Why I Love Easter Eggs

I think it’s a weird “snobby” thing. Like “haha I’m so smart, I noticed that!” Yeah, real mature, I know. I got really hooked on them with Buffy, though. They would always have these inside jokes referencing back to things that happened in earlier episodes or seasons. It gave the show a sense of continuity and like it really was all happening in a real place.

Up until I’d gotten hooked on Buffy, a lot of the things I watched were very episodic. There wasn’t much continuity and almost nothing that happened ever got referenced again. It was like the characters all rebooted and were starting all over with each episode (unless it was a two-parter). There wasn’t a lot of ground to hold on to.

Oh sure, if the dad character had a certain job this week he probably has the same job three weeks from now, but specific things that happen to the characters almost never got brought up again. It created a sense of unreality to the whole thing. So this character was a landscaper… big deal. If it was only a background thing the character still felt flat.

On Buffy they would be in season seven still ribbing Xander about his experience as a hyena… which happened back in season 1. If you weren’t a fan of the series, you didn’t lose anything due to the Easter eggs, but if you were a fan, you “got” the inside jokes. It was like the writers would look for opportunities to toss these things in, like they were saying: “Just checking to see if you were paying attention. Just trying to amuse the fans.”

This definitely influenced my writing and so you’ll find lots of little easter eggs embedded in my work. In a couple of months, The Catalyst will be coming out. A lot of times in a series, readers want to re-read earlier books to get re-immersed back into the world. So, to help you do that, I’ve created an Easter Egg hunt. You can re-immerse (or immerse if it’s your first trip to my world), find the Easter eggs, and be eligible to win a Kindle Fire! Details for the Easter Egg hunt, here.

I’ve made my whole catalog on deep discount (all the “reference materials”) for this contest, to lower the barrier of entry to contest participation for those who don’t already have my books or are missing one or two in their collection. So even if you choose not to participate in the hunt itself (Note that the hunt itself goes through April 15th, but the sale only goes through Easter Sunday!), this week is a great opportunity to complete your collection of Pretverse books, or to give one to a friend as an Easter gift!