The Crosses’ Easter Eggs

 

If you haven’t followed the Kickstarter, please consider doing so at the link below. It will end in five days, so take advantage now to get the signed edition and other rewards that include:

• Paperback, PDF, and Hardcover Editions
• Signed paperbacks and hardcovers for USA fans
• BSI Bundle that pairs The Crosses with Kim Krisco’s novel, Irregular Lives: The Untold Story of Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars.

The Crosses’ Easter Eggs

Authors often insert subtle references known as literary Easter eggs into their stories for a number of reasons — to enrich the tale with hidden references or symbols; to add depth by alluding to works of literature, music, culture, or personal experience; to connect to broader themes; and, sometimes, to engage in a game between author and reader. We intentionally included several Easter eggs in The Crosses.

One reference involves the Baker Street Irregular. Bonnie decided his initials should be the same as his former gang’s acronym, BSI. Researching popular names of the time, we decided on Benjamin Scott Irwin, choosing “Benjamin" also to honor Bonnie’s father, Edward Benjamin Del Aguila, a former Navy pilot, who died in 1972 when wind shear slammed his jet into the tarmac during an Air National Guard training flight.

Bessie de la Paz, the novel’s heroine, is the object of several references. Bess’s mother is of European descent, while her father is indigenous Mexican, that background mirroring Bonnie’s own genealogical history. Bonnie’s maternal line is European. Her paternal line includes the indigenous Mexican Zecatecas people. And, yes, Bessie resembles Bonnie physically — small in stature but formidable. Similarities don’t end there. Bess’s determination, honesty, dedication, optimism, humor — all inspired by Bonnie. Bess and Bonnie are linked loosely by careers as well. Bess is a former agent for Pinkerton. Bonnie spent nearly three decades as a federal special agent. Both are experts in law-and-order and are guided by high ethical and moral standards. Further, they have the same initials, BLD — Bessie Laine de la Paz, Bonnie Lynne Del Aguila.

Bonnie’s love of mysteries — especially her devotion to Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple — is legend among those who know her. The book pays tribute to that love of mystery when Bess remarks to Ben that Holmes’s methods are similar to Hercule Poirot’s. Ben quips, “Yes, but Poirot is fiction. Mr. Holmes is real,” a remark that would generate a roll of the eyes from both Bess and Bonnie. Other Easter eggs link Bess and Bon as well, but I’ll leave those for you to find.

One reference involves the secondary character, Teri Johns. Teri’s family claims her death is suicide, but circumstantial evidence suggests otherwise. Her death and circumstances were inspired by the purported suicide of one of Bonnie’s colleagues. Though suspicious — from the method, to the person’s excited anticipation of specific future events, to the known animosity between her and her immediate relatives, especially her mother — Bonnie’s friend’s death was never investigated beyond the assumption of suicide.

We titled the book The Crosses for several reasons. Las Cruces, the novel’s setting, translates from the Spanish as “The Crosses,” the name based on a legend that’s recounted in the book. The cover itself is based on a photo that Bess shoots to illustrate an article on the murders. A tribal cemetery is maintained beside the dilapidated tribal council hall. Crosses have been erected over the murdered councillors’ graves. The framed shot features the crosses and council building in silhouette against a sky illuminated by the setting sun, a symbol for the approaching end of life. 

Before the publisher completed the book’s cover design, I posted a photo of a desert cardinal in connection with the story. Birds are referenced several times in the book, each symbolic. The first reference comes in the prologue when the young girl who discovers the bodies arrives at the tribal council hall. A burrowing owl is perched on the roof above the door. Burrowing owls in some Southwestern native cultures are often associated with wisdom and protection but are considered a bad omen if witnessed during daylight hours. The girl spots it at dusk, a time when its mystical meaning is murky at best. 

A desert cardinal appears twice in the novel, at the beginning with the owl and near the end, described at one point as having blue and orange plumage, although most have blue and red plumage. The colors are so rich and vibrant, that the red sometimes appears orange. Their plumage symbolizes life, energy, and a connection to the spiritual realm. The photo I posted with earlier announcements is one I shot of the only desert cardinal I’ve seen in the twelve years I’ve lived in southern New Mexico. On Bonnie’s birthday following her passing, I hiked a canyon that she and I had planned to hike together. As I started out, I heard a beautiful birdsong and spotted the cardinal in a small, spare tree about thirty yards away. I was afraid that readying my camera would scare it away, but it simply looked at me and kept singing.

I later learned that the desert cardinal has significant spiritual meaning within many indigenous cultures. I had never seen one before that day. I haven’t seen one since. Near the end of the novel, in a letter to John Watson, Ben writes, “A bird on the windowsill across the room is singing the most beautiful song. I have learned that it is a desert cardinal. Native people believe these birds embody deceased loved ones who return briefly to reassure those left behind that all is well. It’s a comforting myth, one I wish I could accept. Alas, a bird is a bird.”

These are a few of the primary Easter eggs scattered throughout the novel. There are more, but I’ll leave them for you to find.

Now that you know some of the background on writing The Crosses, we hope you enjoy the story. Thank you much for coming along with us. The Crosses will soon be available through Amazon, B&N, other booksellers, and directly from the publisher, MX Publishing.

Plotting According to History

This is the fifth post on The Crosses. The sixth will be posted in a couple of days, detailing many of the literary easter eggs that appear throughout the novel, including an explanation of the desert cardinal photo I’ve posted previously in connection with the novel. Receive posts automatically by visiting https://windpoemcreative.blogspot.com to subscribe to the RSS feed.

If you haven’t followed the Kickstarter, please consider doing so at the link below. It ends this week, so take advantage now to get the signed edition and other rewards that include:

• Paperback, PDF, and Hardcover Editions
• Signed paperbacks and hardcovers for USA fans
• BSI Bundle that pairs The Crosses with Kim Krisco’s novel, Irregular Lives: The Untold Story of Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars.

Plotting According to History

The Crosses is an historical mystery, requiring attention to the smallest of historical details, including use of electricity, proliferation of automobiles, changing methods of communication, state of medicine, social evolution, forensic methodology, language use, and idiomatic expressions no longer in use, to name only a few. The novel opens with the discovery of three local tribal councilors, shot to death, no one around except the young girl who finds them. The tribal council building is remotely located near the Rio Grande, southeast of Las Cruces, New Mexico. After the initial investigation by the county’s deputy, Orren Stokes, the inquiry stagnates due to the lack of witnesses and physical clues.

The technological aspects of the period heavily influenced the plot, but the most influential factors were racial and cultural. Bessie de la Paz, newspaper publisher and former Pinkerton agent, has been assisting Stokes in the investigation as best she can. Although her father had been a tribal member, her mother’s white. The tribe scorns her because she is mixed-race, which makes her investigative attempts even more challenging. Frustrated, she writes in request of advice to the former Baker Street Irregular, Ben Irwin, who has become a renowned detective, following in the footsteps of his mentor, Sherlock Holmes.

Dr. John Watson notifies her that he has forwarded her letter to Irwin, already in the U.S. on another matter involving a former BSI leader now engaged in international crime. With plans to travel to the Southwest regarding the former BSI leader, Irwin arrives in Las Cruces to offer whatever assistance he can. Amid accusations of racial prejudice in the murders and the failure to solve them, the investigating trio uncovers new clues while Ben and Bess grow emotionally close as Bess confronts the biggest challenge of her life.

Although the story’s native tribe is fictional, elements are based on area tribal life in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Racism of the time affected every aspect of life, especially when events crossed cultural lines. The potential for racial conflict escalates when tribal councillors, who’ve been at odds with the area’s white farmers, are murdered. While the investigation must deal with racial prejudice against indigenous and black Americans, the investigators nevertheless focus on solving the crime, no matter where it leads.

Bonnie and I intended The Crosses to honor the Holmes tradition, but we wanted to take it beyond Holmes and the typical British setting by featuring a character directly influenced by the celebrated detective, a character who brings Holmes’s methods to America. Above all, we wanted to write an entertaining story of intrigue and humanity, one that readers will enjoy.

The final post will explore the literary easter eggs scattered through novel. Blog entries appear on https://windpoemcreative.blogspot.com, https://csfuqua.com/blog, Goodreads, and Facebook. Thank you much for reading. The Crosses is available from Amazon, B&N, other booksellers, and directly from the publisher, MX Publishing.

Fleshing Out Primary Characters in The Crosses

 

This is the fourth background post on The Crosses. If you’d like to receive posts automatically, please visit https://windpoemcreative.blogspot.com to subscribe to the RSS feed.

If you haven’t followed the Kickstarter, please follow at the link below. It ends soon, so take advantage to get not only the signed edition of the novel, but also other rewards.

https://tinyurl.com/3xed6txk

Fleshing Out Primary Characters in The Crosses

Writers often refer to their characters as real — because they are, at least in our minds. Characters embody traits of acquaintances, friends, relatives, and even ourselves that make them far more than a collection of words on a page. 

An earlier post provided basic information about The Crosses’ main characters, including the deputy sheriff, Orren Stokes, son of a former slave, proficient in several indigenous languages, a former Pinkerton agent. From those background bullet points, a reader can surmise that Orren’s determined and dedicated, a man with the grit and will to accomplish what others would find impossible. 

Orren’s a big man, but calm, patient, and occasionally looks at life’s situations with the knowing humor of one who’s lived through much worse. While he’ll make minor compromises to further his goals, he refuses to be abused by those who possess “entitled” power. He examines a situation and the facts thoroughly before taking action. He’s soft-spoken and always has in mind the best interests of all involved. He’s deductive, patient, and, most of all, loyal to those he calls friend. Although his basic persona’s inspired by real-life lawman, Bass Reeves, the qualities that make Orren human, that make him real are based on a dear friend, truly a brother to Bonnie and me, someone we’ve known, trusted, and loved since Bonnie and I met at age 15. But I won’t embarrass him by naming him here.

An important secondary character, Teri Johns, is loosely based on one of Bonnie’s former colleagues. Teri shuns many social norms of the past in favor of progress. She’s emotionally stronger than her brothers, publicly affable, extremely dependable, trustworthy, and determined, but occasionally timid. And like Bonnie’s colleague, Teri’s life proves tragic. 

Our Baker Street Irregular (BSI), Ben Irwin, isn’t based on anyone in particular. Instead, he’s a combination of men and women Bon and I have known, with a smidgen of ourselves thrown in. He’s small but indomitable, certainly able to defend himself against physical threats as he readily demonstrates with one of the novel’s bullies. His personality, however — lurking cynicism, an undercurrent of suspicion and judgement, an observational alertness that is both subtle and laser-focused — is a blend of people we’ve known over the years as well as fictional characters we’ve admired, including his mentor Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. 

Ben became the youngest BSI member in the 1890s gang, taken in after his abusive, drunken father kicked him out at age five. Developing an uncanny ability to pick locks to survive, he proved an invaluable asset to the BSIs. He ultimately leaves the gang when he loses the closest person he’s ever known due to the BSI leader’s greed and incompetence. Even so, Ben has developed a great capacity for compassion and devotion, increasingly evident as he’s drawn to Bess and Orren as both friend and protector, possessing a compassion that would prove devastating to those with less personal strength developed through a life of adversity.

And then there’s Bessie de la Paz, the story’s heroine. When Ben arrives in Las Cruces, Bess is intrigued by his sense of humor, courtesy, and acceptance of people different from him. They strike an immediate friendship that strengthens quickly, in part due to critical challenges Bess must face, not only in solving the murders, but also in her personal life. Although of mixed race, she’s able to pass as white and has used it to her advantage, attending teacher training in El Paso, but ultimately taking an undercover job with Pinkerton to monitor various El Paso businesses for shoplifters and other criminals. As an only child, she harbors a strong sense of devotion to her parents, reflecting the love and support they’ve given her. When her father dies, she returns to Las Cruces to oversee the family farm until her mother succumbs to cancer a few years later.

Developing a primary character poses certain challenges, but Bess came naturally. She’s a “half-breed” in a white society, a strong woman in a man’s world. She’s deductive, clever, moral, and determined, compassionate and optimistic, yet realistic and pragmatic. She focuses on, and refuses to stray from, her goals, whether the goal is to become a Pinkerton agent or an investigative reporter or be a good daughter. Although Bess is definitely her own person, she reflects the best qualities of her primary model, Bonnie, who addressed life’s challenges with humor and optimistic pragmatism, excelling both personally and professionally with certain grace, strength, and empathy.

Each character embodies qualities of people Bonnie and I have known, but the characters are definitely not those people. The borrowed qualities are only the seeds from which we grew the characters into their own being, developing, changing, evolving into someone real and unique in their own right. They became our friends and enemies, each loved or loathed as any flesh-and-bone person.

Upcoming posts will explore more about the crime that has brought the characters together and the literary easter eggs throughout the novel. Blog entries appear on https://windpoemcreative.blogspot.com, https://csfuqua.com/blog, Goodreads, and Facebook. Thank you much for reading. The Crosses will be available from Amazon, B&N, other booksellers, and directly from the publisher, MX Publishing.

Character Diversity in The Crosses

If you haven’t followed the Kickstarter, please consider doing so at the link below. It will end later this month, so take advantage now to get the signed edition and more!

https://tinyurl.com/3xed6txk

Character Diversity in The Crosses

Prior to 1960, American media, including textbooks, portrayed historical development primarily as white and male, a practice of lies that’s experiencing a politically-backed resurgence today. But history is the product of a human rainbow — good, bad, smart, stupid, female, male, black, white, red, yellow, gay, straight, bi, trans, and everything in between. The world was and is a complex place in which every category of person contributes, right and wrong, good and bad.

Few pre-1960 general audience movies featured an African-American protagonist in a position of power or a Native American depicted as civilized and smart. The 1958 release, The Defiant Ones, is an important exception. The Lone Ranger’s “Tonto” may also come to mind, but the word Tonto is a Spanish term meaning “stupid” or “crazy." The term “Kemosabe,” Tonto’s name for the Lone Ranger, is derived from the Ojibwe and Potawatomi word gimoozaabi, translated as “trusty scout” or “faithful friend.” Despite popular whitewashing of history, Native Americans, African-Americans, and all immigrant groups have been involved in and contributed to every aspect of American society and development. 

Bonnie and I were determined The Crosses would reflect the reality of 1925 life, including language, racial diversity, and political climate. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle doesn’t mention in the original Holmes stories the race of any Baker Street Irregular (BSI) or whether membership includes females. We suspect the gang mirrored the greater society with both male and female members — whites, West Africans, East Indians, and Chinese. After all, homelessness and criminality don’t discriminate based on cultural or genetic definitions.

The U.S. Southwest’s racial and social diversity during the late 19th and early 20th centuries comprised a mix of Native Americans, indigenous and European Mexicans, African Americans, Chinese immigrants, and white Europeans. The female protagonist, newspaper publisher and former Pinkerton agent, Bessie de la Paz, embodies the area’s two primary racial groups with a caucasian mother and indigenous Mexican father, both shunned by whites and tribal members alike for choosing to marry. Rather than allow social reaction to beat them down, her parents are resilient and determined, qualities they instill in Bessie who uses her diversity to excel in every challenge she faces, breaking glass ceilings to establish foundations on which others will build a better future.

We based the novel’s deputy, Orren Stokes, in part on the real-life lawman, Bass Reeves. Reeves was one of the first African-Americans to serve as a U.S. Marshall and had a long and storied career. Orren is the son of a former slave who flees the South after Orren’s mother and newborn die in childbirth. Orren and his father settle in the Las Cruces area, working on tribal farms eventually to earn enough money to buy their own place. Like Reeves, Orren becomes fluent in several indigenous languages, building trust among various tribes, leading to his desirability to Pinkerton where he and Bessie meet. 

In early notes, Bonnie wrote, “Need to give the BSI & young woman a history. What kind of education, experiences, upbringing would be usual for the time and country of origin? I think the BSI would be 8-10 years old at the time of first appearance in Sherlock Holmes stories. Would it be better to have the relationship between BSI & young woman romantic or familial? I’m leaning toward familial. Perhaps BSI is orphaned and this young woman and her family become the family he never had. The BSI could take on the role of defending Holmes & Watson. This could provide comic relief and also serve as an illustration of the handing over the reins of world power from U.K. to U.S.…”

Bonnie initially envisioned Ben as a journalist, arriving in San Francisco to work with a female American journalist on a number of cases that would be gathered into a collection of short stories, but we decided to concentrate on a novel-length tale instead. That’s when the characters experienced various transformations and the setting shifted to Las Cruces. Instead of a journalist, Ben became a renowned detective carrying on the Holmes tradition. Bessie became a former Pinkerton agent who’s now the publisher of the local newspaper. The two strike an immediate friendship that strengthens quickly, due in part to the case, in part to the personal challenges Bess faces.

Upcoming posts will explore more about the characters, the crime that has brought them together, and the literary easter eggs throughout the novel. Blog entries appear on https://windpoemcreative.blogspot.com, https://csfuqua.com/blog, Goodreads, and Facebook. The Crosses will be available from Amazon, B&N, other booksellers, and directly from the publisher, MX Publishing.

The Crosses: Getting the Historical Setting Right

This is the second of at least six posts on writing The Crosses. The third, discussing the novel’s character diversity, will be posted in a few days. If you haven’t followed the Kickstarter, please consider doing so at the link below. It will end later this month, so take advantage now to get not only the signed edition of the novel, but also other rewards that include:

• Paperback, PDF, and Hardcover Editions
• Signed paperbacks and hardcovers for USA fans
• BSI Bundle that pairs The Crosses with Kim Krisco’s novel, Irregular Lives: The Untold Story of Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars.

https://tinyurl.com/3xed6txk

The Crosses: Getting the Historical Setting Right

Sherlock Holmes-related short stories and novels are usually set in Great Britain, but Bonnie felt our Baker Street Irregulars (BSI) novel should be set in the U.S. — specifically, in Las Cruces, the town to which we relocated upon Bonnie’s retirement from federal service. We knew extensive period and regional research would be required, but the possibilities intrigued us, from the desert terrain to its racial and cultural diversity, elements that would play important roles in any story we developed.

The challenge in writing historical fiction is getting language, social, and political aspects period-correct. For example, in the novel’s first draft, alcohol was readily available, but the story’s set in 1925, when religious zealots and conservative politicians held the key to the country’s liquor cabinet, forcing the novel’s characters to employ a bit of creativity in acquiring a brew or bottle of wine.

In 1849, a year after the U.S. acquired the region through the Treaty of Guadalupe, U.S. Army Lt. Delos Bennett established a settlement of 84 city blocks which he distributed lottery-style to settlers. He named the new community Las Cruces, based on an Apache-era legend that has no verifiable historical foundation, only oral tradition that recounts an Apache attack near the town’s founding site. Survivors purportedly marked the location with three wooden crosses — hence, the name Las Cruces, Spanish for The Crosses. Today, the symbol of three crosses is widely used by residents, businesses, and local government entities.

The town’s initial population numbered a little more than 100. By 1925, it had grown to a few thousand. The local newspaper, the Rio Grande Republican, began publishing in 1881 and, despite challenges over the years, evolved into today’s Gannett-owned Sun-News. The novel’s fictional newspaper, the Gazzette, however, is not based on the Republican, and its survival at the end of the book is in doubt.

The 1920s were a transitional, volatile period. Phone service was expanding, but problems associated with long-distance communication persisted, such as letters arriving after the upcoming events they addressed had passed. Radio had begun to compete somewhat with newspapers and live entertainment for consumer attention, mainly in large cities but not so much in smaller towns. The BSI, Ben Irwin, who’s from London, England, is accustomed to entertainment venues hosting everything from burlesque to Shakespearean plays. He’s pleasantly surprised when the newspaper’s publisher, Bessie de la Paz, takes him to the local theater for a traveling vaudeville production, featuring two comics he’s seen perform in New York.

The novel’s primary characters are a diverse group who must deal with open racism more strident than the resurgence we’re seeing today. While Ben is white European, Bessie — a former Pinkerton agent (Pinkerton employed women agents, but at a lower wage than males for the same job; sound familiar?) — is half indigenous-Mexican (her father) and white (her mother).

The deputy sheriff character, Orren Stokes, is inspired by Bass Reeves, a former slave who became a law enforcement officer in the Indian Territory and one of the first black Deputy U.S. Marshals, making more than 4,000 arrests and killing at least twenty men during his career. During the novel’s murder investigation, Ben is an eyewitness to the area’s blatant racism toward Native Americans, indigenous Mexicans, blacks, and “half-breeds.” (A future post will discuss primary character development in more depth.)

The field of medicine, especially in diagnosing and treating diseases such as cancer, was also experiencing rapid development. The novel’s good doctor, Walter Cain, is not only up on the latest medical information and treatment, he’s also the town’s coroner and self-taught expert in ballistics. He’s a pretty good guy with a compassionate bedside manner that proves more critical than the medications in treating terminal patients.

Local tribal and settler farms along the Rio Grande, which continues to be a primary irrigation source, provide the primary setting for the crime and action. Had we set the story a few years later, we would’ve had to contend with the Great Depression and, despite the Rio Grande’s use, dustbowl conditions. 

Prior, during, and after the Civil War, many Southerners, both pro- and anti-slavery, migrated to southern New Mexico. Many of those Southern whites, like Bess’s maternal grandparents, opposed slavery and secession, while others, like the family of Teri Johns, Bess’s employee and friend, supported the Confederacy. Other Southern migrants included African-Americans like Orren’s father, a former slave.

Another period consideration is language use such as slang and idioms. For example, politically influential people today have “clout.” In 1925, they had “pull.” Clout as political power or influence didn’t come into use until the 1950s. Every idiom, every expression, even vulgar phrases, required period verification.

These are only a few of the considerations required to create an authentic, believable setting. Upcoming blog posts will explore other aspects of the novel, including the characters’ ethnic and cultural diversity, their backgrounds, the crime that has brought them together, and the literary easter eggs interspersed throughout the novel. I hope you find the posts interesting. Thank you for coming along on the adventure.

The Sherlock Holmes Connection to Las Cruces, NM

If you haven’t followed yet, please consider doing so. MX Publishing has launched The Crosses Kickstarter that includes not only the signed edition of the novel, but also other rewards that include:

• Paperback, PDF, and Hardcover Editions
• Signed paperbacks and hardcovers for USA fans
• BSI Bundles

The BSI Bundle pairs The Crosses with Kim Krisco’s novel, Irregular Lives: The Untold Story of Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll post several blog entries that detail various aspects of writing The Crosses. The first two, posted a few weeks ago, will be posted again, beginning with the entry below. Others will include how we developed the characters; the choice of historical setting and challenges it presented; hidden literary “easter eggs,” both personal and general, including an explanation of the desert cardinal photo posted with earlier announcements; and more. They’ll appear here on FB, but, if you want to receive them automatically, please visit my blog site at https://windpoemcreative.blogspot.com to subscribe to the RSS feed.

 

The Sherlock Holmes Connection to Las Cruces, NM

    “We should write a novel together.” With retirement approaching, Bonnie did not intend to slow down.

    “About?” I asked.

    “We could base it on a Baker Street Irregular (BSI) who’s now an adult and a renowned detective…”

    A lifelong fan of the Sherlock Holmes universe, both Conan Doyle’s original stories and those by writers since, Bon admired the street urchins Holmes occasionally employed to gather information. She suggested a BSI story set in the US could be a natural progression from the original stories.

    “And…?”

   “I’ll give it some thought.”

    And she did, filling a blue notebook with possibilities over ensuing years. 

    In 2015, Bonnie retired after three decades of federal service as a special agent for Defense Investigative Service, Defense Security Services, and Department of Army, a career she ended with a year’s service in security for NATO. As retirement neared, she began developing the potential BSI character, other characters, possible plot lines, and settings, incorporating events from her personal experience, such as the purported, but extremely suspicious, suicide of a coworker, and our planned move to Las Cruces, New Mexico, upon retirement.

    The novel wasn’t our only goal for retirement. We also planned to travel the world, which we expected would provide even more potential material for our BSI mystery. Two months after arriving in Las Cruces, those travel plans had to be placed on hold when doctors diagnosed Bonnie with endometrial cancer — luckily, stage one. A hysterectomy solved the problem, with no spread to surrounding tissues or lymph nodes. During the following months of monitoring checkups, we remained close to home, visiting only New Mexico destinations, all the while discussing novel possibilities. 

    As ideas began to coalesce into a possible storyline and doctors relegated medical checkups to a yearly basis, we again made travel plans. And again cancer put a stop to those plans, this time stage two/three colorectal cancer, which would require nearly two years of treatment, beginning with chemo and radiation, followed by surgery, followed by a second round of chemo. Meanwhile, Bonnie kept augmenting that notebook with possibilities.

    By 2020, the oncologist had declared her cancer-free — just in time for the pandemic. We continued developing ideas for the novel as Bon immersed herself in her two favorite creative skills, culinary arts and crochet, and I completed a literary project. By late 2021, an end to pandemic restrictions came into view as destinations beyond the horizon called. But…

    The cancer returned, this time stage four. We put aside the book and all other projects to concentrate on treatment and recovery. Nevertheless, despite the oncologist’s optimistic outlook of at least a five-year survival, chemotherapy proved ineffective, and the pain became excruciating. Bonnie passed away ten months after diagnosis.

    I buried myself in work, finishing several writing and music projects. Somewhere in there, I opened her notebook of ideas and heard her voice, excited, full of expectation and anticipation, as I read her words. And I realized I could keep her close by doing the very thing we’d planned to do — writing that book together.

    Three years later, The Crosses ~ A Baker Street Irregulars Mystery — set in 1925 Las Cruces, New Mexico, featuring a BSI, a female Native American-Caucasian newspaper publisher, and an African-American deputy sheriff, working together to solve the murders of three local tribal councillors — has been completed. Bonnie and I have done our best to make The Crosses a good read, an honorable entry into, and member of, the Sherlock Holmes universe. I’m deeply grateful to MX Publishing, the world’s largest publisher of Sherlock Holmes literature, for deeming it worthwhile.

    In the coming months, background posts will explore the novel’s historical setting, the characters’ racial diversity, the BSI’s background and circumstances that have brought him to the Southwest, and the literary “Easter eggs” interspersed throughout the novel, which I believe you’ll find interesting.

    I hope you’ll join me on this adventure as we realize together one of Bonnie’s goals, to write and publish an entertaining novel with human depth, The Crosses.

Review of Sherlock Holmes and the Man Who Believed in Fairies by F.R. Maher

When fairy hoaxer, Dan Baines, asked F.R. Maher to give a presentation on fairies at a past Doomsday Gathering, UK’s annual event examining the strange and mysterious, it planted the seed for what would become a play and then a novel, both titled Sherlock Holmes and the Man Who Believed in Fairies. Maher began her presentation by asking, “What about the Cottingley Fairies?”— five photographs taken in 1917 by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths who lived in Cottingley, England. Although Sir Arthur Conan Doyle embraced the photos as incontrovertible evidence of fairy existence, the images were ultimately determined to be a hoax. When Maher researched the incident, however, certain questions arose about the initial investigation, questions that evolved into a clever Sherlock Holmes-based examination.

Blending fiction and reality, the novel’s plot revolves around the fairy scandal, pitting pragmatic Holmes against his fanciful creator, Doyle. Having recently reunited with John Watson as they enter the winter of their lives, Holmes is enraged, since his name is forever linked to Doyle’s, that Doyle has so publicly embraced the photographs as authentic. 

As Doyle becomes more entrenched in spiritualism and mystical belief, Holmes investigates the photographs to prove they’re part of an elaborate hoax to hoodwink both Doyle and the general public. The investigation leads Holmes to ponder life and death in terms uncommon for the detective, debating with himself as much as with Doyle’s position whether mystical possibilities can indeed be considered realities or if they can only be accepted on faith, subject only to individual perspective and conviction.

Sherlock Holmes and the Man Who Believed in Fairies offers a delightful exploration of the Cottingley Fairies hoax through the relationship of a rational fictional character and his more spiritual creator. The novel is available through Amazon.com, other booksellers, and directly from the publisher, MX Publishing.