60 for 60: The Beryl Coronet

[spacemutineer]

Welcome to week two of 60 for 60! Every Sunday, methylviolet10b and I will each be posting on our journals a small ficlet of either 60 words or a single sentence inspired by one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic canon Sherlock Holmes cases. We hope you’ll read along with us and join in the fun yourself with a miniature story of your own!

Today’s adventure is The Beryl Coronet, in which a great treasure of the Empire is put into grave danger and only Sherlock Holmes is up to the task of preventing certain disaster. If you’ve never read it, please check it out and then maybe try your hand at a small ficlet inspired by it! Join us on our little adventure, won’t you? You can find more information here.

Don't miss the other excellent entries for The Beryl Coronet from these authors:
flawedamythyst
leone
methylviolet10b
sabrinaphynn
shouldboverthis


My own entry for this week is below, and any others I hear about, I will add links for. Please drop me a line if you decide to jump in too. Come along, the water’s fine!

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60 for 60: Week 2: The Beryl Coronet

An offer to split the meager roast beef sandwich in Holmes’ pocket was all it took to get the hungry valet’s tongue wagging, in more ways than one. The detective listened as the man chewed and chattered, gossiping about his employer between bites.

Gentlemen often require alcohol to lubricate conversation. For workmen, just a little meat and bread can do.

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Next week on 60 for 60: from The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Black Peter. A notoriously dangerous man of the sea dies in an act of savage violence. No one is sad to see him go, but who could have possibly done the deed?

Comments

[flawedamythyst.livejournal.com]

And now you've made me crave a roast beef sandwich. Awesome.

Mine is here.

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Ha! It's about lunchtime here, might have to consider that myself... :)

[methylviolet10b]

Oh wow. This is great. I love the way you took that little detail of the sandwich in the pocket and turned it into a perfectly logical extra scene in the fic. And all in 60 words.

*bows down*

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I've taken to writing down notes about what strikes me as I read the canon stories and that little mention of Holmes making a sandwich caught me as rather unusual. Plus, the canon is often rather vague about the details of the actual detective work Holmes does, so I like imagining a bit of that.

I am loving working in this short format. 60 words turns out to be a terrific length. It's limiting, but not overly confining. You can still get a lot done in that space, you just have to be judicious about word choice and sentence phrasing, all of which is right up my alley. How are you finding it?

[methylviolet10b]

I too am enjoying the 60 word format - much more scope than just one sentence (unless, of course, you are as prone to run-on sentences as I am - but that's another story.). ;-)

[leone (from livejournal.com)]

That's really sweet. I like the sentiment that there's something more innocent about prompting working men for information.

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I like to think Holmes has a good deal of respect for working men. He's still a Victorian Englishman, very much involved in their structured class system, but he values quality of character much more than class status.

I saw your entry this week -- great work! I'll add it to the list.

[shouldboverthis.livejournal.com]

Excellent summary! And it is most helpful to Holmes in many a story.

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Thank you! He's got a variety of tricks in his employ...