The Amygdala Pulse
Writing about superheroes…well, I should say super humans as my jolly cast of characters has yet to fill their future super hero roles, is tricky, especially for a comic book nerd. I mean- I didn’t just want to rip off any one idea completely, even though it probably would have been a lot easier. Everything has been done, so how do you stay even a little original writing in a genre that floods the market on a daily basis?
Well, for me, I just did a little research. I didn’t want to call them mutants, because that’s clearly an X-men rip off. I didn’t want it to be unrealistic, so it was hard not to call them mutants.
Luckily, Google is a powerful force and it allowed me to do a little research on the human brain. I read a little about evolution, including Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species while writing Darwin’s Children. Then, one day, when my explanation for super powers was in its infancy, I came across an article about human evolution. In this article, it stated that evolution uses old parts of the human brain to create new functions, and thus, leads to evolution.
Frickin’ jackpot!
For some reason, I knew I wanted evolution to center around the amygdala in the human brain; I just had no idea why. Funny enough, the amygdala is a part of the archaic, limbic system, and thus, it makes sense that this part of the brain would have to evolve for human evolution to be possible. I mean, think about it. The amygdala is responsible for the fight or flight response-which is essential to survival, if you evolve that area…just maybe you get people with super powers.
So, let’s say you have someone like Haylee that can burn evil on eye contact. A few conditions have to exist for that to come to fruition. One, the amygdala must be larger and more advanced, and two, the person must experience an event related to the ability, at the time of the first amygdala pulse. Thus, I had to make Haylee experience absolute evil because it was directly related to what she could do. This was also why Haylee’s Dey-Vah Guardian didn’t help her as a child. It was because she knew what she would become one day and could not, by nature’s laws, interfere.
I say all of that to say that I didn’t write anything in the first novel of Darwin’s Children for no reason. Most everything that happens to these people is very important in the rest of the series. For example, the fact that Jaycie is slightly immature is important in my explanation as to why she is so powerful, but of course, you’ll have to keep up with the series for Haylee Mitchell’s explanation on that.
Thank you Natasha for stopping by the blog today. I know I will definitely be keeping up with Jaycie and Haylee. I can't wait for the next book!
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