Concerning: Notes on A Queen in Hiding

I’m not sure how I feel about “Easter eggs.”

As a reader, I shudder at the notion that I might be missing something, that the author has hidden double-meanings accessible only to the cognoscenti. As a theorist, I’ve always found insights into a writer’s intentions invaluable. As a writer, I discovered that easter eggs are . . . unavoidable. Ideas come from somewhere, and for me they came from a rambling storehouse of fictional connections, some current, some dusty.

 I don’t want to keep these from you, my readers. Buckle up for some backstage insights on A Queen in Hiding. Spoilers ahead.

1.     “Nargis,” the name of the fresh-water spirit, refers to the stage name of the most famous Indian actress of all time. The rest of the Spirits’ names are translations of their elements in different languages.

2.     The idea that a Spirit would give a princess a magic gift comes from Snow White.

3.     This magic gift—talking to animals—is common in fantasy. I particularly had The Sword in the Stone and Robin Hobb’s “wit” in mind.

4.     Any similarity between Circle Council Meetings and contentious department faculty meetings is purely intentional.

5.     Wilim, a “peacekeeper” who talks instead of fights, is a transmutation of Jimmy Stewart’s character in the 1939 western, Destry Rides Again.

6.     Having Cerúlia hide her identity behind a rustic guise as Wren deliberately copies how Aragorn disguises himself as Strider.

7.     I wanted my readers to be slightly confused as to who was the main character, Queen Cressa or Princella Cerúlia. (This confusion was dispelled by the press’s summary on the book jacket, but never mind.) When the Queen is killed, I hoped readers would feel shocked and adrift, just like viewers feel over Marion’s death in Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Fantasy Tropes. Some I leaned into, others I purposely avoided. For instance:

·      There’s no mystery as to who is the “Chosen One” or about her parentage. Cerúlia knows her identity from the beginning. How many mysterious orphans can one genre handle?

·      The Scholáiríum is not a school for magic and its teachers do not wield special magical abilities. Nice as it might be to have a Gandalf or a Dumbledore at one’s back, this series contains no all-powerful mentors.

·      In fact, “magic” per se appears very sparingly. Characters need to solve their difficulties by human effort.

·      The antagonists are people, not Orcs or another non-human species that we can exterminate without moral qualms. No Dark Lord or Sauron figure stalks these pages. I tried to create a measure of understanding or sympathy for the main villains. As the film director Jean Renoir once said, “Everyone has their reasons.”