Lesbians For Sherlock Holmes

Oh wow. Huh. Guess we're gonna have to make this thing, yeah?

My work for the @very-sincerely-yours-zine !

What an incredible honor to be surrounded by such talented creatives in a celebration of queer life, love, and perseverance 🩵🩵🩵

New hyperfixation?

Primarily based on these images

But also because I want Holmes and Morticia to speak French, and for him to fence with Gomez, and teach the kids about poisons and criminals

Holmes folded down the top of the newspaper he was reading so he could see me. “A letter from whom?”

“Not sure.” I turned it over to study it as best I could. The envelope was thick and expensive, postmarked from America. The ink was rich and black, and it smelled unexpectedly floral, with an odd sulphuric note underneath. “Looks to be a woman’s writing, I’d say.”

“If you would.” He held out a pale hand. I passed him the envelope and he neatly sliced it open with his pocket knife. A single page slipped out onto his breakfast plate. He unfolded it with a flick of his wrist, then smiled. “Ah! Morticia.”

“Morticia?”

“Addams. She is my second cousin.”

I was immediately intrigued, for Holmes so rarely talked about his relatives. It had taken several years after our meeting for him to bring up the subject of his elder brother, who lived and worked barely an hour’s walk away. I wasn’t surprised that a second cousin in America had gone unnoted until now.

“Unusual names run in the family, I see.”

Holmes smirked. “Her grandmother was my great-aunt Séraphine, who met and married a quite singular gentleman named Algernon Frump while travelling. They settled over in the States many years ago, and dear Morticia now resides there with her husband.”

“Why does she write you?”

“She is arranging a sort of family reunion on All Hallow’s Eve. Apparently it has been far too long since we have all seen each other.”

“How long is that?”

“Several years at least. It was certainly before you and I met.” 

“And will you oblige her?”

“I suppose I will.” He folded the letter and placed it neatly back in its envelope, tucking it into his inside pocket. “You’ve been angling for a holiday, my boy. Would this satisfy you?”

“Wouldn’t it be terribly rude?” I asked, startled. “She has invited you, not me.”

He tutted. “Nonsense, Watson! Morticia knows we live together, of course.”

“How?”

“She will have read your book.”

“Oh! Well that is kind of her. But a family reunion, Holmes, I am not—”

Serving

Sherlock’s pose is based on (I think) Sidney Paget's 19th century illustration for "The Adventure of The Blue Carbuncle" (for those who didn’t know but I think it's a rather famous image of Sherlock).

John’s pose is inspired by S. Paget's illustrations of him, only sassier to match his partner's :D.

One of my friends in high school changed his named as soon as he turned 18, so that the ethnic name his family gave him was finally the name reflected on all of his paperwork. He told me that he understood why his parents had given him an “English” name, but that he felt that if he needed to assimilate in order to succeed, then that was a type of success that he didn’t want.

When I was on my way home from the courthouse after changing my own name, I got into a conversation with my rideshare driver, who was extremely interested once I told him what I was in court for, and wanted to know how I’d done it, how much it cost, was it difficult, etc. It turned out that his girlfriend had chosen the name “Yo-yo” when she came to the United States, unaware of how rare that was as a name, and that she was frequently made fun of because of it. Neither one of them had realized that a name change was so easy, and he told me he was excited to let her know that she had options.

There was an intern at a summer job I had once, who changed her name to be the same name, but a different spelling. She said that she had no idea why her parents had spelled her name so oddly to begin with, and suspected that it was just an honest mistake either by them or by some nurse, but it had been a headache for her entire life, and it was a huge relief to not need to be correcting people’s spelling on important documents anymore.

One of my exes legally changed his name to have an exclamation point, because he liked to sign his name with an exclamation point.

my spread illustration for @very-sincerely-yours-zine , of holmes/watson and the irregulars 🫡 love these 2 gay old men and their family of 173634 smart rowdy teens. thank you for having me, what an amazing project and lineup to be a part of!!

You can read my fic "A Study in Sitting Rooms" for the Holmes/Watson anthology @very-sincerely-yours-zine on Ao3 now, ft. @steel-peach's beautiful illustration work!!

🪑 archiveofourown.org/works/88179796

Thank you to the mods & the rest of the contributors for their stunning work on this project, so grateful to have been a part of the book 🥹 At the time of posting there's also still some leftover books & merch available, so if you missed the Kickstarter, check it out!

👉 https://haedraulics.storenvy.com

our work for the @very-sincerely-yours-zine

story by myself and Rudbeckiasunflower

Thank you !!

Tobacco Samples. I had the incredible pleasure of getting to contribute work to the @very-sincerely-yours-zine . The final collected book is outrageously good, and I feel very fortunate to have been included alongside the rest of this book. Huge shout-out to the organizers Minh and Sher, who were very gracious about some health stuff that cropped up for me during production and who put together a really terrific project.