[Darren]

Ah, what a fun re-read, this spy/hotel setting farce. This was one book that I thought had the potential to be turned into a series. The Weston brothers stumbling on to cases and possibly Richard Knight as a recurring Moriarty to Sidney's Sherlock.

Here was another book where character names were used for comedic payoff: Parson, Bishop, Vishnik.

It's always enjoyable to read these older works and see how aspects of technology has changed in the intervening years. These days Sidney would have been able to take digital pictures of things instead of having to build his own secret developing room. E-mail instead of snail mail. But it also would have hindered the plot without him being able to peruse Waghorn's carbon paper trash.

Gord, you mentioned before your enjoyment of Encyclopedia Brown books when you were growing up. Did that influence the creation of Our Man Weston?

Hi, Darren,

Not really. If you recall Encyclopedia Brown, the books were a series of unrelated myusteries and their solutions, several per book. That would have felt very different from a novel.

Glad you enjoyed WESTON. You have to admit that I was feeling my way at that stage of my career. But it was fun. The reason it didn't turn into a series was that I never thought of doing a series, and also, my editors published it, but didn't like it very much.                                                                                                                          ---G---

 

[Darren]

As always, thank you for the responses and the glimpses behind-the-scenes, Gord.

Good point about the format of Encyclopedia Brown. I was thinking about it in terms of the simple premise of "boy detective", which Sidney Weston falls under. You may have felt like you were still feeling your way, and I understand that as this was your fifth or sixth book and longest at this point (feel free to correct any of that if it's wrong). It still seemed fairly polished to me and read like it was written by a confident author with his own unique style. I don't know why your editors wouldn't have liked it.

[Gordon Korman]

It had too many adults in it, and the adults acted like silly kids. At least, that was the general opinion. It took me until recently to work up the courage to write something with a real adult in it -- THE UNTEACHABLES. Did I learn anything? Not really. 

                                                                                                                               ---G---