Send Diane Duane to the Reichenbach Falls to outline a cyber/steampunk Sherlock Holmes novel
...Well, they say you're supposed to declare the challenge in the topmost sentence. Will that do, you think?
So let me tell you what's going on, as sometimes when an idea sneaks up behind you and hits you over the head, you should, you know... just shove it out there and see what people make of it.
Background: Once upon a time, I wrote a short story for this Holmes & Watson anthology. Here's the first paragraph of the story.
It was early autumn of the year 1895 when Holmes and I, having been caught up in the events earlier that year that surrounded the return of the abominable giant “rats” of Sumatra III, were at last able to return from deep space to the familiar environs of Baker Street. After months of headlong flight among too many planets of five systems, being caught up in not merely one or two but three major on- and off-planet engagements, and pursuing (or being pursued by) malefactors and their minions through the unexplored catacombs of an anciently abandoned alien city, the prospect of resuming something like our normal routine came as a great relief.
...So who'd like to see the prequel novel?
But first (because I am a career-long outliner, as discussed at some length here) will, of necessity, come the outline. ...This is because I don't want to waste my readers' time, any more than I'm willing to waste my own. (Not least because as too-recent events have reminded me: Art's long, but life's too damn short.)
Adding a break here, because the logistics on this are a touch complex. WARNING: contains very time-sensitive changes to travel plans (six hours, and the clock is ticking!), multi-national rail journeys (on senior-citizen discounts), writing work done to good effect in foreign places... and the Falls.
...First: a shade of meta background here. For the past week and almost-a-half I've been away (again) from the rural cottage I long shared with @petermorwood, to see if I could start to break through the shock and grief into starting in on writing work again. It's been a tough quarter-year since suddenly losing him: and what's increasingly been feeling like "the Empty House" has not been—as you might imagine—a place terribly conducive to the imaginative life, when for nearly three decades there was always another mind, and voice, imagining things in there with me.
Getting away, though, seems to have helped. And without warning, this last week or so, the novel for which that paragraph up top served as an inadvertent precís has abruptly stood up and said, "Let's go!"
Problem is: right now I'm terrified that going straight back to the Empty House will strangle it in the cradle.
...Here, though, is a thought that came to me abruptly when I started work on the pizza in this post.
Why not extend your stay here for a week and see if you can nail the outline down in that time? The flight back to Ireland can still be changed, and at no additional cost... for (glancing at the clock) the next six hours.
And (glancing over the European horizon) Reichenbach is right there... just a few hours away on the train. What an energizing place to do such a work! (I've been there before—a story that will come out over the process to come—but not for nearly fifty years. Again: Art is long but life is so short...)
So who's in to help me make this happen?
Over the next six hours, I need to raise enough $ to put me up in a three-star hotel in Meiringen (which is the town nearest the Reichenbach Falls) for a week. (Looks like about US $1000 at the current exchange rate.) This doesn't seem like appropriate territory for a GoFundMe. Never mind: I've got a Ko-Fi.
Want to send me to the neighborhood of the Reichenbach Falls to get this job done?
Go over here and drop something into the pot. Tag your contribution as REICHENBACH so I know what it's for.
Please bear in mind that you need to do this within the next six hours of my uploading this post. Otherwise I can't reschedule my return travel without it costing me various arms and legs.
Who knows, maybe this will come to nothing. But without putting it out there for people to see, I'll never know.
What you get: Daily, probably multiply-daily, updates. Chunks of the outline as, day by day, it gets written. And the complete final outline, when it finishes up within a week of my getting back to Ireland. (Because a few days of polish probably won't kill it.) ...And probably some food posts, because (shrug) writers gotta eat, yeah?
And yeah, of course I'll go up to the Falls, and post video for those who've assisted in this endeavor. I've been before: I know the way. :)
...So there it is for you, folks. The ball's in your court(s) now.
Help me pack my carpet-bag and go!
ETA, 22 Sept 2025: The carpet-bag is packed and I am on the move. It's probably smartest for me to make this a master-post, instead of adding to it constantly. So the first addition will link from here (as will subsequent ones). Stay tuned...
Also...I'm going to tag all these posts, both here and on Bluesky, with #ATripToReichenbach. Use that tag for the newest developments. ...And if folks meanwhile want to drop eating money into the pot, even though the major expense of the trip's extension is handled: honestly, don't let me stop you... :)
