Interesting Interview: Bonnie MacBird
If we were to judge one another in this hobby on our output, you can bet that Bonnie MacBird would be getting some very high marks. Since 2016, she has put out five Sherlock Holmes novels, and we aren't talking about short stories here! You definitely get your money's worth with books from Bonnie MacBird. But Bonnie's creative output doesn't end with her novels. She is also an actor, playwright, producer, and screenwriter. See? I told you she was prolific!
But Bonnie is also a wonderful person and Sherlockian. Her energy and love for this hobby is contagious and she is known around the globe. Originally from California and now residing in London, you never know where she'll show up. Whether it's an event in London, book signing in New York, or random Zoom meeting, you know right away that you are in the presence of an extremely intelligent woman and passionate Sherlockian!
How do you define the word“Sherlockian”?
It’s all about the internal world weshare. On the silly end, it’s the shareddelight with other Sherlockians finding seventeen steps up to something, or ahotel room numbered 221, or a dog named Toby. And in our strange new world of splintered attention,anti-intellectualism, and triggered everything, it’s finding that fellow Sherlockian as a welcome port in astorm, that person whose shared passion for Holmes means that they alsotreasure intelligence, scientific reasoning, friendship, humour and a passionfor a tale well told. Sherlockians findpoints of connection both trivial and cosmic, silly and profound, and have fundoing so. And they are all readers.
How did you become a Sherlockian?
I read the canon at age ten, beganwatching the black and white movies on TV and basically inhaled the characterand he has never left me. As for joiningin the greater organization, that was all Les Klinger’s doing. He said I “must come to the BSI weekend” andthat I’d make my best friends among Sherlockians. I hesitated, shy, he insisted; he was right.
What is your profession and does that affect how you enjoy being a Sherlockian?
For the last eleven years I have focused on writing traditional Sherlock Holmes novels in the style of the originals for HarperCollins. But before that, I spent thirty years in the entertainment business as a studio exec, a story editor of feature films, a screenwriter (TRON) a producer (three local Emmys) and an actor. I’m all about story. I recognize Conan Doyle as a master storyteller, and Holmes and Watson among the best fictional creations ever. During my time as a story editor I locked into good structure and pacing, and a sense of audience. Who is watching? Who is reading? How can we give them the very best ride… and while doing so, add something of beauty or value to the world. As an actor I went further into the heart of character, finding in every exchange of dialogue the subtext, the turns, the clues to previous life, mood, intent.
What is your favorite canonical story?
Three of them: "The Second Stain." "The Naval Treaty." "Scandal in Bohemia."
Who is a specific Sherlockian that you think others would find interesting?
Peggy MacFarlane. If Peggy has already been featured, thenPeter Cannon, recently retired editor at Publisher’s Weekly.
What subset of Sherlockiana really interests you?
I’m particularly fascinated with theworld of the late nineteenth century. Itwas, like the late twentieth century, a time when change itself changed. In medicine, for example, the germ theoryfinally gained traction, anesthesia was developed, it was the birth ofpsychiatry. Technology such as the steamengine, industrialization, trains, telegraphs, and newspapers and latertelephones shrank distance between people, and suddenly everyone shared thesame news… instantly. Socially there wasunrest, unionization, terrorists, the rise of the women’s movement, the growthof social organisations attempting to help the disadvantaged. The policing system changed. In our own time…starting in the 1960’s, thecomputer revolution, political protests, civil rights, space travel, andadvancements in science and medicine marked the late twentieth century as asimilar time of rapid and deeply influential change. Both eras featured a kind of optimism, mixedwith a rawness, an electricity, a bloom of invention, technology, imaginationand growth – all amidst turmoil. Twowildly transformational eras and exciting times to be alive.
In "His Final Bow," Holmes foresees adark time, but with light following. I believe we are facing a similar time rightnow, just a little over a hundred years later. The bittersweet moments ofHolmes’ final case gave into what we now call WWI, followed by a frenetic butbrief “roaring” twenties, then the Depression and WWII. A great many dark years. But that vital humanspirit emerged later for another intense phase of invention and growth and artin the fifties, sixties and going forward to the end of the last century. Thisvibrancy and optimism coupled with turmoil have a lot in common with Holmes’stime.
I believe we are once again standing onthe precipice of a dark time. Like Holmes, I believe our beacon of light mustcome through education. Our heroes onthe page will provide us comfort, if only in books, for now. Perhaps they’ll provide lessons that the nextgeneration of heroes can use. Literacy is key.
Your pastiches are tours deforce! What is your writing process?
As Holmes would say, my blushes! Thankyou! I write every day. Seven days a week. The very famous “butt on chair”technique. My current process is to write to word count,not to time. Sometimes my wordcount goaltakes me an hour, sometimes six. I’ve justwritten through three very challenging years, locked down, 6,000 miles from friends and pets, isolatedand unable to leave a flat where our neighbors decided to undergo noisy constructionfor a solid two years of this. Meanwhilemy beloved husband developed stage four cancer. Using my relentless, butt-on-chair-no-matter-what I finished two novelsdespite this. Or maybe they saved me, Idon’t know. I might have gone madwithout the work.
About my process, I start with a title,the major crime, villain and the reason they did it. I then write a theme around this. I then pick a year and season. And imagine an action scene that features allof the above. Then I just start writing. I’m a pantser, after I’ve figured out the above. I don’t know how Holmesis going to figure it out when I start. But he leads me there. Researchis key to my process and I use libraries, the internet, museums and when thereis no pandemic to stop me, I quite literally location scout. For example, the ice house scene in Unquiet Spirits and the near drowning on the Thames foreshore in The Devil's Due camedirectly from on-site visits to those very places.
I put a lot of this research intoannotations viewable on my website. www.macbird.com
As a Sherlockian/Holmesian who has hadthe opportunity to live in both America and England, what are somedifferences you notice between how we celebrate Holmes?
In both places, people of all walks oflife and all professions are Sherlockians, and share intelligence, arcane sideinterests, an interest in Victorian culture and inventions… and almost always adelightful sense of humour. I suppose in Britain there is a certain sense ofownership, a “Holmes is one of us” and a real pride in the literary traditionthat Conan Doyle came from … as well as the writers his work spawned. Americans are equally literary, but morelikely to be collectors of “stuff” than are the Brits. Americans are less hesitant to show off acquisitions andaccomplishments, whereas the Brits are a little more understated and you needto unpeel the reserve a little more slowly. They surprise you. Both areaccomplished men and women and both share deep enthusiasm and a certainsilliness which is a delight.
What book would you recommend to other Sherlockians?
Well, if you want the definitive copyof the canon, of course Les Klinger’s volumes can’t be beat. I love the Sherlock Holmes Miscellany byRoger Johnson and Jean Upton. If youmight consider pastiche and haven’t read my series, I would hope youmight give them a try. There are five to date and the last was illustrated byFrank Cho. The Doyle biographies byDaniel Stashower and Alistair Duncan are excellent.
If youjust want a brilliant non-Sherlockian piece of period fiction (set a littlelater but redolent of Fin de Siècle malaise and wicked humor) then read AGentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Ifyou want an antidote to depression read Discipline is Destiny by Ryan Holidaywhich is not a the “fix me” book that it sounds, but a comfort read, particularlyin these times. I have endless morerecommendations.
Where do you see Sherlockiana in 5 or 10 years from now?
There will likely be some new goodfilm, television and theatre to delight us and incite comparisons, gossip and manypanels where earnest Sherlockians will attack and defend the latest portrayals. I hope to keep writing my pastiches aslong as I can and I hope Sherlockians will still seek them out. Maybe a welcome wash of sanity will blanketthe earth, and everyone will become a Sherlockian. Ha! If only. But I remain hopeful for a new screen incarnation of Holmes - thirty-something, brilliant, hawklike, withsad eyes, tousled hair, and a disarmingsmile -- and a handsome, brave Watson alongside .That’s how I see them as Iwrite…
