The first time I heard the name Stan Lee, I was probably eighteen or nineteen. I was, most likely, standing in the center of a comic book shop with my then-boyfriend (who is my now-husband). Probably, the name came up in revered, whispered tones. This was before Marvel movies, when most people thought Spiderman and Ironman and The Avengers were the stuff of fanboy dreams and Kevin Smith movies.

So, when Stan Lee appeared in X-Men (2000) as a hot dog vendor, I recognized him at once, and felt a little thrill. There he is! Gotcha, Stan Lee. Now his appearances are a running element in all the Marvel flicks, similar to Hitchcock appearing in small cameos in his movies.

I love this kind of stuff. I love secrets that aren't secrets. I love Easter Eggs on DVD's. I love cheat codes in video games. I love the idea of hidden doors and surprises in attics and that one little glimpse of Rapunzel we get in the movie, Frozen.

You know, Anna and Elsa's parents died on the way to Flynn and Punzie's wedding. Their ship was overturned in a storm caused when Ursula fought Triton over Ariel's soul, or whatnot. By the way, up in Olympus, Hercules watched all that go down. Triton is his uncle. D'uh.

All of that interconnectedness, something that comic books do so well, is what I call the Stan Lee Moment, and I live for this kind of thing.

Of course, Faulkner had his Yoknapatawpha County, Márquez his Macondo, Lewis Nordan is Arrow Catcher, MS. The idea that an author can have his characters play in the same sandbox across many projects is not new.

As for me, without really meaning to at first, I played with this notion of connected characters in my books, and now I think it's a thing.

In Love and Ghost Letters , the protagonist, Josefina, is raised by a nursemaid named Regla. Keep her in mind. Also in that novel, when Josefina first arrives in El Cotorro, she witnesses a woman in the market selling parakeets. She wraps the parakeets in a towel in order to "break" them, so that they become tame and playful with humans.

In my new book, A Falling Star , Magda Elena works in a petshop, and her opening scene is one in which she describes how one tames a parakeet to the man who will become her husband. She learned the trick from an aunt, who lives in El Cotorro.

Meanwhile, in THE DISTANT MARVELS, which will be coming out with Europa Editions in 2015, we catch a glimpse of an infant Regla (from my first book), and we learn that she started life as the child of a slave, and was very soon motherless herself.

Finally, also in THE DISTANT MARVELS, one of the characters describes a portrait on the wall of very young Spanish Infantas, which are slowly winding their way into my work-in-progress.

And now you know where I've hidden all my Easter Eggs. I think el generalissimo, Stan Lee, would be proud;)

A friend asked what I would name my imaginary sandbox, and I don't think I have a ready answer. Yoknapatawpha, Macondo, and Arrow Catcher are pretty damn good. Stan Lee just calls it his "universe," which is just too cool. My place may be nameless, even to me, but I live half my life when I'm writing, it seems. If I ever catch a glimpse of the sign on the border, the one that says Welcome to __________, I'll let you all know.

P.S. By the by, TOMORROW NIGHT is my Auburn, Alabama book launch reading and party for A Falling Star. The wonderful folks at the Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, and my great press, Carolina Wren Press, are making it possible. There will be Cuban food and music, rum and Cokes (Cuba libres!), and a brief book talk. Books will be available to purchase, too.

Come down to the pachanga, Alabama friends!