The Worldbuilder Diaries: Adding Easter Eggs

One of my favorite things to uncover as a reader is an author’s Easter eggs. I’m not talking about foreshadowing events that occur in the same series, but something that only a reader who has read more than a couple of an author’s works would fully understand.

As the author, it’s equally amusing to write in these little snippets of lore or character references in a book that may be completely unrelated to the one featured in the Easter egg. I’ve done it a couple of times.

The hints are subtle, but they’re fun to add—and when a reader understands the reference and reacts, it’s 100% worth it.

I haven’t done much of this in my published works yet, so it has only been my beta readers that have reacted for the most part. They’ve read most of The Mage War Chronicles, Wraith and the Revolution, and some of my short stories—all things that haven’t been published yet. They’ll be available one day (Wraith sooner than the rest), but until then, my Easter eggs will be mostly hidden.

But if you’re interested in searching for some, here are a couple hints:

There’s one in Guardian that references a character from The Mage War Chronicles. Since I don’t have an ETA on releasing that series yet, you’ll have to guess what part I’m referring to for a while. But the betas know…

There’s another (bigger) one in Wraith and the Revolution. The main character of that book (Kye) is an avid reader and he may have uncovered something while perusing a merc’s library. This one refers to something that is published, so you’ll know it if you’ve read the other book. One of my beta readers loved that I added it in, which made my day.

I doubt these will be the only Easter eggs I drop in my stories, so if you keep reading them, you’ll probably uncover more as time goes on. 😊