Mr. Walter Kaplan was my high school journalism teacher, and I credit him with actually teaching me something useful that I could use in the world. My English classes were generally boring way back in my junior year in 1977. Even the literature classes. Oh, I aced them all, of course, but I was disappointed … Read more
When I wrote my 15-book series the Crispin Guest Medieval Noir novels, one of the features of each book was the pursuit of a relic or venerated object, either one stolen or one a person was trying to acquire…by any means necessary. They became McGuffins, an object that propelled the plot that was either foremost … Read more
A uniquely Victorian pastime for the very rich; First, get yourself a several thousand-year-old dead guy, invite all your friends over to watch you unwrap him from his bindings, then grind him into a powder and everyone gets to go home with a powdered mummy souvenir. Fun times! Unwrapping a mummy. Well, that was the … Read more
I know this looks like a blog rerun, but it isn’t. Yes, I wrote about the Little Free Library before, but not this story. Not about this heist. Read on. Little Free Libraries are just what the name implies. They’re free. You might have seen them on various street corners, little boxes of varying designs … Read more
I thought it would be easy. But is anything really easy? I started out creating with good ole Sculpey a little Sherlockian figurine of a cute animal in the deerstalker and Ulster coat. At first I made a mouse, but there were too many comparisons to The Great Mouse Detective, so I thought to maybe … Read more
I just wanted to let you know what’s coming up in the blog, what irons I have in the fire. I’m looking forward to guest blog posts from other mystery authors. And if you are one, I encourage you to contact me at jeriwesterson at gmail dot com. I’d love to see what you’re cooking … Read more
Since I’ve been writing my Sherlockian pastiche — An Irregular Detective Mystery Series — I have had to research all sorts of things, from what people ate in different social classes, to how they talked, to railway travel, to what they wore. And that brings us to hats. I’m not a formal person. I would … Read more
I’m a bit of a collector. First it was jugs or pitchers, depending on which side of the pond you’re on. Then it was salt and pepper shakers, but I began to think that was too ordinary. So I switched to chickens. Chickens big time. And then vintage typewriters from the late nineteenth century into … Read more
They are the bane of an author’s life. They are a necessary evil. But we gotta have them. Be they from industry magazines (Kirkus Review, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, or Booklist) or from newspapers (USA Today, the New York Times Book Review), or consumer magazines (People, The New Yorker, etc.). I remember a time when … Read more
My Sherlockian series, An Irregular Detective Mystery, features a former Baker Street Irregular Tim Badger who, as an adult, opens his own detective-for-hire agency with his friend and colleague Ben Watson, a Black man who has a scientific mind and won’t play second fiddle. They attempt to solve cases by using Sherlock Holmes’ method with … Read more