Silent Meridian is a page-turning novel
about telepathy, telekinesis, and time travel. The sprawling tale stretches from
1898 to 1914 with bounces back to ancient China and feudal Japan, and forward
to the 23rd century. Major characters include H.G. Wells, Harry
Houdini, Carl Jung, Sax Rohmer, Sigmund Freud, William Butler Yeats and –
especially! – Arthur Conan Doyle. Baker
Street Beat recently had lunch with author Elizabeth Crowens and
subsequently asked her a few questions.
I think of Silent Meridian as “genre-bending” in
its mixture of fantasy, historical fiction, and adventure. How would you
characterize it?
Definitely cross-genre. My log line is: A 19th century X-Files meets H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine featuring Arthur Conan
Doyle and his paranormal enthusiast partner, John Patrick Scott, the Time
Traveler Professor. Everyone knows Arthur Conan Doyle for Sherlock Holmes, but
a high percentage of readers have no idea that he had a passionate interest in
Spiritualism and to scientifically prove various psychic and preternatural
phenomena, and this is documented in all of his biographies. However Silent Meridian is clearly speculative
fiction (science fiction/fantasy/horror), even in the Steampunk subgenre with
its time travel elements. It can also fall into the categories of time slip,
secret history and alternate history.
The book covers a lot of
territory in time and space. How much and what kind of research did you do? How
long did it take you to write the book, from idea to completion?
It took four lengthy trips overseas and an enormous amount of
reading and research to put this book together. Some of the reading had been
done over the course of more than thirty years, but when I finally buckled down
and set my mind to this project the book took approximately five years to
complete. One of the highlights was spending nearly a week in the British
Library reading personal letters of Conan Doyle’s.
One of the many historical
characters in the book is, of course, Arthur Conan Doyle. Why ACD?
Although highly fictionalized, I came up with the idea for
the series based on diaries I found from someone who claimed he had an unusual
and secret relationship with Conan Doyle and a few of the other famous people
mentioned in the novel. Most of that information could not be proven, and some
of it was quite farfetched. However, there was always the possibility of
changing that person’s name and taking it up a few notches into the speculative
fiction realm. Therefore I took that ball and ran with it.
Arthur isn’t always admirable
in your book. Why did you make him like that? What has been the reaction?
I knew that treading this path would be controversial, but
let’s face it, a lot of that was based on documented incidents. Later on in his
career he did rub a few people the wrong way with some of his fanatic beliefs.
The Cottingley Fairies was an embarrassing example. It should also be noted
that in real life his personality sometimes reflected the complete opposite of
Sherlock Holmes. In The Sussex Vampire,
Sherlock might have said, “The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need
apply,” but in actuality Conan Doyle’s personality was often more like Fox
Mulder from the X Files, the believer
vs. Agent Scully, who was the skeptic and scientist and more like Sherlock in
reasoning.
In my novel, Arthur’s colleagues at the Society for Psychical
Research seemed to be on the same
page, but I portrayed H.G. Wells as being much more pragmatic and, at times,
somewhat of an antagonist. So far no one has confronted me with any
disappointing reactions. Besides, all interesting characters must have flaws to
portray a human element. Even Sherlock had his seven percent solution. The rest
I have to keep secret, as that will spoil some of the upcoming novels in the
series.
When and how did you become
acquainted with Mr. Sherlock Holmes?
Growing up I was familiar with the Basil Rathbone films. He
was incredibly handsome and, to me, still has the best physical likeness to how
I imagined Sherlock. I had no idea until I started working on this project that
Sherlock Holmes won the Guinness Book of World
Records for having the most actors portray him either in film, television
or theater. The only character to surpass that was Dracula, but that character
is non-human. So, as I dived headfirst into this project, I began to appreciate
the interpretations by Jeremy Brett, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Robert Downey,
Jr., amongst others.
What have been your
interactions with the Sherlockian community over the years?
I’m an active participant in several of the Greater New York
area scions, ASH Wednesday (by the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes), the
Priory Scholars, and when I can make it with The Montague Street Lodgers and
Epilogues in New Jersey. On my most recent trip overseas, thanks to
Sherlockians Bonnie MacBird and Robert Stek, I had the pleasure of meeting
Barry Young from the Sherlock Holmes Society of Scotland, Roger Johnson and his
wife Jean from the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, Laurence Deloison from
the Paris scion, and Luke Benjamin Kuhns, who arranged for me to have a tour of
the newly restored Undershaw.
Other than ACD, what writers
have influenced you the most?
Other than Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells and J.K. Rowling
have been huge influences and, most recently, Tim Powers, one of the godfathers
of Steampunk. I’m also a film fanatic and have been influenced quite a bit by
Hollywood.
What’s next in the Time
Traveling Professor series?
A Pocketful of Lodestones, the sequel to Silent Meridian, which will start out in
1914 on the Western Front. We will follow some of our familiar characters – John
Patrick Scott, H.G. Wells, Harry Houdini, and of course, Arthur Conan Doyle – with their involvement in the Great War.
Will ACD continue to be a
major character in future books?
Without revealing any spoilers, the answer is yes. When you
read Silent Meridian you will
discover that there are lessons to be learned from the past. They affect the
present and will continue to haunt characters into the future if not properly
resolved. I’m also developing a spinoff series with him and H.G. Wells, as well
as Houdini, that does not involve John Patrick Scott. Don’t want to reveal too
much about that now.
Do you have any other
non-related literary projects in the works?
Yes. I’m developing several projects, with the most pertinent
one being a domestic suspense thriller with a female protagonist that takes
place in 1985. The title of that novel is Memoirs
of an American Butterfly. Although the sequel to Silent Meridian is about sixty percent of more completed, I’d like
to finish this one first.
Silent Meridian has been
nominated for a few awards. Do you care to elaborate on that?
I’m really excited to announce that my novel has made the
short list of finalists for Chanticleer Review’s 2016 Cygnus Award for Speculative
Fiction, as well as the 2016 Goethe Award for post-1750’s Historical Fiction.
I’ve also submitted it for consideration for various other awards such as the
Bram Stoker Award for First Novel, the Sidewise Award for Alternate Fiction,
the John W. Campbell Award for Best First Novel, and hopefully I’ll make the
ballot for next year’s World Fantasy Award.
Silent Meridian – Time Traveler Professor – Book 1 is available from all good bookstores including The Strand Magazine, Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository. In ebook format it is in Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Apple iBooks (iPad/iPhone).
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