Newsletter – August 10, 2026
Does that title sound like a pastiche of Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles? I hope it does, because that’s the intent. Here’s how it came about.
During the dress rehearsal of the short play festival in June I was sitting in the audience with my friend Steve Martin (not the Steve Martin you’re thinking of) who, like me, wrote and directed his own short play.
“Did you notice,” asked Steve, that almost every play is broadly comical and very silly except ours?”
His play was a very affective story about someone who lost a loved one but gets a glimpse of her in a mystical way before losing her again. Mine was the dystopian future of an America without rights or the freedom to speak of such rights.
“Yeah,” I said, wondering where his train of thought was going, “I did notice.”
“Let’s make a pact,” said Steve, “Both of us will write witty inane comedies for next year and submit them to the festival.”
“Agreed!” I said, knowing he posts puns almost daily on Facebook. We shook on it and the wheels began to turn.
Last week I recommended a Librivox recording of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles. This week I’ll introduce you to my notes for Eric Margerum’s Shirley Combs mystery “The Bound of the Basketballs.”
When I showed Steve my Notes page for this idea he waved it away, grinning “I got it just by reading the title!” And so the process begins.
Since all of Doyle’s novel is narrated by Dr. Watson, my short play will begin with a narration by Dr. Weston. Probably ending the opening speech with a remorseful sentence wishing that the renowned detective were there to help solve the mystery.
“But I am here,” says the voice of Shirley Combs before she steps into the light, “I’ve been here all along.” She enters with a self-satisfied grin in the guise of cleaning woman that is identical to the character that Carol Burnett used to play on her TV variety show.
Substituting for the English Moors will be the Basketball Floors, with an oft repeated adjective like “vast,” “desolate,” or “sinister” to evoke imagery similar to that found in the novel.
And the pernicious murder mystery to solve will be the death of Tracee Park, the young Hoosier upstart fresh out of college who took the WNBA by storm. Her detractors referred to her as “Trailer Park” before her unfortunate demise. “No more free throws for that trailer trash.”
The rest of the cast will rely on one actor quickly changing costumes to present characters like Coach Fanny Bright, Inspector LeStreet, and Concessionaire Morrie Arty.
I’ve given myself one more challenge, to come up with a satisfying resolution to the mystery that makes the audience admire the plotting skills of the writer. If that’s doesn’t happen, I’ll just make it a silly ending that employs a cringe-worthy pun.
Challenge Accepted!
TTFN
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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles
Eric Margerum 