When I finally finished the very first draft of Telepathic Soulmates in 2007, I was in trouble and lots of it. The sucker needed WORK, and in order to graduate, it required an extensive rewrite. The good thing is, sometimes you don’t really understand how to write a book until you’re already finished with it, so I knew what I needed to do.
One of my biggest weaknesses was (and still is, generally speaking) setting. I had a vague, generic setting for the first draft, and I needed something to fix that. Honestly, I don’t remember if I was leaning towards what I settled on before I saw the below video, but I do know that once I saw this video, I knew my setting couldn’t be anything different.
But watching this also planted the seed for what would be come the setting for Telepathic Soulmates, and I’m forever grateful for that. And it’s no accident, now, when I’m working on this book or brainstorming the sequels or simply need to be put into the mind of this world, that 30 Seconds to Mars is the first thing I pull up.
Watch the video. Even if you don’t like that kind of music or care for his singing or whatever, the video is gorgeous. And yes, it’s treated like a mini-movie, so you’re going to get end credits and a kind of intro.
An aside, but also related to Telepathic Soulmates: Rats Communicate Telepathically Through Brain Implant. Fascinating. I know telepathy is one of those overused tropes in fantasy and science fiction, but it’s cool to see steps being taken that might actually make it some kind of reality. Admittedly, it might be all technology-based but still: fascinating.
Calico Writes 
Great video (and no, I did not know about 30 seconds to Mars so now I’m curious…) and fascinating setting. The visuals were nothing short of spectacular, so I can imagine what they would mean as the setting for a story.
As for telepathy, well I would not call it “overused” as rather endlessly fascinating – that’s the main reason, IMHO, for its extensive use in SF. The mysteries of the mind offer a vast, unexplored landscape and I think that telepathy is one of those topics that never fail to draw the attention of a reader. Or spectator.
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Glad to be your introduction to 30 Seconds to Mars! They’ve had three albums, and each album has sort of its own identity. If you listen to them in the order of release, it’s an interesting way to see how the experiment and change their sound.
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I enjoyed the video. I still look forward to the day that you read Arctic Dreams, which gave me a whole new appreciation for the arctic.
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I got to read a sample out of that book in Ends of the Earth: An Anthology of the Finest Writing on the Arctic and the Antarctic, which is what made me decide to pick it up. Pretty much all of my arctic/antarctic nonfiction was purchased because of that anthology. And it was a flip book too: super cool!
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