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Professional authors writing with other writers' characters and worlds


Mosi Mynn

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There has always been the wider phenomenon of authors writing stories using the worlds and characters of other authors, particularly ones like Enid Blyton who are considered old-fashioned and a bit problematic by some these days.  I find it fascinating - is this fan fiction, just on a professional level?

Link to the Jacqueline Wilson story

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Sanderson and The Wheel of Time?  That's an interesting take on this, and maybe unique?  An author finishing another's work with permission and notes.

Other authors have written about James Bond and Sherlock Holmes.  Then there are novels that take an aspect or concept from a novel and expand on it like The Wild Sargasso Sea.

The Silmarillion and Christopher Tolkien probably fit in here too.  

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Stephen Baxter wrote a sequel to H.G.Wells The Time Machine that was authorized by Wells' estate for the centennial of the original story being published, called The Time Ships which earned several awards and nominations.

Philip Jose Farmer incorporated several literary figures into his Wold Newton Family biographies, including Tarzan, Doc Savage, Phineas Fogg, Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey, and even Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, and referenced so many others.  

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What about when the children of the author think they can write in that world, "because mom said it was okay before she died" and then the stuff is derivative and schlocky and with a healthy dose of creepy?   And then having fans of the original stuff declare the new stuff "wonderful" and "don't you dare criticize! His mother gave the okay!"...

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43 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

What about when the children of the author think they can write in that world, "because mom said it was okay before she died" and then the stuff is derivative and schlocky and with a healthy dose of creepy?   And then having fans of the original stuff declare the new stuff "wonderful" and "don't you dare criticize! His mother gave the okay!"...

Only Ann McCaffery wrote Pern.

 

1 hour ago, Myshkin said:

What about authors stealing the identity of a character from another author’s work, then writing a novel under the name of that character?

Examples?

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21 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Only Ann McCaffery wrote Pern.

That's what I'm screaming!  

Try to tell a Todd McCaffrey fan that he's only skirting on his mother's coattails, and they bust out the, "he wrote a book with her!  She approved it!" and then trying to explain that she was older then and maybe might not have been as involved as they want to believe...how I've not gotten banned from those Facebook Groups... :laugh:

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1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Only Ann McCaffery wrote Pern.

 

Examples?

He may be referring to Kilgore Trout, Kilgore Trout was a fictional science fiction author in several Kurt Vonnegut novels.   Philip Jose Farmer wrote a book as Kilgore Trout called Venus on the Half-Shell, for a while everyone assumed Vonnegut had written it, until the truth came out. 

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On 1/12/2022 at 9:35 AM, Mosi Mynn said:

There has always been the wider phenomenon of authors writing stories using the worlds and characters of other authors, particularly ones like Enid Blyton who are considered old-fashioned and a bit problematic by some these days.  I find it fascinating - is this fan fiction, just on a professional level?

Link to the Jacqueline Wilson story

Isn't Blyton's work still under copyright? She hasn't been dead for 75 years.

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29 minutes ago, Loge said:

Isn't Blyton's work still under copyright? She hasn't been dead for 75 years.

Other people have written Famous Five stories (and probably others) - so maybe the Blyton Estate is happy to give permission?

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12 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Examples?

 

10 hours ago, Leofric said:

He may be referring to Kilgore Trout, Kilgore Trout was a fictional science fiction author in several Kurt Vonnegut novels.   Philip Jose Farmer wrote a book as Kilgore Trout called Venus on the Half-Shell, for a while everyone assumed Vonnegut had written it, until the truth came out. 

Yup, that’s the one

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