Description:

I’m short, even for a girl, averaging at five something or whatever. I have golden hair that turns reddish in water or light that I wear in a ponytail. I’m a tomboy, my wardrobe consists of three pairs of the same jeans, one pair of overalls, four long sleeve black shirts exactly the same and various short sleeve Batman and Doctor Who shirts to wear over them. I own one jean jacket that used to belong to my mother and looks a bit big on me (on which I have written ‘Sherlock Holmes’ on the inner right hand pocket in fabric paint.), one pair of brown Blundstone boots with incredibly scuffed toes, four woven bracelets that were made for my by my sister, and one silver ring that I wear on three thin silver chains around my neck.

I have bluish green eyes that turn a grey tint every once in a while, shapely un-plucked eyebrows that I’m rather fond of, a good sturdy build, I like my ears a lot and I like to think I have pleasing aesthetics, though in today’s world one can never be sure. I got my braces off a couple years ago, so I have very straight teeth.

Hobbies:

Obviously I write Sherlock Holmes fan fiction, but I’m also very good at hair, I’m obsessive so I have quite a reputation for perfection. I can do pretty much any kind of French braid inside or out, I haven’t tried a French twist yet, but I can do the standard twist. I also tried my hand at trimming hair recently and it actually looked good when I was done.

I love to draw, I have a very active imagination comprised of many characters and places that I do pictures and scenes of. I’m a good actress and I love Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Batman. I write poetry about all kinds of things. One of my favorite things to do is make cards that are plays off the Sidney Paget illustrations. I make them for every occasion and they’re always humorous with a script based off the picture. I’ve had lots of fun with them over the years, and they’ve become quite a hit.

I’m very competent in the kitchen and like to make my own recipes, I love to sauté and cook mushrooms especially, and I’m very good with pasta. I can bake too, but I don’t enjoy it nearly as much. I do not wear makeup, one time my sister handed me some eyeliner, it took me a moment to figure out what it was, I then proceeded to draw a moustache on my face and walk around the house pretending to be Hercule Poirot. I am very good at accents, I hate to sound vain, but it’s true. I’m afraid I have tricked many an innocent bystander.

I love to run, ride my bike, dance and take long walks alone, hiking up in the wilderness around my neighborhood (I live in a very rural area). I swim; do photography, I don’t like to watch TV. I sew a lot, everything from repairing car seats to making saddle and bridal sets for toy horses (I do not have toy horses, those belong to someone else…)

I’m self taught in beading, And my work has reach a professional level I make life sized woven dragonfly hair pins, brooches and everything else with all kind of designs, I can do alligators, classic shapes, flowers, letters, and of course, the standard necklace and bracelet beading. I also make earrings and when I used to work with metals like gold or silver, I designed my own non-pinching hook for an un-pierced ear which I then used as the basis to design my own brand of Bajoran earrings from Deep Space Nine.

I love deadpan and other types of humour, I make my own ‘radio show’ recordings with sound effects and scripts I’ve written myself.

I also love to read web comics, I can’t help it, I don’t like reading long books I will admit, I do sometimes, but it takes a while for me to get into them, but I love good characters and good stories, and I love it when I they’re accompanied by lots of pictures. There’s a reason for this: due to a difficulty I have with social situations, I don’t’ pick up on sarcasm too well unless I read everything out loud or there are really strong indications, subtleties in other people are something I’ve never been good at although I can use my own well enough on stage. If there’s pictures next to the words I can see the facial expressions of the characters and it takes away a huge amount of stress.

Work:

Right now, I’m a professional musician and composer, a professional beader, and I’m also trying to start my own greeting card business using my poetry and pictures I’ve taken of the landscape surrounding my neighborhood. On top of writing my own music, I also play the guitar and if I require some other sort of accompaniment I make it on the computer with a program called ‘protools’, covert it, put it on my player and sing to it.

Family:

I have one brother and one sister, one mother and one father. I love them all very much so I’m not going to put down any information which might get us into trouble with crazy internet weirdoes, let us suffice to say that I’m the middle child, and I’m also the shortest. My family is actually a very tall one, I swear my brother is the spitting image of Sherlock Holmes.

Stories And Poems:

Most of my work deals with depression, hardship, friendship or contemplative thought. I’m fascinated by Holmes because I have similar difficulties and quite a few of the mental peculiarities he exhibits. I love to explore every aspect of his character, but because I am myself quite a dark person at times, and those times are when I need to express myself, most of my work involving the cannon tends to be on the depressive side. Notably ‘A Dangerous Mind’ and ‘Tomorrow’.

On the lighter side of things, there are times when I allow my love of humour to show through, I’ve been told that ‘I Don’t Mind If You Don’t Mind’ is very funny so if you’re looking for a laugh I’d try that first, also, showing my particular sense of odd humour are ‘Dear Fellow Holmesians Of The Deerstalker’ and ‘The Adventure Of Shakkah Holmes and Dawson Wasson’ two of my personal favorites, I think they’re quite funny if I do say so myself.

I have three stories in SH22, my first two ‘The Story Of the Fourth Irregular’ and ‘A Tale Of Entwinement’ are about Children whose lives are changed after coming in contact with Sherlock Holmes. The former does not involve time travel, the latter does, but I like to think it’s tastefully done.

In ‘The Story Of the Fourth Irregular’ eleven year old Sarah Leanne Rowlands is kidnapped off the streets by Moriarty after escaping from her abusive family. She is put in the same cell as Holmes who was captured shortly after. Upon discovering that the detective has been blinded with little hope of recovering his sight Sarah, who cannot talk due to a speech disability, becomes his eyes, and he, her window into a world that is far greater then anything she had at first imagined it to be. The two form a tight friendship and help each other meet the challenges that lie before them.

‘A Tale Of Entwinement’ follows the life of fourteen year old Theodore Trent, a nerd who has no idea how to stand up for himself. He’s a whiney little kid with no idea who he is or what he wants. But when he’s sent back in time to the nineteenth century he falls right into the lives of Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, he then ends up dragging the former into the future with him to the twenty second century. They both end up on a rip-roaring adventure with the Holmes of that time which leads all ‘three’ of them to reevaluate their lives. Theodore becomes a young man, 1800 Holmes softens up a bit and 2103 Holmes learns to live.

I probably won’t finish my third story ‘The Adventures Of Mycroft Holmes’, as it’s extremely important to me. Myke is one of my favorite imaginary friends, her and Rowley have come a long way with me over the course of my life, and their stories have already been written in my head, so if I get a lot of interest I’ll type it out on electronic paper, but if I don’t, it’s already done inside my head and there is no reason for it to end there.

You may notice that I somtimes mention a young man by the name of Boswell Dorian Grey, he's my bestest imaginary buddy, and he's written some stuff of his own as well as participated in 'The Adventure Of Shakkah Holmes and Dawson Wasson’ when I decided to insert myself into a story for fun. If you think I'm crazy that's fine, whatever helps you sleep at night, but please don't leave your opinions in reviews, he's very sensitive and I don't want people insulting him where he can see it.

Nom DePlume:

Bowen is an island in British Columbia I grew up there on a house on Cates Hill. I now live in quite a different place, but of course I’m not going to tell you where. I always thought the name was really cool because Bowen was named after a pirate and Cates Hill was named after a sea captain (not to mention the initials of Bowen Cates make up the province it’s in B.C.)

Before I knew they were from completely different times and captained completely different vessels, I used to imagine the great Captain Cates chasing after his dreaded foe Captain John Bowen, the two would always find each other and fight to the death, and Cates would always win because it had to fit the plot. Cates, out of respect for the only man who ever came close to defeating him, buried his rival on the unknown Island the two had fought their final battle upon and named it after him.

Basically, when I left my home of fifteen years, I wanted to take some of it with me, it was ruined in a lot of ways, man winning over mountain and truck over tree, and I wanted the way I knew it growing up to be preserved. So I made myself my home and in many ways I live there still, watching little pieces of myself wear away over the years, like the tide slowly smoothing the rugged stone of the shoreline.

Quotes By Me:

“People are like codes, they can be deciphered or broken.”

“I think you will find that most houses are haunted by friendly ghosts.”

“I don’t just bite bullets, I eat them three meals a day.”

"Welcome to the Matrix…where there are no spoons…so you’ll have to eat your soup with something else."

Further Information:

If you want to contact me, I’d be happy to hear from you, please Private Message me or e-mail me at Bowencates at g mail dot com (this thing eats the addresses if you type them correctly). I’m more then happy to help with stories, ideas and anything else you might think of. I’m not at college yet and I’ve been a homeschooler for many years, so I have strange hours, which is a good thing for you cause I’m at my computer a lot. I’m a registered Beta Reader but I have a lot going on, so I’m really careful about which stories I choose to get involved with long term.

If you’ve read everything here, I’m amazed and feel very full of myself. I hope you got something out of it.

All the best,

Bowen Cates