I'm SHERLOCKED too, by EM Lynley

Like millions of others around the world, I'm head-over-heels in love with the new incarnation of Sherlock Holmes the BBC had created. They've revamped Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot before, but with Sherlock, they've reached new heights.

The show is slick, clever, employs canon in new and unusual ways and is shockingly well written. As a writer I can more than appreciate the last of those. In a world where television is usually predictable, sloppy and leaves either huge plot holes or fails to suspend anyone's disbelief or regularly "jumps the shark," SHERLOCK Is breath of Thames-scented air, which is fresher than it sounds.

I'm such a geek fan of the show, I've even been attending the online chats PBS has done with the show's writers and creators: Mark Gatiss (who also plays Mycroft) and the amazing Steven Moffat. I'm seriously in love with these guys as much as am with Benedict Cumberbatch, and that's saying a lot! They're interesting and clever and wont' give away a damned thing about Series 3.

One interesting thing I've discovered is that many SHERLOCK viewers had never read any of the original Arthur Conan-Doyle stories! Naively, I thought everyone had, and that was what led them to watch the show. Clearly, this shows my age.

My own relationship with Sherlock Holmes began when as an 8^th grader I was first introduced to him by way of "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle."  It was a story we had to read in my English class. Initially I wanted nothing to do with a "carbuncle," which reminded me of barnacles. I grew up in Miami and if you've never seen these things attached to rocks and the underside of boats, I don't recommend you seek out the images. They're gross. Why would I want to read a story about a blue one?

Luckily a carbuncle is a gem and nothing like a barnacle. Our teacher made that abundantly clear, and once I started reading, I was hooked. That's the story where Holmes deduces nearly everything about a  man by merely looking at his hat. We don’t even meet the hat's owner until much later, and of course we find Holmes was completely correct! Series 1 of SHERLOCK "A Study in Pink" has a similar scene in which Sherlock describes Watson's sibling  Harry nearly perfectly from the cell phone. Now you know why that story got me hooked, and I read every Sherlock Holmes story by the end of the school year.

So, nowadays, kids watch films or television and read the books that inspired them later on.  George R.R. Martin has experienced a new swarm of fans now that GAME OF THRONES is on television. That's still a good thing. As long as people are reading. If only one of my books ended up on the big or small screen, I'd get so many new fans!

What about you? Are you SHERLOCKED? Did you read the books before the new television show? And have you ever gotten hooked on a writer after watching their work, and running off to find the original books?

EM Lynley writes for Dreamspinner Press, Silver Publishing and Torquere, and edits for Silver. She has worked in finance, the wine industry, and high-tech, though she'd rather be writing sexy man-on-man romance. She spent 10 years as an economist and financial analyst, including a year as a White House Staff Economist, but only because all the intern positions were filled. Tired of boring herself and others with dry business reports and articles, her creative muse is back and naughtier than ever. She has lived and worked in London, Tokyo and Washington, D.C., but the San Francisco Bay Area is home for now.Visit her online: http://www.emlynley.com