Allusions and easter eggs in Regret Things

1. Regret Things (and my upcoming novella To Guns) feature a low-level mobster named Lars McKendrick. The name is an homage to Lar MacKendrick, one of the recurring characters in the fabulous crime fiction of Gene Kerrigan.

2. Nicki Kenfax-McJacob and her lover Catherine are based on characters from a short story I wrote in the late 90's. Those characters' physical attributes were modeled after Nikki Cox and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

3. While the character of El Viejo is a mash-up of three real-life acquaintances, his nickname is a reference to the retired Texas Ranger from Miami Vice season three, episode seven.

4. There are musical references scattered throughout Regret Things, most notably lyric lifts from Peace Frog and This Charming Man.