So I have something to talk about with you guys, and I hope you’ll be excited about it. Confession: I am super nervous about doing this, and about announcing it.
After a long time, and a LOT of internal debate, I have decided to begin the process of editing “Performance in a Leading Role” into an original manuscript.
Many of you have urged me to do this in the past. I’ve been hesitant, and I wanted to be sure that I had completed all I wanted to do in the fannish incarnation of the story first. It’s been seven years since the story was first released (whoa), and I don’t plan to write any more fanfiction in the Sherlock fandom, so I think it’s time.
Another reason I was hesitant is that I’ve always been so honored and touched by the fandom response to this story. You’ve all taken it to your hearts in a way that I never anticipated, but which made the whole process of writing it a joy and one of the most rewarding writing experiences of my life. In a way, the story is as much the fandom’s as it is mine.
But that will never change (I hope). And in the end, it’s a piece of writing I’m proud of and I think I’d like the chance to share it with a wider audience, and hopefully use it to help me build my own writing career.
Initially, I had thought to offer it to the publisher who released “Zero at the Bone,” Dreamspinner Press, which is a fantastic gay romance publisher. But then my illustrious beta tzikeh said “You know, publishing has changed a lot since 2009. I think you could sell it to a mainstream publisher.” I consulted with another published-novelist friend who agreed, so…I am going to swing for the fences on this one.
So, you may have questions. Let me attempt to answer them.
Q: What does this mean for the story’s presence on AO3 and other fandom archives?
A: Honestly, I don’t know. Any change in its status is pretty far in the future (like, years, probably, if it changes at all). For now, nothing will happen. Everything will remain exactly where it is. If it were up to me, the fannish version would be able to remain posted (perhaps locked to registered AO3 users?). That might not be possible. I doubt it’ll be up to me. But if the story is removed from its current archives, you will have TONS of advance notice. And I will be generating a nicely-formatted PDF of the entire series plus all the extras, which will be available for free download.
In point of fact, you can do that anytime! Any work on AO3 can be downloaded in several formats, including pdf. There’s a “download” button in the upper right of every story. It’s always a good idea to save offline copies of your favorite fics, because stories come and go all the time. I’ve often been glad I saved so many BBM fanfics, as most of them are now unavailable.
Q: Will you need to get an agent for this?
A: Yes. If I’m going to shop Big Five publishers I need representation. That’ll be my first step – well, the first step is to complete an edit of the manuscript.
Q: What are you going to change when you edit?
A: Aside from the names, I’ll need to massage the Sherlock character to be less – shall we say, Sherlocky. Luckily being a frigid, difficult jerk isn’t unique to him. The John character will be American and bisexual from the start (not out publicly, but to himself and those close to him). The reason for that is I’m leery of the “gay for you” trope. I will likely downplay or eliminate the Moriarty character. He really never worked very well in the story and the only reason he’s even there at all was that readers sort of expected an appearance. “Sherlock” may still have an acting rival but it won’t be as ominous. I may make a few cuts or even additions to the story as I go along – there are a lot of things that could have used better build-up in previous chapters, but that’s the hazard of publishing serially. I won’t have that problem now, so I can make some changes to help the emotional arcs track better.
Q: What about the sequel and the extras? Will those be incorporated?
A: I don’t know! “Lifetime Achievement” isn’t quite long enough to be a bona fide sequel as it stands but it’s something to think about.
Q: Will you change all the real-people references to fake people?
A: Not right off the bat. I will make some changes needed by an updated timeline (Letterman isn’t on the air anymore, for example, and Alan Rickman has passed away). But it’s not illegal to reference real people in fictional works. It’s possible that if I can sell the manuscript an editor may want some changes, but for now I’m going to leave all those real-Holllywood references as they are.
Q: What about the sexytimes?
A: I may…tone that down a bit. But a lot of the sexy bits in the story do important character work, so I don’t anticipate cutting everything.
Q: Will you change the title?
A: I don’t plan to. I like it. I didn’t change the title of “Zero at the Bone” from its fannish incarnation.
Q: People will be able to figure out that it used to be fanfiction.
A: Probably. It won’t be the first (by a long shot). I’m not ashamed of the story’s origins.
Q: What about works based on it?
A: I don’t have jurisdiction over anyone who’s done fics inspired by or based off of the story. Where it gets uncertain for me is in the realm of translations and podfics. I don’t think it’s my place to ask someone who put in a great deal of work on a translation or a podfic to remove it. I don’t know the right answer to this.
Q: Can we see the new version?
A: Okay, so. I will post general updates about my progress here on my Tumblr, but I am also going to be conducting a lot of the work of editing the manuscript using my Patreon as a workspace. I would love to share some of the process and get input on it from readers, but obviously I can’t do that work publicly. So if you’re interested, becoming a patron there is the way to go.
I have no guarantee that any publisher will want to buy it, of course. But hopefully, someday you’ll all be able to buy the new version!
But again, if you want in on the process and to see the edited material ahead of time, Patreon.
Okay. If there are more questions, please send me an Ask. I probably won’t begin serious work on this editing until I’ve at least finished my rewrite of “Flagstaff,” although I’ve taken a bit of a crack at chapter 1. This won’t be happening overnight, that’s for sure.
I’m excited about the possibilities, and I hope you will be excited about them, too.
@madlori Congrats on this huge step! I absolutely loved Performance in a Leading Role, and I anxiously await the published version (I have no doubt there will be one).
Thank you for sharing your time, talent, and passion with us. We will all be here cheering you on. Cheers!
I’ve recently taken on this project from @theartofforensics who unfortunately can no longer see it through to completion due to IRL commitments.
If you’re not aware of what the project is then it’s basically a book of art and writing in an A-Z format covering topics related to Mycroft Holmes. There are loads of amazing writers and artists (and also me) signed up to contribute so far. It will be available in print and also as an ebook.
Where the project is at right now:
I’ve sent out an email this afternoon to all existing contributors with details on how to submit work (I’m asking for submissions to be sent again so I don’t miss anyone by accident)
Once I have all the existing submissions I’ll start to format the book and see if there are any gaps in content (e.g. letters with no submissions). If needs be I’ll put out a call for new submissions to fill those gaps.
I’m setting a very approximate date of the end of September to have the book completed and open for pre-orders.
There will also be an ebook format – details of that will be released in future.
At the moment I can’t give an exact price for print copies because it all depends on the size of the book (and which company gives me the best quote for printing), but this book is not for profit so the price will be kept as low as possible.
I will be responsible for packaging and shipping the orders, and sales will more than likely be through storenvy (I’ll confirm the exact sales outlet at a later date)
There’s still time to get involved!
Because it’s been quite a while since the first call for submissions, if you’d like to get involved please email me at mycroftfanbook [at] gmail [dot] com and put fan book in the subject line. I’ll then invite you to the contributor spreadsheet and you can pick one of the letters/topics you’d like to write or draw for. As mentioned earlier I’m looking to get the finished product together by the end of September (ish), so make sure that approximate timescale works for you.
If anyone has any questions about anything at all drop me an email, DM on twitter, tumblr message etc and I’ll do my best to help. I’m in the UK so on GMT+1.
I’ll be using the tag #mycroft fan book on my blog to post updates from now on.
Just a word to the wise: No Johnlocker that I know of uses the term “shipper goggles.” That’s just a thing you and your Sherl0llian friends do because you can’t ship sherl0lly without altering what you watch. We don’t need to wear “goggles” to see Johnlock cause its blatantly in the show. Just saying’.
And while we’re here:
List of things that don’t make sense that have nothing to do with Johnlock:
((bold=overarching, bigger picture plot holes))
– Why did they reuse the title “The Six Thatchers” that was already on John’s blog without drawing any connections/parallels to it
-Why did no one know John is the author of the blog when in previous seasons everyone knew that. He has his picture on it, it’s famous, and he writes in first person
-Why did Mary lie about AGRA being her initials in HLV if she thought John was going to read the flash drive? (I know that’s s3, but s4 is what showed us what AGRA really was)
– Why did Mary’s death contradict the previous “rules” about getting shot that were established for their universe in HLV
– How is Mary sending the CD’s after her death
– How did she even know ahead of time to make the videos, since jumping in front of a bullet is a spur of the moment thing
– How do they just expect to believe that it’s possible for Sherlock to predict everyone’s every movement down to the last detail two weeks beforehand?
-And if he is able to to that, why didn’t he use that skill in any previous season since it would have been very useful
-What was the whole deal with the girl on the plane and what did that have to do with anything and… why?
– How did they jump out of an exploding second floor window and survive
– And how did items like books/ paper survive the explosions
– How are we just expected to believe that Eurus has these mind controlling powers and could take over a prison like that? And when will they stop using “they’re geniuses” as a get out of jail free card?
– Why did they used Moriarty being alive as the big cliff hanger and have him barely feature
-What was the entire point of TAB proving that Moriarty was alive?
– Why does the timeline of Moriarty and Eurus working together behind the scenes not make any sense if this really has been their ultimate plan
– How did a detective (who is supposedly smart enough to predict everyone’s every move) manage to not notice missing glass
– Why did Sherlock remember Redbeard being “put down” if that was really his repressed memory of Victor
– And why was there a dog bowl
– How did John got out of the well using a rope if his feet were chained
– After everything Eurus has done, how are we to believe everything is just magically fixed with a hug
-Where were the “loads of clues and red herrings” alluding to Eurus besides that one line in HLV
Followers please feel free to continue.
“And when will they stop using “they’re geniuses” as a get out of jail free card?” – god like that one made me go AMEN. I wrote my own below:
John not recognizing Eurus as the same woman he supposedly flirted with
John
is an army doctor, which means he “can break every bone in your
body while naming them” and yet when confronted with bones in a
well all he can say is, ‘small…smaller…big…round…flat…long’…. like, okay, junior, you couldn’t even recognize the grenade in TFP
the letter that John had Molly give to Sherlock
Mycroft, freaking M16, doesn’t tell
John and Sherlock that the grenade [that blows up Baker Street] a motion sensor explosive until the drone
lands between them. And Mycroft is supposed to be the clever one?
John is at the computer working at his blog, but anybody with eyes can easily tell the whole screen is a picture
why is Eurus in none of the family videos
Mary sweetly calling Sherlock and John her “Baker Street Boys” when she killed Sherlock and lied to John her whole marriage, you don’t put a band-aid on an amputated leg, yo
Mary and Sherlock are shot within the same physical region, and yet while Sherlock goes into shock and dies on the table, Mary gets to recite the whole of Macbeth
Mycroft doesn’t hesitate to kill a clown, but refuses to take a gun from Sherlock because he “doesn’t want blood on his hands”
if Eurus is really so horribly evil, how could Sherlock have forgotten her? CAM got under his skin and we’ve all seen the deleted scene. Point is, it’s virtually impossible to forget such “evil” exists
I know this has been mentioned already, but it bothers me – why
did Victor Trevor have a dog bowl if there was no dog?
Martin Freeman was filming a scene where John is riding a camel, where’s that scene?
The plane in TFP that was going down would have crashed within twenty to thirty minutes, but it’s still in the air 90 minutes later
Sherlock not taking “Vatican Cameos” seriously
there must be two years missing from the timeline because in reality, if John and Sherlock survived the blast, they would be in a coma. Mycroft would have died, given the direction he ran
Of course, the final one really gets under my skin because they screwed up badly with it:::
Eurus shooting John with a gun and you see smoke come out of it, but in the next episode, John is completely fine as he says he was shot with a tranquilizer gun? (For idiots out there, smoke doesn’t come out of a tranquilizer).
Also, how have I never heard about the camel scene before this?!
This whole post-
I didn’t even read this entire post cause I know exactly what it says. Can I just say… some people are so… fucking dumb? Yeah, the silly skull painting, four different memory sticks, front door on the other side of the house, different ties, John’s fucky blog, the fuckery with the guns, the sister from x-men, people predicting future, some scenes appearing twice but looking different THAT ALL HAS SO MUCH TO DO WITH JOHNLOCK.
Did you know the original post was from August 17, 2016? Back when everything was fun and didn’t involve secret sisters, clowns and bleeding paintings.
I was commissioned a while ago to do the cover art for a new Mycroft pastiche novel, Mycroft Holmes and the Adventure of the Desert Wind. As part of the commission I got to beta read the book and I absolutely loved it – I devoured the whole thing in a day and a half! I’d honestly say it’s my joint favourite Mycroft pastiche with the Quinn Fawcett books (Victorian spy Mycroft is definitely my jam).
I’ve included the synopsis below –
there’s no release date just yet but I’ll be sure to post about it as soon as there is!
Despite being the oldest active field agent, Mycroft Holmes is still the very best the British Secret Service has to offer, and he isn’t afraid to prove it. But when his brother Sherlock sends a cryptic message from Milan, he’s not only faced with a precarious rescue mission, but also stuck with the sidekick he never wanted.
Accompanied by Dr. Watson, Mycroft must tackle a perilous journey across Europe, while fighting assassins and religious lunatics. No matter where they go, the Desert Wind cult always seems one step ahead, laying in wait with a plethora of traps and dark magic to thwart their progress. The investigation ultimately leads them to Egypt, where they uncover the secrets of an ancient, deadly ritual and meet an all too familiar face at the site of Sherlock’s execution.
If you want to know more you can follow the author Janina on twitter.
Here’s the brilliant cover image for the book! The final cover looks a bit different, but the image stayed the same. Honestly can’t wait to hold the book in my hands!
Sherlock: Everything else is transport.
Sherlock: …
Sherlock: Except the hair.
Sherlock: And skin and nails and tailoring.
Sherlock Fandom Archive 