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 Interview with Michael Mallory, author of The Adventures of the Second Mrs. Watson, a collection of short stories featuring Dr. Watson's second wife. Michael Mallory is the winner of the 1997 Derringer Award for his short-short story entitled "Curiosity Kills. Read our review ofThe Adventures of the Second Mrs. Watson. Feature by PJ Nunn. PJ NUNN - The Adventures of the Second Mrs. Watson is a great collection of short stories and a fascinating idea. What made you think of it? MICHAEL MALLORY - First, thank you. All but one of the stories in this collection were published in Murderous Intent Mystery Magazine previously. The origins of the character came from a chance remark by an acquaintance, who said she wanted to edit an anthology of fairy tales with feminist slants. I wasn't much on fairy tales, but the idea kind of stuck and I started applying it to other characters. Suddenly the thought of Dr. Watson's wife came. I wondered what a wife would do while her otherwise respectable husband was out hiding in the bushes all night on some case with his very peculiar friend. I vaguely remembered a mention of a second wife for Dr. Watson in the original stories and went back to look it up. After that, the character of Amelia almost sprung to life, fully formed right then and there. She had to be a strong person, otherwise she would be overwhelmed by Holmes influence. And to keep things interesting, there had to be some tension between she and Holmes, with poor Watson caught in the middle. The very first story The Adventure of the Left-Behind Wife practically wrote itself but was rejected by several mystery magazines. At that time, Holmes-related stories were not 'in' - certainly not like they are now. But when I sent it to Murderous Intent which was then brand-new, Margo Power the editor responded immediately and said she loved the story. It was actually Margo who suggested turning it into a series. I thought I'd written everything about Amelia in that first story, which just shows how much I know. If it were not for Margo Power, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Incidentally, I've never revealed this to anyone before, but when I was searching around for a name, I almost settled for Agatha Watson. Luckily, I thought it sounded a little too self-consciously mysterious. Amelia came a second later and stuck. Was it intimidating to associate so closely with Sherlock Holmes? Yes, and to a certain degree it still is, because everybody knows Holmes so well, though most people know him more through the movies than through the original Doyle stories. I decided early on that Holmes would not appear in every tale, because I didn't want to overuse him. His presence is always felt even though he is absent. He really only appears in less than half the stories, and in a few of those he has only a walk-on part. After the first several stories, Amelia became such a complete character in and of herself that Holmes wasn't needed. And I didn't want to keep playing the friction note every time.. Overall, I take great care not to "trash" the characters of Holmes or Watson. Even though I treat them with some sense of playfulness, I want them to be recognizable to the fans of the original stories. I'm very happy to say that the true Sherlockians who have read the stories have been pleased with them. I can tell you one inadvertent challenge that came from relating directly to Holmes. The first story, The Adventure of the Left-Behind Wife was keyed off a reference from a Doyle tale The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier which contains the only canonical reference to a second Mrs. Watson (and she isn't even named). It very specifically states that in January of 1903, Watson left Holmes for a wife ("the only selfish action which I can recall in our association" Doyle has Holmes comment). The problem, if you are adhering to the original stories, is that Holmes retired to keep bees in late 1903 or early 1904, which meant that I was about to start a series timed right before one of the lead characters dropped out of the picture. I had to figure out how to get around that little problem, which I did. How did you? Well - I don't want to give it away. Readers can see how I got around that little problem in the story The Adventure of the Retiring Detective which is included in the book. Did the reference in the Doyle story where Holmes calls Watson "selfish" for taking a wife influence you when you were writing the Amelia/Holmes relationship? Oh absolutely! It really keyed off of that. Holmes seemed to have no trouble when Watson left for his first wife Mary Morstan, yet there was something about this wife that seemed to annoy him. I started thinking about what it might be. While Mary had been a traditional Victorian heroine [she was the heroine of The Sign of Four], Amelia could be a strong, opinionated and independent spirit - meaning that Holmes would be wary of her because she would be too much like him. What kind of response do you get when talking with readers and fans? I couldn't be happier and more flattered by the response. Really really seem to like Amelia. I recently got an e-mail from a reader saying that she was reading the book for the second time. And the response from the Sherlockians is particularly gratifying, since they seem to appreciate the playfulness as well. You've used that word "playfulness" a couple times. What do you mean by that? I have a few of what I call "conceits" running through the series. One of them is the notion that Watson, who you'll remember narrates all but a few of the original stories, is a far better creative writer than he is given credit for. In my version of the Holmes mythos, he enhances the adventures and brushes things up so that Holmes appears even more astute and heroic than he really is. In one story, I have Amelia accusing him of coloring reality in hues that would embarrass Oscar Wilde's tailor. In another, Watson is about to launch into a dramatic recollection of the Hound of the Baskervilles when Amelia says something like: "Oh, for heaven's sake, a disgruntled tenant farmer turns his dog loose on the landowner and you turn it into an appearance of the Hound of Hell!" That's what I mean by playfulness, but I try not to let it get out of hand. Is there more to come? Absolutely. A couple years ago I announced in an interview that I was planning an Amelia novel and a year later at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, I was accosted by readers asking: "Well, where is it?" Truth is, I'm still planning it. But new Amelia stories continue to appear in every issue of Murderous Intent, so that's four new stories each year. Readers are already asking if there will be a second collection. Will there be? I'd love to do a second collection, but as of right now there are no plans for one. I think I need a few more stories first. Tell us a little about your other writing projects. I make my living as an entertainment journalist, so I'm always writing something for either the Los Angeles Times Calendar, the Daily Variety, Millimeter or Animation Magazine. I've also been doing non-fiction books. My book Hanna-Barbera Cartoons was People Magazine Christmas gift pick in 1998, and I have another book about Marvel Comics characters coming out next spring (2001). I also write other short stories that don't involve Amelia. I've been writing mysteries and thrillers for children for Fox Kids Magazine because I love writing for kids. I used to be a show writer at Disneyland - which teaches you not only to write for kids who are really 8 or 10 years old, but also kids who are 40 or 60. That's great training for the children writing market. What's the first thing you had published? It was a short story called Man of Iron published in 1987 in Discovery, the in-flight magazine of Hong Kong Airlines. I sense you are about to ask: "How did you get connected with Hong Kong Airlines?" I saw an ad for it in a magazine, sat down and thought about who the airline's clientele would be. Immediately I got the mental image of a middle-aged British businessman. I had a story that would be of interest and I sent it off. About a year later, I received a letter - written with a British accent - saying they were publishing it and I should be receiving my copy any day, and sorry for not notifying me sooner. Naturally, I was elated. I got the letter on my lunch hour when I was working at the American Film Institute at the time. I went back to work that afternoon and announced that I was going to be a published author. "Great," my boss said without looking up, "but we need that grant proposal finished by today." It was a short celebration, but it's had a happy ending. And now you're going to tell me that your boss at the American Film Institute turned out to be someone famous, right? Nope (with a laugh). How has your writing evolved over the years? I don't know, that's a tough one. When I first started, I was blissful in my ignorance and because of it, took a lot of chances that I wouldn't take now. But the thing is, taking those chances didn't really hurt me. I think my forte as a writer has always been characterization and dialogue. I was an actor from the age of 19 until I was about 33 or so, so I had a lot of experience with characterization and dialogue. My plotting has gotten better. I guess the only other real evolution is that I seem to write shorter and shorter with time. I love doing stories under a thousand words. Not Amelia's, of course. What did you act in? I did summer stock in between college semesters and got to work on stage with really great people like Vincent Price and Ricardo Montalban and Jimmy Coco and Sandy Duncan and Roberta Peters. I even worked with Marlene Dietrich. Then after coming to California I did 'sneeze roles' in a few movies, like Frances with Jessica Lange and a TV movie about Eleanor Roosevelt with Jean Stapleton - roles so small that if you sneeze, you miss it. I did a few commercials and a lot of soap operas - Days of Our Lives mostly - but also one episode of General Hospital and the very first episode of a dead soap called Santa Barbera. That one was fun because everything was really ragged since it was the first day of the show. The producers came out and apologized in advance for whatever disasters might happen. Then on my way to my dressing room I passed a room with a sign that read "Dame Judith Anderson." I laughed, thinking it was a joke. What would Dame Judith Anderson be doing in a soap opera? An hour later I was on the stage at NBC playing a scene with Dame Judith Anderson. At that stage in her life she was about 95 and a giggler. I loved it. You just never know who you're going to run into in Hollywood. Why did you quit acting and take up writing? Well, I'd been writing all my life but in a casual way, so casual that I didn't even realize I was doing it. It's no secret that making it in acting is tough, and I got to the point where I decided I wanted things like a house and a family that are tough when you're a struggling actor. My wife, who was also in the business, felt the same way. Once I started playing around with writing, I realized something profound, or at least it seemed so at the time. In acting, you always have to wait for someone to tell you that you can ply your trade. But in writing, there's no one telling you anything. You are 100% in control of the creation. That was something of an epiphany, and the creative dam that had been blocked for some years just blasted apart after that. Has your writing won any awards? I won a Derringer Award in 1997 for a short-short story titled Curiosity Kills. My Amelia story The Adventure of the Illustrious Patient was also nominated for a Derringer that same year. I was quite surprised but thrilled to win the Derringer. In 1994, I also won an Honorable Mention in the International Imitation Raymond Chandler Writing Competition. Are you a Chandler devotee? No, not really. Every now and then I get an intuitive feeling about one contest or another. I saw the ad for the Chandler competition, thought it sounded like fun and sent something in. I guess the moral of the story is always go with your gut feeling. What are your hobbies? Writing used to be a hobby, and look what happened. I don't have organized hobbies, really. I collect books. I also collect beer labels - I have a collection of about 300, important and microbrews. I used to collect the bottles, but displaying them got too dicey in earthquake-land. I am attempting to teach myself to play the banjo. because I've always liked the sound of that instrument. And it's a great way to keep the fingers and wrist exercised after heavy typing. Most of my time these days is devoted to being Dad. I have a five year old and we're reading the first Harry Potter book. Who or what has most influenced your writing? In terms of other authors, probably Robert Bloch and Fredric Brown - two late, great pulp writers. Both were masters of economy, something I've tried to learn. I also went through a period where I was writing theme park attractions and simulator ride films and things like that, and that has been an enormous influence on plotting and keeping a story moving. As a writer, where do you see yourself in 10 years? You know, I honestly don't know. One is supposed to have a master plan, but I don't. I'd like to do more writing for kids and young adults. And in ten years' time, I hope to have planned out the next Amelia novels for readers. Honestly, I'd just like to keep doing what I'm doing. What do you enjoy most about writing? Based on a lot of interviews I've read from other authors this is kind of rare, but I actually enjoy the physical process of writing, sitting down and putting words on paper. I type over 100 words a minute, and I just like making up stories that other people will like. I like telling stories, too. What do you find most difficult? I have a real, terrible sense of logic that sometimes acts like a corset when I'm writing. Everything has to have iron clad logic. That occasionally makes things difficult when I start free-flying to see where the story could possibly go. A lot of times I get myself into trouble when those two senses - hard logic and freeform - collide. Best advice for new writers? Write and read is my best advice. And when you're sick of writing and reading, write and read some more. Then send them out. I always say you can't sell what you don't write, so people who only write a story or two a year aren't going to make a lot of sales. Where can we find your website and previous publications? Believe it or not, I don't have a website. I guess I really am stuck in the Edwardian era. As for previous publications, in addition to the books I've already mentioned and the magazines I work for now, I've published about 55 short stories and something like 200 articles. I like writing in several different fields at once because you never get bored, though it does make it hard to be categorized. But that's okay, too. |
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