Taking Sherlock to School
In which I go back to school, and ponder the arrival of jet airliners among the usual round of words written and spoken
“So where do you get your ideas from?” It didn’t take long for someone among the sea of raised hands to ask the inevitable question. It might be the one question that writers hear more than any other, but with this audience, it turned out to be a great way to get things going.
I was standing facing a group of around thirty 4th and 5th graders at a local elementary school, having been invited by their librarian and an English teacher to come in and talk about the writing process. Rather than give any sort of presentation I decided to just jump straight in and see if there were any questions. With an adult audience, it often takes a little cajoling to get someone to raise a hand, but not these kids. They were prepared and loaded with questions. For the next hour, there were always hands raised waiting to pounce with another question or two.
As prep for the visit they had read one of my Sherlock Holmes short stories, so the discussions ranged from ‘how do you come up with an idea for a Holmes story,’ to dealing with writers’ block, getting started as a writer, to walking them through different parts of the writing process from the need for multiple drafts to editing and more.
They all asked some tough, and smart questions and I could have kept chatting with them for a lot longer.
In many ways, it was a humbling experience, and it was a sheer delight to be among a group of kids enthusiastic about words and with a desire to produce their own art.
Other Stuff
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Brabazon Bits
This week I finished the first draft of the chapter covering the fascinating story of the development and adoption of the jet engine. The focus over the last few days has been on how the developments in the UK, Germany, and America were happening in parallel and the cross-over points between them. The more I read about the subject it seems that rather than being the result of a single individual's moment of genius, the jet was a technology whose time had just arrived in the development curve of aviation technology.
I concluded with a look at the development of the jet-powered Comet airliner and its arrival on the scene as a contemporary of the Brabazon.
Here’s an extract about the arrival of the Comet on the aviation scene.
The future had arrived, and its impact is poignantly, and perfectly, illustrated with a photograph taken at the following year’s Farnborough show in which the Comet can be seen heading up towards the skies as it passes over the Brabazon parked on its static display stand.
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2024 - “Killraven” by Don McGregor, P. Craig Russell, and various
This post-apocalyptic return of the Martians from War of the Worlds title starts as a mediocre repetitive series of new location / new monster / fight it / move-on stories not helped by a rotation of different artists producing noticeable tonal shifts.
But at the halfway point artist writer McGregor is teamed with artist Craig Russell and the series starts to evolve into a more thoughtful science-fiction epic that culminates in the excellent graphic novel that caps off the storyline.
As much as the story development is interesting the real delight of this volume is seeing the evolution of regular comics artist Craig Russell into the innovative layouts and ethereal artwork of P. Craig Russell.
Podcast Procastinations
The first episode of our new On Her Majesty’s Secret Podcast show, James Bond vs Spy Movies is now available on your preferred podcast platform. - Just how did the Manchurian Candidate stack up against Dr. No? It was closer than you might think.
You can check out the discussion right HERE
Want to know my thoughts on the conclusion of the 1943 Batman serial? - Join me and the rest of The Longbox Crusade crew to find out.
Bond Briefings
The new bi-weekly James Bond Lexicon newsletter is off to a great start with more subscribers than we could have hoped for over the first few weeks. - Thanks to everyone who has subscribed.
In our latest issue, I take a brief look at Bond on Vinyl, along with news of Ian Fleming Publications 2024 plans, and a sneak behind-the-scenes look at the setup of the upcoming Bond-In-Motion exhibit in Washington DC.
If you enjoy the worlds of 007 and haven’t subscribed, you can join us at the link below
Before They Were Beatles Updates
The latest edition of BEFORE THEY WERE BEATLES PRESENTS: THE FORGOTTEN BEATLES podcast is now available on your favorite podcast platform.
In this month's episode, we tell the story of the young man with the guitar sitting in the corner - Ken Brown of the Quarrymen and the Blackjacks. You can give it a listen HERE.
The February issue of the Before They Were Beatles newsletter is now out in which we take a sidebar to talk about the influence of legendary “Play in a Day” guitarist, Bert Weedon. If you don’t want to miss out on the expanded story of the early Beatles history, you can sign up for a subscription below.
Weekly Web Round-Up
Forest Comics - It’s been a busy copy of weeks at the Forest Comics online eBay store with steady sales across many categories and titles. Gill also spent some time adding a new batch of graphic novels to the listings - which you can find right HERE.
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week we head into November 1968 with new issues of Detective Comics, Batman, Justice League of America, and World’s Finest
This week's standout for me was the Batman #206 cover. Not only does it set up the mystery of why Batman is on death row, but having the titular hero with his back turned to the audience is unusual, yet your eye line is drawn to his path to apparent doom with a subtle clue that all is not what it seems (check out the boots).
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See you next time
Alan J. Porter
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