The Hidden Easter Eggs of “Headshot”
Considering how much work goes into making a book, it’s only natural that the author should get to have some fun with it sometimes, too, right? Of course, right.
I love those moments of fun. Most of the time, writing, to me, is just the means of getting a story out of my head and on paper. Sure, the process of growing in the skills needed to sharpen descriptions, craft intriguing dialogue and build suspense is a challenge I enjoy facing off against, but at the end of the day, that doesn’t compare to the joy I get from just coming up with the story. Telling the story of one character doing a million things in the attempt to achieve one goal, over and over and over again. That’s fun–and when you get to throw in a few little details for those more attentive readers to spot, it just enhances that fun.
Thus it was that I decided to throw several hidden Easter eggs into the world of Headshot. So, since I’m good with lists, I’ll go ahead and punch one out here to show every one of those little Easter eggs and explain why they exist.
Easter Egg #0: Headshot
I wouldn’t even call this an Easter egg, as it’s so obvious. All FPS gamers know the term “Headshot”, despite the fact that it hasn’t been accepted as a real word in the English language…yet. Since the book starts out with three teenage boys who just want to play Halo, I thought it’d be fitting to make the title of the book something gamers would appreciate.
Easter Egg #1: The Cabin
Lemme tell you a story about a cool guy I once knew, who happened to be my great-grandpa.
Once upon a time, a wise and benevolent old man–my great-grandpa Lewis–actually gifted my parents with an acre of land that became three and a half after his death. Great-grandpa gave my parents the land before I was even born. It is one of the most rocky properties in all of North Georgia. Trying to get anything to grow there, other than oak, pine and hickory trees, was tough. Can’t tell you how many times my mom tried and failed to produce fresh tomatoes on that land, but that’s getting off-topic.
Anyway, this wise and benevolent great-grandpa had one caveat in his gift: he had long since built a cabin on the hill above the one upon which our house was to sit. This cabin was his man-cave–his escape, I guess, and his only caveat in giving so generously; he wanted to still have the freedom to stop by his man-cave every once in a while.
What I remember really well is how great-grandpa would sometimes stay overnight at his cabin, and in the mornings, my older sister and I would don whatever crazy costume was in that day and rush outside to battle imaginary wolves on our way up the hill to see great-grandpa. He had this nasty habit of spoiling us, you see…he did this by often inviting us into his cabin and indulging us in pleasant chatter, our very own happy meal toys, cheap cookies, and delicious Hawaiian Punch.
On the rare occasion he wanted to sleep late, he would kindly leave a happy meal toy out on his doorstep for each of us. Being the ungrateful and demanding little millennial turds we were, however, we once walked right into his cabin anyway, thinking to steal into his kitchen and gorge upon the creamy innards of decimated cookies and Hawaiian Punch, which was, to us, a passionate sin in the form of a blood-red wine reserved only for those mischief-makers brazen enough to drink of its holy sweetness.
Having opened the door silently (loudly), we stepped quietly (like bulls in a china shop) inside. Great-grandpa’s bed was right there in the front room, and lying there, seemingly dead to the world, was he. Cautiously (recklessly), we crept (stamped) into the house, believing our stealth skills were too great for even this wise and benevolent old man to sense our presence.
Never were we so wrong, in all our years of ninja-level sneaking (which both of us could only count on one hand).
Just as we took another step, the ground shook (the bed creaked), the walls rattled with the groaning of a giant (great-grandpa breathed), and the air exploded with the scream of an enraged god that has caught tricksters filching from his treasure trove.
“BOO!” The enraged god roared (shouted with a smile).
Together, my sister and I jumped out of our skins, but were quickly relieved when great-grandpa just laughed, got up and led us into the kitchen, in spite of us interrupting his sleep.
Those are some of my fondest early memories. I was too young to fully grasp what had happened when great-grandpa passed away, but I missed him afterward.
Within another year or two, my dad, who was in the printing business at the time, bought his own presses and moved them into the abandoned cabin, leaving pretty much everything else untouched. I swear, the utensils great-grandpa used, his old coats, the random junk he collected, the pictures on the walls…they were all still there a decade later when my family decided to move to Washington state.
Anyway, that cabin became a bizarre mixture of functional independent print shop and old man’s man cave. It also held a layer of creepy mystery for us kids, as it was ancient, spider, mouse and wasp-infested, and abandoned by its deceased owner. We almost never hung out inside it alone, and to this day, whenever my subconscious is trying to make me feel isolated and/or scared in a dream, it always summons up images of that cabin and me being in it by myself at night.
Beyond the fact that the general design of the cabin’s structure is directly copied into my book, that feeling of creepiness in an old, cluttered, vacant cabin is what I enjoyed passing on to the first chapter of Headshot…or at least I hope I conveyed that feeling well. You tell me.
Easter Egg #2: Lewis Lake Road
Another fun fact about my great-grandpa Lewis: he was given the chance to have the road we lived on named after himself, but he turned it down. I don’t really know what made him do that…maybe he felt it would be vain or something, I don’t have a clue…but in any case, since I wasn’t going to use the real name of the road we lived on, I called it “Lewis Lake Road” instead, in honor of him.
Easter Egg #3: McJohn’s Inn
Once again, I came up with my own name for the imaginary hotel Chase, Nate and Dean stay in. “McJohns” is a mashup of my family name, “McAndrew” and our friends’ (The same friends who helped inspire this book) family name “Johnson”.
Easter Egg #4: Room 343
The hotel room Nate, Chase and Dean stay in is numbered 343, a reference to 343 Studios, who are currently head of developing the Halo games. I felt that, since the story starts out with the main trio playing Halo, there ought to be plenty of nods to it, especially since it’s my favorite game franchise and the one my friends and I spent countless hours playing in our teen years.
Easter Egg #5: The Skate Park
Once again, this is one that took a lot of imagination on my part and thus a good dose of bending reality to fit the story. “King’s Park”–the park where Nate meets Janis for the first time–doesn’t exist except in my mind. I had a specific vision for how I needed the park to look to suit my story’s needs, and that’s what came out on paper. The real King’s Park…as in, the one that provided me the base story inspiration, is actually called Fowler Park, and it’s in Cumming, not Gainesville. It has (or at least had, when I was there) a walking/biking trail and a pretty cool skate area that the Johnson family and mine visited on a few hot days during the summer of 2012. No, we did not meet any Janises, fall on our butts in the skating bowl, or romantically play guitar together under leafy green boughs. Didn’t happen. But we did have some adventures, and that’s just as good.
Easter Egg #6: Nicholas Sparks
In a scene where Janis and Nate discuss her sickness, Janis tells Nate “don’t go all Nicholas Sparks on me.” This was my way of letting the reader know I was conscious of other similar stories that feature cancer as an important element. As a reader, myself, I like to know the author is aware of his surroundings and actually taking time to assure me I can trust him and the direction of the story. It lets me know that in some way or another, small or big, this story will be different.
I’ve never personally read any of Nicholas Sparks’ works, but I have (unfortunately) seen A Walk To Remember. When I was developing Janis’ character, she initially didn’t have any real reason for her self-ordained mission to expose a terrorist threat, beyond that she was just good with computers, a bit of a daredevil and…I don’t know…maybe bored? It just didn’t work.
When I had the idea of her days being numbered by cancer, my first thought was “But that sounds like A Walk To Remember…”. My second, thought, though, was “eh, whatever. Nicholas Sparks doesn’t get to trademark cancer itself for his novels.”. Unfortunately, cancer happens. It’s a life-threatening disease with diverse variants and no definite cure, so it can potentially number the patient’s days. It’s a horrible reality, but great for conflict in fiction–which is why it’s everywhere in romances.
Putting a clock on Janis’ life made her quest make sense to me, as she was suddenly able to let go of a lot of the worries healthy people have. Instead of trying to beat cancer itself, she embraced it and allowed it to change her outlook on life, making her treasure her precious remaining moments and throw caution to the wind. Whether that outlook is right or wrong is something I wanted to leave open for debate, but either way, it’s an interesting character motivation…at least to me.
Easter Egg #7: The Last Halo References
And finally:
In the last chapter of the book, Nate explains that it’s been 117 days since they found Janis in the cabin. This is a reference to Spartan-117, Masterchief, the main character of the Halo franchise.
Next, I threw in the numbers of Nate, Chase and Dean’s lockers, just for kicks. All three numbers (686, 032 and 049) are the numbers of Forerunner Monitors in Halo; Ebullient Prism, Mendicant Bias and Abject Testament, respectively.
Again, I just felt it was appropriate to nod at the book’s simple beginnings again before punching out the words the end. I hope a lot of gamers will read the book and enjoy catching some of the references I put in there specifically for them. Maybe in the future I’ll branch out from Halo references and be a bit more inclusive of those crazy people who like COD better (kidding…sorta)…but since this book drew heavily from my nostalgic growing up years, Halo was the one I gave myself permission to nerd about.
So, thanks for reading this post! Hopefully you enjoyed getting a little more behind the scenes info about Headshot, and if you did, I would suggest sticking around for more such fun facts and trivia, as even this lengthy blog post can’t cover all that went into each individual scene in the story.
Looking forward to sharing more again soon!
Merry Christmas y’all!
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