Easter Eggs

​I’ll admit to watching a bit more YouTube than is good for me.
But seriously! All those wonderful channels like Super Carlin Brothers and The Theorizer that make theories about Disney/Pixar movies! I love them! But there’s one type of video that I think I’ve seen too much of: Easter egg videos.
An “Easter egg” in a movie is a reference to another movie, usually by the same company. It’s usually done subtly in the background, especially by use of a specific object. Famous examples are the Nemo toy in Monsters, Inc. (which I’ve never seen) and the Mr. Incredible comic book seen in the dentist’s waiting room in Finding Nemo.

Nowadays, people are using Easter eggs to formulate things like the Pixar Theory, which is the idea that all Disney/Pixar movies are set in the same universe. It got me thinking…I’ve got to put my own Easter eggs in things.
Now, since Where the Clouds Catch Fire is my debut novel, you’re not going to see references to previous books I’ve written. But there are several things from my personal life that I’ve put in my book…almost like inside jokes.
For example, a search-and-replace accident turned the word “boot” into “bout.” Every. Single. One. And I had to comb through the entire book (thank God for the “search” button!) to turn all my “bouts” back into “boots.” So I made sure to use the word “bout” in its proper sense in the book, not only as a memorial of the incident, but also to throw off my proofreader—aka, my mother.
It doesn’t stop there. I’ve been known to name characters after people I know in real life. So Captain McMahon and Sailor O’Quinlan got their names from people I went to homeschool co-op with back in middle school.
My cousin asked me to name a character after him. Caleb James is now a minor character in a Wattpad sensation I’m working on (you can read the story HERE if you want to). Caleb works alongside his best friend John Hilton, who is actually named after my first crush John Parker, who was a cartoon character from Liberty’s Kids.
But I’ve saved the best story for last. Because not all Easter eggs are names or simple words. No, I have something much better than that.
See, writers tend to band together. I have a wonderful writer friend who was sleeping over at my house one evening. It was late, and we were both rather silly from lack of sleep. But we decided to discuss character deaths—more importantly, how this one particular character, who is only mentioned once in the entire story, met his untimely end before the book even started.
My friend suggested one thing, and I suggested something else, until my friend finally asked, “What if he was mauled by gophers?” We both cracked up laughing. I asked if I could use her idea, and she said yes.
My character didn’t die from a gopher attack, mind you. He actually died from a shellfish allergy. But I threw the mention of angry gophers into a conversation between Alynn and Lukas, and it proved to be hilarious.
What’s your favorite movie Easter egg? Tell me in the comments below! God bless you, dear reader, and don’t forget to like us on Facebook!