It came to me one night just as I was falling asleep. At the end of my second book, I had neatly brought the group of humans who had been existing on a very earth-like timescale on their planet into the new time calculation system of their new home world. (Of course, their DNA was “magically” altered to match the new system. But that happened in Book One.) Not only that but I had also declared that the gestation times of the Giants and the Humans were similar in length, nine months, while the Dwarfs and Gnomes had a twenty-four month pregnancy. Hey! They’re different species. They can differ. I was happy. Then my eyes flew open as I realized that I had made the declaration that all people would add one to their age on the day of Springstart – regardless of when in the “year” they had been born.
The year in the new world had forty-eight months. Each season had twelve. That would mean that if a human family under that system got pregnant each “season” that they would have four children at the age of “One” when Springstart came around again. OH – MY – Goodness!! I have to figure this thing out. I can’t have the humans proliferating at that rate in this new world. That would cause many major problems. We don’t want problems. We want solutions.
So, how do the Giants do it? They have always lived in this world and they have a nine month pregnancy. They haven’t overrun the ecosystem with food demands or grasping for power. There has to be a simple solution! Something that makes perfect sense so that the peoples don’t even have to think about it.
But then again, I have to think of the audience that I’m writing to. My main goal is to have readers in the eight to fourteen age range. Would they get all concerned about this? Would they have sleepless nights worrying about the peoples getting together to exterminate the overly prolific humans? I hope not. These are supposed to be fun and exciting stories and not a debate about the eco-hardship that human population spikes can cause a planet.
And I think that is where I’m going to leave it. I don’t think it will matter to my readers what the gestational implications of the four species of people in this land pose. They will take it for granted that people have babies. Babies are cute and very messy. And they will roll their eyes at the ones who pose these nonsensical possibilities.
Whew! I guess I dodged a bullet on that one!
Jeffrey Martineau, Author 