A My Cousin Vinny superfan has had his self-penned sequel officially approved. That’s good news, but I’m wary about who adds to my own favourite tales

I have to admit to a certain level of awe before the fandom of the author Lawrence Kelter for the film My Cousin Vinny. Kelter loves the 1992 film so much that – as highlighted by MobyLives on Thursday – he managed to convince its screenwriter, Dale Launer, to let him write a novel continuing the story of Vinny and Lisa (first played by Marisa Tomei and Joe Pesci).

“I said, ‘How about I take a crack at Vinny and Lisa and move their life forward in a book series?’” Kelter told the New York Post. After convincing a reluctant Launer, he then had to convince the Writers Guild and 20th Century Fox to let him acquire rights in the characters, a process he described as “gruelling”.

Kelter published book one of the My Cousin Vinny series earlier this year. The blurb explains: “Hot on the heels of rescuing his cousin Bill and Bill’s friend Stan from an Alabama electric chair, our wildly inappropriate hero Vincent Gambini heads home to Brooklyn, where he attempts to establish a successful law career … Meanwhile, Lisa aches to have a wedding band placed around her finger and her biological clock is still ticking away like mad.”

My Cousin Vinny isn’t the story I’d long to see continued, but surely this is the dream of all fanfiction writers: to have their work recognised and given the stamp of approval by the person who originally dreamed the characters up? I wonder how many of these writers get such green lights? I’d say Kelter is in a tiny minority – and good for him.

I’d imagine that Kelter, and other My Cousin Vinny fans, will respond this news much as I did when I learned that Robin Hobb would be revisiting the lives of Fitz and the Fool in her most recent trilogy. Yes, Hobb is the original author, but she’d finished these beloved characters’s stories in a pretty definitive way at the end of Fool’s Fate. And she has been very clear about her views on fanfiction: no. Discovering that she’d be returning to their lives more than 10 years on was pretty fantastic (and yes, the trilogy absolutely lived up to every hope I’d had for it).

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Are there other stories I’d like to see continued? Oh yes: I would return to the worlds of The Talisman and The Dark Tower in a heartbeat, but only under the aegis of Stephen King. I’d revisit His Dark Materials and the story of Lyra Belacqua – but only in the hands of Philip Pullman. (Hurrah, then, for La Belle Sauvage.) These are books and characters that have a place deep in my heart – and I don’t want them messed with by others.

When it comes to characters whom I like, but don’t feel so protective of – such as Lisbeth Salander (David Lagercrantz continuing Stieg Larsson) and Philip Marlowe (Raymond Chandler’s latest ghost writer being Benjamin Black) – then I’m always up for a fresh sequel. If it’s the right writer writing.