The code to access Roderick's email as well as his IM handle are both references to The Fabulist (which, incidentally, mentions him).
The sketches attributed to Eleanor Butler were drawn by my late biological mother and depict members of my family.
The photos in the living room were taken in and around the towns of Almont and Crested Butte, both in Colorado.
The first Lois Le sketch ("The Eye of Chang'e") was designed for an earlier piece of interactive fiction, set in a bar in China.
The "magic number" is derived from Chinese numerology. Eights and nines are both lucky, and tripling lucky numbers is very common.
The author of "Deadline: The Oasis" is a character in another novel series I wrote, currently unavailable (but that could change...).