after time-travelling Holmes, space Holmes, steampunk Holmes or any of those variants. Holmes and Watson (assuming you include the latter) must be the real thing.

The stories should also fit the time period for any public domain characters as well. Your detective story should make sense for the timeline of your characters, i.e. you shouldn’t have a Dupin/ Holmes story take place in 1930 as Dupin would be dead and Holmes getting on a bit (it is generally accepted that Holmes lived from 1854-1957* and that Watson lived from 1852 – 1929).

We imagine most tales will be set from the mid-1870s to perhaps as late as the early 1930s, though remember you have a Holmes in his seventies if you choose the latter.

*William Baring-Gould reckoned that, anyway.

The anthology will filled through a blend of encouraging words to some authors who already write in the area, and through open submissions. So anyone can have a shot, but they’ll have to make it good.

In Part Two, we’ll discuss some aspects in more detail, talk about how to pitch – we’d like brief pitches first, to help shape the book – and give you more formal detail on tone, word length, timescale and remuneration (yes, it’s a paying gig). We’ll also tell you about other Belanger Books submission opportunities which have arisen.

In the meantime, do crank up your thinking machine, dig out your mouldering research, and so forth. If you want to read more on this site, you can simply type Holmes into the Searchbox on greydogtales, or look at our range of articles on Carnacki and other occult detectives. A couple of relevant examples:

http://greydogtales.com/blog/shades-of-sherlock-holmes-pastiche-paranormal-or-piffle/

http://greydogtales.com/blog/carnacki-the-second-great-detective/

and

Casting the Prunes: Flaxman Low Triumphant!

The magazine Occult Detective Quarterly regularly contains a period story of supernatural investigation (or more than one), to add to your exposure.

And there’s an external piece by author James Lovegrove which covers some relevant Holmesian ground and crossovers here:

https://crimereads.com/sherlock-holmes-versus-the-supernatural/

NOTE: We mentioned not wanting steampunk this time, but you might like to know that this aspect has been covered by Belanger Books’ most recent outing on the Holmesian front, Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of Steampunk, due out this Spring (2019).

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