Does the Alice Howland has anything to do with the Alice from Alice in Wonderland? Could be a sort of possible sequel to the series the same way "The Cheshire" (by Bill Kte'pi) was written or the song "The Girl That's Never Been". I can't help but notice that Alice Howland is a linguistic professor and in both books of the 'Alice in Wonderland' series plays with a lot of cryptic word puzzles.