Award winning, C. Hope Clark, gives us some insight on writing the latest installment in the Edisto Island Mysteries series: Dying on Edisto
Dying On Edisto releases March 29th and is available for preorder now!
When Jane Meets Sally
How to Write a Crossover Book
By C. Hope Clark
Embarrassingly, I never heard of the term Crossover Book until my publisher asked me to write one. Then once I realized what it was, an Oh, crap, how am I going to do this! rolled through my head.
A crossover occurs when the characters of one book (or series) cross paths with those in another book (or series). Sounds simple enough. That is until you start putting words to paper, then all those nasty little details start getting in the way.
Dying on Edisto is the crossover, a brand new release, and it falls under the Edisto Island Mystery Series. Number five, to be precise. The protagonist is Edisto Beach Police Chief Callie Morgan who used to be a top-notch Boston detective until the Russian mob killed her husband. She went crazy chasing the killer, took to the bottle, lost her job, and moved herself and son back down South, planting herself on South Carolina’s Edisto Beach, her childhood vacation place. Recognizing the talent, the beach offered her the badge, and there she resides and solves crime. . . crimes most of the lazy beach community never knew it had.
Great detective, but still needs to work on herself.
Enter Carolina Slade, aka Slade because she hates the feminine sound of her first name which says a lot about her from the outset. Originally a Department of Agriculture bureaucrat, she once found herself in the middle of a bribery investigation, and after almost losing her job, family, and life, still decided she loved solving cases. Coupled with federal agent Wayne Largo, whom she met on that case, they travel the state of South Carolina handling department criminal activity. You haven’t seen crime until you see it in the country where you can more easily get away with all types of creative wrongdoing.
You haven’t ever seen crime solved Slade’s way.
Challenge number one: Who would be the alpha?
Each protagonist is in charge of a series for a reason, they want it. They are interesting enough to carry off the role. When you have two equally qualified leading players, who do you select to run the show?
An author who I admire in her crossover work is Lisa Gardner, suspense author extraordinaire. She has crossed over characters in three series, and maybe it’s her example that helped me put my head on straight, but trust me, that head didn’t think straight for months into this project.
The key is to recognize who is the main character. How does a mother pick which of her children to favor?
The tiebreaker turned out to be setting. Callie manages the Edisto Island area. Slade travels the state. Logistically it proved easier to sent Slade to Edisto than yank Callie out of her jurisdiction. So Edisto it was.
But Slade kept finding the body first in all my scenarios.
Regardless the angle, Slade kept stumbling upon the body. We didn’t want the cop to find the body, with Slade being little more than a consultant who happened to visit the beach.
Solution?
We gave Slade a prologue of three hundred words and let her find the body. Then a fully-fleshed out Chapter One became Callie’s as she rightfully seized the story as hers, forced to deal with this clumsy oaf of a tourist who traipsed all over her crime scene.
Challenge number two: Are they friends or foe? Cooperative or adversarial?
After all, they’re both used to running the show. Do we put Slade in the back seat or make the two ladies enemies?
Solution?
As with any mystery, conflict rules the day. They clash from the outset, but it’s up to each of them to decide if they can work with the other on behalf of the case. Could they get along long enough to share evidence, or gasp, ultimately like each other? As a minimum, we realized that their personalities certainly had to add obstacles to the sleuthing, and the ending was up to them. We just knew we could not disappoint the Slade fans nor the Callie fans.
Challenge number three: How to write each lady’s point-of-view.
Slade’s books are in first person, and Callie’s are in third, designed that way from the outset so when I sat down to write, the POV put the right character in my mind without the other’s voice intruding. But now I had both in one story.
Solution?
We left Slade with her first person and Callie with her third. Not only did the characters remain true to form as represented in their series, but the switch aided the reader in the transition from chapter to chapter.
Challenge number four: How to keep the guest character from overwhelming the primary.
Slade is a rowdier, more visual person. Callie can be stoic but forceful. Put them in the room and turn them loose, however, and Slade initially takes the attention by sheer personality. She’s not the neatest or shrewdest crime-solver, ignoring rules in preference to following them, she draws a crowd.
Solution?
Slade’s chapters became shorter, and Callie was given twice as many chapters. After all, she was in charge of the investigation. We needed to be in her head more and make her in charge. It was the only way to rein in Slade and make her behave.
Challenge number five: Which sidekicks do we include?
Each has a cadre of strong secondary characters that weigh in on whatever catastrophe each lady tackles. To bring them all in, from both worlds, would create a three-ring circus. Does Slade even become a secondary character, or is she higher on the ladder than the secondary characters already on Edisto? Can she function without her own team of secondaries from her own series?
Solution?
Since Slade was the guest, she only allowed her to bring beau and partner, Wayne Largo. Besides, a federal agent could come in handy for Callie…and make her wonder about her own dismal love-life watching Slade and Wayne together. Since we’re in Callie’s world, however, we’ll see her sidekicks more, entertaining the reader by making Slade interact with some of the zaniest, just to spice up the mix and throw her off her game.
The balance here is juggling Team Slade versus Team Callie. Each comes with her own set of readers who will pick up the book already rooting for one over the other. The writing wisdom comes in accenting both of the protagonists’ strengths, capitalizing on their weaknesses, and avoiding the messiness of simply doubling everything from two series into one.
What we didn’t want to do is throw Slade into the Edisto world and have her accomplish nothing. We weren’t interested in a token or cameo presence. The goal was for the Edisto readers to pick up Dying on Edisto, fall into the character dynamics, and pique an interest in the Slade series. And of course, we would hope the Slade readers would hear about Slade’s appearance in the Edisto series, and pick up those books as well.
It’s strategy, both in the writing and the promotion. We don’t hide the fact that we’d love all the readers to fall in love with both series. They can have a favorite. That’s part of the fun. But if they become intrigued enough in the other world, too, we all win.
About C. Hope Clark
Hope Clark founded FundsforWriters two decades ago when she could not find what she wanted for her own writing career. Today, she is editor of FundsforWriters and an award-winning author of two mystery series. She and her motivational voice, love of writing, and writer support message appear often at conferences, nonprofit galas, book clubs, libraries, and writers’ groups across the country. With her knowledge, she offers HOPE to writers in their endeavors as evidenced by the 35,000 readers of her newsletter.
