Day Eight on a Fortnight on Baker Street: Co-editor Jeff R. Campbell

Following up on yesterday's post on the Examiner, co-editor Jeff R. Campbell answers our Gaslight Gallery questions...

GG: Hi Jeff, welcome to Gaslight Gallery. 

GG: Where are you currently located?

J. R. Campbell: Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

GG: What is the most "uncanny" thing that has happened to you personally.  Please take the opportunity to tell the strangest tale you want.

J. R. Campbell: Becoming a father. 

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GG: In a recent interview on Bitten by Books, we asked the authors to ask questions. Could you please select some of your favorites and provide answers?

J. R. Campbell: Certainly!

Christopher Fowler: Why don’t the long Conan Doyle stories work as well as the short ones?

J. R. Campbell: I think the answer is the character of Sherlock Holmes. He doesn’t just solve problems, he attacks them. That’s why, in so many longer stories, Holmes disappears for long stretches of narrative. When he’s on a case, the case is his entire focus. He hates to eat or sleep while there’s a problem before him. If he must wait for a result, he’ll wait but he’ll hate it or so will the reader. 

To be fair Doyle did produce some excellent long fiction, it’s just that the Sherlock Holmes short stories overshadow his other work. Just as an example, while I do enjoy the short stories featuring Professor Challenger, when I think of Challenger my first thought is always ‘The Lost World’.

Kevin Cockle: How much of a Sherlock-geek are you? Did you think going in that it was essential to have some grasp of the original source material? Do you HAVE expertise when it comes to the originals?

J. R. Campbell: I’m not the biggest Sherlock-geek I know but I’m certainly know my way around the Baker Street lodgings. I do think it is essential to have some grasp of the original material but the glorious thing is it’s so easy to do: Just read the stories or, if that’s too much work, just read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Those twelve short stories will tell you all you need to know and they’re a delight.

Joan Spicci Saberhagen: What aspect of the original Holmes’ character do you find most fascinating?

J. R. Campbell:  His passion/fascination for crime. Most detectives I’ve read are driven by a need to put things right, to restore order, but Holmes doesn’t work that way. To Holmes it’s all about the riddle. He doesn’t speak for the victims and he’s not really looking to make the world a safer place. Holmes reveals the guilty but leaves their punishment to others. If he had to choose between letting the guilty go free or letting the puzzle go unsolved he’d always solve the puzzle. 

Simon Clark: Why does Sherlock Holmes endure when other literary heroes fade away?

J. R. Campbell:  All the credit here goes to Doyle and the wonderful characterization he made. So often the protagonist is wrapped up in the ideals of the day but Holmes isn’t. Others characters are invented for the purpose of a single story whereas Holmes (and Watson, who is essential to Holmes’ character) towers above all the stories he’s in.
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J. R. Campbell’s fiction has appeared in a wide variety of publications including Spinetingler Magazine, Wax Romantic and Challenging Destiny. From time to time his writing can also be heard on radio’s Imagination Theater and The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.