Easter Eggs. Maybe you’ve heard of them. Not the kind that kids look for on that spring holiday out on the lawn. I’m talking about the kind that you find in movies and books where authors and filmmakers include little clues for you to find. They’re fun, they’re free and they show that you’re paying attention.
I started adding Easter eggs to my books quite by accident, then later started adding them intentionally. It got to be fun. So far, no one but me has known they exist. Chances are, there are more of them than I am even aware of, but here are a couple of them that I know of. They start with my earliest writing and continue through my latest books.
- In The Secret of Promise Island, my first children’s book, the island is named after a boat–The Promise–that has been shipwrecked there. Later, in my book If Tomorrow Comes, one of my characters escapes by sailing off on a schooner named The Promise. Coincidence? I think not.
- In The Heretic, the second book in my Champion series, college student Douglas Washington sings on a streetcorner for money. One of his favorite songs to sing is called “Kryptonite.” In the next book, “Project Kryptonite” is an important part of the storyline, and has nothing to do with music.
If I sat down and thought about it, I could probably could come up with some more examples of Easter eggs like this–they’re fun–and I suggest you either look for them in your favorite books and movies, or better yet, add them to your books that you write.
The Great Adventure 