Amy H. Sturgis's Blog, page 160

Random Good Things

Apologies for being quiet lately. At the moment, there just aren't enough hours in the week. However, soon you'll be hearing from me every day (in October), so maybe you should just count your blessings. Ha!


Some good things...

* Pumpkin spice lattes are back at Starbucks. For me, this is like Christmas and New Year's Day combined. Mmmm, pumpkin. Fall, come to me!

* The fabulous Rebecca MacPherson has joined the new group blog The Fabulous Female , which celebrates women of history and today.

* Speaking of fabulous people, and related to my last post, the always-awesome cookiefleck made it to the ceremony for Buddy Holly's new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She posted pictures here.

* Next week Tori Amos's new album, Night of Hunters, is released. New Tori Amos Album Day is one of those holidays I always try to observe. The album is up now for NPR's "First Listen." If you only have time for one track, I recommend "Your Ghost."

* I've accepted a lovely invitation to be one of five special guest speakers at next year's conference on dystopia and the problem of technology (official title TBA), which will be sponsored by The Working Group on Political Theory at Duke University. It should be a fantastic event.

* Later this week we're hearing Wes Moore, the author of the New York Times bestseller The Other Wes Moore , speak about his work, and then attending a reception with him. I'm looking forward to it.

* Here's a new quiz from Smart Pop Books (in support of Nyx in the House of Night: Mythology, Folklore, and Religion in the P.C. and Kristin Cast Vampyre Series , which includes an essay by yours truly).

* Speaking of Smart Pop Books, Fringe Science: Parallel Universes, White Tulips, and Mad Scientists is now available. You can read excerpts from the essays, including my "In Search of Fringe's Literary Ancestors," here.

* Happy early birthday wishes to ekeppich , jinxed_wood , princeofcairo , chickenfried_jo , and llembas ! May each of you enjoy many happy returns of the day.


Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
- George Eliot

Happy 75th, Buddy Holly!

I was raised with a deep and abiding love for Buddy Holly, one of the great fathers of rock-n-roll, the man who brought rhythm-and-blues to white audiences, country-western to black audiences, and helped create the vibrant fusion of rockabilly that gave birth to modern rock.

He is my father's favorite musician, and by the time I was in kindergarten, I could sing his entire discography from memory. I still can. He recorded music for only two years. He died at the age of 22. His influence, however, is alive and well.

Today Buddy Holly would have turned 75. Today he receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


I'd like to share one of my personal favorites with you in honor of this day, a song written by Buddy Holly, with vocals and acoustic guitar by him, recorded at home in his apartment the month before his tragic plane crash. Here's "Learning the Game":




And here's another favorite (also on YouTube): "Well... All Right."

* From today's LA Times: "Buddy Holly's 75th on Wednesday? That'll be the day."
* From LubbockOnline: "Holly's star on Hollywood Walk of Fame leads to Music Box concert."
* "Buddy Holly: 75 and Timeless"

"I'm not trying to stump anybody... it's the beauty of the language that I'm interested in."
- Buddy Holly

Wildfires, News, & a Sherlockian Pastiche Party, Revisited!

* I'd like to give a grateful shout-out to the brave men and women of the fire crews from Macomb, Wanette, Bethel, Tecumseh, McLoud, Shawnee, and Pink, Oklahoma, as well as the Cleveland County Task Force, with fire crews from Norman, Slaughterville, Cedar Country, Moore, and Little Axe, the Pottawatomie County sheriff's office and tribal police, and the Black Hawk helicopter crews from the Oklahoma National Guard, all of whom worked together along with local landowners yesterday to end a sudden 300-acre wildfire that raged up to the very border of my parents' property. Fortunately, no one was harmed, ranch animals were safely evacuated, and the fire has been contained (although there's an alert for another one now less than ten miles away). Here's hoping for cooler weather and rain for the area this weekend. You can see footage of yesterday's fire from Oklahoma City's KOCO here.

* In general news, I was delighted to see Anthony Letizia of Alterna-tv.com just posted a lovely review of Fringe Science: Parallel Universes, White Tulips, and Mad Scientists .

* Happy early birthday wishes to marthawells , aragornlover , snard , and alii_s ! May each of you enjoy a wonderful day and a fantastic year to come.


Now, about those Sherlock Holmes pastiches...

Some months ago, I asked for recommendations of Sherlock Holmes pastiches and received some great replies. (Thank you!) I waited until I'd finished going through all of Arthur Conan Doyle's canonical Holmesian writings in order, but now I've embarked on my pastiche reading. I'm still only "baby steps" into the project, but I thought I'd list the novels I've read thus far, ranked in order from my most favorite to my least favorite. My reviews are general, and though they may contain a few spoilers about the premise of a given work, they don't give away any twist endings or key surprises.

Novels

Most Favorite Novel Thus Far:
Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson by Lyndsay Faye (2009)
Read my review.

The Mycroft Memoranda by Ray Walsh (1985)
Read my review.

The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin (1978)
Read my review.

The Whitechapel Horrors by Edward B. Hanna (1992)
Read my review.

The West End Horror: A Posthumous Memoir of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer (1976)
Read my review.

The Seven-Percent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer (1974)
Read my review.

The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson by Nicholas Meyer (1993)
Read my review.

Lestrade and the Ripper by M.J. Trow (1999)
Read my review.

Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries and Other Stories by John Taylor (2010)
Read my review.


I had difficulty ranking The West End Horror and The Seven-Percent Solution, as they were rather neck-and-neck for me. I'd recommend all of these except Trow's and Taylor's to fans of Holmes in general, but I'd still recommend Taylor's to those specifically who are fans of Benedict Cumberbatch.


Collections

The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes edited by John Joseph Adams (2009)
Read my review.


Other

In the novella/novelette category, I've read and thoroughly enjoyed "The Adventure of the Elusive Emeralds" (a poignant mystery with terrific Watson characterization, in particular, in Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #4 ) and "The Adventure of the Haunted Bagpipes" (a truly chilling mystery with a very real and disturbing threat to Holmes and Watson in Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #5 ), both by Carla Coupe (aka beledibabe ). I highly recommend them.


Next up in my pastiche reading: the novel Sherlock Holmes and the Apocalypse Murders by Barry Day (2001) and the collection Sherlock Holmes in Orbit edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg (1995).


"My patronus is yo mama."
- seen on t-shirt

News & a Sherlockian pastiche party, revisited!

* I'd like to give a grateful shout-out to the brave men and women of the fire crews from Macomb, Wanette, Bethel, Tecumseh, McLoud, Shawnee, and Pink, Oklahoma, as well as the Cleveland County Task Force, with fire crews from Norman, Slaughterville, Cedar Country, Moore, and Little Axe, the Pottawatomie County sheriff's office and tribal police, and the Black Hawk helicopter crews from the Oklahoma National Guard, all of whom worked together along with local landowners yesterday to end a sudden 300-acre wildfire that raged up to the very border of my parents' property. Fortunately, no one was harmed, ranch animals were safely evacuated, and the fire has been contained (although there's an alert for another one now less than ten miles away). Here's hoping for cooler weather and rain for the area this weekend. You can see footage of yesterday's fire from Oklahoma City's KOCO here.

* In general news, I was delighted to see Anthony Letizia of Alterna-tv.com just posted a lovely review of Fringe Science: Parallel Universes, White Tulips, and Mad Scientists .

* Happy early birthday wishes to marthawells , aragornlover , snard , and alii_s ! May each of you enjoy a wonderful day and a fantastic year to come.


Now, about those Sherlock Holmes pastiches...

Some months ago, I asked for recommendations of Sherlock Holmes pastiches and received some great replies. (Thank you!) I waited until I'd finished going through all of Arthur Conan Doyle's canonical Holmesian writings in order, but now I've embarked on my pastiche reading. I'm still only "baby steps" into the project, but I thought I'd list the novels I've read thus far, ranked in order from my most favorite to my least favorite. My reviews are general, and though they may contain a few spoilers about the premise of a given work, they don't give away any twist endings or key surprises.

Novels

Most Favorite Novel Thus Far:
Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson by Lyndsay Faye (2009)
Read my review.

The Mycroft Memoranda by Ray Walsh (1985)
Read my review.

The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin (1978)
Read my review.

The Whitechapel Horrors by Edward B. Hanna (1992)
Read my review.

The West End Horror: A Posthumous Memoir of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer (1976)
Read my review.

The Seven-Percent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer (1974)
Read my review.

The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson by Nicholas Meyer (1993)
Read my review.

Lestrade and the Ripper by M.J. Trow (1999)
Read my review.

Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries and Other Stories by John Taylor (2010)
Read my review.


I had difficulty ranking The West End Horror and The Seven-Percent Solution, as they were rather neck-and-neck for me. I'd recommend all of these except Trow's and Taylor's to fans of Holmes in general, but I'd still recommend Taylor's to those specifically who are fans of Benedict Cumberbatch.


Collections

The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes edited by John Joseph Adams (2009)
Read my review.


Other

In the novella/novelette category, I've read and thoroughly enjoyed "The Adventure of the Elusive Emeralds" (a poignant mystery with terrific Watson characterization, in particular, in Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #4 ) and "The Adventure of the Haunted Bagpipes" (a truly chilling mystery with a very real and disturbing threat to Holmes and Watson in Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #5 ), both by Carla Coupe (aka beledibabe ). I highly recommend them.


Next up in my pastiche reading: the novel Whitechapel: The Final Stand of Sherlock Holmes by Bernard Schaffer (2011) and the collection Sherlock Holmes in Orbit edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg (1995).


"My patronus is yo mama."
- seen on t-shirt

Irene (the hurricane, not "the woman")

Just a quick note to thank everyone who has contacted me to ask about how we are in the wake of Hurricane Irene. Fortunately, we're far enough west in North Carolina that we weren't affected, save for some extra cloudiness.

I do hope all of my friends on the East Coast are well? I'm thinking of you!

Poetry Meme

Happy birthday to super_chik , and happy early birthday to dement1a and funkyturtle . May all three of you enjoy many happy returns of the day!


Gacked from belleferret :

When you see this, comment with a poem you love or post one in your own journal to encourage the proliferation of random poetry through your flist.

I'm going to be unimaginative and go with my very favorite poem, because it's been ages since I posted it, and it's always worth rereading.

"Alone"
by Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were--I have not seen
As others saw--I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I lov'd, I loved alone.
Then--in my childhood--in the dawn
Of a most stormy life--was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that 'round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold--
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass'd me flying by--
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

PS. Goodreads Giveaway

PS. I forgot to mention in my previous post that if you're on Goodreads.com and you have a mailing address in the US or Canada, you can sign up for one of two giveaway copies of the Fringe Science: Parallel Universes, White Tulips and Mad Scientists book here as part of the Goodreads First Reads program.

Parallel Universes, White Tulips, and Mad Scientists

Thanks to all on the US East Coast who checked in yesterday on my post about the earthquake. I'm so glad everyone's all right. From io9: "How Could an Earthquake Happen in Virginia?"


My most recent StarShipSofa "Looking Back on Genre History" segment, which discusses the literary history that informs the TV series Fringe and previews Fringe Science: Parallel Universes, White Tulips and Mad Scientists , is now available. You can download it or listen to it here. If you listen, I hope you enjoy. (A full list of my past podcast segments, with links, is available here.)

And speaking of Fringe Science: Parallel Universes, White Tulips and Mad Scientists , that book will be on bookshelves next week. My essay "In Search of Fringe's Literary Ancestors" includes sections on Fringe as the New Frankenstein; Edgar Allan Poe, Ratiocination, and Genre; Literary Science Fiction Investigators; Televised Science Fiction Investigators; and H.P. Lovecraft's Influence on Fringe.




I'll leave you with this parting thought:


see more Historic LOL


"Keep Calm and Expecto Patronum."
- seen on t-shirt

I feel the Earth move under my feet... (quake!)

To those of you who, like me, are in the Eastern USA: how are you?

We've been shaken, rattled, and rolled a bit here in a "vibrate your drinking glass across the table and onto the floor" sort of way. It wasn't my first earthquake, but it was my first one here. Virginia growled as if she thought it to be a particularly unwelcome FedEx delivery person. (She's still planted at the front door, keeping guard, as I type this.) Fortunately, I don't see any significant damage at first glance. I need to check on my friends, family, and colleagues to the north.

How about everyone else?

It looks like this is being classified a 5.9 quake (I've seen as high as 6.2 in various reports.)

Earthquake in Virginia felt in New York, Washington, and North Carolina

"even though it seems really weird"

Today is the first day of the new semester! My seminar(s) are mere hours away... Where did summer go again, exactly?


In other news...

* At , I've created a Listopia list for the best Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper Novels. It's a work in progress. Please take part and add books or vote if you're interested! Thanks so much. I'll have a new update soon to post here about my ongoing Sherlockian pastiche reading.

* I love Cabin Pressure . So much. This latest series was, yes, brilliant.

(And speaking of great series, the second series of Garrow's Law was fantastic, as expected.)

* This week also spells the return of Doctor Who.

Thanks to porpoise_song for getting me in the mood...

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"But the thing is, we've taken away all the things that can possibly have happened, so I suppose the only thing that's left, even though it seems really weird, must be the thing that did happen, in fact."
Martin Crieff, Cabin Pressure, "Paris"