According to Wikipedia, twins are two offspring produced by
the same pregnancy. They can be identical (one fertilized egg that split in
two, same placenta) or fraternal (two eggs, two sperm, separate placentas).
For years, scientists have studied twins. They look for
commonalities—genetics, health, behavior, and tastes in music, food, sports,
etc. They also study the differences in identical twins. Each year, twins
gather in Twinsburg, Ohio for the Twins Days Festival. With so many twins in
one place, this is an excellent time for researchers to study twins. The big
question is which influences a person more, heredity or environment.
Back in the 1990s, I took that concept (studying twins)
quite a bit further. In my science fiction romance, Switched, an unethical scientist from an alien (but human) world
separated Earth twins before birth. He left one twin in the biological mother
and transplanted the other twin in a mother from his planet, Serenia. (Think “beaming”
the fetuses from one mother to the other.) When the authorities discovered what
he was doing, they shut down his project and imprisoned him. That didn’t help
those twins that survived—one on Earth and the other on Serenia.
When I wrote Switched,
I made a lot of assumptions about twins. I assumed if a twin discovered the
truth, she would want to find her twin and biological family. Since the project
was an embarrassment to the authorities, they buried all information, including
where on Earth the twins came from. But, if a person is driven to discover her
origins, I imagine that person would do anything to find out.
That’s how Switched
begins, with the Serenian twin beaming down (from a starship) to Earth to meet
her twin. In a glitch, the Earth twin is beamed aboard the starship. With
another glitch, not only does the starship leave Earth’s orbit, it
ends up in another part of the galaxy. Until the starship returns to Earth, each
twin has to take her sister’s place. In doing so, they discover their
similarities . . . and differences.
As a mother, I wondered what the biological mother of the
twins felt. In the days before ultrasound, the doctor relied on manual
examinations and heartbeats through a stethoscope. But mothers have instincts.
According to a pediatrician I wish I’d had for my kids, a mother’s instinct
trumps an MD degree every time. Would the mother know when one of her twins
disappeared? How would she feel at the birth when only one child was born? It
wasn’t hard for me to imagine the answers to those questions.
Then, I wondered if she met the Serenian Twin would she recognize that he was not the child she birthed and raised? You know I had to use that in the third
book in the Switched series, Switched
Resolution.
Switched was
published in 2001, republished with updates in 2011. Switched, Too was released in 2012 and Switched Resolution in 2013. Although my great-uncles were twins,
no other twins occurred in my family. I used information about twins from the
internet. A friend of mine has twins, so she became a source, too. Little did I
know that twins would show up in my family again.
That’s when I learned firsthand about twins. I even got to
go with my daughter-in-law for an ultrasound. How fantastic to see the two,
each in his own placenta. From the beginning, one fetus was larger than the
other. We joked that it would be like the movie Twins with Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. We were almost
right. When the boys were born almost three weeks ago, one weighed 8 lbs 1 oz; the other
weighed 5 lbs 11 oz. They were three and a half weeks early (not uncommon with
twins). If you add the two weights together, no wonder my DIL was so
uncomfortable, especially since they were standing upright.
A question I’ll never figure out is do twins communicate in
utero? Were they aware of the other? Once they were born, and put into separate layettes (probably not the right word) in the hospital, did they realize they
were separated? Obviously, when their mother held both together they were close
enough to be aware of the other. But when one had to be transported to a
children’s hospital and stayed there five days, did the other twin miss him?
That sounds like a good idea for a paranormal story. 😊
As the boys grow and develop their own personalities, I’ll
be watching to see if my guesses (and internet research) were close to reality.
Switched
As i
f being kidnapped by aliens
isn't bad enough, Jessie Wyndom discovers they grabbed her by mistake. She wise
cracks past her fear especially when she learns she was part of an experiment
separating Terran twins before birth. Her twin just took Jessie's place back in
Ann Arbor, Michigan while she gets to twiddle her thumbs on an Alliance of
Planets starship. The only good part is the hunky captain. Except. He's so
unemotional he could be Mr. Spock's double.
Captain Marcus Viator's
well-organized life is turned upside down by the free-spirited female from
Earth. Problems with the starship prevent him from returning her to her home.
Fate brings them together. Treachery tears them apart. Is their love strong
enough to reunite them?
Switched, Too
Down-sized astronaut candidate Scott Cherella leaps at the
chance to go into space. He just has to pretend to be the captain of an
Alliance of Planets starship. His lifelong dream quickly becomes a nightmare
when sabotage erupts. To save the ship and crew he has to depend on an uptight,
disapproving colleague.
The only time Veronese Qilana broke the rules tragedy
resulted. She vowed never again. Now, to protect the real starship captain,
she'll have to deceive the crew by helping the imposter. They must work
together to uncover the saboteur and get the crew safely home. In doing so,
they discover opposites really do attract.
Switched Resolution
Actions have consequences as Space Fleet Captain Marcus
Viator and NASA reject Scott Cherella discover when they switched places. Does
the reserved Marcus have what it takes to imitate his smart-aleck twin? Despite
help from his love, Veronese, Scott’s already been outed by two of Marcus’ best
friends.
When rebels steal the ship with part of the crew aboard,
Scott has to rescue them and retrieve the Freedom.
The stakes increase when he discovers the rebels are heading for Earth. They know
he’s a fraud and they want Marcus. The safety of the Alliance of Planets depends
on Scott and his allies.
Switched
Resolution, which wraps up the Switched
series, takes the reader from Earth—where Marcus adjusts to a pregnant
Jessie—to the starship Freedom commandeered by rebels, to the chase ship with
Scott and Veronese aboard.
