I have not seen the crossovers you are looking for, but I will keep my eye out! As for the question of characterization... I am a visual person. When I write, I need to 'see' my characters. One of the ways I do that is I cast them. I use ideas from people... the hair of this person, the eyes of that one, the manner of a woman I saw in the grocery... A good friend of mine just bought me a great T-shirt as a gift... on it is the saying "Be careful or you might be in my next novel". Characterization is everywhere. One note though, the character has to be different to attract the reader and hold them. Not necessarily in who they are - they could be a housewife, but in the essence of who they are. The reader wants to know what is going to happen next? Think about some of the most popular characters out there - House, Harry Potter, the cast of Grey's Anatomy... we are always asking ourselves what is this character going to do next? Part of us identifies with them (they cant be so far out there that we dont) and part of us is constantly asking - what is this person going to do next?

~Starbuck
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