Dribs & Drabs ...

Another Friday is upon us. And a heat wave. Not as bad as some parts of the country, but enough to make a person pleased with air conditioning. My dog doesn't know how good he has it.

And what has that got to do with writing? Absolutely nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not even context for what I'm going to ramble about next. I don't think that blogs are required to be witty, pithy or even something greater than random musings. So there. Let's all embrace randomness.

Ok then. Writing. What have I been working on this past week? Nothing writing related, I can tell you that. Other than some minor brain twiddlings with a new idea or two. Didn't even bother to write them down these twiddlings were so insignificant. I did visit my favourite e-book store and did some shopping (Kobo, if you must know). Got 16 new books :) Would have bought more, but for some reason the Kobo site was glitchy and kept giving me an error whenever I tried to look at a book (maybe it somehow knew how much money I had available for a book buying spree). So I bought almost exclusively from the "Selected For You" banner. A pretty good haul, under those circumstances. I've already read two of them - Beyond by Mercedes Lackey, and Nobody's Ghoul by Devon Monk. Loved them both - no surprise there! What was a surprise - and a thoroughly delightful one at that - occured in Chapter 14 of Beyond.

Now this book is the start of a new series in Lackey's Valdemar books. The ultimate prequel, it tells the tale of how the country of Valdemar came to be. Previous books have hinted (or outright talked about) how the country was founded when the people had to escape an evil empire, and did so via a magic portal. The part of how the Heralds and their Companions came to be haven't happened yet, and don't within this first book - she had to leave SOMETHING for the books to come!

But there is a scene, where one of the POV characters is watching as one of the first groups of people are coming through the portal to establish a foothold base for when the mass exodus happens. And this POV character sees a man walking through, wearing a floppy, wide brimmed hat and carrying several fishing poles on his shoulder. When he sees her he says "Nice day for fishing, ain't it? Eyuuk!" (that's a weird laught that is described rather than written out). This fisherman is then followed by a blacksmith and then a farmer type who looks to be carrying a strand of garlic bulks from his belt.

So - do you all know why I squeeled in delight at this very simple, throwaway scene? These three men have nothing to do with the story (although the fisherman got a bit more of a part in the next bit). BUT!!!!

Viva La Dirt League!!!!! These three are main characters in the Dirt League's Epic NPC Man videos! What a delightful shout out!!! Who knew that Misty was a fan? In the original videos the fisherman doesn't talk - other than that one line. Which means technically the fisherman in Beyond isn't actually the character from NPC Man, but it was still pretty cool. Feel free to check out Epic NPC Man, by Viva La Dirt League. It's about an NPC in a video game who is somewhat self aware, even while constricted by the game's programming.

So while I personally did nothing to further my own writing this week (other than buying those books), I was absolutely tickled to discover that wee little gem embedded in Beyond! Made my week :)

Got any favourite easter eggs like that in a book you've read? Send me an email and tell me all about it!

Until later, my Lovely Meeples!