Summer 2020 Schedule

[holmesticemods]

The equinox is approaching, which means it's time to get ready for a new round of Holmestice! We're very excited: this will be our twentieth round! We're so grateful for the community we have here, and are touched by all the love and support you've shown the exchange over the years. Without you, there'd be no party!

As ever, holmestice is an anonymous gift exchange for all kinds of digital fanworks (fic, art, vids, etc.) for all versions of Holmes, Watson, Moriarty, and company. Relevant universes/fandoms include the original canon and every adaptation thereafter: pastiches, movies, television, graphic novels, board and video games, and so on. If it features a character from the original Holmes canon, it's fair game for the exchange.

This round's schedule:

Sign-ups Open: March 23
Sign-ups Close: April 6
Assignments Sent: April 14
Works Due: May 25
Begin Posting: June 1
Finish Posting: June 14
Reveals: June 20

Clear your calendars, start planning your sign-ups, and spread the word far and wide!

Here are some banners you can use to help spread the word:



<img src='https://holmesticemods.dreamwidth.org/file/72959.jpg' alt='Holmestice Fanworks Exchange (detail of "Westminster," de Nittis, 1878)' title='Holmestice Fanworks Exchange' />


<img src='https://holmesticemods.dreamwidth.org/file/73130.jpg' alt='Holmestice Fanworks Exchange (detail of "Westminster," de Nittis, 1878)' title='Holmestice Fanworks Exchange' />


And of course if you would like to make your own promotional graphic for the exchange, we welcome that!

If you have any questions or comments, please get in touch with us here or via the mod email: holmesticemods@gmail.com. We look forward to another wonderful round with you all!

Comments

[luthienberen]

Excited!!! 🥳

[trobadora]

Wow, the 20th! That's amazing! :D

[rachelindeed]

Hurray!!

[write_out]

Wow, the 20th round? Awesome!

[starfishstar]

HOORAY! Barring unforeseen events (though, let's be real, lately all of life is an unforeseen event, but) I plan to participate.

(Why yes, I do still have the masterlist from last round open in a separate browser window, and still haven't had a chance to even glance at it...)

Congratulations on 20 rounds, that's magnificent!

[venusinthenight]

Whoa, twentieth round coming up!? Congrats, Team Holmestice!

<i>Elementary</i>, my dear colleagues....

[graycardinal]

Apropos of nothing in particular, and because I can't immediately think of a better place to ask this particular question:

I am still only up to the shallow end of the Elementary pool, and am wondering: in the series as aired, did the writers ever make any kind of nod in the direction of whether there'd been an actual Victorian-era Sherlock in our modern-day Holmes's family tree? [If so, a season-and-episode pointer would be appreciated....]

Re: <i>Elementary</i>, my dear colleagues....

[sanguinity]

No, I don't think so. As close as they got to the Victorian-Holmes question was when Sherlock speculated during S2 whether he might have been happier / had an easier time of it in the Victorian era. (But no earlier than Victorian: he wanted dentistry to be available.) The way that scene was handled, it rather implied there was no family forbear that he recognized as being like him. But I'll ask amindamazed to look in; she sometimes remembers things that I don't.

Re: <i>Elementary</i>, my dear colleagues....

[amindamazed]

I don't recall anything like that, but Sherlock did reference E.W. Hornung once, because a contemporary criminal had been given the nickname Raffles by Scotland Yard. It was in 3x04, Bella, and here's the episode transcript: https://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=14455

As best as I can remember, they never mentioned any part of the Holmes family tree beyond father, mother, brother.

Re: <i>Elementary</i>, my dear colleagues....

[graycardinal]

[belatedly checking replies-to-replies]

Ah; thank you! That's useful, and interesting. Now for the follow-up question: to what extent does the series reference and/or feature instances of modern detective fiction or writers thereof? I'm curious both about mentions of "real" writers -- James Patterson, etc. -- and/or mystery writers who may exist in-universe.

The underlying aspect of these queries goes to one of my initial reservations with respect to the worldbuilding of both Elementary and Sherlock. I'm still sufficiently BBC-allergic that that show's creative inconsistencies (as I see them, anyway) have long since stopped worrying me, but I am becoming attracted enough to Elementary that I'm eventually going to have to hash out some head-canon to spackle over the relevant issues.

[Aside to sanguinity: why, yes, the deduction you may have made is quite probably correct. :-) ]

Re: <i>Elementary</i>, my dear colleagues....

[amindamazed]

I don't remember any mentions of RL authors, but Watson's step-father is an author — how do you feel about spoilers? I'll stop there just in case — and there are three episodes that feature Watson's own writing about working with Sherlock.

There's also an episode (4x07) that involves a comics publisher, a vigilante hero, and a conversation about some of the ridiculous plots in vintage issues:

Joan: What's all that?

Sherlock: I wondered if some enlightenment might be found in the fictional universe our Midnight Ranger took inspiration from. So I reached out to the Midnight Ranger fan community, and, with their help, I managed to procure the comic's entire run.

J: There has to be, what, 600 issues?

S: 648, to be precise. Having read the bulk of them, I confess I do see the appeal. If you strip away the silly outfits, square jaws and skull-sized breasts, there is a cardinal devotion to justice. The attention to continuity, however, is laughable.

J: This is the tenth issue from the 1940s, and you took it out of its bag.

S: Yes. How else was I going to read it?

J: (groans) And you did all this why?

S: Over the course of the 80 years of his derring-do, the Midnight Ranger has died five times. It occurred to me that our Ranger might have been killed by an obsessed fan attempting to recreate a particular death.

J: And?

S: Unfortunately, the deaths in the comics involved being sent back in time, buried deep underground, made microscopic, impersonated by an alien and -- my particular favorite demise -- pushed over a waterfall, locked in the embrace of his nemesis.
https://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=26150

Re: <i>Elementary</i>, my dear colleagues....

[sanguinity]

I forgot about the waterfall! I knew you would remember more stuff than I did. There was also the instance -- possibly in the same ep that features Watson's stepfather? my memory is foggy -- where Sherlock mentioned that many, many authors have taken inspiration from his exploits.

And it's not detective fiction, per se, but Columbo exists in-universe.

Re: <i>Elementary</i>, my dear colleagues....

[graycardinal]

Oh, Columbo certainly counts as detective fiction -- even if we were going to be picky about media format, which I'm not for this purpose, there were in fact a couple of runs of tie-in novels. (And it is amusing that he's canonical in a CBS TV universe, considering that the character originally aired on NBC and ABC.)

The root of my dilemma is simply this: given that (a) Victorian/ACD!Holmes is clearly absent from the Elementary universe, and (b) that ACD!Holmes was one of the prime forces in the shaping and development of modern detective fiction, it's difficult to discern what detective fiction should look like in the Elementary universe...especially if written by authors for whom ACD!Holmes was/is an explicit influence.

Re: <i>Elementary</i>, my dear colleagues....

[sanguinity]

I figured that was the issue -- when the episode mentioning Columbo aired, there were similar questions asked in the fandom: how can you have Columbo, without Doyle's Sherlock Holmes preceding it?

Re: <i>Elementary</i>, my dear colleagues....

[graycardinal]

[snorfle at transcript]

[poke at Wikipedia]

Again, many thanks! Joan's right to groan, of course...and Holmes surely ought to have looked first at the Midnight Ranger wiki that surely exists on that universe's Internet. But we digress.

I think I've now got enough data to properly map the horns of the relevant dilemma. (You may now groan at the horrifically mixed metaphor.)

Re: <i>Elementary</i>, my dear colleagues....

[sanguinity]

[fyi, I replied to amindamazed with another thing. And what deduction have I made?]

Re: <i>Elementary</i>, my dear colleagues....

[graycardinal]

Dear me, am I actually over-estimating your deductive omniscience?

If my reply in the other subthread has not generated a light bulb moment, I suggest the briefest glance at the "Fandoms" list on my AO3 profile page. If that doesn't set off the relevant firecracker, I'm not sure what will.