Step into a world where Sherlock Holmes rubs elbows with Houdini, Nikola Tesla powers fantastical inventions, and characters from classic literature walk side by side in a richly imagined alternate universe. Author John Pirillo, creator of The Baker Street Universe, has spent a lifetime steeped in the stories of Verne, Wells, and Conan Doyle—tales that not only sparked his love for reading but also ignited a boundless creative drive. In this interview, Pirillo shares how childhood afternoons buried in books turned into a lifelong passion for storytelling, why human decency is the heartbeat of his fiction, and how a cluttered writing space and a cold Zevia Cola help him bring entire worlds to life.
John Pirillo’s Baker Street Universe series is a genre-blending tribute to the golden age of imagination, where anything is possible and no hero stands alone. Set in an alternate Victorian-era London, the stories blend mystery, adventure, and speculative science as Holmes, Watson, and a rotating cast—including Houdini, Tesla, and Verne—team up to face threats that span dimensions and defy logic. It’s a genre-blending tribute to the golden age of imagination, where anything is possible and no hero stands alone.
Q: What/who were your early literary influences, and how do you think their writing has shaped you as a storyteller today?
A: My earliest literary influences were the class comics of the fifties…My parents would read to me War of the Worlds, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and then later Atom Age Combat, GI Joe, Superman, Spiderman, Challengers of the Unknown, then when I could read for myself from libraires…Edgar Rice Burroughs…everything. Robert Heinlein. Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp, A.E. Van Vogt, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells…and pretty much any book I could get my hands on to read…from autobiographies to biographies, science, art and so on.
Write on the World 