Book excerpt: Did you ever wonder where Sherlock Holmes found the Persian slipper he keeps his shag tobacco in? Had Holmes and Watson ever met before that day at St. Barts? Did Holmes really believe in curses when he said he did? Dr. John Watson reveals the answers to these questions in The Persian Slipper and Other Stories along with cases involving the putative Naval Man, a night spent at a gentlemen’s club, Holmes’ second marriage proposal, a movable tree, and a surprising wedding ending. Eight traditional pastiches with a touch of fantasy here and there were published in Holmes anthologies at Belanger Books in the US and MX Publishing in the UK. Brenda Seabrooke is the author of 22 books - mostly mysteries - for young readers and many stories in anthologies and literary journals. She has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Robie Macauley Award from Emerson College and was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award at Mystery Writers of America.