Do novelists hide Easter eggs in their works?Yes. Utsudo often includes little things like rabbit and cat charms, and hints at her other publications through plot references, like playing a treasure hunt with readers. Her boldest move was in The Runaway Young Master’s KISS Contract, where she inserted her own “give Bunny gold coins” persona as a mini-boss.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Easter eggs: little things hidden in my works

　　Anyone who has really read a few of my works has probably noticed some clues.

　　Even in stories without rabbits or cats, little things like charms or decorations still show up, because I just like them~ So what, don’t like it, don’t read — no no no, on second thought, please keep reading (covers face

　　Sometimes I even do product placement for my other publications, but for fear of copyright disputes, I usually don’t write the names directly — I use plot references instead. Attentive readers, or those who happen to have read my other series, might notice.

　　These little tricks probably aren’t rare, though — I’ve heard many big-name authors do the same, because it’s really fun. It’s like playing a treasure hunt with readers.

The mini-boss in The Runaway Young Master’s KISS Contract

　　But the one where I went biggest was probably The Runaway Young Master’s KISS Contract — uh, honestly, the editorial team changed the title into something even I’m embarrassed to say (covers face).

　　Ahem. Because I was closer with the editor I worked with on this book, I dared to goof around more… oh, no, I mean because we were closer, we trusted each other and opened up more easily when discussing the work. So in one part of this book, I inserted my persona at the time.

　　It’s about a mini-boss that shouts “give Bunny gold coins” at adventurers with sparkling eyes. But if you ignore it or the item isn’t to its liking, it gets angry and hits you — in the story, a character gets smacked in the face by the very plate they handed over.

　　Later, after the protagonists left, this weakened boss sneakily followed them out and split into many little versions, going around town begging passersby for gold coins. But its violent behavior was copied too — if you couldn’t hand over something it liked, you got smacked, throwing the whole town into chaos XD

　　At that time, my persona art was still just an animal, not yet humanoid, as shown below.

　　Honestly, slipping my own little schemes into a published work like this is really fun.

Where the “give Bunny gold coins” catchphrase came from

　　Speaking of which, “give Bunny gold coins” seems to have been my catchphrase in junior high — probably from being corrupted by Pokémon (covers face). But back then I didn’t have the bunny nickname yet, so I shouted “give Kitty gold coins.”

　　But as I said before, the phrase has no meaning — please don’t think I’m robbing you XDD

　　Honestly, I’d forgotten this catchphrase had such a long history. It was only when a junior-high classmate mentioned it that I realized I’d been corrupted for so long (X).

　　As I grew up, I stopped saying it as much — after all, I’d probably get punched if I kept it up.

　　If you could play this little game with readers in your own work, what object or reference would you put in?

FAQ

Further reading (in Chinese)

• Previous: #59 (in Chinese)
• Next: #61 (in Chinese)
• Start from the beginning: #01 — Utsudo’s debut
• Column introduction
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.

📚 More on this topic: Author Branding, Income & Promotion: Ghost Island Column Guide