“Umm, Meghann…” you might be thinking, “Easter is over for this year.”
You’re right. It’s over.
That doesn’t mean you have to stop hunting for eggs.
Now you’re probably really confused. Even if Easter 2023 was still on the horizon, hunting for Easter eggs is a children’s activity.
Right? Right.
Except when it comes to books.
My oldest hunting for Easter eggs ten years ago
Literary Easter Eggs
According to Writer’s Digest, literary Easter eggs are “surprises left by the writer for the reader to discover” and “can be anything from an inside joke, references to other books and works of art, or even a secret message.”
Whatever the surprise, the Easter egg is intended to deliver a little pop of delight to the readers who pick up on it. 🐣
I polled the Inspy Romance bloggers to see if they’ve ever left Easter eggs in their books for their readers, and they have, dear readers! They have!
Dishing Up Delight
First up: pets. Both Judith McNees and Robin Merrill have held contests where they asked readers to help them name the animals in their books.
- Judith ran a social media contest to collect names for the horses in A Heart to Trust. (The winning names? Bo and Molly. 🐎🐎)
- Robin ran a similar contest to help her name a cat in Working. However, she ended up getting such great name suggestions that she added extra cats to the story! (Bubblebutt, Hissy Fit, and Sir Pounciful are pretty amazing cat names! 🐱)
Other authors have been known to run similar naming contests for the characters in their books. Toni Shiloh, for example, told her readers that she’d name a character after whoever came up with the best idea for an “I’m Sorry” cake that she could use in Finally a Sweetheart, her contribution to the Always a Wedding Planner anthology.
Real-life reader Jessica Baker came up with a wonderful idea: the hero could make cupcakes that look like a bouquet of flowers to apologize to the heroine, who is a baker. Toni worked Jessica’s name into the story by having the hero watch a YouTube tutorial on making and decorating the cupcakes hosted by none other than… drum roll, please… a fictitious Jessica Baker. 🧁
The funniest name-related Easter egg, though, comes to you courtesy of Emily Conrad, whose church friend jokingly suggested that she should name a character Ragnar. While this might have been a reasonable suggestion if Emily wrote historical Viking romance, she, of course, does not.
Not one to back away from a challenge, Emily gamely worked the name into To Belong Together: When one of the characters needed a fake alias, he used the first name Ragnar and the last name Woller, which just so happens to be the last name of the friend who put her up to writing a Ragnar into one of her books 🤣.
More Than Just a Name
The naming contests and challenges are fun, but few readers would be “in the know” enough to be able to identify the names as Easter eggs.
One type of Easter egg that’s a lot easier for avid fans to identify is character crossover. You’ll obviously see a lot of the same characters within the same series, but many authors have characters from one series pop up in another. For example:
- In Toni Shiloh’s All I Want, the main character hears a song on the radio that the heroine from a book in her Faith & Fortune series is singing. 🎼
- Jaycee Weaver laughingly admitted that Gina from Whatever Comes Our Way “pushes her way into half my books.” She’s also done more subtle crossovers. In Adrift, for instance, readers catch a glimpse of Brynn from What Could Be while she’s on stage with the worship team at church. 🙏
- In Carolyn Miller’s upcoming release, Fire and Ice, she references a character from her historical series. (Avid fans of Carolyn, I’m not going to give any spoilers: you’ll have to read it to see if you can spot it!) Carolyn likes including crossovers because they allow her to create “a multiverse of characters that my readers can appreciate.” She also likes giving readers “happy vibes of discovery and ownership” when they read her books. ❤️
Crossovers aren’t the only way to give people those happy vibes. Here are a few other fun Easter eggs you can find in our books:
- In Valerie Comer’s The Cowboy’s Romantic Dreamer, the heroine is a romance editor who works for… Valerie Comer! 😂
- In Jan Thompson’s His Longing Heart, the hero’s grandma is reading a devotional called Writing Days, which is a real devotional that Jan wrote. 📖
- And my own personal favorite: In one of Robin Merrill’s cozy mysteries, she wrote herself into the book! (Her two sleuths stop to ask her for directions while she’s out walking her dog. 🐕🦺🚶♀️)
Beyond the Bounds
Finally, some authors choose to extend the sense of discovery Easter eggs provide beyond the bounds of the story. I’m sure you’ve read lots of books where authors offer a bonus epilogue that readers can access via email or a Bookfunnel page. A few of our Inspy Romance bloggers came up with some creative twists on that idea. 😊
Emily Dana Botrous wrote a special bonus scene for Forever Yours, Lucy, but it’s not a bonus epilogue. Rather, it’s a proposal scene that’s briefly referred to in the book but not shown. My latest release, The Baby’s Christmas Blessing, gives readers the option to access a bonus prologue that shows the hero and heroine meeting eleven years before the book starts. Although it takes place in the past, it adds depth to the characters and their backstory.
In the back of Husband Auditions, Angela Ruth Strong includes a fun magazine-style article titled “101 Ways to Find a Husband” (inspired by an actual magazine article from the 1950s), which she wrote with the tongue-in-cheek help of her readers! Gems include:
- “Make friends with beautiful women. They usually have a cast of unwanted suitors.”
- “Attend funerals to check out widowers.”
- “Don’t be catty. Unless you’re purring like a kitten.”
- “Always sit like royalty, with your legs crossed at the ankle. It worked for Grace Kelly, and it can work for you.”
- “If he’s riding a train, he’s going places. Sit next to him and find out where.”
You can read all 101 ways to find a husband here.
Do you look for Easter eggs when you’re reading? What’s the best one you’ve found so far or your favorites from this post?
Meghann Whistler is a wife, mom, and Christian romance novelist who loves writing sweet, happy stories that WON'T make your grandmother blush! When she's not writing, reading, or jamming out to Christian rock music, you can find her enjoying a relaxing evening with her rocket scientist husband (seriously—he's a real, live rocket scientist!) or playing with her three kids.
When I first read your title and the first lines I was eating guess what and easter egg. They are cheaper after Easter and I got some yesterday.
Cheryl Wyatt name a character with my first name and another readers last name which was so cool (I don’t want my whole name in a book but to know the Jenny was after me was so fun she was a side character who was only in a couple of scenes but it was enough)
I also got to name a name of a character recently. The author was looking for name for a certain character and asked her newsletter readers to send in suggestions and mine was picked.
I love these sorts of ideas or where an author has a prize of naming a character or having your name used.
I call them hidden gems but hidden easter eggs would work too but I love the little gems authors often have in a book. Something totally unexpected but makes the books so much better. Like the young brother who has health issues and the bigger brother thinks he cant look after himself being able to fly to the state hes in to suprise him. the thing Authors don’t want mentioned in a review.
I never thought of hidden Easter eggs. I have one author who sends bonus content in an email for the book I just read as an ARC member. I really enjoy reading the bonus content. I also like the author asking the readers for their input for the names of certain animals or people in their next book.
I’ve read books where characters from other series have appeared, and loved it!! I have a couple of authors that will do bonus content, which is sometimes called bonus and sometimes called a bonus epilogue.
Hi Meghann! Delightful post this morning. I agree with Ausjenny and enjoy looking for HIDDEN GEMS in the books I read, BUT for Easter time it is fitting to refer to hidden gems as hidden Easter eggs. Since retiring from teaching a decade ago, I have read many hidden gems. Josie Riveria has included my Gingerbread House craft in one of her books (my name included). Another gem was in Elizabeth Maddrey’s Easter in Gilead story: Her Billionaire Benefactor when she referred to Valerie Comer in her story. Always fun when authors refer to books the character read or have well known people (real or imaginary from stories) in their books. IR authors keep adding the gems to your stories. Best wishes.
Easter eggs are the best! I was obsessed with Bodie and Brock Theone books when I learned what a literary Easter egg is and now I put one in every book I write.
Hi Meghann! I enjoyed your blog this morning. I have not intentionally looked for Easter Eggs in the books I read, but I will now. I just finished the first 3 books of the Easter in Gilead series. There are crossovers in all three books, but I think there was an Easter Egg in Elizabeth’s book. I was trying to remember what it was. Didn’t recognize it as an Easter Egg then.
The first time I became familiar with this term was when my daughter mentioned that she found an Easter Egg on her new Jeep. 🤷♀️ She then explained it to me. Then I was very disappointed because I didn’t find any Easter Eggs on my new Jeep. 😔
Thanks for your blog. ❤😊
How neat that you have a character named after you, Jenny! And, ha ha, I love searching for the discounted holiday candy, too! I keep seeing a big pile of Cadbury Creme Eggs on sale at my local supermarket and I’ve been so tempted!!!
I like bonus content, too, Bonnie! I’ve signed up for a lot of author newsletters so that I can read the bonus scenes!
Nice, Trudy! It’s always fun to catch a glimpse of a beloved character in another book so you can see how they’re doing now!
Oh, wow! That’s really cool that Josie included your craft in one of her books! How did that happen??? Did she run a contest?
How fun, Dalyn! I’ve never read any of Bodie and Brock Theone’s books, but it’s neat that they introduced you to the concept of Easter eggs!
Many years ago I read a lot of books by D.E. Stevenson. I had to keep a chart of all the Easter Eggs she put in her books – mostly crossover characters. Real recently, Roseanna M White’s book Yesterday’s Tides has Easter Eggs from all her other series that cover the same time period! That was really fun to find all those. And Valerie Comer has quite a few crossover characters between her various series. I never knew they were called Easter Eggs until real recently.
Ooh, what was the Easter egg in her Jeep, Bonnie?
I love it that you kept a chart, Margaret! I’ll bet the author did, too! 😂
Josie Rivera often asks her VIP Facebook group for suggestions – recipes or ideas for an upcoming release.
That’s great! Sounds like a fun group :)
a fun post today. thanks. we first got our 4 month old puppy in the fall. when Easter came around, Easter day was frigid. so we hid eggs in and around the house. my husband hid them for our son in places up higher and lower for our daughter (3 years younger). When we woke up the next morning and the two kiddos were ready to hunt for eggs, all they found were the plastic eggs and their basket. over night our new puppy had eaten all the real eggs. sigh. to say she had a tummy ache was putting it mild. i called our vet and he asked if she had eaten the shells also. yes she ate the shells also. he just said to keep an eye on her. If she starts to vomit bring her in right away to the emergency vet. fortunately we celebrated our Easter as the four of us on Saturday so we could watch her all day. no vomit, just sleepy and grumpy. we had our Penny dog for 13 fabulous years.
I love these, they are so much fun! I had no idea how creative authors can be with these Easter eggs, although I’ve always enjoyed spotting characters from other books who pop up. I love that some of there authors have written or mentioned themselves, that’s so funny!
Oh, my! That’s a crazy story, Lori! Your poor puppy! Were your kids sad about the missing candy???
This post was a blast to write, Ruthie, because I had fun hearing about all of my author friends’ creative Easter egg ideas!
I didn’t buy any before Easter so I figure I can have a treat now but only if its cheaper than a block of chocolate or the equivalent.
I am not thinking of any right now. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
I love finding good deals on delicious treats ❤️
Thank you, Debra — God bless you, too! ❤️
no
It was a lizard, but I can’t remember where it was. Someplace obscure. So I looked everywhere in my jeep, even looked around the gas thing.
Ha ha — a fake lizard, I hope???
Yes, hers was fake. But when we were in Okinawa we had lizards (geckos) in our apartment. At first I was freaked out, but then I started naming them. Because I’m weird like that.
This was such a fun and fascinating read!!
A great post and I do love Easter eggs of both kinds. The funnest one was where there was a bookbub deal for an author and an ad in the page was for a cozy mystery where the main character had the same name as the author, not exactly an Easter egg, a coincidence, and so I gifted her a copy and really confused her until she realised what happened. She read the whole series and enjoyed her namesakes antics.
Wow, Dianne—that is a WILD coincidence! I love it! 😂❤️
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Kristina!