We are delighted to welcome back author Barry S. Brown to Omnimystery News.
Barry last visited with us early in 2014 to discuss his Mrs. Hudson of Baker Street mystery series, the fourth book of which, Mrs. Hudson in New York (MX Publishing; July 2015 trade paperback), is published this week, and we asked him to tell us more about his writing process. He titles his guest post for us today, "Write What You Know — Not".
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Photo provided courtesy of
Barry S. Brown
It is the advice invariably given aspiring authors. Write what you know, which is to say write from your own experience and your work will have an authenticity it might otherwise lack. There is, however, one potential drawback to writing what you know.
What you know may be boring. Not all of us have had the good fortune of staring down death, or remaking our lives after years of unremitting debauchery. Indeed, some few of us have been denied a shot at debauchery, unremitting or otherwise. For us, which is to say for me, writing outside my own limited experience provides the freedom to explore a world I could never otherwise enter, accompanied by companions I would never otherwise meet.
The world I have chosen to explore is that of Victorian England and the people I have chosen for companions are the familiar figures of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Watson, and Mrs. Hudson. When I was young, they led me through the streets of London and the English countryside; now I lead them — but with a difference. The difference is Mrs. Hudson.
Consider the plight of the Victorian woman who hopes for a life beyond the confines of her own kitchen. That was the dilemma faced by Mrs. Hudson. Fortunately for her — to say nothing of the safety of London's citizenry — Mrs. Hudson had a plan to go with her hopes. She had spent nearly every evening of the 29 years of her marriage, working with her constable husband to devise strategies of investigation appropriate to the crimes reported in London's Evening Standard, and nearly every day honing her observational skills on London's streets and horse cars. With the constable's untimely death, her plan was ready to be implemented, if only to honor her husband's memory. The lodgings at 221B Baker Street, long before leased by the couple to shield them from the workhouse as they aged, became the bargaining chip for recruiting the male figurehead critical to organizing a business in the latter part of the 19th century. Offering rooms to let for someone with "an inquiring mind and curiosity about human behavior," she was able to hire a sometime chemist named Holmes to be her consulting detective agency's face to the public. With Dr. Watson a welcome addition, everything was in place.
For their business to prosper, however, the myth of Sherlock Holmes required a publicist. John Watson, an otherwise honorable man, struggled with creating the necessary fiction. His Number Two Eagle pencil slipped only once when he made note of her "stately tread." This prompted some to conclude he was speaking of the challenge Mrs. Hudson faced in keeping her weight under control. (Admittedly, she was a frequent consumer of the raisin-filled scones she routinely prepared for her boarders and their guests.) However, the doctor's reference was not to her weight in the usual sense of the word, but to the gravity of her presence. Together with Holmes, he had been frequently led through thickets of misunderstanding and deception to arrive finally on a smooth path to discovery — always permitting Holmes to claim the journey's success as his own. It was a necessary subterfuge, but it rankled the good doctor. Now, at last, the truth can be made known, and Mrs. Hudson's exploits properly celebrated.
In Mrs. Hudson in New York, the latest effort to correct a century of misinformation, the trio cross the ocean to attend the wedding of Mrs. Hudson's niece whose fiancé is a pitcher for the Brooklyn Bridegrooms baseball team. Upon their arrival they find the young man accused of an assault on JP Morgan and the death of his aide. To set right the course of justice, allow a wedding to proceed, and save the game of baseball, Mrs. Hudson and her associates will travel from the staid elegance of New York's 400 to the seamy excitement of its Tenderloin, along the way enlisting the assistance of Mark Twain and a leader in the African Broadway community.
Had I restricted myself to writing only from my own experience it would have been far less enjoyable for me, and far less rewarding for any reader seeking something other than a sleep aid. Writing about what I don't know — and had to research — not only afforded opportunity to become enmeshed in new worlds; in this instance it also afforded opportunity to give a grand lady the long overdue credit for her work with the consulting detective agency at 221B Baker Street, an agency whose exploits are destined to continue to enthrall and stir the imagination of readers long into the future.
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Before assuming responsibility for setting the record to right, revealing Mrs. Hudson's true role with London' first and premier consulting detective agency, Barry S. Brown was engaged in research on a variety of lesser issues. In that capacity he published a number of papers and chapters in the fields of mental health, criminology, and drug abuse. He briefly tried resting on his laurels only to discover their pointy leaves.
For more information about the author, please visit his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook.
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Mrs. Hudson in New York by Barry S. Brown
A Mrs. Hudson of Baker Street Mystery
Publisher: MX Publishing
Accompanied by Holmes and Watson, Mrs. Hudson crosses the ocean to attend the wedding of her cousin's daughter. They disembark to discover that the young lady's fiancée, a pitcher for the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, stands accused of an attempt on the life of JP Morgan and the death of his aide. A self-declared enemy of Morgan and the robber barons, the ballplayer ran from the scene of the crime and, when captured, was found in possession of a gun with two spent cartridges, the same number and caliber as that used in the attack. Before a wedding can be held, the unacknowledged sage of Baker Street will lead Holmes and Watson along a path of investigation taking them from JP Morgan's mansion to the gambling dens of New York's Tenderloin.
With the enthusiastic assistance of Samuel Clemens, the reluctant assistance of Morgan, and the cautious assistance of a leader in the African Broadway community, they will identify the financier's attacker, frustrate efforts to corrupt the game of baseball, and rescue the prospective bride and groom from would-be assassins before returning finally to the comparative quiet of 221B Baker Street.
— Mrs. Hudson in New York by Barry S. Brown
