Beyond Watson Update, My Peculiar Family Kickstarters FUNDED, and More Peculiar Interviews

Time to go Beyond Watson

Would you like to know how Holmes met Mrs. Hudson? How about the time when Charlie Chaplin befriended Billy the Page? Or, the time when a little girl learned that Yes, Virginia, There is a Sherlock Holmes?

Those are just three of the incredible adventures recounted in Beyond Watson, the first Sherlock Holmes anthology published by Belanger Books, and what is sure to be our second successful kickstarter campaign. All of the stories are told, at least in part, by a character who is not John Watson, and are written by some of the best current Sherlock Holmes authors including David Marcum, Daniel D. Victor, Don Everitt Smith Jr., Elizabeth Varadan, Geri Schear, Kieran Lyne, Luke Benjamen KuhnsMarcia Wilson, David Ruffle, and me, Derrick Belanger. I am also excited to announce that the great science fiction author Jack McDevitt will have his first Sherlock Holmes story in this collection, and another sci-fi author, Richard Paolinelli, will have his story included as long as we reach our Kickstarter stretch goal.

I will post more updates on the Beyond Watson anthology as we get closer to the Kickstarter date in March. Look to this blog for author interviews and other exciting news about Beyond Watson and other upcoming Sherlock Holmes anthologies. And if you'd like to preview some of the products we will offer as Kickstarter rewards, check out the Belanger Books Redbubble page here: http://www.redbubble.com/shop/belange...

My Peculiar Family FUNDED

Yes! The horror anthology My Peculiar Family which was the first anhology and first Kickstarter by Belanger Books is fully funded! There is still a week to go to get your copy of My Peculiar Family and help us reach our stretch goal! Please follow the link to My Peculiar Family and check out the best horror collection of 2016! A huge thank you to Les Rosenthal (a.k.a. The Dome) for putting together such a wonderful anthology and pulling in both new authors and NY Times bestsellers. To wrap up this campaign, I have posted below the table of contents for the anthology as well as my final author interviews for My Peculiar Family.

It is my pleasure to share with you the stories included in the anthology.

Christopher Golden and James A. Moore - The Genealogy of Chastity Willingham Dimsdale
Stacey Longo - Miss Elizabeth’s Poison
Jason J. Mooers - Law and Mother
Robert Mayette - Solomon’s Mirror
William Meikle - The Luck of Walter Dimsdale
F. Allen Farnham - Tuckahoe Marble
Samantha Boyette - A Twisted Vine
David Schechter - Just Words
Rob Watts - Crowninshield’s Apothecary
Kristi McDowell - With This Ring, I Thee Bind
Karen Gosselin - Eggsetential Circumstances
George O'Conner - Joshua Was My Favorite
Derrick Belanger - Pieces of Rosalee
Bracken MacLeod - Know All Men
John Pallisano - The Space Between
Tracy Hickman - (TBD)
STRETCH GOAL STORY - Scott Thomas (Agatha)

Original Artwork by Sara Richard and Peter Vinton, Jr..



F. Allen Farnham Interview

1. Tell us a little about your story. What makes it so peculiar?

While just a boy, Victor’s parents were taken ill with rashes, debilitating nausea, body aches, and unusually high fevers. Doctors of the time were stumped, finding nothing they could bleed or cut away, and it was an herbalist’s healing medicine that saw his parents well again.

Amazed by such artistry, Victor followed in the Herbalist’s footsteps. He studied at the best schools, absorbed everything his mentor would share. Books were not nearly enough to sate his curiosity, and Victor set off to make his own discoveries in the jungles of the Amazon.

What Victor found in the lush tangles more accurately found him.


2. What made you want to participate in My Peculiar Family?

It’s a brilliant concept! Dome and I have been friends and associates for years, and when he told me of his idea, I was immediately interested. I mean, how could I not? One glance at these old tintypes and I had to know their history.

Then he told me some of the other authors on the project, and I knew it was more than an idea. It was happening.


3. What are some of your other projects you’d like to tell the readers about?

The Angry Ghosts series ( Angry Ghosts) is hard, post-apocalyptic Sci Fi for the reader who wants more than space battles with alien baddies. Ultimately, it’s a story of redemption and the high price that must be paid for it.

Deeper descriptions can be found here:

https://cadreonepublishing.wordpress....

There’s a section reserved for the more interesting dreams I’ve had. Going to throw a cover around them and publish, because some of them are just out there:

https://cadreonepublishing.wordpress....

Samantha Boyette Interview

1. Tell us a little about your story. What makes it so peculiar?

Raised by her uncle after the death of her parents, Jessamine has a way with plants. A few words or a touch and she can make them do what she wants, growing wild or returning to a seed. She keeps the gift to herself as she grows up, never sharing it with her Uncle until years later when another young girl moves in with them.


2. What made you want to participate in My Peculiar Family?

I loved the whole idea right away. Whenever I look at old pictures I can't help but imagine what the lives of the people in them were like. This was a chance to actually write one of those stories.

3. What are some of your other projects you'd like to tell the readers about?

I have five ebooks currently available on Amazon.com (see Samantha Boyette). My next book 18 Months will be available in December 2016 through Bold Strokes Press.


4. Any last thoughts?

I hope readers are as eager to find out the stories behind the pictures as I am!

Jay Mooers Interview

1. Tell us a little about your story. What makes it so peculiar?

For My Peculiar Family I was given an odd looking young man named Edward and he was a lawyer. He didn’t look like a heavy hitter to me, so I figured Edward was trying to become a lawyer and get away from his odd relationship with his mother. But he seems to stumble from one entrapment to another as his first client may be his last. I made my short story a kind of prequel to a series I’ve been working on called Bloodlines. It reveals secrets about characters from that series, but also stands on it’s own.


2. What made you want to participate in My Peculiar Family?

I’m always looking for a new challenge. I’ve spent years doing artwork and only a few writing. I love pushing myself and trying new kinds of story telling techniques. This is my second published short story, and I’m rather proud of it. I know many of the people involved in the anthology and love being associated with them all. They are good people and I’m happy to be a part of this Peculiar family.


3. What are some of your other projects you'd like to tell the readers about?

My second novel, Scales and Sand will be released this spring 2016. It’s a children’s novel about a fantasy world where the daughter of a merchant is chased across a terrible red desert only to discover herself and grow up along the way. My comic book, Autumn Grey will be available this summer after my kickstarter campaign to fund the printing and is already available on comixology. It’s an urban fantasy tale about a young girl in the years between school and adulthood who is drawn into the fantastic world of faeries and monsters with devastating results. There’s many more things coming soon so keep an eye out via my website, www.edenparktales.com


4. Any last thoughts?

I’d just like to thank Dome for all his hard work on this and every project he embraces. His podcast has been a great way of promoting not only myself, but many others whom I’d never have known anything about otherwise. We are all a part of his Peculiar family.

Karen Gosselin Interview

1. Tell us a little about your story. What makes it so peculiar?

Isabelle is an artist living on her own in Civil War era New York City. She receives an unusual commission from a very wealthy, and eccentric man. The commission puts her in the middle of a battle between good and evil, opening her eyes to things she thought were myth.


2. What made you want to participate in My Peculiar Family?

I love writing! I have my own stories I want to tell and share. This was a great way to get my start, cut my teeth on writing fiction and having it published.

3. What are some of your other projects you'd like to tell the readers about?

Mostly artwork for now. Creating a series of pieces that are my interpretations of gods and goddesses from other cultures. I'm also writing a series of urban fiction stories that incorporate various supernatural creatures balancing "battling evil" with living a "normal" life and "fitting in" with modern society. Example: a married couple with supernatural powers not only fight to protect others, but try to raise their children at the same time. Or a Lesbian Werewolf having to deal with a nosy neighbor who is insulted that the "dog" pooed on his lawn. They still have to save the world, but they also have to do their taxes.

4. Any last thoughts?

Really excited about this project and can't wait to share what I wrote with others.

Go to My Peculiar Family to back the Kickstarter campaign and to see some of the astounding prizes still available!!

Derrick Belanger is the author of the #1 bestselling book Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Peculiar Provenance which was in the top 200 bestselling books on Amazon. He also is the author of the MacDougall Twins with Sherlock Holmes books, the latest of which is Curse of the Deadly Dinosaurand edited the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle horror anthology A Study in Terror: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Revolutionary Stories of Fear and the Supernatural. His latest novella Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure Of The Primal Man is currently available as an ebook from Endeavour Press. Mr. Belanger also is a frequent contributor to the blog I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere. Mr. Belanger resides in Colorado and continues compiling unpublished works by Dr. John H. Watson.