Easter Eggs in the Jungle

It was a real privilege to be asked to be a part of the final anthology that Crazy Ink will be releasing for the foreseeable future. All the stories and based on The Jungle Book, with mine being titled "Den of Vipers."

I thought it might be fun to take a look at how I came up with the idea for this story, as well as introducing you to some of the little Jungle Book easter eggs I have hiding in there.

Mowgli is part of the story, as is his fictional mother Messua. Her name made me think of Medusa, which was where the snake idea in this story came from. I won't give too much away, but snakes do play a major role.

The villain of the piece is a character named John Lockwood. That came from Rudyard Kipling's father, who created some of the original animations for the original Jungle Book stories. His full name was John Lockwood Kipling. Grainger is another character in the story, and his origin is a little more obscure. Back in 1958, Australian composer names Percy Grainger composed The Jungle Book Cycle, which was music that contained quotations from the book.

Finally, there is a secondary character named Rukh, who appears for just a paragraph or two. The first Mowgli story written by Kipling was titled "In the Rukh," hence the use of that name.

That is just a little insight into Den of Vipers and Beyond the Jungle. You can pick up your copy today by clicking HERE.