My goodness. Rachelindeed. What a lovely commentary. I’m so glad you liked the story! The concept of a woman making a pact with Death to protect her surviving sons dropped into my head from nowhere one day and simply wouldn’t leave. I do want to extend this universe at some point, but time and tide are against me at the moment, so it will have to wait while more urgent projects grab my time. I have a deep love of museums, and was originally trying to set it at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge but it wouldn't settle, and so I chose the Wallace Collection, which just happens to be very close to Baker Street. It’s a fab place in real life if you ever get the chance to visit. The other characters just dropped into place after that, although I didn’t realise Stamford was a policeman until he made himself known. I just pictured David Nellist in a period uniform, and I was off! And whilst Mrs Hudson needs the housekeeping role as cover, she is *so* much more than that in this universe, as in any other. It was fun having her tell the boys off at the graveside, despite their apparent maturity. Watson really wrote himself in this. He might not have reached the point of casual desperation that Moffatt and Gatiss implied in ASiP, but that is only because I couldn’t bear to leave him to suffer in that dreadful boarding house. Our beloved doctor has always seemed to be a character on the outskirts of the English class system, so to make him a scholarship boy just fitted with the ongoing head canon. I set it at this particular time because I may or may not have developed a bit of a thing for this time in British history just because it was such a period of flux. And then we come to the Holmes brothers. Both of them have loved and lost, choosing on the whole now to keep themselves apart, for fear of discovery and the memory of past pain. But there are always those who can get under their skin and remind them why such risks are worth it. I have always thought this from watching the performances of Gatiss and Cumberbatch, across the series. Finally I must add an apology for the proofing errors which litter this piece. I was right up against the deadline due to work, only to face PC and internet issues at the very end, which was why I didn’t put it up onto AO3 at the time. I hope it didn’t impinge too much.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2017-06-28 08:01 pm (UTC)The concept of a woman making a pact with Death to protect her surviving sons dropped into my head from nowhere one day and simply wouldn’t leave. I do want to extend this universe at some point, but time and tide are against me at the moment, so it will have to wait while more urgent projects grab my time.
I have a deep love of museums, and was originally trying to set it at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge but it wouldn't settle, and so I chose the Wallace Collection, which just happens to be very close to Baker Street. It’s a fab place in real life if you ever get the chance to visit.
The other characters just dropped into place after that, although I didn’t realise Stamford was a policeman until he made himself known. I just pictured David Nellist in a period uniform, and I was off! And whilst Mrs Hudson needs the housekeeping role as cover, she is *so* much more than that in this universe, as in any other. It was fun having her tell the boys off at the graveside, despite their apparent maturity.
Watson really wrote himself in this. He might not have reached the point of casual desperation that Moffatt and Gatiss implied in ASiP, but that is only because I couldn’t bear to leave him to suffer in that dreadful boarding house. Our beloved doctor has always seemed to be a character on the outskirts of the English class system, so to make him a scholarship boy just fitted with the ongoing head canon. I set it at this particular time because I may or may not have developed a bit of a thing for this time in British history just because it was such a period of flux.
And then we come to the Holmes brothers. Both of them have loved and lost, choosing on the whole now to keep themselves apart, for fear of discovery and the memory of past pain. But there are always those who can get under their skin and remind them why such risks are worth it. I have always thought this from watching the performances of Gatiss and Cumberbatch, across the series.
Finally I must add an apology for the proofing errors which litter this piece. I was right up against the deadline due to work, only to face PC and internet issues at the very end, which was why I didn’t put it up onto AO3 at the time. I hope it didn’t impinge too much.