Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair by M K Wiseman / #Interview #PublicationDayPush @rararesources @FaublesFables

On 7 december 20215 december 2021 door elsinWiseman M.K. - Sherlock Holmes & The Singular AffairEen reactie plaatsen

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Before Baker Street, there was Montague.

Before partnership with a former army doctor recently returned from Afghanistan, Sherlock Holmes had but the quiet company of his own great intellect. Solitary he might be but, living as he did for the thrill of the chase, it was enough.

For a little while, at the least, it was enough.

That is, until a client arrives at his door with a desperate plea and an invitation into a world of societal scandal and stage door dandies. Thrust deep in an all-consuming role and charged with the safe-keeping of another, Holmes must own to his limits or risk danger to others besides himself in this the case of the aluminium crutch.

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Q&A

Did or do you like to read comic books/grapic novels? Which ones?

I’m a big fan of both Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon and Kafka Asagiri’s Bungo Stray Dogs manga series. And for a while I was waaay into Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet series. (I fell off of it for a bit when the local library wasn’t able to up with my hold requests. It isn’t a series one should read out of order, haha!)

Whom did you inherit your love for books/reading from?

My parents were keen on instilling a love of books in my sister and me from a very early age. I loved my childhood libraries and couldn’t wait to go back to get more amazing stories. My maternal grandmother was an avid reader, too. She actually kept little cards for each book she read, detailing quick plot points/summaries and what she thought about them. That way she could look things up fairly easily, should she run across a book that she wasn’t sure she had read several years before. Her own miniature card catalogue. I have it now, actually.

Most of my gradeschool friends were very much into books, too. We’d spend a lot of time eagerly recommending titles and authors to one another. And I simply never grew apart from this love of reading.

When you need a murder victim or someone you can diagnose with a serious disease or someone who is involved in a fatal accident do you sometimes picture someone nasty you have met in real life and think ‘got you’ LOL?

Whew. That took a turn! Haha

I actually don’t put anyone I know into my books (consciously, anyhow.) No physical similarities. Mannerisms, accent, or circumstance.

All my characters are just … their own people, you know? Now, I’m not ruling out that someday I might have the strange reversal where one of my wizards walks down the street towards me and I recognise them. That’d be neat.

How do you come up with the names for your characters?

Depends on the circumstances. Nagarath (from Bookminder series) came out of my initial intent to use that name for the villain of the piece. (i.e. ‘wrath’) But the characters grew into themselves as I worked out the plot and, suddenly, I had to give the name away to my hero. The name simply belonged to him. (Anisthe, the actual antagonist, is so named because of my dislike of liquorice.)

But often for my historicals I give a look to name collections from the era and place and try out how things sound in my head/look on paper. And I try to avoid hitting the same part of the alphabet over and over. (My eternal struggle with Wuthering Heights taught me that one.) Also number of syllables. Sometimes the situation wants a John Smith; sometimes it needs a Eudora Frances Clarke.

Then there’s the ‘in jokes’. Liara (Bookminder) is liar + a. And many Holmesians will recognise Ormond Secker—Conan Doyle’s initial name for Dr. Watson which, if you read Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair carries within it a little added meaning due to it being a pre-Watson prequel.

Oh! And I claimed above that I do not put people that I know into my books but I do like to Easter Egg names. Nieces and nephews. Favorite college professors. Take a name, give it a twist, and now I’ve a fun semi-secret homage to people whom I love.

Do write other things beside books (and shoppinglists 😉 )?

I’ve recently begun to dabble in short fiction. Nope, that’s untrue. I started in short fiction. Quite by accident and, what seems like, a lifetime ago. It is how I found my publisher. Someone in the Twitter steampunk community mentioned that Xchyler Publishing was looking for short story submissions and I thought ‘Oh, why not try that?’ and suddenly I had a story in a book I could hold in my hand.

But recently I’ve played about in short-form Sherlock Holmes fiction which is unexpectedly fun. I doubt I’ll take it very far. But I am enjoying torturing my brain with managing a whole and satisfying story in the space of, give-or-take, 7000 words. (I tend to use Conan Doyle canon for guiding the length of the pieces as I am attempting to not cross canon with the things I write.)

If a movie or series would be made from your books, would you be happy with the ‘based on’ version or would you rather like they showed it exactly the way you created it?

It actually depends on the series. For my Bookminder series, I would want it very accurate to the books due to what that story means to me. As for M.I., my wizard spies, a ‘based on’ version would be neat. For some of how the story is told would not easily translate to film/TV, and thus a different angle would probably serve the story and characters better.

As for the Holmesian stories? I only touch a small piece of Sherlock’s life with my writing and so any thought of film/TV adaptations of my stories is not something that even crosses my mind.

Who would you like/have liked to interview?

I’m a fool when it comes to speaking with people who I consider Important. (I have fan-girl-ed many an author over many a year. I’m lucky I’ve managed to get books signed without too much embarassment over my awkwardness.) But Ursula Le Guin had such a special mind and heart that interviewing her would have been an amazing experience.

Do you have certain people you contact while doing research to pick their brains? What are they specialized in?

I’ve had a little help on Latin here and there. And my editor is fantastic at pointing out anachronistic terms in my writing. (Granted, my historical stories are more time-period-set than style-based.) But I mostly forge ahead via lots of online research and reading.

Maps. Old newspapers. Contemporaneous writing. Those are my experts.

Is there someone you sometimes discuss a dilemma with?

My poor husband will never know an unspoiled book from me!

And author D. Lieber and I like to trade dilemmas as we go. Talking out the plot knots can really go far in untangling them.

Maybe I should get myself a Wilson ball for my office. Then I wouldn’t spoil anything and could still jaw about a book’s development to my heart’s content. My fish, my little school of Neon Tetras, are useless when it comes to constructive listening. 😉

What is more important to you : a rating in stars with no comments or a reviewer who explains what the comments they give are based on (without spoilers of course)

If it’s a choice between star ratings or a review with reader commentary, I’d pick the star rating. Less pressure on the reader. This because I have very little personal comfort when it comes to explaining why I liked this or that book. I’m more likely to clam up and just shove the book in question at someone, saying “Read it. You’ll see!” That approach doesn’t really translate well into commentary-style reviews, haha. So, yes, I’m measuring this by my own yard stick.

And I have to give a shout out to value of the ‘silent read’ non-review; to the reader who read the book, loved the book, and then . . . happily sat back down and read another book.

Thank you, M. K. Wiseman and Rachel’s Random Resources

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About the author

M. K. Wiseman has degrees in Interarts & Technology and Library & Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her office, therefore, is a curious mix of storyboards and reference materials. Both help immensely in the writing of historical novels. She currently resides in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

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Author Links

http://mkwisemanauthor.com

https://twitter.com/FaublesFables

https://www.facebook.com/FaublesFables/

https://www.instagram.com/faublesfables/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7073540.M_K_Wiseman

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