First Draft VS Final – A Comparison

At what point does homage become pastiche?

That’s the question I came up against when I wrote my neolithic murder mystery Talus and the Frozen King. While the novel is unashamedly inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic stories about Victorian detective Sherlock Holmes, I was determined that my tale of ancient crime and punishment should never descend into parody.

However, alarm bells rang loud when early editorial feedback (though largely positive) included the dreaded phrase “occasionall...