I thoroughly enjoyed SE Hinton's Hawkes Harbor which was initially an entry into the first collapsed novel re-boot by HarperCollins. It basically was a "biography" of Willie Loomis, from his childhood through his "adventures" with Jason Maguire leading up to his arrival in Collinsport and his "meeting" Barnabas Collins. When the book series died, she simply took her story, changed the names of persons and places (although she did leave one name "accidentally" unchanged as a tribute to DS fans) and - voila - a DS novel without breaking any copyright laws. What was amazing, though, was her knowledge of the canon. She did have to do tweaks here and there for the purpose of the plot, including the heart-breaking ending. But yet she knew the "facts," the backgrounds, etc. If Ms. Hinton could avail herself of all of that, why couldn't Ms. Parker?
Gerard