SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I remember an interview with Jim Carrey about his movie "Liar, Liar." In it, he mentioned adding the "claw" to the story (where he tickles his kid) because his dad did it to him and his siblings. It got me wondering how many inside jokes fill the pages of my books, but I'm ignorant to them. Do any of you know of author's admitting to inside jokes in their books? Which books and what components? I assume most will be small things that don't enter spoiler territory.

The only thing I can think of as an "inside joke" is when authors have small references to their other books. Anything else would be pointless to the reader.

True, but their family and friends who read it would know. I'm curious if any authors admit to these personal Easter eggs. I love getting the story behind the story.

I don’t know about inside jokes- but I know at least one of Joe Hill’s books was chock full of Stephen King references which was kind of cracking me up. I can’t remember which one. I think it was NOS4A2.

In The Calculating Stars Mary Robinette Kowal makes a casual reference to some astronauts called Wells, Taylor and Sanderson...

She does the ‘Writing Excuses’ podcast with Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Brandon Sanderson.

Yeah. Using names of friends/family is a classic example.

I don't have one from a book off hand, but here's an article about one in a little play you might have heard of once or twice.

https://www.huntingtonquarterly.com/a...

Allison wrote: "I don't have one from a book off hand, but here's an article about one in a little play you might have heard of once or twice.

https://www.huntingtonquarterly.com/a..."

Awesome article.

David Weber frankly admits that his Honor Harrington character was inspired by Horatio Hornblower (with whom she shares initials). Readers may also notice that his "Star Kingdom of Manticore" has a government patterned after the British government of Hornblower's time and its space navy shares many naval traditions of that era. But I thought it was a little over-the-top when Weber decided that the People's Republic of Haven (Manticore's enemy) should be governed by a "Committee of Public Safety" headed by one Robert Stanton Pierre (a.k.a. Rob S. Pierre).
… and in case anyone didn't quite get the French Revolution connection, he also decided that Haven's capital should be Noveau Paris.

Phillip wrote: "Yeah. Using names of friends/family is a classic example."

Often called Tuckerizing: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

Speaking of adding names, J.S. Bach spelled Bach at the beginning of one of his musical themes, but that only works in Germany and any other countries that use the notation, pitch classification that includes h (ie not in English). In English there are always only 7 letters. The h is complicated and I no longer remember exactly how it works.

But back to BOOKS, I am sure that there are authors who included inside jokes that we have never heard about for family and friends. How would we know and why would they tell us?

Apparently The Name of the Rose opens with a line borrowed from Snoopy, so now I might actually read it. And also he uses the names Mickey and Minnie Mouse in another of his novels.