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About mxpublishing

Steve Emecz is the MD of MX Publishing, which is the world's leading Sherlock Holmes publishers. He has written himself with several non-fiction books and two crime thrillers under his belt.

Hollywood Film Director Joins Guy Ritchie team in the Great Sherlock Holmes Debate

After several Holmes heavyweights joined the side of the BBC’s Sherlock, the Guy Ritchie side was looking a little light – but no more. Gerry O’Hara has worked with some of the most famous actors of all time from Laurence Olivier (Richard III) to Joan Collins (The Bitch) and has directed many Hollywood movies – including working on the Academy Award winning Tom Jones.

He’s no stranger to television either having worked on The Avengers, The Professionals, Hammer House of Horror, Cats Eyes and a host of other programmes. He’s a record breaker too. He wrote the adaptation of the book Operation Julie which was the first adaptation to play across three consecutive nights on British TV and drew a record 13 million viewers.

Talking with his agent, Tom Evans, we tried to find out why he’s joined the side of Guy Ritchie. Tom is careful to not to reveal too much, but lets just say that there are some similarities between Guy and (a younger) Gerry that clinched it.

We’re working hard at getting an interview with Gerry but he’s hard to track down and for now we’ll settle for him committing to being on the team. Gerry’s own Holmes adaptation comes out in book form soon-  ‘Sherlock Holmes and The Affair In Transylvania’ – with a film adaptation in the offing.

So the teams are lining up nicely. We’ve had several more approaches today which we are working through and will have more news over the weekend.

Please remember the debate is supporting two important causes – Save Undershaw and BAFTA for Jeremy Brett – please check out their sites and join their pages on Facebook (Undershaw Trust on Facebook).

 

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The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate – Two Huge Participant Announcements

It’s day 4 since The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate was announced (10th November – BBC’s Sherlock vs Guy Ritchie’s movies) and we are attracting some extremely exciting participants. We are in talks with a Hollywood film director’s agent who wants to join the movies team – as soon as we have that finalised we’ll be able to reveal who it is – with dozens of films under his belt he’s a legend, but as you can imagine his diary is a nightmare to schedule. Hope to have news this evening on that.

We can however announce today a real coup. The BBC team will be joined by The Baker Street Babes. With a huge female following, the Babes have thousands of fans of their blog and a large subscriber list to their Holmes podcast (search for Baker Street Babes on iTunes). Don’t be fooled by the provocative name, this is a group of extreme Holmes fans that know the canon inside out. They’ll be interviewing several of the participants for their blog ahead of the debate so its a good time to subscribe to their podcast.

The Facebook Great Debate page continues to grow – you’ve a couple of weeks to ‘like’ the page before we release the audience tickets on Facebook – there will be around 80 free tickets that will come with some Sherlock Holmes goodies for all participants.

Please remember the debate is supporting two important causes – Save Undershaw and BAFTA for Jeremy Brett – please check out their sites and join their pages on Facebook (Undershaw Trust on Facebook).

 

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The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate – initial team members announced

There are a few weeks to go before the teams in The Great Sherlock Holmes debate are finalised, but here are the initial people that have been confirmed onto the teams in the first 24-48 hours.

BBC – Roger Johnson (BSI) (UK), Kate Workman (USA), Dan Andriacco (USA),

Guy Richie Movies – Kieran McMullen (USA), Joe Revill (UK), Larry Feldman (USA),

We’re working through lots of other approaches as well and looking forward to many more. We’ve confirmed that there will be at least 80 audience members drawn from fans of the Facebook page for The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate and numbers are growing nicely on there.

We’re particularly excited to have Roger Johnson (editor of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London journal) involved and several of the other societies around the world will have people on the teams too. It will be interesting to see who joins the side of the movies – initial voting on Facebook is strongly on the side of the BBC, but then most votes have come in from the UK so far.

Twitter joins in the fun with the hastag – #thegreatsherlockholmesdebate

The debate is supporting two current important Holmes fans issues – www.saveundershaw.com and www.bafta4jb.com – please do visit their sites and give your support.

 

 

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The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate – BBC’s Sherlock vs Guy Richie’s Movies – November 10th 2011

We talk to thousands of Sherlock Holmes fans and everyone has an opinion on the BBC’s Sherlock series and the two films from Guy Richie. We are also fortunate to hear the views of some of the world’s leading Holmes experts and of course about twenty of our own authors.

When Charlotte Walters decided to mark the launch of her debut novel, Barefoot on Baker Street, this Tuesday 20th September, with a stunning challenge to write about each of the 56 Holmes stories, one a day until 11th November, we wondered how we could mark the occasion.

The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate was born. The night before Charlotte completes her mammoth feat, we will be hosting a worldwide online debate:

“BBC’s Sherlock vs Guy Richie’s Movies – which is more beneficial to Holmes in the 21st Century?”

Thursday 10th November – 8pm (GMT), 3pm (EST)

Two teams of Holmes experts, one arguing for each side, will present their case in front of an online audience of 100 lucky Holmes fans. The debate will run for an hour from 8pm UK time. After a brief introduction each team captain will have 5 minutes to present – they will be able to uses slides, video and audio to argue their case with input from their team members. Then the floor will open up for the main debate.

Audience members will be able to submit questions and comments online. The presentation and debate will be recorded for release in several formats.

The teams are lining up nicely. Roger Johnson (BSI), the editor of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London’s journal was one of the first ones to add his support to the debate – we’ll reveal which side he is on later on. The first of the MX authors to line up is Kieran McMullen (author of Watson’s Afghan Adventure), who is supporting the Guy Richie movies. We already have participants from the UK, France, USA and Australia so the debate will truly be global.

The main place for updates about the debate will be the Great Debate Facebook page and that is where the free audience places will be handed out some time in October.

As it’s an online debate, fans from all around the world will be able to register for this unique event. Keep an eye on the page for the latest team information – you can also place your own vote on that page.

 

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Sherlock Holmes Society of London reviews A Case of Witchcraft

“well written and thoroughly researched”

Set in the Northern Isles A Case of Witchcraft has already caused some controversy written as it is by an expert on the occult. Here the Sherlock Holmes Society of London review this debut novel from Joe Revill.

“A Case of Witchcraft by Joe Revill (£12.99/$19.95/€14.99) teams Holmes rather improbably with Aleister Crowley to investigate the disappearance of an eminent folklorist in what’s described as a ‘remote and rather backward northern isle’. The situation is strongly reminiscent of The Wicker Man, but, of course, Holmes is not Sergeant Howie.

His attitude towards the so-called Old Religion, not to mention the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, is remarkably liberal, but perhaps that’s the influence of his companion. A Case of Witchcraft is a decided oddity,but well written (in the third person) and thoroughly researched.”

Joe launches the book at his local Waterstones bookstore in Chesterfield, UK on the 24th September. If you are in the area we advise getting a signed copy – the book is already flying off the shelves in the USA and getting great reviews so signed 1st editions are likely to become nicely collectable. Available from Amazon, and also in all good formats including Amazon Kindle and iBooks for the iPad.

 

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Sherlock Holmes Society of London reviews Sherlock Holmes and The Affair in Transylvania

” idiosyncratic and entertaining”

It’s not every day that you sign a major film director as a new author and to be brutally honest I found the experience exciting, humbling and a little intimidating all rolled into one. Gerry O’Hara is best described as a legend of the big screen having several dozen films under his belt but no stranger to TV either with episodes of iconic series like The Avengers under his belt too. A prolific screenwriter Gerry also wrote several books during his career, but never had the time to do anything with them – now that he is semi-retired (many would kill for the guy’s energy) he has unearthed several to be published this year and we as you may know grabbed his Holmes novel – Sherlock Holmes and The Affair in Transylvania. You don’t need detection skills on a par with the great detective to work out that this is Holmes and Dracula territory.

The Sherlock Holmes Society of London were among the first to get a review copy:

“Sherlock Holmes and the Affair in Transylvania by Gerry O’Hara (due 2 November; £9.99/$16.95/€12.99) is similarly idiosyncratic and entertaining. As you might guess, Mr O’Hara pits Holmes and Watson against Count Dracula, but in a different way from his predecessors, Loren D Estleman and David Stuart Davies. Although great chunks of Bram Stoker’s text remain, his story has been rewritten to exclude Professor Van Helsing, and various other characters are reimagined.

Mina is now Watson’s niece, married to a Romanian named Janos. Lucy is the daughter of Dr Westenra, who supervises an asylum in Transylvania, where all the events occur. Surprisingly, this is Gerry O’Hara’s first book, after a long career as writer and director in film and television (he wrote the story for Sherlock Holmes and the Incident at Victoria Falls, so he’s not new to Holmes).”

What the review doesn’t mention is the rather stunning illustrations which were created as paintings and then scaled down for use in the book. The originals are all in colour and one is used for the cover. In the paperback they appear in greyscale, but in the ebooks they are in glorious colour, so if you have the Kindle version make sure you take a peek at them on a colour device like your computer as they are pretty special.

Gerry’s memoirs are out in a few months which, if the contract signing lunch stories he told are anything to go by are going to be funny and pretty revealing.

Sherlock Holmes and The Affair in Transylvania is due out on 2nd November though there are some limited pre-publication copies appearing on bookstores like Amazon.

 

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Sherlock Holmes Society of London Review of No Police Like Holmes Dan Andriacco

An exciting and witty romp”

Dan Andriacco’s first book in June this year has been a big hit with Holmes fans around the world and the blog of the same name Baker Street Beat has thousands of visitors. His debut novel, No Police Like Holmes is a mystery featuring Holmes fans rather than the great detective himself. The first main review of the book comes from The Sherlock Holmes Society of London in the current edition of The District Messenger.

“An exciting and witty romp – not about Holmes but about his fans. The world’s third-largest private collection of Sherlockiana has been donated to St Benignus, a small college in a small town in Ohio, and to celebrate, the college is hosting the Investigating Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes Colloquium.

Jeff Cody, the college’s PR director (and part-time crime writer), is an amused observer until the event is blighted by a real theft and a real murder, and he realises that there’s rather a lot of suspects in deerstalkers. As if things weren’t bad enough, Cody and his ex-girlfriend also become suspects… I like it!”

The book comes out on November 9th and but some bookstores have limited advance copies, Amazon UK, Sherlock-Holmes.com , Amazon USA, and others.

Dan will be appearing in person alongside many Holmes legends at Gillette to Brett III Nov. 11-13 in Indiana and will have some copies there to sign. Holmes fans that manage to get one of those signed first editions make sure you keep them safe, we have a feeling this one is going to be a bestseller.

 

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A light at the end of the tunnel for 13 year old bedwetting sufferer and her family

Stop Bedwetting in 7 DaysThere are times as a publisher when you feel particularly proud, especially with books that can be described as ‘life changing’. Our No.1 bestselling book worldwide is giving us such moments on a regular basis. Coming up to it’s 2nd birthday, ‘Stop Bedwetting in 7 Days’ goes from strength to strength. Now being recommended by healthcare professionals due to its more than 80% success rate the book is currently the #5 ranked NLP book in the UK [and popular too in the USA]. Bedwetting is best caught as young as possible, but Alicia Eaton’s method (a unique combination of NLP and hypnotherapy) works all the way up to teenage sufferers. We wanted to share a recent review in full as it will give hope to a lot of families:

“My daughter is 13 and has been suffering from eneurisis (bedwetting) all her life which has been a considerable trial for her, but also the rest of the family. It has been difficult to cope with the smelly laundry and keeping the house fresh (although we never mentioned anything to her her friends have!) but for my daughter herself the emotional burden has been huge. She has been frightened to have sleepovers in case anyone sees or smells anything. She has had to shower thoroughly every morning and has felt the need to use lots of body spray as back-up. She has lacked in confidence to the extent that I got in touch with Kidscape which helped a lot but later also consulted with a GP who identified an excellent MIND course for teenagers because, whilst she was frequently aggressive and even violent at home – probably as a side-effect, she was being bullied at school (or took it that way due to her lack of confidence). 

She has always been a deep sleeper such that you could basically explode a bomb and she would sleep right through. 

We have tried lifting at night and had several concerted stints with a bed alarm where she would wake for the first night a couple of times and maybe once the second night and then start to unplug the alarm whilst remaining in a deep sleep as she became more and more tired. Our GP, and later an eneurisis specialist, recommended that we use desmopressin but I considered this to be an extreme solution which in any case had no effect – indeed I believe it may have increased the production of urine. A second medication was also offered to be used in conjunction. I do not want my child full of medication but we gave them both a try from time to time in desperation. 

When ordering a new sensor for the alarm I chanced upon this book and reading the write up I thought that whilst it sounded too good to be true it was worth a try as I could see hints that it might be suitable for the way my daughter thinks. 

I got the book and what a revelation. Very short and to the point I could see that it had HUGE potential. I read it from cover to cover so that I could fully understand the principles behind the programme and decided that for my daughter, provided I could stay 100% positive and certain it would work, she would soon start to reap the benefits. I could however see that the title was perhaps a bit misleading. The 7 days referred to is the length of the preparation before the programme actually starts. How long it takes to achieve dryness is not certain but the programme definitely starts to create the right brain training for a child to help them get themselves dry. 

My daughter seemed to think it would take 7 days from a standing start so she kept putting off starting the programme because she expected a magic bullet. I was not happy about this so I downloaded the sound file and got her to put it on her phone and MP3 (with a different name of course!) so she could start listening to it. After 4 days she was determined to start the programme and on day 5 of the preparation she had her first ever completely dry night even with a full 11 hours asleep. This alone was enough to take her by surprise and motivate her – she had been sure it would not work! 

At the time of writing we are almost two weeks in since starting the programme, and two and a half weeks since she began listening to the download. She has had several completely dry nights where she has managed to wake up and get herself to the toilet in time (sometimes 3 times in one night) without any problem – her brain has done the right thing. She has had a few nights where she has woken just as she was beginning to wet and has managed to recover the situation and get to the toilet before any sheets are wet. She has even had two completely sleep all the way through dry nights. For my daughter with her prolonged history of being wet and her bad experiences with being lifted and/or using an alarm this is a major breakthrough. She is already much happier, the washing machine is seeing much less laundry and she was confident enough after only ten days to spend four nights sleeping with two of her friends on a camp. 

We bought several identical new sheets, three pairs of identical pyjama sets in the sale and some disposable mats which we put under the sheets (which I stacked mat, sheet, mat, sheet). She managed two nights completely dry, one with a wet sheet and one where her shorts were slightly damp. 

I have to say this is HUGE for both her and me. If you have a determined child I suggest using this programme before they get to 13 and have loads of failures behind them. This programme puts them in charge and helps them programme their own brain in a positive way. The potential for how this programme works goes way beyond dealing with bedwetting. 

For the price of a pack of pull-ups and a laundry load this book is worth every penny. If it does not work on its own it may be necessary to unpick wider emotional issues – we did this the other way round, finding this fantastic book late in the day, but as they say ‘better late than never’.”

The book is available from all good book stores, Amazon USA, Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and increasingly popular on iTunes (6 countries) for the iPad and iPhone. An ideal book for parents but also for NLP practitioners as close to one in 5 children suffers with bedwetting at some point.

 

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The Most Important Book On Sherlock Holmes And Arthur Conan Doyle of 2011?

An Entirely New CountryAlistair Duncan has a very hard act to follow with his new book, An Entirely New Country. His last book, The Norwood Author won the 2011 Howlett Literary Award (Sherlock Holmes book of the year) and was widely recognised as one of the most important Conan Doyle books in recent times due to the new information Duncan uncovered during his meticulous research.

The challenge is that Conan Doyle is one the most written about authors in history, with literally hundreds of biographies about the great man. To find genuinely new information means delving into local archives which was the secret to the success of the book on the Norwood period. Duncan admits that he couldn’t create these ground-breaking books without the significant help from local library staff.

What adds to the importance of this book is the timing. The book covers the ‘Undershaw’ period, the time Conan Doyle spent in the home that he himself designed. The house faces destruction by developers and The Undershaw Trust is working hard to save it. Judging by the tens of thousands that visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum every year, and the millions of new fans that the BBC’s Sherlock and the new movies have generated, there is plenty of scope for restoring this important building and creating a larger exhibition for Sherlock Holmes.

The Sherlock Holmes Society of London’s Roger Johnson makes strong reference to this in his notes about the new book:

“It was evident from his first book Eliminate the Impossible that Alistair Duncan writes well, that he writes with knowledge and enthusiasm, and that he thinks about what he writes. His subsequent books, Close to Holmes and The Norwood Author, did more than just confirm that impression: they established him as an important commentator on Arthur Conan Doyle and his famous creation. After exploring the years when Conan Doyle lived in Norwood – surprisingly neglected by previous biographers, even though it was then that he became truly famous – Mr Duncan has turned his attention to the author’s next decade, perhaps the most turbulent of his life. Undershaw, the house that Conan Doyle had built at Hindhead, was his home from 1897 to 1907. He wrote The Hound of the BaskervillesSir NigelThe Return of Sherlock Holmes and much else at Undershaw. The house saw the end of his first marriage and the beginning of his second. He was resident here when he became Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Yet, despite its cultural and architectural importance, Undershaw currently stands empty, vandalised and neglected. Read An Entirely New Country and you’ll understand just why the Undershaw years were so important.”

The most important book on Conan Doyle in 2011? – undoubtedly.

The biggest Holmes seller this Christmas will probably be The House Of Silk – the new Holmes ‘official’ novel from Anthony Horowitz and we understand too well the importance of pastiches as the most popular form of new Holmes books for publishers. However, we hope that at least one person that reads An Entirely New Country has a spare £million or two to invest in preserving an important part of Conan Doyle’s history before it is lost forever.

 

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Excitement Builds for the Rugby World Cup 2011 and Reminds Us Of The History of Rugby

A week before the Rugby World Cup 2011 and we can see what a huge commercial event is has become. A quick visit to the official website Rugbyworldcup.com and right there on the home page are not only the tickets – a semi-final ticket if you can get one has a face value of $300-$800 – but the merchandise too. If you want an All Blacks official jersey that will set you back a cool $180. That makes £40 for a premiership football shirt look like a bargain.

It wasn’t always this way. There was a time when to play for your club and your country was the main reward. It seems a long time ago, and well in fact it was. You have to go all the way back to the 1880s and 1890s when the debate about professionalism in rugby raged – not just about wages but a host of subjects. It was around then that we saw the break in the codes and it is fascinating to read the arguments, many of which will be replayed in bars and pubs around the world in the coming month. A rugby expert and close friend of Arthur Conan Doyle’s (creator of Sherlock Holmes) Bertram Fletcher Robinson fortunately put together a wonderful book bringing together the writings of all of the experts of the time called ‘Rugby Football in the Nineteenth Century’ and last year we re-published it (original copies had become very rare and sold for over US$200) with additions from modern-day commentators. The new version went down a storm and was nominated for Rugby Book of The Year. It prompted us to get more involved in rugby history and in October, in the middle of the World Cup we publish our second club history – Sunderland RFC entitled ‘One Among Many’. The first was from one of the oldest clubs in the world Clifton. Entitled ‘For College Club and Country‘ it was a wonderful project to be involved with and enabled us to meet several ex-England players and captains at the launch at the club. Sunderland’s launch comes up in a month’s time – again at the club.

These club histories remind us that rugby is a wonderful community sport and that there is more to the game than TV rights, tickets and merchandise. They are wonderful books to do as a publisher as they are full of both sport and local history, covering a dozen decades and with hundreds of photographs through the ages. The books mean a lot to the local fans, but are widely read by rugby fans all over the globe.

The Rugby History book from the 19th Century shows how much else has changed too – we particularly like (remember, written over 100 years ago) that differ ever so slightly from the modern game;

  • On Drinking –“Let a man satisfy his natural thirst by all means but – and on this I must insist – let him give up the drinks in between meals”.
  • On Training – “Early rising which means being down at a quarter to eight, so that there may be time for a sharp walk before breakfast at 8.30. That morning walk is of great importance. I don’t believe in running hard or taking any violent form of exercise. The short, quick walk is the best “pipe-opener” with which to start the day”. 
  • On Refereeing Decisions – “Should he make a mistake, ‘tell a lie and stick to it’ is the only policy possible”. 
  • On Rugby Balls – “Do not have a fresh ball for every match. The larger clubs have realised that a ball that has been frequently used is, if well cared for, far superior for passing, kicking, and dribbling than a new one”. 
  • On Weapons (from the rules of 1893) “No one wearing projecting nails, iron plates, or gutta percha on any part of his boots or shoes shall be allowed to take part in a match”.
There are dozens more gems in the book and, like us, you will no doubt wish that some of the traditional elements were still around.

As a little celebration of the World Cup, and a gentle reminder of the history of the game, we’ve put together the Rugby World Cup 2011 History pack featuring all three books – even the Sunderland one that won’t be released to the public for another month. You can get the package exclusively from our various websites MX Publishing UK (UK and Europe), MX Publishing USA and Sydney Passengers Australia. Type the code ‘rugby‘ at the basket to get a hefty discount as a reader of this blog.

Have a great World Cup.

 
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Posted by on September 3, 2011 in Rugby History

 

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