*I am celebrating my husband’s birthday today and tomorrow will be packing for what will HOPEFULLY be the last trip of the year. Well, long distance trip, at least. After which I intend to nest-in and just write. Fortunately for me Steph agreed to take today from me. – SAH*
Sherlock Holmes and the Mummy’s Curse wins Silver Falchion Award™!
Stephanie Osborn
The Interstellar Woman of Mystery
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com
The Killer Nashville mystery writer’s conference (http://www.killernashville.com/ ) is a community of writers whose work contains elements of mystery, thriller, or suspense. The mystery convention’s Silver Falchion Award™ (http://www.killernashville.com/awards/silver-falchion-award/) is committed to discovering new writers, as well as superlative books by established authors and sharing those writers and their works with new readers.
The purpose of the award is to honor the best newly-published books available to a North American audience in any format within the past year. The categories include both fiction and nonfiction. The winner is determined by the votes of the other attendees during the conference. (http://www.killernashville.com/2016-killer-nashville-silver-falchion-finalists/ )
Killer Nashville 2016 was held this year on 18-21 August, and the Silver Falchion Award™ ceremonies were held the evening of Saturday, 20 August.
I am thrilled to announce that the first book of the Gentleman Aegis series, Sherlock Holmes and the Mummy’s Curse, has WON the 2016 Silver Falchion Award™ for Best “Nonfiction” (read: historical fiction) YA Book!
Why “nonfiction”? The books which were placed in that category were all historical mystery fiction, but they were ACCURATE historicals. I can’t speak for the others in the category, but Mummy’s Curse uses Victorian British English, accurate settings, historical accoutrements and behavior, and has an understanding of the archaeology of the period and its fascination with ancient Egypt. It also correctly uses (and footnotes) archaic spellings, ancient Egyptian translations, and more.
What is it about, you ask? Well, for starters, it really IS fiction, as you might expect with a title like that. As per usual with me, this is a science fiction mystery, with a hint of fantasy and thriller thrown in for good measure.
Tommy Hancock, Editor in Chief at Pro Se Productions, approached me a couple years back at MidSouthCon in Memphis, after several of the Displaced Detective books had been released. He informed me he was a huge fan of that series, and wanted me to write a more traditional Holmes & Watson story for him. I liked the idea. We brainstormed for over an hour, and a new series was born. For those of you who have read my Displaced Detective series, this is the first in a prequel series, the Gentleman Aegis series, which chronicles the same version of Holmes from the Displaced Detective books, but in his original timeline as a young man, well before he transitions between universes.
So, according to Tommy, this is what Sherlock Holmes and the Mummy’s Curse is about:
“Holmes and Watson. Two names linked by mystery and danger from the beginning.
“Within the first year of their friendship and while both are young men, Holmes and Watson are still finding their way in the world, with all the troubles that such young men usually have: Financial straits, troubles of the female persuasion, hazings, misunderstandings between friends, and more. Watson’s Afghan wounds are still tender, his health not yet fully recovered, and there can be no consideration of his beginning a new practice as yet. Holmes, in his turn, is still struggling to found the new profession of consulting detective. Not yet truly established in London, let alone with the reputations they will one day possess, they are between cases and at loose ends when Holmes’ old professor of archaeology contacts him.
“Professor Willingham Whitesell makes an appeal to Holmes’ unusual skill set and a request. Holmes is to bring Watson to serve as the dig team’s physician and come to Egypt at once to translate hieroglyphics for his prestigious archaeological dig. There in the wilds of the Egyptian desert, plagued by heat, dust, drought and cobras, the team hopes to find the very first Pharaoh. Instead, they find something very different…
“Noted Author Stephanie Osborn (Creator of the Displaced Detective series) presents the first book in her Sherlock Holmes, Gentleman Aegis series — Sherlock Holmes and the Mummy’s Curse, the debut volume of Pro Se Productions’ Holmes Apocrypha imprint.”
The book was released in November of 2015 and promptly became an ebook pulp bestseller. It is available in print and electronic formats.
(https://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Mummys-Stephanie-Osborn-ebook/dp/B017IX33NW/ref=la_B0026DM46M_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472272263&sr=1-8#nav-subnav )
Mad Genius Club 
34 responses to “Sherlock Holmes and the Mummy’s Curse wins Silver Falchion Award™! Stephanie Osborn”
Congratulations!
Thank you!
*happy dance*
Great!
YAY! I haz a happee!
Congrats, Stephanie!
Thanks very much! I’m really pleased to have won an award!
I received Sherlock Holmes and the Mummy’s Curse as a present last year. I found it to a lovely book, a worthy prequel that can stand entirely upon its own merits. I thoroughly enjoyed the read.
Congratulations Stephanie.
Oh! I’m SO glad you liked it! I worked hard on it, but it was very fun to write! And thank you!
Congratulations on the award Steph.
You know the subject of writing historically correct fiction for a modern audience has come up here before. Mostly in the context of writers failing to do their homework and imposing modern speech and behavior patterns on people that are entirely inappropriate to the time period in question. might be of some interest to hear your methodology in developing a book that on the one hand gets the history right, but still has modern day appeal.
Thanks very much, Larry!
Oh — yeah, I could do that. And yes, I did a lot of research on the historical stuff in particular; Sarah and I have discussed it a little bit. I already had a familiarity with American stuff and to an only slightly more limited extent, British “stuff” of the Victorian era. And as much and as often as I have read Victorian literature, I actually had to explain some of the archaic spellings to the editor! (Turned out that he’d downloaded a compendium of the Holmes stories that had “updated” the English to modern.) But to go to Egypt and figure out what was historically correct was a bit more of a challenge.
Would folks like to hear about the research aspect?
Absolutely! I mean, you’re talking to a consortium of geeks and writers (overlapping Venn diagram) here – who is more likely to be fascinated by research than that?
LOL! Good point, I suppose. Well, in that case, I will go off and gin something up, and present it to Sarah to use on a future date when she needs a pinch-hitter!
Yes, so I can see what I’m doing wrong. 🙂
I seriously doubt you’re doing anything WRONG. That said, there are always avenues to travel for your research that you might not have thought of. I’m constantly looking for new ways to get the information I need — sometimes — I can think of a specific instance on Mummy’s Curse — it’s only, “I need to know the proper period term for THIS THING RIGHT HERE.” Now, if you don’t KNOW the proper period term, it’s hard to come up with a search string that will google the thing you want. That’s a challenge. Even with reference books, if you don’t know the proper term, you can’t find it, either in a search or (in the case of print) the index.
I’m also learning to use my people resources. More and more I’m discovering an untapped potential in my friends and relatives. My uncle the internist, my brother in law the hospital pharmacist, my old school chum the CSI team lead, my friend the Civil War re-enactor, and more.
But that belongs to the next article. 😉
Having a friend who is obsessed with or who has lived through is very, very useful. My Victorian Era Obsessed friend is my Alpha reader for my steampunk.
Yes, it very much is.
You have charmed me no end with your Holmes. I have heretofore not been particularly taken by any other non-canonical Holmes. They never felt quite right.
Please do consider writing on the research aspect.
I am so glad you have enjoyed it! There is a new Displaced Detective novel coming out around Oct 5, called Fear in the French Quarter. (Print release ~5 Oct; ebook release probably roughly a week earlier, hopefully.)
I have about 3 more books in the series in some stage of brainstorming/writing past that, and am brainstorming more. There will be one more, possibly two more, novels in the Gentleman Aegis series, as well.
Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy! Yippee!
YAY!
Please, if you enjoy my books, consider telling a friend, or leaving a review on Amazon.
Thank you, good to know. I will copy this information and send it to The Spouse as way of dropping appropriate hints for the coming gift giving season…
*bigwidegrin*
Congratulations! It’s in my Kindle,
THANK you! The ultimate compliment to a writer — you bought a copy!
I did too! Just haven’t had time to read it. 😉
OoooOOOOOooooo! The fellow writer bought a copy! YAYZ!! Thank you so much, Sarah! Enjoy your little working vacay!
When I have the money again, I will too.
Thank you!
Not to belabor the point, but for all of you who have read and enjoyed Steph’s books, or Sarah’s for that matter, pop on over to Amazon and leave a comment on that book’s sale page. Doesn’t cost you anything except a few moments of time, and you don’t have to have bought it from them.
A loyal enthusiastic fan base is a treasure beyond price to any writer, but to survive and prosper that base must grow. Large numbers of positive ratings for any book will get the Amazon wizards to actually suggest the book to other like minded folks who may have yet to find your favorite author on their own.
Just a few dozen extra sales will allow an author to buy a whole bucket of fresh electrons and an entire zerox sheet of plots and story ideas from that PO box in Philadelphia where every famous author got theirs.
I get mine from Hays KS. It’s cheaper.
Matter of personal taste I guess. The ones from Hays always have a faint corn field and barnyard scent while ideas from the Philly source usually have a faint overlay of cheese whiz and onions.
What Larry said!
…And it isn’t hard to write an Amazon review. All you have to do is say, “I really liked this book.” If that isn’t enough words, add, “You should try it.”
(This is, of course, assuming you did like it.)