Official Site of Award-Winning Author Gretchen Altabef
"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed". Hemingway. A bit harsh, but there are days in a writer’s life when this is absolutely how it feels. Hemingway knew. “Writers are forged in injustice as a sword is forged.” This also rings true for the Sherlock Holmes… Continue reading Don’t Stop Because It’s Hard
“Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” Albert Einstein Recently, a friend who I hadn’t seen in a long while asked how I became an author and how I learned to read my writing dramatically. By trusting my Muse. I learned that imagination expands exponentially when used daily. Championed… Continue reading Trust The Muse
This morning I woke with the beginning of a conversation between Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson which has no place in the novel I am writing. But I find it is always right to follow where the muse leads even if it seems a waste of time or ridiculous. It never is! I continued the… Continue reading Follow Your MUSE
'If you examine it carefully you will see that both the pen and the ink have given the writer trouble. The Hound of the Baskervilles I write mysteries for Sherlock Holmes to solve. I am presently writing my fourth historical mystery novel. Each one evolved in it’s own way. If there is truth in the saying… Continue reading Never give up
Henry Gritten, Mathew Vassar's Springside, View of Gardener's Cottage, Poughkeepsie, New York, 1858. "Of the hundreds of Sherlock Holmes pastiche mysteries available to the Sherlockian, very few can match this book for a depth of historical research, finely crafted sentences and paragraphs, and a heart-stopping thrill of a story." Ms. Altabef takes the reader on… Continue reading These Scattered Houses Review by Craig Stephen Copland
The author also captured Holmes’s voice very neatly. As I wrote my first three novels from Holmes’s point of view, I know all too well how difficult it is to make that voice sound authentic. The story takes place during The Great Hiatus, that period in Sherlock Holmes’s life when the world believed he was… Continue reading These Scattered Houses Review by Geri Schear
“A trusty comrade is always of use, and a chronicler still more so.” (TWIS) Hip Hip Hoorah! This is a toast to the Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia and to its creator, Alexis Barquin. Also to its many knowledgeable contributors. This splendid resource was and is a daily helpmate during the writing of my Sherlock Holmes novels,… Continue reading Huzzah!–Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
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