When you are writing a novel, inspiration comes from unusual places and sometimes you have to make unusual decisions. That’s where all the trivia comes from.
Trivia #1: ‘Death Vegetable’ — In Raven: Mirabelle, Dahija mentions that her sister, Pamela, refers to celery as the ‘death vegetable’. My oldest daughter’s name is Pamela, and, yes, she used to refer to celery as the ‘death vegetable’.
Trivia #2: ‘All Wet’ — In Raven: The Call from Central, you meet Skylla, who has to be kept moist. Her hugs leave people wet except that I mention that, once on the field, since it is a simulation, she isn’t wet. However, later on, during one of the matches Nova participates in, the team is outside the ‘brane and Skylla hugs Nova and leaves her wet. I left that in for someone to find the inconsistency.
Trivia #3: “The left side of the formation” — In Raven: The Call from Central, Raven begins as left forward, however, as you read along, you’ll notice that she’s on the right side of Grabby, the center. I had always envisioned her on Grabby’s right side. So, rather than rewrite a mess of stuff, I redefined the frame of reference so that positions are defined from the front of the formation, so Raven, being the ‘left’ forward is actually on Grabby’s right side. Yeah I know that’s an obtuse way of going about it!
Trivia #4: “Is not beach!” — In Raven: The Call from Central, Skylla originally could only talk in brief baby-like statements and had a low-pitched gravelly voice. As I was writing the character, this got too restrictive, and, instead of trying to rewrite the original scenes, I had the inspiration to make her voice a sub-plot. Sorry, but you’ll have to wait until book 5 to find out how she sounds after the operation.
Trivia #5: “A warrior putting on his armor should never brag like one taking his off.” — This is a statement used by Grabby at least twice. I can’t claim credit for that one. It comes from the Father of History, the Greek historian, Herodotus.
Trivia #6: “And did those feet in ancient times, walk upon England’s mountains green.” — During the playoffs, Raven begins singing this when they realize that the Devastators have tapped into their comm system. These words are actually from a poem by William Blake which was turned into a hymn by Sir Hubert Perry in 1916. Since the UK has no official anthem, this hymn, named ‘Jerusalem’, is used as the anthem before rugby matches.
Raven of Iskandar 