Easter Eggs Part Four
As with anything related to writing a book (or at least my writing process), I knew books would be important in The Deep Space Between, but I didn’t figure on just how important and how prevalent they would be. In part 4 of the Easter Egg series, let’s talk about the many ways books appear in it.
I love reading. I’ve always loved to read. My mom instilled early in us a love of books and getting lost in them. So of course my MC, Seraphina, would be a reader. That part was easy. Choosing her profession, on the other hand, was not.
I didn’t know what Seraphina’s degree would be in at first. It wasn’t until I wrote more and figured out her character arc theme of identity that I had a better idea of the perimeters I needed for her job. At that point, I knew I needed her profession to be: a) around books (for the identity challenge), and b) something she could pick up and put down based on her big life change with the voice in her head (aka Angwyndith).
I did a lot of research and fell upon the idea of book restoration. (Side note: if you ever want to watch something interesting and soothing, watch someone restore a book. It almost made me want to learn the trade.) After doublechecking the requirements and the degrees people who practice that profession tend to have, I was there. Her college (Columbia), however, does not currently have that degree, so there’s a little bit of artistic license there, but is anyone really going to care? I hope not.
The Voice & Books
Anwyndith, aka the voice in Seraphina’s head, is all about books. I can’t get into too much detail without giving away spoilers, but suffice to say, her entire existence is about the knowledge you gain from books, the information she can access from books, and her love of books.
I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that she loves to read literature. As I dove further into the plot, I realized how brilliant it would be for Angwyndith to use quotes from books to impart words of wisdom. Finding quotes was not a problem. The trickier part was due to world building. Early on, my world builder and I decided there would be time gaps between when a Bodach (aka the voice aka Angwyndith) was conscious.
I also wanted Angwyndith to be out of touch with the current generation, because that remains part of her challenge and character arc. After looking for quotes and figuring out what would work best, I decided Angwyndith was last awake in the 1700 and 1800s. This gave me the added bonus of not having any copyright issues with quotes she throws out due to the books being in the public domain.
All of the books and authors quoted by her are ones I’ve enjoyed or currently own and have reread at least once. Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos is an amazing book of letters detailing all the gossip of the day in the form of an intriguing plot about manipulation and love. The movie adaptation is also brilliant. I wrote a review of it for my blog in case you’re interested. Not really a spoiler, but manipulation is a tool in Angwyndith’s toolbox, which made this book particularly poignant. However, the condescension and scathing lines from that book made it very difficult to choose the right ones, but I think I did a good job.
The next book she quotes from is The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. Right after college, I had a big Victorian author reading session. I’m not sure what prompted me to do so, but I dove right in to all of the classics, including Victorian gothic books. I was not a huge fan of the original Victorian horror/gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, but I loved The Mysteries of Udolpho. It could’ve ended 200 pages soon, because 400 pages in and I was sort of done, but I enjoyed the nuance, the misperceptions, and the dastardly villain in the book. I plan to review it as some point, but that would require rereading it (it’s been a while). Maybe after I finish writing book three and editing book two.
A little fun fact about me: I was a theater major in college. When looking around for quotes about specific topics, I found quite a few of them from Oscar Wilde. I am very familiar with his work – who doesn’t enjoy the Important of Being Earnest? – as well as from general reading. His quotes appear in the book much more than I planned, but he said so many great things. Some of his quotes are not from books or plays, but from essays he wrote during his lifetime.
I also liked the idea of using someone’s work who had a controversial end to his life simply for being gay. While there are no direct themes of sexuality in this book, I do plan on embracing at least one thread of it with a later book in the series and the phylum The Motion (of which Seraphina’s best friend, Ro, is a part). Oscar Wilde’s writing was on the end tip of Angwyndith’s former life, which I thought a lot about, but decided her former Host was more progressive than his time period.
And lastly, while not directly quoted from, references to the Brothers Grimm do appear in this book as Angwyndith knew them. I managed to include a Grimm Brothers reference in the rough of Book Two, which may be a recurrent theme, but I’ll know more when I write Book Three as to whether that reference remains or is recurrent.
Other Book References
When picking which books to include, I couldn’t not include Jane Austen. Her way of communicating ideas and thoughts has entranced me from the first time I read Pride and Prejudice and continued as I read her other work. And the movie adaptations of that book – both of them – were amazing. Not everyone likes her writing, which astonishes me, but that’s alright. Suffice to say, I love the way she phrases things. “You will inopportune me no longer” is a great way to tell someone to go away, but politely. I expected Angwyndith to enjoy the book. It had the added bonus of being used in a snarky exchange between the two in Chapter 18. I love what it says about Angwyndith there!
And lastly, you’ll almost always find Finn Hanes, the bookshop owner in Merricott where my MC lives, reading a book. Pay attention to the titles, because they too were chosen for what they represent or for their specific themes. There are only two, so it’s not too much of a stretch. I won’t say more, because spoilers.
And that it’s for the book references. There are more, but I would give too much away and you won’t enjoy the reveal if I do much more. In the last piece on Easter Eggs coming next week (Part 5), I will be sharing two things that are a bit more personal to me that I included in the book.
Stay tuned for that as we cap off this article series!