Month: October 2023

November will be here soon, and at least one Watsonian has promised themselves to devoting this November to a particular novel-length story they want to tell. It’s not a pastiche, but it does feature a Holmes and a Watson, by those names. If you’ve ever participated in National Novel Writing Month, or Nanowrimo, as it is affectionately called, you know it’s a marathon for writers, a month-long challenge to get 50,000 words into your own novel. It’s a great motivator and a good way to get a nice feeling of accomplishment going into the holiday season.

And as I said, there’s one among us who is dead set on turning Nanowrimo 2023 into Watsonwrimo. It may just be me. But Nanowrimo is all about community and support, even while the task itself is a lonely and individual one. That said, if you’d like to join in Watsowrimo and try getting 50,000 Watson words, of any sort, with encouragement on the Watsonian Weekly podcast and a little friendly encouragement, JHWS style, drop an email to podcast@johnhwatsonsociety.com and join our little Watsowrimo crew, either under your real name or a pseudonym, if you’re shy about letting anyone know you’re writing a novel before the thing gets done. (We get it. Even Holmes kept his revelations until the climactic moment.)

The John H. Watson Society is about paying tribute to that great man in so many ways, and one of those is carrying on his legacy of writing about Sherlock Holmes. So let’s make November a month Watson is remembered . . . with 50,0000 words.

“Compound of the Busy Bee and Excelsior. We can but try — the motto of the firm!”

Just a reminder that the monthly meeting of the John H. Watson Society is coming up this Sunday, October 22, at noon Central time. Here’s that link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUodu-qrD4pE90gC36ovW__Yk3TjfNitCm9

This month’s Consultation will be trying something new as we bring in author, editor, symposium host, and inveterate reader of Sherlockiana, Rob Nunn into Watson’s examination room for a probing interview on his Watson-based afflictions. (Our “patients” will remain fully clothed for their examinations, don’t get excited.) After some rounds of questions by our Resident, we’ll open things up to the group to make sure we leave nothing out in diagnosing the seriousness of Rob’s case.

Be sure to check that link above to see what we find!

This week saw the start of Sherlock & Co., a new weekly podcast by John H. Watson, M.D. about his life with Sherlock Holmes. It’s a lively modern romp that’s not BBC Sherlock, but an original riff that aims to do modern takes on all sixty original Canonical tales. Two 35 minute episodes came out this week on all sorts of podcast sources ( I use Apple Podcasts, myself — https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sherlock-co/id1710121792 )

If you’d like to help review the new podcast on the Watsonian Weekly, this Sunday, October 15th at 1 PM Central time, there’s going to be a chat on Zoom that you can register for with the link below. Be forewarned, however! Your podcast host is enthusiastic about this show and will only be taking POSITIVE opinions for the podcast. Grumblers and Canon-only Watsonians need not apply. That said, we’d love to hear your happy thoughts on the matter, if you’ve got the time. Here’s the gathering link (not an actual meeting of the JHWS — that’s later this month):

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvceCvqzwuGNRhgOur1_zY8srUU_rdAMvV