Easter eggs.

Any authors hide stuff in your books? No, no, not contraband, that's wrong.

I accidently did in my last book when I was writing a line and I noticed it was the title of one of my previously published short stories. I that it was funny so I used another one. What's more hilarious is that I forgot what that last one was.

I have never purposely hidden something, but I sort of consider my glossaries to be an "Easter Egg" since a great many readers probably won't think to even look at them.

The ones who do take a look at one of my glossaries will find a lot more than they were expecting, so hopefully it's a pleasant surprise and something that they can purposely seek out when they read more of my books, now that they are "in the know".

(I purposely omit the glossary when sending books to betareaders because I need to know if I'm making everything understandable in context. My intent is that the glossaries are fun supporting material, not a desperately needed crutch.)

My Erotopharmakohymnia is one big Easter egg, I guess. It's full of tacit references to earlier works from other authors, systems of mystical symbolism, and occult practices. I like to think that readers can enjoy it without knowing all the other stuff it gestures to, but having a handle on the background lore almost certainly provides a richer experience.

I decided to throw in another of my short story titles into my next book, just because I can.

I have inserted numerous Easter eggs in the first two books of my trilogy, The Antunite Chronicles. In both Antuna's Story and The Rise and Fall of Antocracy, the insect characters sometimes speak in rhymes. And occasionally those rhymes contain twisted quotes from the famous historical or contemporary personages the insect resembles within the allegorical satire. The rhyming dialogue was inspired by the farsicle nature of the speech of some of those being satired, as a way to seem more ridiculous than the original statements they made.