As a child, Trixie Belden wasn't my only "must-read" series. I also loved The Three Investigators. With the exception of younger teens solving mysteries, Mart talking a lot like Jupe and the, "Oh, look, another orphan!" trope, the two series weren't all that similar. And I'm about to say something er... sacrilegious here, but honestly, I feel like T3I stands up over the test of time better than TB. I think if I were to sit down and read book one from both series to a 7 or 8yo today, The Secret of Terror Castle would grab him/her much more than The Secret of the Mansion. Heck, even the title of the former sounds way more exciting than the latter.
So what turned me into a Trixie Belden writer versus someone playing in the Three Investigators sandbox? The primary thing that TB does do better than T3I - relationships. Yes, Jupe, Pete, and Bob are good friends, and yes, there are some fun secondary characters like Aunt Matilda and Hans & Konrad, but for the most part, T3I is focused on the mystery story of each book. (In this way, I suppose, though the characters and settings are more unique and fleshed out, T3I has more in common with Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys.) The Trixie series devotes so much time to the relationships of the characters, we even have mysteries that aren't really much of a mystery. That's the real attraction of the series for me and that's why I've spent 20+ years (off and on) writing Trixie stories.
I don't do crossovers, but I suppose if I was ever going to do one, it would be with T3I. I can totally see Mart and Jupe in a verbal sparring match, lol. Meanwhile, I think in honor of the approaching Halloween, I might dig up my T3I copy of The Green Ghost. Or The Sinister Scarecrow. Hmmm...
So what turned me into a Trixie Belden writer versus someone playing in the Three Investigators sandbox? The primary thing that TB does do better than T3I - relationships. Yes, Jupe, Pete, and Bob are good friends, and yes, there are some fun secondary characters like Aunt Matilda and Hans & Konrad, but for the most part, T3I is focused on the mystery story of each book. (In this way, I suppose, though the characters and settings are more unique and fleshed out, T3I has more in common with Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys.) The Trixie series devotes so much time to the relationships of the characters, we even have mysteries that aren't really much of a mystery. That's the real attraction of the series for me and that's why I've spent 20+ years (off and on) writing Trixie stories.
I don't do crossovers, but I suppose if I was ever going to do one, it would be with T3I. I can totally see Mart and Jupe in a verbal sparring match, lol. Meanwhile, I think in honor of the approaching Halloween, I might dig up my T3I copy of The Green Ghost. Or The Sinister Scarecrow. Hmmm...
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