I was asked today about writing using other writer's creations. I've spent quite a lot of the last year writing stories featuring Carnacki, Holmes and Challenger, and the person who asked me wanted to know what other worlds I'd like to play in, specifically, which ones would I choose were I to write a novel.
Leaving aside the three I've mentioned already, for whom I've already written a novella each, I was able to reel off quite a few without even thinking too hard.
Given my fondest for the era, the first is a no-brainer.
H Rider Haggard.
I'd love to do a take on Allan Quatermain, partly to wash away the bad taste that Sean Connery's portrayal of him left, but mostly because his adventures were something that thrilled me as a lad, and gave me the taste for quests in remote places, exotically named peoples, and big elaborate battles that I've loved ever since.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
ERB gets two. I'd kill for a chance at writing a TARZAN book, or a JOHN CARTER one. Or, given ERB's liking for putting Tarzan in strange places, TARZAN IN BARSOOM really appeals to me. Either that, or a new PELLUCIDAR novel, I'm not fussy.
Robert E Howard
Not the obvious choice of CONAN, but I'd really love to take on SOLOMON KANE. I've developed a real taste for historical swashbucklers mixed with the supernatural, and would relish the chance at the character.
Dennis Wheatley
Probably not a PC choice, but I grew up on Wheatley's satanic romps back in the late '60s/early '70s before Stephen King came along, and I'd love to do a big, rollicking, Satan worshipers in high places novel featuring Wheatley's old gang of casually bigotted reprobates.
Brian Lumley
Coming up to the present, I've had a soft spot for Lumley's NECROSCOPE series right from the beginning, and I'd love to have a crack at a Scottish based Harry Keogh book. I'm sure there's room somewhere in the very busy timeline to fit one in.
David Gemmell
Not as some might think, the obvious sword and sorcery ones, but I'd love a go at a JON SHANNOW novel. Cowboys in blasted lands seeking redemption while fighting monsters -- that's my kind of story.
And those are just off the top of my head. I'd love to write in Moorcock's Eternal Champion universe, and there are many TV show characters I'd love to write stories for, from The X-Files, Quatermass or Dr. Who, to Adam Adamant, Supernatural or one of the pulpier science fiction ones like Stargate.
All I need now is for someone to offer me the chance. Is anybody listening?