The John H Watson Society

The Society is honoured to welcome five new Charter Members this Fourth of July, 2013. Please join in extending a warm welcome, en mass, to these new members:

“You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”

CHARLES PRESS

Charles Press, PhD, JHWS, “Rofer.” Dr Press a is Pofessor Emeritus in the journalism department at Michigan State University and a long-time (50-year) member of the Greek Interpreters of East Lansing. He lives in Grand Rapids and has published a number of books on the subject of Holmes.

HUGH ASHTON

Hugh Ashton, M.A., JHWS “Clancy” is a prolific professional writer and author of Sherlock Holmes adventures.

Hugh Ashton was born in the UK in 1956. After graduating from the University
of Cambridge, he worked in a variety of jobs, including security guard, publisher’s assistant, and running an independent record label, before coming to rest in the field of information technology, where he assisted perplexed users of computers and wrote explanations to guide them through the problems they encountered.
A long-standing interest in Japan led him to emigrate to that country in 1988, where he has remained ever since; writing instruction manuals for a variety of consumer products, assisting with IT-related projects at banks and financial institutions, and researching and writing industry reports on the Japanese and Asian financial industries. Some of the knowledge he has gained in these fields forms the background for At the Sharpe End, his second novel.
Hugh currently lives with his wife Yoshiko in the old town of Kamakura to the
south of Tokyo, where he is working on future novels and stories.

Publications
He has recently published five volumes of Sherlock Holmes mysteries with
Inknbeans Press of Los Angeles: Tales from the Deed Box of John H. Watson
MD, More from the Deed Box of John H. Watson MD, Secrets from the Deed Box of John H Watson MD, The Darlington Substitution, and Notes from the Dispatch-Box of John H. Watson MD in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The three “Deed Box” collections have been collected and printed together in a handsome hardback edition–The Deed Box of John H.Watson MD.
Inknbeans Press has also published his collection of short stories set in Japan, Tales of Old Japanese, featuring the culture and habits of the older generation of Japanese.
His first published novel, Beneath Gray Skies, is an alternative history set in a “past that never happened”, where the Civil War was never fought.
His second novel, At the Sharpe End, features an expatriate consultant living in Tokyo, Kenneth Sharpe, who finds himself thrust into a world of violence and high finance that takes him by surprise.
The third novel, Red Wheels Turning, takes some of the characters of Beneath Gray Skies, and sets them in the background of Tsarist Russia, where a battle of wits takes place to control the secret Russian wonder weapons that could win the war for the Allies.

MARGIE DECK

Margie Deck, JHWS “Gwen” joins us from Spanaway, Washington where she is a long-time member of The Sound of the Baskervilles. Margie is an enthusiastic Sherlockian cross-word puzzle maker known as “The Pawky Puzzler” and she is a devotee of our beloved Dr Watson. We hope to see Margie’s cross-word creations in The Watsonian.

RON LIES

Ron Lies, JHWS “Chips” joins the Society from Denver, Colorado where he has been an active member of Dr Watson’s Neglected Patients since 1972.

Ron writes:

“I am at present Transcriber of Dr Watson’s Neglected Patients. I have been a past Staff Surgeon, past Chief Surgeon and member since 1972. I am a member of: The Sherlock Holmes Society of India; a member of The Sydney Passengers, The Sherlock Homes Society of Australia; and co- founder of The Sons of Shaw, a society honoring the memory of John Bennett Shaw.

I have had a overwhelming interest in Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson since seventh grade when I read “The Speckled Band” in my class’s Catholic Weekly Reader. I have always identified with Dr John Watson and now feel I am where I belong with The John H. Watson Society.”

So do we, Ron. Welcome!

DAN ANDRIACCO

Dan Andriacco, D.Min., JHWS “Dutch” is a well-known author of Sherlockian works who discovered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original Sherlock Holmes stories at about the age of nine. Not long after, he became acquainted with such greats of the Golden Age of detective fiction as Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Rex Stout, John Dickson Carr, Earle Stanley Gardner, and many more.
His earliest career goal was to become a mystery writer. He eventually did, while holding down day jobs at The Cincinnati Post as a reporter and editor (1973-1997) and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati as communications director (1997-present). From 1977 to 1982, he wrote a monthly mystery review column for
The Post. He also taught non-credit classes in mystery fiction and mystery writing.
He has been a member of the Tankerville Club, a Cincinnati-based scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars, since 1981. He is the author of Baker Street Beat: An Eclectic Collection of Sherlockian Scribblings and five published mystery novels with Sherlockian overtones. The most recent is The Disappearance of Mr.
James Phillimore, the latest in his Sebastian McCabe – Jeff Cody series. He has also been a mystery reviewer and taught non-credit classes in mystery fiction. He once won a bet with a colleague that he could write a novella in less time than it took her to read one of his novels
Mr Andriacco’s Sebastian McCabe – Jeff Cody mystery series, set in a small town in Ohio, is very much in the tradition of his Golden Age favorites. “McCabe is a great detective in the classic mode,” Andriacco said. “By that I mean he is a polymath amateur sleuth. He’s a college professor at a small Catholic college, but he’s also a mystery writer, a magician, and a linguist. I would love to meet the man, but I’m not sure I’d want to be his best friend. His ‘Watson,’ Jeff Cody is not only his best friend, but also his brother-in-law and the public relations director for the college where Mac teachers. These multiple relationships carry multiple tensions, which I hope is a source of humor. These books are supposed to be fun and funny. Judging by reviewers, they seem to hit that mark for most readers.”
Dan Andriacco, known to friends as “Doctor Dan,” holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in Georgia. He was born in 1952 in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lives with his wife, Ann. They have three adult children and four grandchildren.