Forum: Author Hangout

In general, I get very positive resoonses from readers. They seem to like the nostalgia and that I try to portray the returning characters as having grown.

That's probably the best explanation I've heard. It's not like the crossover is essential, it's just nice seeing a nice friend return on occasion. However, that mainly plays to your most loyal readers, leaving anyone else (i.e. new readers, or those who disliked a particular story) out in the cold.

Still, it's an intriguing dynamic.

Those are natural openings which can be used even in other stories. Rules for that are not to change a character's relationships or make any permanent changes like marriage without consulting the original writer first.

Alas, that's the problem with my stories. Most of the main characters either die in the end (or the beginning in one book), or they leave the planet, not to return until everyone else has died. That makes it hard to include any but minor charters.

It sounds like this technique requires more of a Daily Life type of story, where they recount the day to day interactions between people as they work in ongoing businesses, rather than people facing a trauma which upsets their entire lives, making them abandon their former lives.

Like your apocalypse stories the connections will probably not exist. In others being a customer is about the only connection available. Like being a customer of a fast food hamburger joint.

You're right. My stories need a better meeting place than the local McDonalds or Starbucks, which I keep recycling continuously across all my stories. Anyone have any handy fictional specialty stores I could feature in my stories? (I was originally thinking of crossovers within a single writers work, I hadn't even considered including characters from other author's universes, which necessitates getting their permission first.)

Noticing naked school kids wouldn't require permission from Karen Wagner (Naked In School Universe) because she already gave blanket permission for other authors to play. I am also sure passing mention of Damsels in Distress or (if you could somehow work it in) the Swarm Cycle by Thinking Horndog would not require a great deal of effort.

Ha-ha, I can see it now. My "Great Death" survivors could rescue a naked high school full of naked teens huddling in fear together, or the survivors of my Catalyst group could be on a future planet in need of extraction in the Swarm Universe. The conflict between one group conversing telepathically because of alien technology vs. another who communicate telepathically due to their innate abilities would be interesting.

Or mixing it up even more, maybe the proposed "Puppy Pound" would need extracting from the planet, or the kids running from a zombie apocalypse could run across a school of naked teens?

I think I need to start collaborating more (as if I don't have enough irons in the fire at the moment!).

Irons in the fire. Branding irons? Going to iron clothing to remove wrinkles? Or for just plain irony.

That's the original expression, created way back when women heated clothes irons by the fire in order to press shirts. The iron would sit on a metal stand in the fire, so it would get warm without collecting soot or getting too hot. Our family always had plenty of antiques around the house, so I encountered several of them and am familiar with the practices. We also had butter churns and hand-cranked coffee grinders made into tables.

@Capt Zapp

While not exactly a crossover, I have something that happened in my first story effecting a character in a story I am currently working on.

Technically, I'm not sure that's a cross-over, instead it's a 'common event' between the two stories. A cross-over (I believe) is when characters from one story cross-over to another (as if they physically walk between the two books). If you have multiple stories that revolve around the same event, using different characters, then you've got a universe (even if it's not open to other authors).

@Docholladay

Every place I have ever been has its own local businesses which are similar to both types of business. If unsure what is popular in a specific region, just ask maybe someone here will know enough to help out. Or look at businesses in the region listed in the Yellow Pages on the internet. Use them if needed to substitute. In some ways it will be just free advertising for their business.

I was asking whether any other authors had a nationwide chain I could include in my stories, rather than continually hawking the same commercial chains over and over. Though if I did that, I'd have to explain in the context of the story how the chain got started for any non-SOL readers who discover my books (I've got several readers who've discovered my works from Amazon sales).

Wes Boyd

He also has a number of local diners run by locals that appear in multiple stories, like Becky's Diner which is run by a local girl named Becky.

Why reinvent a business when one has already been invented. This can allow a writer like CW or Ernest research other more critical facts. Most business interactions are background information to a story for a logical sequence of events.

Alas, there are two big 'gotchas'. The first is location. My stories are all over the place geographically. Each of my stories takes place in a different place, and two of my series involve cross country travel. Sure, I could include a fictional regional diner in a single chapter, but it would only be a passing nod, at best. Which brings us to my second point.

The time it would take to explain what the business is, and why it's relevant, would take time. You'd essentially be doing a brief data dump on the crossover character. You can handle it with dialogue over a cup of coffee--or while buying a socket wrench set--but it's not always a natural fit in many stories.

It makes sense though, and it doesn't seem like it would hurt. If readers don't immediately recognize the link, it wouldn't really hurt the story (other than causing some confusion as readers search for the unknown location), but I doubt many readers would care about a fictional hardware store or diner.