#@shellyeysprometheus

[7-percent]

In Madness Lies Sanity

With only an epilogue to follow, this is the last proper chapter of my story. 

A teaser excerpt: 

Sebastian tries but fails to draw a deep breath. The constriction in his chest is not some symptom of a respiratory issue; it's more a case of not being able to hold anything inside himself anymore. He's a permeable membrane; things are leaking out of him. He's been disappearing slowly. It's been like that for the past week; each day had passed with him being less… less of everything. Less substantial, less present, more like a spectre adrift on a sea of memories.

Read it  here:

[7-percent]

In Madness Lies sanity     Chapter Nine

Yesterday’s post of Chapter Nine in Between the Fall and the Creation is followed by today’s post. Want to know what Sebastian is doing in Baker Street while Sherlock and John are investigating the Google case? 

First out of the courier bag comes the can of spray paint. Eyeing the smiley face on the ridiculous Victorian wallpaper, Sebastian shakes the can vigorously and then paints the “Miss me?” message beneath it. Next, the first of the cameras goes into the standard lamp by the leather and chrome chair. It's all well and good James' audio listening device, but Sebastian prefers to trust his own materials. This way he also gets the inside story directly on a live feed, rather than relying on third parties to relay it to him after the fact.

When he moves into the kitchen, Sebastian takes his phone with him to keep an eye on what's happening across town. By the number of employees pouring out of the Google building, he knows that the smoke bombs must have gone off, triggering the fire alarm and the evacuation. It's going to be tight. Holmes is going to put the clues together soon.

The rickety kitchen chair gives him the height he needs to reach the red smoke detector device over the fridge. The location had served him well until Watson had found it. Would he think to look there again? Unlikely… In Sebastian's experience of covert surveillance, a target who removed one device seldom went back to the same location, assuming that the person spying on them would choose a different location.

This time, he plants the camera in Sherlock's room in a display cabinet filled with an odd assortment of things, opting for a glass beaker filled with bits and pieces of metal and plastic that would appear to have been stripped out of an old SLR camera. One more item mixed in there will probably escape notice. He cues the camera feed on his phone to adjust the angle correctly. Sebastian smirks at the idea of being able to catch Holmes in action with his boyfriend, that is if he's getting any these days. The last conversation he'd overheard suggests that things are not back to normal on that front.

Satisfied that the camera will catch any bedtime activity, he toggles back to the live feed at Pancras Square. The unmarked police car is just leaving the plaza with a squeal of tires on the stones, a blue flasher on the roof.

Read it all here. 

[7-percent]

“Why Don’t You Know What You Really Want?” 

This amazing fan vid by @johnlocklover221 draws on the words of Alan Watts to capture the crucial moment that is happening in the latest instalments of the Forethought and Fire series.  Chapter six of Between the Fall and the Creation (Posted TODAY) and In Madness Lies Sanity (Posted TOMORROW) finds John, Sherlock, and Sebastian all asking themselves what they really want. 

Astonishing artistry!

[7-percent]

Between the Fall and the Creation

Chapter Two is up now on AO3, here.

Things aren't going as well for Sherlock as he might have liked ... Mycroft and Lestrade are on the receiving end of Sherlock’s texting. Tomorrow we will see what Sebastian Moran is doing to aggravate things. 

[7-percent]

Five Favourite Works of Mine

How wonderful to be tagged! Thank you for the honour @simplyclockwork💚

rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world. tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

Interesting challenge! At first, I wondered how many stories I had written in the year to June (okay, so I cheated a bit and added two weeks). Turns out that it is more than I thought, so I actually had to make choices. 

Differential Diagnosis by 7PercentSolution, J_Baillier

(WIP; 38,648 words posted  so far; 8 /21 chapters.) During his fourth year of studying medicine at Cambridge, Sherlock is certain that nothing could be worse than the gynaecology & obstetrics rotation he’s just managed to muddle through. Little does he know that it will be the following course — psychiatry — that will pose the greatest threat to the secret he’s struggled to keep. Paired with Sebastian Wilkes who’s had it in for our fledgling doctor on the Spectrum since year one, Sherlock will need to be on his best game to keep his neurosurgical career dreams alive.

How could I NOT include this, our current collaboration in the You Go To My Head series? I am so lucky that @jbaillier let’s me play with her doctor boys.

Few Escape the Gallows by 7PercentSolution, shelleysprometheus

(92,406 words, 26 chapters) Sherlock is dead. Moriarty is free. And John is ... falling. What do you do when you have nothing to lose? Following on from A Dead Man's Money, this fic pits a grieving John Watson against an angry Sebastian Moran. Mycroft is scheming in the background and Moriarty is making mischief. And Sherlock ... ?

And this year has also seen the start of a new co-authoring adventure with the remarkable @shelleysprometheus, who lets me enjoy Jim Moriarty and Sebastian Moran in her Forethought and Fire series.

The Ex—An Ex Files Special by 7PercentSolution

(108,177 words, 22 chapters)  Thirteen years ago, Sherlock was extricated from his relationship with Victor Trevor. What happens when they meet again? How will John deal with it?

This one squeaks in under the timeline wire, followed by the sequel, The Exit. I had this story in my mind for three years before I was brave enough to write a Victor who was worthy of Sherlock’s love. 

Watching Brief by 7PercentSolution

(14,022 words, 5 chapters)  With concern and fear, Lestrade watches as Sherlock spirals out of control during and after the countdown to the Watson wedding.

I was delighted to return to the Got My Eye On You series which gives Lestrade’s POV, with a new story. There will be more! 

Magpie: Three for a Girl by 7PercentSolution

(24,610 words, 6 chapters)  The mystery that is Mary—who she is, where she came from and what debts she accrued along that journey. How did she come to fall in love with a man she was supposed to be protecting and why it leads her to put a bullet in Sherlock's chest. A five plus one.

Not everyone’s favourite, I know, but Mary is someone who does feature in my universe of stories, so it was time we learned a little more about her backstory. 

The stories above add up to 277,853- plus another 30k already drafted of the one WIP. Then there are four other stories I wrote that aren’t listed here, and they add up to another 86,752. And then there is the as yet unpublished (but will be by the end of the month) Magpies: Four for a Boy, which is 12,415 words with one chapter to go. So, gulp, that’s nearly 400,000 words in a year. 

@simplyclockwork tagged the people I would have tagged!

[7-percent]

As One Adventure Ends...

It has been my privilege to be invited to work with @shelleysprometheus​ on this, the third of her Forethought and Fire series. I loved her first two stories, The Real Great Perfumers and A Dead Man’s Money, so much so that I blagged my way into being a britpicker on the tail end of the last one, and then encouraged her to do justice to Moriarty in a sequel, little knowing at the time that she would invite me to write it with her. 

It’s been a fantastic time. I have learned a lot, been inspired, had fun, done research with her in person and online, and I am very proud to have been a part of this story.

Another One Begins...

We have started work together on what happens next. John is reunited with a very alive Sherlock, but it will take some time to re-kindle their relationship after the events of Few Escape the Gallows. Meanwhile, Moran is loose and seeking revenge, wanting to burn the heart out of both Holmes brothers and John Watson. 

[7-percent]

Few Escape the Gallows   

Chapter 25    Till a keeper shot him with his gun

Sherlock raises his pistol in anticipation, but the man beats him to it. A flash, smoke and then a thunderous boom of black powder igniting rings out across the greying sky, sending the rooks scattering.

Read here.

[7-percent]

Few Escape the Gallows  Chapter 24

“Rather shameless, your attempt to try and make yourself look bigger than you are."

It’s a direct shot and Moriarty eyes narrow dangerously. "Choose your weapon Sherlock, or are you just going to talk me to death?"  

Sherlock bends over the open case, and John watches him select the one that Moran had filled. He feels a stab of… what? Annoyance? Guilt? Doesn't he trust me to do a good job?

Moran throws John a knowing smile, takes the remaining pistol out of the case and checks it over carefully, before handing it to Moriarty, who examines it again, looking extremely confident and at ease with the weapon.  

As if he can read John's mind, the Irishman smirks as he goes through the motions of taking aim at a distant tree. "My great grandfather's pistols, by the way. I used to shoot targets with these at the family estate."

It’s showdown on the Heath! Read it here.