Another New Release of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories

Three new volumes of the wildly successful MX Books of New Sherlock Holmes Stories will soon be released by MX Publishing. The release will comprise parts XXII, XXIII, and XXIV. With this release, the series has grown to over 500 new Holmes adventures by nearly 250 contributors from around the world. The theme is Some More Untold Tales, meaning adventures that were alluded to in the original stories by Sir Artur Conan Doyle, but that he never got around to writing. My new story, Another Case of Identity, will be found in Part XXIV.

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories was first published in 2015. It was a huge three-book set featuring over sixty new traditional Holmes exploits, all set within the correct time period. It was wildly successful, sparking the demand for even more traditional Holmes adventures

Each volume in the latest release contains forwards by the noted Sherlockians Otto Penzler, Roger Johnson, Lizzy Butler, Steve Emecz, and David Marcum, as well as stories by the following contributors:

Part XXII: 1877-1887

S.F. Bennett, William Todd, Geri Schear, Susan Knight, David Marcum, Bob Bishop, Tracy J. Revels, Chris Chan, Richard Paolinelli, Derrick Belanger, Stephen Mason, Leslie Charteris and Denis Green, Tim Symonds, Liese Sherwood-Fabre, Ian Ableson, Chris Chan, Mark Mower, Robert Stapleton, Roger Riccard, Kevin P. Thornton, and Denis O. Smith , and a poem by Christopher James

Part XXIII: 1887-1894

Will Murray (2 stories), Tim Gambrell (2 stories), Craig Janacek, I.A. Watson, Jane Rubino, Paul Hiscock, Hugh Ashton, Mike Chinn, Shane Simmons, Dacre Stoker and Leverett Butts, David Marcum, Matthew J. Elliott, Paul D. Gilbert, Tracy J. Revels, Margaret Walsh, Arthur Hall, Barry Clay, Steven Philip Jones, Jan van Koningsveld, and Marcia Wilson, and a poem by John Linwood Grant

Part XXIV: 1895-1903

Marcia Wilson, Brenda Seabrooke, Stephen Herczeg, Tracy J. Revels, Kevin P. Thornton, Thomas A. Burns, Jr., Dick Gillman, Jayantika Ganguly, John Davis, DJ Tyrer, Harry DeMaio, Arthur Hall (2 stories), Susan Knight, David Marcum, Craig Stephen Copland (2 stories), Gayle Lange Puhl, John Lawrence, John Linwood Grant, and Paula Hammond, and a poem by Joseph W. Svec III

The series is particularly noteworthy because all of the stories are strictly canonical – there are no anachronisms, supernatural events, or other occurrences not justified by Doyle’s original stories. Any of the stories in these volumes could have appeared in the Strand Magazine. Holmes and Watson are portrayed as the Victorian gentlemen and heroes that they were; not as the caricatures so prominent in other modern depictions.

This series was conceived as a philanthropic project; all contributor royalties go to the Stepping Stones School for special needs children at Undershaw, one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former homes in the UK. To date the project has raised nearly $70,000 for the school. The collection has had some very famous authors contribute to it, including Lee Child, Jonathan Kellerman, Lyndsay Faye, Bonnie MacBird and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The link for the Kickstarter is below. Please follow it and reserve your copies now!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mxpublishing/the-mx-book-of-new-sherlock-holmes-stories-xxii-to-xxiv?fbclid=IwAR28I0_3LETCtAbe6aV_o2x7_EBkHhzV9z00Kv6nelvsQ2WBm70Dd3hmCVI

Steam Geared – Victorian Steampunk Erotica, by Robinette Waterson

Steam Geared: Victorian Steampunk EroticaSteam Geared: Victorian Steampunk Erotica by Robinette Waterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I saw the words Victorian Steampunk Erotica, I wondered if they should ever belong together. Unfortunately, my answer is maybe not. I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s mastery of Victorian language and locutions (for me, that was the best feature of the book), and I thought that the weaving of the steampunk technology into the Victorian setting was artistic and imaginative. I didn’t enjoy the erotic scenes quite so much, because they seemed to focus on sensation more than emotion and some of the metaphors chosen seemed a bit contrived. But the actual reason that I downgraded the book a star is that I don’t think that the erotic scenes meshed with the plots of the stories very well-many of the stories would have been fine without them. I think I would have liked Steam Geared better if was solely Victorian Steampunk stories or solely erotica. However, I still recommend Steam Geared to those who like this sort of thing, primarily because of the quality of the writing.

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