Elizabeth Varadan on Writing Sherlock Holmes Mystery for Kids

Today I’m interviewing Elizabeth Varadan, author of the middle grade mystery Imogene and The Case of The Missing Pearls, featuring Sherlock Holmes. I think you’ll find her experience in writing about a classic character interesting.

Tell us a little about your book.

Imogene is a ten-year-old girl in Victorian England. Her father is a banker, so they have a few servants, and Imogene has a governess who teachers her piano, handwriting, embroidery, and the like. A real education isn’t considered necessary for a girl of her place in society. Her job in life is to develop skills that attractive a rich husband.

But Imogene, from snooping the cases in the newspapers the adults have discarded, thinks she would rather be a detective. When her mother’s pearls go missing and Sherlock Holmes is called in, Imogene sees her chance to learn from great detective. She manages to get him to let her be his assistant and keep track of what goes on in the house. At the kitchen door, she meets Rusty, Mr. Holmes’s messenger, and a friendship develops between them as they try to solve the case themselves. (Rusty becomes her self-appointed partner.) Being headstrong, Imogene decides to take matters into her own hands, and her life is soon in danger.

How did you get the idea to do a Sherlock Holmes story? Why this story, with this heroine?

A trip to the Sherlock Holmes museum planted a little seed in my mind. And a book I found in a used bookstore with a younger protagonist, Kitty and Mr. Kipling, by Lenore Blegvad made that little seed grow. In Kitty and Mr. Kipling, a little girl in Vermont becomes friends with Rudyard Kipling when he and his family move next door for a year. It’s actually based on reality, but the idea took hold that it would be fun to write a story about a young girl who becomes friends with Sherlock Holmes. (I’m a Sherlock Holmes fan.)

That put me in Victorian England, and I had to figure out how they would become friends, given his personality. That problem suggested a mystery, and the mystery would have to take place in Imogene’s home, as young girls couldn’t be out and about on their own without chaperones, etc. (The name Imogene came from my ten-year-old alter ego, when I was a Nancy Drew fan and wanted to be a detective.)

Did you look into the legal ramifications of writing about Sherlock Holmes before you started? Did you have a publisher in mind?

None of that to begin with. I just had fun writing the story. And then I started submitting it around. One editor kindly told me about the legal aspects: In the United States, the copyright for Doyle’s characters still operates, so I had to get permission from the Conan Doyle Estate to get my book published. A little research led me to the American lawyer for the estate, Jon Lellenberg, who has been a jewel. The license cost $250.00 to get the license, and they get a percentage of your royalties after the $250.00 is used up. But I don’t mind that. Doyle created one of the most famous characters of all time, and why should everyone benefit from that if they can’t too? It also boosted my confidence when I got the license. Someone besides me thought the book had possibilities.

MX Publishing has a large selection of Sherlock Holmes titles, many of them for adults. How did you connect with the publisher? What was the process of working with them?

Jon Lellenberg suggested MX. Steve Emecs has been great to work with, and it’s been nice to connect with other writers of Sherlock Holmes fiction. Most of them are devoted fans that know a lot more about the canon than I do, and I’ve made friends with some of them. Now I feel like I have more experts to consult for the sequels I’ve planned.

Do you have plans for more books following Imogene and Sherlock Holmes?

I do have two sequels planned for Imogene and Rusty (and of course, Sherlock.) But I’m also working on a “cozy” mystery for adults, and I’ve been working forever on a story that takes place in Sacramento, 1919, and features a ghost. Some books just take longer than others to get right, but this is a book near and dear to my heart.

Thanks for sharing your story, Elizabeth.

Thanks so much for having me on your blog. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Connect with Elizabeth Varadan:

Victorian Scribbles blog

Elizabeth Varadan’s Fourth Wish blog.

Twitter: @4thWishVaradan

Facebook

Amazon Author page

Interview: R.M. Clark, The Secret at Haney Field by Kell Andrews

A few weeks ago, Booklist Online released an annotated list of the top 10 sports books for youth of the year -- and all of them featured male protagonists. After an outcry, Booklist published a list of sports books featuring girls and women -- well overdue in a summer where one of the top real-life sports heroes was Mo'ne Davis, the 12-year-old Philadelphian who became the first girl to earn a win and to pitch a shutout in Little League World Series history.

So now, with the Major League Baseball postseason approaching, the time is right for The Secret at R.M. Clark, The Secret at Haney Field  MB Publishing, 2014Haney Field: A Baseball Mystery, a new middle-grade novel by R.M. Clark that features a 12-year-old girl who is a baseball savant.

When April O'Day wins a job as a bat retriever for the Harpoons, her favorite minor league team, a perfect summer seems assured. But who are the ghostly "shadow players" she can see on the field after hours? She and her best friend work to uncover a mystery that touches some of the least glorious days of American baseball history.

April is an appealing character -- funny and smart, with encyclopedic baseball knowledge that makes her indispensable to her favorite minor league baseball team -- and the baseball action goes right into the dugout. April's wry voice is a perfect match for an eerie mystery with a satisfying conclusion and a touch of nostalgia. 

R.M. Clark is the author of Center Point, an adult thriller, and another middle-grade timeslip mystery, Dizzy Miss Lizzie, which will be released in November 2014 by Writers AMuse Me publishing. He was kind enough to answer a few of my questions.

Most of the books you write are middle-grade. What about the age group appeals to you? 

There's an honesty to middle grade fiction that I find refreshing. The characters at this age have fewer distractions (like relationships, jobs, cars) than older characters, so they tend to stick to the issue at hand. I find it very easy to keep a middle grade plot moving along. Plus, you can add wacky stuff like aliens and time travel and it's perfectly fine with the audience. But my biggest reason for writing middle grade is because the voices in my head speak to me that way. I guess I'm just wired for it.

You obviously have a strong love of baseball. What is your own background with the sport and how did you bring it into The Secret at Haney Field? 

I played from Little League through high school and two summers of American Legion baseball. I damaged my shoulder after my senior year, so I began coaching. I put in three years as an American Legion coach, starting when I was 19. Years later, my sons started playing and I coached both of them up through the ranks, from age 5 to 16. Plus, I've always considered myself to be an amateur baseball historian. I watched the Baseball documentary by Ken Burns multiple times and I love that baseball is full of colorful characters. One day I decided to create some of my own.

In this book and in Dizzy Miss Lizzie, there's sense that the past is not over and that's it's close enough to access. There's also a strong New England flavor. I'm curious whether those two things are related. 

They are. In practically every New England town I've been to there are houses and buildings and other structures that date back to the 1700s, sometimes the 1600s. They call to me. Those bygone days want to be remembered, so I find a way to incorporate New England history into most every story. We can learn a lot from the past, so I make it happen.

Baseball is often perceived as an all-American game, and it's interesting to see how the history of the game intertwines with darker aspects of American history, such as segregated baseball teams within the larger context of segregation, discrimination, and limited opportunities for black Americans. Why did you choose this as a theme? 

 I think the overall contribution to baseball history by players in the Negro Leagues is still under valued. There were so many talented players who were good enough to play in the majors years before Jackie Robinson but were kept out due a "gentlemen's agreement" by the white owners. Many of the owners and baseball executives who blatantly supported segregation and discrimination and brought great dishonor to the game are still considered bastions of the sport. In this book I wanted to use a more modern example of a "gentlemen's agreement" and show that people can change for the better not by changing the past, but by honoring it.

Despite its imperfections (and maybe because of them), there's a lot that young people can take away from a game like baseball. What what do you hope young players gain from the sport? What do you hope young readers take from your book? 

Baseball is a team sport that relies on individual achievement. There's a unique fairness to it in that everyone gets their chance to contribute (there's no crying or hiding in baseball). Most importantly, it's fun! As for my book, I hope to show that you're never too young to impart wisdom and you're never too old to accept it. When the past comes back to haunt you, make amends and become a better person for it.

Thanks to R.M. Clark for his answers. Now what are your favorite middle-grade sports books, featuring protagonists of any gender?

The Luck of Reading The Luck Uglies: Review of an Adventurous Debut Novel by Paul Durham

There are books we all hope to find that do more than simply tell a story. These books take us with them. They take us with them on the adventure and we feel like we know the world around us when we go. And these are rare treasures we keep and pass along. Author Paul Durham’s first MG/YA novel, The Luck Uglies, is one of those rare books.

An adventure and an introduction to Village Drowning and all its inhabitants, The Luck Uglies has a timeless feel, as if it might just as believably come from the hidden library in a castle as from the work of a modern writer.  It is both clever, never underestimating the intelligence of the young reader, and exciting, never forgetting that everyone loves a good adventure.

 

We were able to catch Paul Durham in the midst of all the excitement of The Luck Uglies. While there are heaps of questions I could list, like Rye O'Chanter, we will have to be content with a few at a time:

1. Who are a few of your favorite authors and/or books (few people have just one!) that might have inspired some of your writing? 

 There are so many great middle grade authors and books it is indeed difficult to narrow it down, but I always find myself coming back to the same examples.

The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander has stayed with me ever since I was a child. I’ve reread the series twice as an adult and it still holds up as compelling reading. Its five books tell a story that is timeless and epic in scope, and yet the storytelling remains intimate and accessible.

A more contemporary favorite is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. This was one of those books that just knocked me over when I read it because it was so good. It's hard to call it a children's book because, really, it's for everybody. It is exactly the type of book that inspires me to be a better writer.

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2. You mention that you started telling the story to your kids. Who were your first characters? 

Rye O'Chanter was the very first character to make it onto the page. This seems so fitting because she was heavily inspired by my own daughter, who prompted my to write The Luck Uglies in the first place. Of course, Rye needed cohorts, so her little sister Lottie and her best friends, Folly and Quinn, weren't far behind. 

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3. There is such a rich Village Drowning history the reader can sense. Can you give us a few things about the place that aren't in the book? 

That's such a great question--I often think of Village Drowning as its own "character." Like any character, there are things about it that even I haven't discovered yet, but here are two tidbits I can share. Beneath the streets of the village, there is a place even older than the Spoke that the link rats call home. Also, in addition to the bogs and river, Drowning is bordered by a brackish body of water called the Great Eel Pond. Enormous culverts drain water from the pond under, rather than over, the village. Needless to say, Drowning remains damp even under the best of circumstances. 

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4. Is this the beginning of a journey for Rye? Are there more Luck Ugly book coming? 

Yes, I'm happy to report that this is just the start of Rye's journey. The Luck Uglies is a trilogy, with more books to come in spring 2015 and 2016. I'm finishing Book 2 right now.

Durham weaves a tale that truly brings you into Rye O’Chanter’s strange and mysterious world. The story makes you wish the book would not end so you can uncover more secrets that promise to be hidden there.

- eden unger bowditch

Giveaway of new MG mystery debut DIZZY MISS LIZZIE and interview with R.M. Clark

I’m very pleased to welcome Robert Clark to Project Mayhem today to talk about his new middle grade mystery debut, DIZZY MISS LIZZIE, and to offer a giveaway of it. My 11-year-old daughter read it first and liked it so much, I had to take it away from her at the dinner table and then also the same night when she went to bed (mean mom.) She got up early the next morning to finish!  That’s about the biggest endorsement I can give to a book. The book also has some fascinating real history in it, which I always like in a story. In interviewing Robert, I found out some interesting things about him as well. It’s always a surprise to find out about a writer’s background!

First, here’s a description of DIZZY MISS LIZZIE:

Thirteen-year-old Kasey Madrid finally has the freedom she's always wanted. Instead of putting up with sitters or camps, she can spend the summer home alone in their "new" house. Never mind that the house is a creepy old place built in the nineteenth century. The creep factor skyrockets when Kasey meets a nineteenth-century girl named Lizzie Bellows in the basement. It takes some time for Lizzie to convince Kasey she's not a ghost, though neither girl understands why they can see each other when they live 120 years apart. The difference in their worlds doesn't stop the two from becoming fast friends. Lizzie's life isn't easy though. In her time, her parents died in a fire many believe Lizzie started herself. As the summer passes and Kasey learns more about her own past, she is shocked to discover Lizzie is part of a terrible Madrid family secret. It's up to Kasey to go back to Lizzie's world to unlock the secret and clear Lizzie's name.

Bob, you have a fascinating background for someone writing books for middle graders. Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I'm a computer scientist with the Department of the Navy. I live in SE Massachusetts (near Fall River) with my wife and two sons. I started writing fiction in early 2007 and am currently at work on my eighth novel. Dizzy Miss Lizzie is my third and it got me an agent in the fall of 2009. The agent couldn't sell the manuscript and we parted ways after less than a year. I kept writing new material while submitting Lizzie to smaller houses. I turned down several offers, then finally agreed to a contract with Marsha Morris at Stanley Publishing in August, 2011. As luck would have it, I got an agent for another book (Good Golly Miss Molly) just two weeks after signing with Stanley. I am now represented by Frances Black and Jennifer Mishler of Literary Counsel.

How did you think up the idea for the book? (Dee’s daughter’s question) 

I live a few houses away from the one-time summer home of Lizzie Borden's family (Lizzie lived there in the 1880s). We thought about buying the house, but it was too old for our tastes. As I walked by it one day, I wondered "what if we did buy it" and "what if we could talk with a young Lizzie Borden." I changed the main character to a young girl whose family buys the house and I created a secret room in the basement for them to meet. The whole "friensdship with Lizzie Borden" proved to be too dark for my first set of readers, so I created fictional Lizzie Bellows and lightened the mood considerably.

I was interesting the setting, the southeastern part of Massachusetts near Mount Hope Bay. How did you research that part of the story?

The story is set in the fictional town of Chepstow, across the Taunton River from Fall Fiver. Chepstow is a composite of two "towns across the river," including my hometown. I thought it best to use a fictional setting. Our public library has some great books on Victorian-era Fall River, plus I scoured the internet to ensure historical accuracy about clothing, transportation, speech and even the details of the Slade's Ferry Bridge.

Is there any basis in real life for the legends used in the stories? (I’m thinking of the curse stones in particular.)

The Boston Post cane, given to the oldest living resident of a town, was real. The Fall River Press cane and its legend are fictional. Curse stones do exist, but the history and usage in the book are made up.

Did you read mysteries or ghost stories as a child?

Oddly enough, I didn't enjoy mysteries until I started writing. My childhood goal was to become a sportswriter, so I spent many hours reading bios of famous athletes. I went through a Stephen King phase in college, but mysteries are a recent pleasure.

What are you working on now?

I writing an Alice In Wonderland-type middle grade story about a boy who wonders why all the big clocks in his town have stopped. He gets sucked into a crazy "clock world" where two rival villages battle for control and the only way to solve the conflict it is to find the elusive Tick Tick Man. It's completely different from my other stories and it should be done some time this spring.

Robert, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by Project Mayhem. We’re offering a signed copy of DIZZY MISS LIZZIE as a giveaway. To enter, if you are already following Project Mayhem, just leave a comment. If you aren’t yet following us, join us and then leave a comment.  The deadline to enter is 12:00 A.M. on Tuesday, February 28^th, and the winner will be picked in a random drawing. I’ll announce the winner later that day.

~ Dee Garretson