A few notes for those who have read "By the Will of the Gods." Warning — SPOILERS AHEAD.
x) A pell is a wooden post against which one can practice strikes with a sword in medieval swordsmanship.
x) A spinworld is a habitat such as a Stanford torus or an O'Neill cylinder that spins in order to generate the illusion of gravity.
x) A lightjammer is a light sail, much as "windjammer" is a poetic name for a conventional sail. Arthur C. Clarke referred to a solar sail as a sunjammer in the short story of the same name.
x) The astromantic watch is inspired by the Antikythera Mechanism. I didn't have a chance to mention it in "By the Will of the Gods," but I see superstition guiding the development of science on Pell much as on Earth, where astrology was linked with astronomy and alchemy was linked with chemistry.
x) Scientists have found that emotions concerning uncertainty about the world not only led people to embrace the paranormal, but also beliefs in vast conspiracies and in supporting strong governments. I don't address this much in "By the Will of the Gods," but I do hint at a corrupt authoritarian government.
x) It's a happy coincidence that Hap and Harrow's names are visually somewhat similar, as it helps readers unconsciously draw a connection between the two.
x) I refer to Hap as an "ugly little boy" in homage to Isaac Asimov, whose science and science-fiction books I devoured as a kid.
x) The martial arts training montage scenes were drawn from my many experiences training under my father and with sensei Sang Kim at Byakkokan Dojo.
x) The fight in the temple with staffs is a nod to the many Shaolin kung-fu movies I watched as a child.
x) The reference to a pygmy mammoth is a sign that not every animal that is extinct on Earth went extinct on the other human worlds.
x) The gantries in the spaceport are designed to support rocketships so they can land tail down and to tilt the rocketships so they slide nose down to plummet toward the gates in the center of the Labyrinth.
x) Rusty's nickname is meant to hint that he signifies a kind of decay in the machinery of the world.
x) Whenever mention is made of the starcrossed, Rusty raises his hand to shield the side of his head, a gesture to ward off evil meant to symbolize a shelter against falling stars. This is similar to the way in which the hand gesture known as the mano cornuto on Earth is believed to protect one against the evil eye, and is also a sign of the casual and not-so-casual discrimination that starcrossed regularly receive on Pell.
x) Vervaine is another name for the herb verbena. That to me suggests that in the distant past, Vervaine's people was a culture focused around herbalism, before it got absorbed into the Church of Foresight. Remnants of that culture can be seen in the herbalist's shop Hap visits.
x) The pinnarept — a winged or feathered reptile — is obviously some kind of dinosaur. Bestiary is apparently home to giant sauropods and giant theropods.
x) I found out from neurobiologist Leslie Vosshall that insect pheromones were scents that humans perhaps cannot detect that some animals can smell. Googling around led me to find that although modern birds generally do not have a good sense of smell, early birds may have, and I reasoned that an insectivorous early bird may have been able to detect insect pheromones.
x) One of my alpha readers found Hap getting hit with a blackjack a hoary cliche. I concede that point, but I still think it's a fun homage, and to me, for these particular criminals, a blackjack seems a more practical street weapon than a stun gun.
x) I wear flip-flops all the time myself at home, as do many Asians.
x) Rynel, who has six faces, is represented in divination on Pell using a six-sided die.
x) Happenstance's name is a nod to the fact that Pell's dominant religion is based on questions of fate and destiny.
x) Palmer is now a somewhat noir name, given Twin Peaks. In addition, a palmer is someone who conceals objects in his or her hand. On Earth, a palmer was also a Christian who returned with a palm leaf from the Holy Land; given how the Golden Delta on Pell was in a warm climate, I think palm trees might have some symbolic significance for Deltans.
x) There's a story about how Palmer came to lead over organized crime in Nightingale that I might tell one day, if there's any interest.
x) On Pell, falling stars are seen as arrows from the gods. This is subtly called back in the end when Hap thinks of himself as an arrow from a bow.
x) On Pell, birds are seen as intermediaries between the mortal and celestial realms. Bird motifs recur throughout the story — the city of Nightingale, cloaks made of feathers, and so on.
x) Clocks are a recurring motif in the story due to foretellers somewhat viewing the universe as predictable clockwork — the astromantic watch, the temple clock, the way Rusty swings at the end, and so on.
x) An implication of the reveal of the final mystery is that Hap is not actually starcrossed. It's a detail I couldn't find a way to put in elegantly in the ending, since Hap had more pressing matters on his mind.