Can I write novel tags instead of episode tags?

[eliyes]

Adapted from some babbling I did in a chat last night:

I keep wanting to write fanfic about OCs in Star Trek novels I'm reading. *facepalm* ...Which are technically themselves fanfic.

I wanna write about Jerry Richardson (nicname: Romeo) from Killing Time, who got away with calling Kirk "Juliet" and died to save a universe not his own

I wanna write about Kristiann Norris from Enemy Unseen, diplomatic aide and expert with translation technologies, who bonded with a certain starship captain over cheating on their diets

I wanna write about Commodore Katha'sat from The Wounded Sky, who has more knees and elbows than a human and is a killer poker player

And mostly today, I wanna write about Kirk, John C. Lieutenant. United States Army Air Corps, serial number 0-159466, from Home Is The Hunter, and his POW flyboy bond with Chekov.

But I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand, it's bad form to borrow someone's OCs without asking. On the other hand, though these books are really just published fanfic, they are books and thus should theoretically be fannish fair game.

My head hurts. :(

...Is there a statute of fannish limitations? at least one of these books was printed the year I was born...