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
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).
If you want to be sure to read Part Two, you can either make a note to pop back here later this week, or subscribe to greydogtales.com for free via a little box in the top left corner somewhere. We are here for the pleasure, and tragically non-profitmaking, so it’s not one of those sites where you get bugged by strangers. Except us. But we’re not strangers – we’re nice.