Acknowledgements

“Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.”

Kurt Vonnegut

When a novel is chosen, a kindle downloaded, an audiobook queued up as a travel companion, author and reader agree to open the doorway to pure imagination. Each reading is singular, each reader unique in imaginative gifts, life experience, and vision. Each time is a journey beyond ourselves and yet within the miraculous grasp of our dreams. Dear reader, I salute you!

This novel was completed during the 2020 COVID pandemic. Making art, music, poetry, prose, theatre, video, and fun was essential during such isolation. We humans were hard-wired to live in community, so it was very tough for us to live in lockdown. As always, the artist’s way of filtering the world through intuition and giving back their unique view was a way to stay connected. The buildings were closed, yet our hearts beat online. Amazing what love and desire might accomplish. It was difficult at first to open to imagination and inspiration when the world was closed down and we were protecting ourselves. It was worth it nonetheless.

The chapter on Doctor Watson and the Russian influenza virus was written six-months before the present pandemic appeared in our lives. Interestingly my research into the protocols this coalition of doctors crafted so many years ago was very similar to how we lived through the present horror. Watson and his doctors used everything but masks, which appeared in 1918 during the Spanish flu pandemic.

Joining the author community for me has been a collaborative celebration of the imagination. My MX community: J.T. McDaniel who shared his immense gifts as actor, author, editor, and narrator. Steve Emecz, Sharon Emecz, Wendy Heyman-Marsaw, Geri Shear, Mark Sohn, Richard Ryan, and Brian Belanger. Plus, Maureen Whittaker, Craig Stephen Copland, Larry Hall, Gary Culp, and Christine Bush. John Hall, the noted Holmesian and Sherlockian for sharing in my Fool’s Day joke.

My publisher, Steve Emecz, is a wizard at creating, continuing, crafting, and growing community by the application of new ideas and unique connections. MX Sherlock Holmes Books long may it publish!

The American Crew, my dear Beta readers, Robert Sturgeon and Pamela Russo, my most marvellous, thoughtful, and dedicated helpers. This book would not be the same without their lovely and intelligent participation.

My editor, Rich Ryan—How do you thank a man who has seen your worst and still believes in your possibility? By paying close attention to his feedback and being as fearless as Conan Doyle in your choices. With his professionalism and Holmes-like ability to speak the truth, Rich has inspired me to enormous levels of growth as an author.

Friends/Family: J.R. Altabef, Bud Bruszkiewicz, Paula Clinchy, Mary Bruszkiewicz, and the ever-joyous spirit of my beloved Michael Altabef. Friends indeed: Nieves Fernandez, Susan Manning, Sue Davis, Catherine Cooke of the Westminster Research Library, London, Roger Johnson and the Sherlock Holmes Society of London.

The London Crew: The cordial ministrations of the Front Desk and staff of the Clapham South Belvedere during my London research and writing of this book, a true home away from home.

My two otherworldly mentors, Gimone Hall and Jeremy Brett, thoughts of your courage, professionalism, and joie de vive, guide me when I fall into difficulty or fun.

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John H. Watson have undoubtedly been the very best muses to ever come my way.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who, lived the writer’s life as an adventurer of his day. He was truly every character he created, knight, hero, villain, man of letters, chivalrous gentleman, detective, and explorer, artic whaler under sail, professor, captain, soldier, scientist, spiritualist, futurist, doctor, and author. A man of daring unafraid in the face of any challenge, a sportsman: boxer, footballer, cricketer, skier, bicyclist, and motorist. He was an outspoken progenitor of the New Age, creator of the first scientific detective, and the heroic literary sidekick. He approached any poor situation with an eye toward how he could improve it. He knew how to quell a mutiny, run a frontline wartime hospital, and how to survive the wrath of his fans for ten years after killing off his most famous character. The expression of his convictions and opinions were legendary. His love and belief in the promise of America was touching to this American.

I emulated his writing style, learned from him, stole from him and poked fun at Watson’s literary agent in my story out of the same love of humour which Conan Doyle possessed in great measure.

Thank you all, love and be well.

Notes For Curious

“The most important writings must be the original stories, without which nothing else makes sense.”—John Hall. “I Remember the Date Very Well” A chronology of the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Works Used Throughout

  1. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. “The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Volume I and II.” New York: Doubleday.
  2. Baring-Gold, William. “The Annotated Sherlock Holmes.” New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1967.
  3. Kilinger, Leslie. “New Annotated Sherlock Holmes.” New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.
  4. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. “The Original Illustrated ‘Strand’ Sherlock Holmes.” Hertfordshire, UK: Wordsworth Editions, 1989.
  5. Bradshaw’s Handbook 1861. London: HarperCollins, 2014 (originally published as Bradshaw’s Descriptive Railway Hand-Book of Great Britain and Ireland 1861).
  6. Bradshaw’s Monthly Continental Railway, Steam Transit, and
  7. General Guide 1887 - Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=w3dKAAAAYAAJ&vq=calais&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
  8. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. Memories and Adventures. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. 1924. The copyright for this publication is in the public domain.
  9. BHO British History Online. IHR Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/
  10. “The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia.” Maintained by Alexis Barquin: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Sherlock_Holmes/
  11. 10. National Library of Scotland, Georeferenced maps, London, 1893-6. I spend days gleefully researching here. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=16&lat=51.50349&lon=-0.13541&layers=38&b=1&z=1&point=0,0
  12. 11. Altabef, Gretchen. Sherlock Holmes These Scattered Houses. MX Publishing, London, 2019. The prequel to A Remarkable Power of Stimulus.
  13. 12. “You may marry him, murder him, or do anything you like to him!”—Arthur Conan Doyle. Telegraphed reply to William Gillette, 1896.
  14. 13. “I’m an Embracer. I think you can pretty much do whatever you want with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. You can’t expect everyone to like it, but you are fully entitled to do it. And I will appreciate every attempt to do something unexpected, a new perspective, congenial or not. I already have the originals, now I want something else, something that will wake me up - no matter if I like it or not. Because if you do take risks and invest your intelligence and time in trying to do clever things with something that is so close to my heart, you will get my embrace. The opposite - i.e. if you don’t do anything at all - is a much more boring alternative. So shake up Sherlock, and I will give you my love.”—Mattias Boström. “Shake up Sherlock,” 2017.