Studying Scarlets:
Interviews with
The Studious Scarlets Society
Tamara Reynolds Bower & Resa Haile
Tamara Reynolds Bower is a former barista and journalist, and is a voracious reader who first discovered Sherlock Holmes with her sons in the ‘80s. She is the co-founder of the Studious Scarlets Society, a member of the Original Tree Worshippers of Rock County, and formerly Second Pip for the John Openshaw Society. Tamara is working on her first novel and also a Sherlockian pastiche based on the character of Rachel Howells when not spending time with her husband, her black lab Cooper, and her cats, Falstaff and Prince Harry, or following Sherlockians online.
Resa Haile has been a writer and a Sherlockian since childhood. She is the co-founder of the Studious Scarlets Society and of the Original Tree Worshippers of Rock County (the latter with Gayle Lange Puhl), and she also created and runs or co-runs various Tumblrs and Facebook pages.
Resa’s article, “In Defense of Violet Hunter,” appeared in The Baker Street Journal, and her poem, "Extracts from the Diary of Lucy Ferrier in the Days of Her Captivity," was part of NonBinary Review's special
Study in Scarlet issue.
Tamara: Do you remember the first Holmes story you read from the Canon?
Resa: Yes. A Study in Scarlet, although I didn’t finish it, I think, the first time, because the flashback was weird for me. I did quickly go on to The Adventures, though.
How about you? Do you remember your first?
Tamara: It was one of the most popular of the stories, and my least favorite: “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.”
Bonus points for you, Resa: do you remember when and where you were?
Resa: I was in grade school. Milton West, I think, sixth grade. It might have been at Janesville Consolidated before that, which would make it earlier.
What do you dislike about "The Speckled Band"? (It's funny; we saw a play of that together.)
Tamara: That was a really fun, well-acted and well-staged version, wasn't it? The original story, however, seemed overly exotic in an unflattering way - the strange menagerie and a snake that you could train to drink milk! Then there was the horrible - though de rigueur in Holmes’ world - stepfather, brutalizing the young women.
Resa: It’s interesting how Doyle genderflips the fairy tale of the wicked stepmother.
Tamara: True. He had quite the opinion of the masculine threat to the virginal ingénue.
What would you tell Sherlock that you admire most about him?
Resa: You’d think I’d have a good answer for that.
I think I admire his kindness to people he doesn’t have to be kind to, and his willingness to stand up to people regardless of their position in society. But I also admire his willingness to take his lumps. He’ll always admit when he’s wrong.
Tamara: I like that a lot.
What would you say about Watson?
Resa: Watson is a hell of a good writer.
Tamara: Nice. Elaborate.
Resa: He’s a romantic. I don’t think he’s had a lot of the kind of experience with women people like to assume he means when he says “three continents.” I think he just means he’s met a lot of women, and he thinks Mary is the sweetest.
I also think he can jump to judging people, like in “The Noble Bachelor” and “The Three Students,” and Holmes has to say to him that if he were in that position, he might feel or act the same way.
Watson is very forgiving of Holmes, though, too (“The Empty House,” “The Dying Detective”), and he tries hard to win Holmes’ approval.
What do you think of Watson?
Tamara: I think Watson serves as an Everyman, the voice of the reader allowing us to observe and question and even offer a little assistance to Holmes. By the other side of the token, I think Watson sees himself as a champion of whoever has the greatest need of one. Happily, it is very often Holmes.
Resa: We know Watson is sometimes not along on the cases. Is there a character from the Canon or even other fiction you think would be able to fill in for Watson?
Tamara: From the Canon: Violet Hunter, who receives one of the greatest compliments Holmes bestows.
Noncanonical: Lucy Liu’s Watson.
What are your top five pastiches not written by a Scarlet?
Resa: Yes. A Study in Scarlet, although I didn’t finish it, I think, the first time, because the flashback was weird for me. I did quickly go on to The Adventures, though.
How about you? Do you remember your first?
Tamara: It was one of the most popular of the stories, and my least favorite: “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.”
Bonus points for you, Resa: do you remember when and where you were?
Resa: I was in grade school. Milton West, I think, sixth grade. It might have been at Janesville Consolidated before that, which would make it earlier.
What do you dislike about "The Speckled Band"? (It's funny; we saw a play of that together.)
Tamara: That was a really fun, well-acted and well-staged version, wasn't it? The original story, however, seemed overly exotic in an unflattering way - the strange menagerie and a snake that you could train to drink milk! Then there was the horrible - though de rigueur in Holmes’ world - stepfather, brutalizing the young women.
Resa: It’s interesting how Doyle genderflips the fairy tale of the wicked stepmother.
Tamara: True. He had quite the opinion of the masculine threat to the virginal ingénue.
What would you tell Sherlock that you admire most about him?
Resa: You’d think I’d have a good answer for that.
I think I admire his kindness to people he doesn’t have to be kind to, and his willingness to stand up to people regardless of their position in society. But I also admire his willingness to take his lumps. He’ll always admit when he’s wrong.
Tamara: I like that a lot.
What would you say about Watson?
Resa: Watson is a hell of a good writer.
Tamara: Nice. Elaborate.
Resa: He’s a romantic. I don’t think he’s had a lot of the kind of experience with women people like to assume he means when he says “three continents.” I think he just means he’s met a lot of women, and he thinks Mary is the sweetest.
I also think he can jump to judging people, like in “The Noble Bachelor” and “The Three Students,” and Holmes has to say to him that if he were in that position, he might feel or act the same way.
Watson is very forgiving of Holmes, though, too (“The Empty House,” “The Dying Detective”), and he tries hard to win Holmes’ approval.
What do you think of Watson?
Tamara: I think Watson serves as an Everyman, the voice of the reader allowing us to observe and question and even offer a little assistance to Holmes. By the other side of the token, I think Watson sees himself as a champion of whoever has the greatest need of one. Happily, it is very often Holmes.
Resa: We know Watson is sometimes not along on the cases. Is there a character from the Canon or even other fiction you think would be able to fill in for Watson?
Tamara: From the Canon: Violet Hunter, who receives one of the greatest compliments Holmes bestows.
Noncanonical: Lucy Liu’s Watson.
What are your top five pastiches not written by a Scarlet?
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Resa: Of course, there are many I haven’t read yet, so this could change. Exit Sherlock Holmes by Robert Lee Hall. It’s kind of wild and knocks everything on its ear. I think he really gets Watson’s voice, and it’s beautiful. Violet Hunter is Watson’s second wife, which would never happen in my Sherlockian World. I love how Holmes helped Wiggins follow his dream and looked out for the irregulars. More I cannot say because–spoilers! |
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer. The first pastiche I ever read. I hadn’t even gotten to Professor Moriarty in the Canon yet and I was reading this AU where Moriarty wasn’t really evil! Holmes and Watson’s friendship is touching in this, as in most good Watson-authored pastiches.
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Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula / Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes by Loren D. Estleman. I was hoping he’d go on to do The Invisible Man, but it never materialized.
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L.B. Greenwood and Michael Hardwick are also good. Now I’m remembering other ones! I’m thinking: I chose all long ones, but there are some great short ones. “Death in the Christmas Hour” by James Powell, featuring a Sherlock Holmes doll solving a toy murder, is a lot of fun. |
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What are your favorite pastiches and why?
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Tamara: A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin is one of those rare books that opens a door to another place and time and ushers the reader into a most observant mind sharing every experience of the key character, Sherlock Holmes.
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Which writers influenced you the most?
Resa: There are so many! Elizabeth George Speare, who wrote only a few books, including The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Calico Captive. I read her several times in grade school. Louisa May Alcott and Jane Austen, of course. I love that Alcott really liked her thrillers the best, almost a kind of mirror of Doyle’s attitude towards his writing. (Doyle goes without saying, I assume?) Poe—I loved “The Raven,” of course. The usual suspects: Twain, Dickens, Shakespeare. Agatha Christie. Virginia Hamilton. Then there was Dodie Smith, who had an influence—her humor. Later there was Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith and The Third Lady by Shizuko Natsuki. More recently, Tana French, Denise Mina, and Edwidge Danticat. Still finding more. I know I’m leaving somebody out, no doubt a lot of somebodies.
I think there’s a lot of influence from old movies: Preston Sturges, Howard Hawks, Val Lewton. I loved the old horror movies, screwball comedies, and the classical puzzle mystery that’s so hard to do. I think Joss Whedon and Connie Willis are influences because they throw together such disparate elements and genres and they mesh. I loved Buffy and To Say Nothing of the Dog. I like how Tana French and Connie Willis both create worlds and follow different main characters in those worlds.
I think there’s a lot of influence from old movies: Preston Sturges, Howard Hawks, Val Lewton. I loved the old horror movies, screwball comedies, and the classical puzzle mystery that’s so hard to do. I think Joss Whedon and Connie Willis are influences because they throw together such disparate elements and genres and they mesh. I loved Buffy and To Say Nothing of the Dog. I like how Tana French and Connie Willis both create worlds and follow different main characters in those worlds.
Tell us about the writers you like and who have influenced you the most.
Tell us about the writers you like and who have influenced you the most.
Tamara: Yes, a long list that is! I greatly admire Bruce Chatwin, Shakespeare and Toni Morrison. They all share elements I aspire to: honesty, depth and a keen sense of humanity and character.
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Resa: Do you have a favorite guest character in the Canon (that is, someone not Holmes or Watson)?
Tamara: I love Violet Smith from “The Solitary Cyclist”; Violet Hunter of “The Copper Beeches”; and Rachel Howells of “The Musgrave Ritual.”
Tamara: I love Violet Smith from “The Solitary Cyclist”; Violet Hunter of “The Copper Beeches”; and Rachel Howells of “The Musgrave Ritual.”
Violet Smith illustration by Sidney Paget
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Violet Hunter illustration by Sidney Paget
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Rachel Howells illustration by Sidney Paget
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Resa: What inspired you to create a group for women who write Sherlockian works?
Tamara: Oh, there are so many reasons, among them our friendship!
Otherwise, because I read and have a long queue of pastiches written by women in what at times seems like a masculine-dominated world. And I wanted to know more about them and have great Sherlockian conversations with them. I also wanted support and insight about the writing process of a Sherlockian that my local scion and likely theirs can’t provide. And I just like talking about Sherlock in all his incarnations.
What inspired you to start a group for women who write Sherlockian pastiches?
Resa: That you had the idea!
Tamara: I don’t remember this being my idea.
Resa: I think you and I were texting, and we started batting around the idea. It kind of went from there. I have long harbored a concept for a convention with panels of female Sherlockian authors, though. And you thought of the name.
Are you working on a pastiche idea?
Tamara: Yes, I am working on a pastiche based on Rachel Howells. Fun fact: my auto correct recognizes Rachel’s name before I finish typing it.
Resa: Can you tell a little about that, or is it under wraps?
Tamara: Well, I always wondered why Holmes left her to her own devices, and what happened to her. So I found out. Ha!
Resa: Will Watson or Rachel be narrating the story?
Tamara: Oh, there are so many reasons, among them our friendship!
Otherwise, because I read and have a long queue of pastiches written by women in what at times seems like a masculine-dominated world. And I wanted to know more about them and have great Sherlockian conversations with them. I also wanted support and insight about the writing process of a Sherlockian that my local scion and likely theirs can’t provide. And I just like talking about Sherlock in all his incarnations.
What inspired you to start a group for women who write Sherlockian pastiches?
Resa: That you had the idea!
Tamara: I don’t remember this being my idea.
Resa: I think you and I were texting, and we started batting around the idea. It kind of went from there. I have long harbored a concept for a convention with panels of female Sherlockian authors, though. And you thought of the name.
Are you working on a pastiche idea?
Tamara: Yes, I am working on a pastiche based on Rachel Howells. Fun fact: my auto correct recognizes Rachel’s name before I finish typing it.
Resa: Can you tell a little about that, or is it under wraps?
Tamara: Well, I always wondered why Holmes left her to her own devices, and what happened to her. So I found out. Ha!
Resa: Will Watson or Rachel be narrating the story?
Il. Sidney Paget
Tamara: I’m working on Watson as the author with him and Sherlock in the Great War years.
Resa: Sounds interesting.
Tamara: Thanks. I look forward to sharing it.
You just had an article on Violet Hunter published in the Baker Street Journal. Do you have more in mind for Miss Hunter?
Resa: Sounds interesting.
Tamara: Thanks. I look forward to sharing it.
You just had an article on Violet Hunter published in the Baker Street Journal. Do you have more in mind for Miss Hunter?
Resa: Yes. Since I was a kid and first read “The Copper Beeches,” I wanted to write The Adventures of Violet Hunter. Many years ago, I started a novel starring her, and I am getting back to working on it again. As we know, she went to work at a school near Walsall. There are actually some strange goings-on there.
One of the students is a young (and female) Isadora Persano, who will go on to become the well-known journalist and duellist. Lucy Hebron from “The Yellow Face” will also be a student. I’m excited and nervous about this project.
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Tamara: I’m excited! Will this be a traditional Holmesian adventure? If so, will Sherlock be involved? What role does Violet play? Will Violet have a love interest?
Resa: That’s a lot of questions! It is somewhat traditional in that it has a first-person narrator, but the narrator is the detective rather than an outside observer. Violet functions as the detective, which she does to a huge extent in “The Copper Beeches,” where Holmes and Watson are essentially her backup. Holmes will appear a little bit. It seems that Dr. Watson was misinformed (or simply not informed) about Holmes’ remaining in contact with Miss Hunter. He suggests the position at the school to her (not the headmistress position, which comes later), and she does contact him when things seem a bit dicey. Interestingly, Violet functions so much as the detective in “The Copper Beeches” that a 2008 short film called Violet has eliminated Holmes and Watson entirely.
Let’s just say I don’t want to influence readers regarding a love interest.
Do you think Rachel Howells, who disappears at the end of her Canon story, would qualify as one of the people who “beat” Holmes?
Resa: That’s a lot of questions! It is somewhat traditional in that it has a first-person narrator, but the narrator is the detective rather than an outside observer. Violet functions as the detective, which she does to a huge extent in “The Copper Beeches,” where Holmes and Watson are essentially her backup. Holmes will appear a little bit. It seems that Dr. Watson was misinformed (or simply not informed) about Holmes’ remaining in contact with Miss Hunter. He suggests the position at the school to her (not the headmistress position, which comes later), and she does contact him when things seem a bit dicey. Interestingly, Violet functions so much as the detective in “The Copper Beeches” that a 2008 short film called Violet has eliminated Holmes and Watson entirely.
Let’s just say I don’t want to influence readers regarding a love interest.
Do you think Rachel Howells, who disappears at the end of her Canon story, would qualify as one of the people who “beat” Holmes?
Tamara: That’s a good question. And I think that Rachel Howells (get ready for the SHOCKING and UNWHOLESOME opinion), unlike Irene Adler, did in a sense beat him—hear me out!—because Sherlock “decided” not to pursue her without expressing much reasoning. And we all know Watson’s high opinion of Adler, which could well have served to misdirect him whenever he heard Holmes mention “the woman.”
Resa: So, you would consider that Rachel Howells was indeed “the woman”? I love that idea. It’s very interesting. Holmes, I think, was well able to have high opinions of several women for different reasons.
Tamara: I’m hardly unique in positing that theory. I do, however, have as much reason for believing it—Holmes’ attitude toward Howells would explain Watson attributing to her, “The Woman,” as the one who “eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex,” and not in a good way—as I do to profit from it (by extending it), so to speak.
Resa: It’s a good theory.
I know you have some other writing projects also. Would you like to share anything about them?
Tamara: I am in the revision process with a novel (not a pastiche), and I have a mystery I developed for NaNoWriMo, which is a fun work even if I didn’t make the 50,000 word count.
You mentioned your pastiche novel. What other writing projects do you have in the hopper?
Resa: I am trying to finish up the final rewrite draft of a comedy mystery—I call the subgenre “screwball noir”—set in an alternate version of our world where everyone knows and has always known there are werewolves, vampires, ghosts, zombies, and so on, and some of these are a part of society. My detective is Cecily Strange, the only non-psychic member of her family. I also have a Cinderella murder mystery I want to get back to, inspired by a Hitchcock quote. I have many old projects I need to go through at some point, type up, etc.
When did you first know you wanted to write?
Tamara: I knew I wanted to write in my teens, but family and what Jackson Brown refers to as “the struggle for the legal tender” intervened.
Resa: Are you reading anything Sherlockian right now?
Resa: So, you would consider that Rachel Howells was indeed “the woman”? I love that idea. It’s very interesting. Holmes, I think, was well able to have high opinions of several women for different reasons.
Tamara: I’m hardly unique in positing that theory. I do, however, have as much reason for believing it—Holmes’ attitude toward Howells would explain Watson attributing to her, “The Woman,” as the one who “eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex,” and not in a good way—as I do to profit from it (by extending it), so to speak.
Resa: It’s a good theory.
I know you have some other writing projects also. Would you like to share anything about them?
Tamara: I am in the revision process with a novel (not a pastiche), and I have a mystery I developed for NaNoWriMo, which is a fun work even if I didn’t make the 50,000 word count.
You mentioned your pastiche novel. What other writing projects do you have in the hopper?
Resa: I am trying to finish up the final rewrite draft of a comedy mystery—I call the subgenre “screwball noir”—set in an alternate version of our world where everyone knows and has always known there are werewolves, vampires, ghosts, zombies, and so on, and some of these are a part of society. My detective is Cecily Strange, the only non-psychic member of her family. I also have a Cinderella murder mystery I want to get back to, inspired by a Hitchcock quote. I have many old projects I need to go through at some point, type up, etc.
When did you first know you wanted to write?
Tamara: I knew I wanted to write in my teens, but family and what Jackson Brown refers to as “the struggle for the legal tender” intervened.
Resa: Are you reading anything Sherlockian right now?
Tamara: Ooh, what am I reading? I recently finished the book about some secret papers of ACD. The Conan Doyle Notes: The Secret of Jack the Ripper by Diane Gilbert Madsen. And I am practically salivating over the thought (there’s probably a better metaphor for lusting over a book) of reading Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse’s Mycroft.
Tamara: Ooh, what am I reading? I recently finished the book about some secret papers of ACD. The Conan Doyle Notes: The Secret of Jack the Ripper by Diane Gilbert Madsen.
And I am practically salivating over the thought (there’s probably a better metaphor for lusting over a book) of reading Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse’s Mycroft. |
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Resa: I’m reading that [Mycroft Holmes] and also Vienna by William S. Kirby, which is inspired by “The Six Napoleons” and casts Holmes and Watson as modern-day women.
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Tamara: Have you read any other Doylean stories?
Resa: Yes, I’ve read the four historical novels [The White Company, Sir Nigel, Micah Clarke, The Refugees], The Lost World, Brigadier Gerard, and some other things, but not everything. The Original Tree Worshippers does a non-Sherlock Holmes meeting in May [Doyle’s birth month], which is devoted Doyle’s other works.
Resa: Yes, I’ve read the four historical novels [The White Company, Sir Nigel, Micah Clarke, The Refugees], The Lost World, Brigadier Gerard, and some other things, but not everything. The Original Tree Worshippers does a non-Sherlock Holmes meeting in May [Doyle’s birth month], which is devoted Doyle’s other works.
Tamara: One last question: If you could have a drink or meal with any three people, who would it be?
Resa: This is a very hard question. As you can tell, I have a hard time with narrowing things down. I would have liked to have met Risë Stevens, the opera singer who inspired my mother to name me “Resa” (pronounced the same but spelled differently). Anna May Wong, whose biography I wanted to write for a long time. It would be nice to meet Roddy McDowall. I actually did see him in a play (“Dial M for Murder”). I understand he was a great storyteller. Ask me another day and I’ll give you different answers.
Resa: This is a very hard question. As you can tell, I have a hard time with narrowing things down. I would have liked to have met Risë Stevens, the opera singer who inspired my mother to name me “Resa” (pronounced the same but spelled differently). Anna May Wong, whose biography I wanted to write for a long time. It would be nice to meet Roddy McDowall. I actually did see him in a play (“Dial M for Murder”). I understand he was a great storyteller. Ask me another day and I’ll give you different answers.
Tamara: I would love to have coffee with C.S Lewis, Jeremy Brett and Toni Morrison. Their experiences and stories have touched me more deeply than many others—I feel I’m less of a reader and more the subject the story is being personally told to.
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Tamara and Resa are the editors of the essay collection, Villains, Victims, and Violets: Agency and Feminism in the Original Sherlock Holmes Canon.
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