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I hope some of you can join me for the event “Chapters: A Casual Evening of Books, Bards, and Bites,” at the Hardesty Regional Library in Tulsa on September 10th. I will be speaking, along with fellow authors William Bernhardt and Tim Tharp. Cost for the evening is $40, with proceeds going to benefit the Tulsa City-County Library’s Ruth G. Hardman Adult Literacy Service.
Appetizers, wine, and desserts are provided through a number of Tulsa restaurants. For more information, or to call to make a reservation (by Sept. 3, 2010), call (918) 596-7827. I look forward to seeing you there!
Cheerio,
Will
August 29th, 2010
I’ve opened a facebook group for friends of Barker and Llewelyn. The group is Barker and Llewelyn Novels by Will Thomas. Today’s discussion: How many Barker and Llewelyn novels have you read?
See you on facebook!
Cheerio,
Will
July 6th, 2010
This weekend, I was invited to attend an anime convention called Tokyo in Tulsa, complete with a Steampunk-themed ball. It was an interesting lesson in what modern youth are reading and doing today, and I am pleased to report that the Victorian Era has never been more popular, thanks to Steampunk. For those unfamiliar with the term, Steampunk is a blend of Victorian science fiction and adventure with a modern twist and a kicker of Uber-geek steam technology. The people there wore ornate and expensive costumes, often accompanied by old-fashioned goggles and pseudo-scientific looking rifles or pistols covered in copper and watch-parts. Some of these outfits would have made a Victorian blush, or call Bethlehem Asylum.
This is the future of Victorian literature, I told myself. Abraham Lincoln fighting vampires. Sherlock Holmes stopped a Martian invasian. Adjust, or as the Daleks say, be exterminated. I was pleased to see Cyrus Barker well represented. Long black coats, tinted lenses, and plenty of pistols are the order of the day. Rule Britannia, I say.
Cheerio,
Will
June 20th, 2010
Join me today in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the William Bernhardt Writing Workshop at the University of Tulsa. I’m speaking at 2:00 on the subject of writing Historical versus Contemporary Mysteries. Panels and booksignings will be ongoing throughout the day. Look forward to seeing you there!
Cheerio,
Will
June 6th, 2010
I hope it is obvious in reading my novels that I revere Charles Dickens. He is a monolith, like Shakespeare, and arguably the greatest writer of the Victorian Age. At Christmas, it is standard for us to read A Christmas Carol or to view one of the thousand movies made on the novel, most of which star Kelsey Grammer. This year, however, I’ve decided to reread a darker and more mysterious work by Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
First of all, the mystery is eternal, the novel half completed when Dickens died in 1871. The story, set in Cloisterham, a cathedral city, concerns a young man, Drood, his choirmaster uncle, John Jasper, and Miss Rosa Bud, to whom Drood is nominally engaged. Drood is not in love with Miss Bud, but Jasper is, so it should come as no surprise that Drood eventually disappears. The problem is that it is too obvious that the murderer is Jasper to actually be Jasper. Despite the fact that Dickens himself told relatives that it was the choirmaster, many believe it has to be someone else in the story, and over a hundred authors have attempted to finish Dickens’ unfinished masterpiece. The two most recent attempts are Matthew Pearl’s The Last Dickens and Dam Simmon’s epic Drood.
It is the great unsolved murder in literature, as fascinating as the Jack the Ripper killings, forever unsolved. Once you pick it up, chances are you’ll do so now and then throughout your life, puzzling over whatever happened to Edwin Drood. This year, after you’ve polished off A Christmas Carol, give this one a try. It beats whatever Christmas novel you’re probably reading next.
Cheerio,
Will
May 5th, 2010
I have in my hand a very rare book, one which anyone acquainted with the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will recognize. This book is probably not for sale in the entire world, and it has taken me three attempts to get a copy by interlibrary loan. I’ll give you a hint: Sherlock Holmes refers to it as “a little chocolate and silver volume.”
Yes, it is OUT OF DOORS, by the Reverend J.G. Wood. The book owes its literary interest to the fact that Holmes used a copy of it to solve a death in “The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane.” Doyle read this 342 page tome, including the chapter called “Medusa and Her Locks,” which narrates a near-death encounter between Wood and a Cynae capillata jellyfish from which the story borrows heavily. Holmes’s attempt to medicate a victim with salad oil and brandy is especially reminiscent of the narrative. It goes to prove that an author can pull plot ideas from anywhere, including the pages of a natural history book.
I’ve always felt kinship with this story because I suffered a jellyfish attack in Canada as a youth. I can vouch for the extreme and heart palpitations they cause, though I cannot vouch for salad oil and brandy as a medication, because thankfully, my parents chose more modern remedies. Since then I’ve never gone to the ocean without looking for those ominous spheroid shapes.
May you never encounter a stinging jellyfish outside the pages of Doyle’s story!
Cheerio,
Will
December 6th, 2009
From the November issue of Golf Digest:
“November 29, 1894. The Jungle Book author Rudyard Kipling serves Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle a Thanksgiving dinner at his Brattleboro, VT home. To say thanks, Doyle gives Kipling golf lessons during the visit, and the two later play winter golf using red golf balls.”
My word, golfing, Sherlock Holmes, cranberry sauce and Mowgli all in one place? What I wouldn’t have given to be a fly on the wall. Can one even imagine what conversation these two masters of fiction must have had, as fortified by turkey and oyster stuffing (and no doubt a dram or two) they went out to the snow-covered links? Who wouldn’t want ACD as one’s golf pro?
Why, I wonder, doesn’t Brattleboro have a Captains Courageous Classic, or a Sherlock Holmes Open? We’d on our plus fours and Norfolk jackets and carry our hickory clubs. It would be only for those hardy enough to handle a November game in Vermont. Do they still make red balls for winter play? Then later, it’s back to the clubhouse for pumpkin pie and another wee dram!
November 14th, 2009
I am very happy to announce that THE BLACK HAND has been nominated for a 2009 Shamus Award by the Private Eye Writers of America. The award will be given in October at Bouchercon, which will be held in Indianapolis this year. Mystery writing is such a solitary pursuit that it is always great to get together with one’s peers and talk shop, press the flesh, and meet writers I haven’t yet had the pleasure to meet. I’ll be there on Friday, October 16th, and look forward to seeing some of you there. Enjoy the conference!
Cheerio,
Will
August 31st, 2009
Thank you so much for all of your emails and letters asking about the next Barker and Llewelyn novel. I’m hard at work on the sixth and will update the website with further information soon.
Cheerio,
Will
August 11th, 2009
I suppose I’m something of a rail fan. I came by it naturally. My father built boilers and my grandfather was a coal miner in Scotland. Somehow, I’ve missed the great age of steam, which is yet another reason I like to time travel via fiction. I make sure that Barker and Llewelyn travel by train in every adventure, and research which railway lines they take. My reference shelves are full of timestables and books on steam locomotives, and when I travel I prefer as much as possible that it be by rail.
A steam engine is almost a living thing. No two are alike. It must be coaxed awake and built up into a full head of steam before it will go. It is temperamental. It is impractical; not an economic method of travel at all, given the price of coal. And yet even those who find trains to be archaic will admit to a thrill the first time they are pulled behind a steam train. As for the millions of us with coal in our veins, there is no better way to travel. Give me a Brighton Terrier over a Corvette any day.
Cheerio,
Will
August 3rd, 2009
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