Telling Secrets #OpenBook Blog hop

May 27, 2019

Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

You mean you haven’t found them yet? 

When I wrote Wolves’ Pawn, my first book, I included some symbolism I thought everyone would catch. I wasn’t secretive about it at all, and worried I’d made it too glaringly obvious. Here we are, almost five years later, and not one reader has mentioned it. So, maybe it was so obvious it wasn’t worth saying anything about it.

Then I wrote The Marquesa’s Necklace, and, just for fun, put some subtle references to Wolves’ Pawn in the story. Surely, some sharp-eyed reader would catch them and point them out. I got crickets.

 

 

 

 

I was in the middle of writing Her Ladyship’s Ring when the inspiration for Wolves’ Knight struck. Yes, that event is blatantly documented in Ring. No one has ever asked about it.

Sure, I know that people who read urban fantasy/paranormal don’t necessarily read my female sleuth mysteries. I get that. And I’m probably overthinking the whole thing. After all, my books are written as entertainment, not to convey some deep dark secret or life lesson. That doesn’t stop me from hoping someone will pick up on the secrets.

It’s been five years, so I’ll share the secret from the Wolves’ Pawn. 

Dot, my female MC, has a Native American background as well as being a wolf-shifter. I wrote in frequent references to crows being around her.  Here are a few:

A crow cawed overhead, breaking her musings. It was good timing—or maybe a warning.

Still, she delayed going to the house. A large crow landed near her and cocked its head, staring at her. She wondered what message it carried.

A noise broke her meditation, and she opened her eyes to find a large crow sitting in front of her. It cocked its head, uttered a single caw, and flew away. One large black feather drifted down from the sky. Dot picked it up and stuck it into the scarf wrapped around her arm. In a mirror she had brought along, she painted four pink stripes on one cheek, symbolizing the wolf. On the other cheek, the design was a blue and green globe, in honor of the Earth Mother. On a whim, she added two arcs over the circle—the crow. She knew the painting was not traditional, but thought her ancestors would forgive her.

What I was trying to insinuate was that the crow was Dot’s spirit animal. She may not recognize it, but  the crows do. Which is a bit weird, for a wolf-shifter to have a spirit animal, but in my mind, it works.

So that’s one of my secrets. There are more, but hopefully you’ll read my books with a ‘different’ eye and try to find them.

Have you stumbled across any of my secrets? You can share them in the comments and see if anyone else has found them, too.

May 27, 2019

Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

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