The soundtrack for the book trailer is Angels by the group Glenridge. It's going to be available on iTunes. You can hear more of their music at: http://www.myspace.com/glenridgeband.
I had some ideas for a book about Maddie Dunn, but they all came together when I got Mad World by Gary Jules stuck in my head.
Okay, really Adam Lambert's version from American Idol. But I love both versions. The Tears for Fears one is great, too. Not lyrically haunting, but great.
In case you're wondering, these are the songs Maddie hears that first morning at Ganzfield:
It's Raining Men: The Weathergirls
Blue (Da Ba Dee): Eiffel 65
The songs Trevor doesn't really know the words to are:
Can't Help Falling in Love: Elvis Presley
Unchained Melody: Righteous Brothers
Some of the songs from my playlist have deeper meanings when you're channeling G-Positives:
MK Ultra: Muse
Halo: Beyonce
Fidelity: Regina Spector
If they ever make a movie out of Minder, I have a few suggestions as to where these go in the soundtrack, and I really really hope they use Scissor Sisters's Fire with Fire for the first date/Fireball scene.
Carrie Vaughn's Kitty and the Midnight Hour series always includes a playlist. I love that I can sometimes hear the songs playing in certain sections of her writing. Since her main character's a DJ, including the playlist in the book makes sense. I have a writing playlist that I use, as well. Here are some of the songs that inspired me:
Fall For You: Secondhand Serenade
I Gotta Feeling: Black Eyed Peas
Forever Young: Alphaville
Strong: Velvet Chain
21 Guns: Green Day
She is Love: Parachute
Letters from the Sky: Civil Twilight
Only You: Josh Radin
Are We There Yet: Ingrid Michaelson
Cavanaugh Park: Something Corporate
Supermassive Black Hole: Muse
Cut: Plumb
You can find all of these at iTunes; I did.
Katie Diamond did the art for the book trailer and for this page. You can see more at: katiediamond.com, and her work has been published as part of an anthology.
Thanks to Peter Alton for doing such an amazing job on the editing, and to Mary Alton for her V.O. work.
The cover art of the Ganzfield series is based on the Gestalt psychological test: a white vase that also looks like the silhouettes of two faces. This has been around for more than a century; I remember seeing a picture of a custom porcelain vase made to match the profiles of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It symbolizes the fact that there's more to the people of Ganzfield than what can be seen at first glance.
BACKGROUND
It's scary how little I have to invent for these books. Project Star Gate was the REAL government psychic spy program. Google it, if you don't believe me (yeah, the links are to Wikipedia. It's not the most authoritative source, but whatever). The Ganzfeld Experiment into ESP was real, too; I used the Anglicized spelling for the place name, though. William Underwood was a real person.
Getting chills yet?
G-positives and dodecamine are all mine, although I did come across a cool link that I think Drew would like:
http://en.akihabaranews.com/17663/misc/fire-dodecamine-the-drink-of-the-day
PLACES
Most of the locations in the Ganzfield series are fictionalized versions of real places.
Chatham, NJ: Maddie and I share the same hometown. I loosely based the high school in Minder and Adversary on the real Chatham High, although I suspect it has changed since I was last there.
North Conway, NH: Ganzfield is based on a little village a few miles from the real town. My family has lived in the area since the 1700s.
Eden Imaging is not located in New York State, but it would be, if it existed.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock is a real medical center just south of Hanover, NH. As far as I know, none of the doctors are secret G-positives.
As far as I know.
BOOKS
Adversary has a passage from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. If you can get past the fact that she calls her boyfriend "Master," it's a great love story.
Legacy has a small quote from Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, and Operative will reference Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
