Free The Midnight Breed Series Companion by Adrian Lara Page B

Random House was going to release it in hardcover. Which meant an even further delay in publication than if the book had come out as a mass market original.
    Deeper Than Midnight released at the end of June, 2011. It debuted on the New York Times at what remains my highest showing on that list, the #3 spot. Since my last release, the Times had recently begun tracking ebook sales in addition to print, and Deeper Than Midnight also placed high on the ebook/print combined, coming in at #5. It stayed for two weeks on the New York Times, USA Today (peaking at #12) and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists.
    It was around this time that Random House also made an offer for my next two books. I had already decided I was having too much fun with the Midnight Breed world to let go now—and I also had this germ of an idea for a second story arc that could feature an all-new generation of Order warriors in a near-future setting.
    As we went to work on a contract for what would become Books 11 and 12 of the series, I also pitched the idea of the series Companion you’re reading now. My editor liked the concept—and the plan to include Gideon and Savannah’s story as an original novella—but ultimately Random House and I could not agree on how to publish the book. They wanted to do it ebook only, with the potential of a limited-run hardcover release if, and only if, sales of the ebook were robust enough.
    I was adamant that the Companion release in both print and ebook formats. And besides, with the industry changing so rapidly, giving authors more and more freedom to publish their work independently, I decided to decline their offer and table the Companion until I could do it on my own.
     

 
     
     
    A Taste of Midnight
     
    BOOK 9.5
    (novella)
     
     
    Romantic Leads
    Danika MacConn
    Malcolm MacBain, aka Brannoc
     
    Plot Summary
    A widowed Breedmate of the Order, raising her infant son alone after the death of her warrior mate in action, seeks the solace of a Christmas in Edinburgh, Scotland—her beloved’s homeland—never dreaming the holiday escape would bring her face-to-face with a deadly Breed crime boss and the dark, mysterious henchman who serves to protect him...someone she once knew—and could have loved—a long time ago.
     
    Primary Story Locations
    MacConn family Darkhaven estate outside Edinburgh, Scotland
    Various places in and around Edinburgh, Scotland
     
    Playlist
    Who Wants to Live Forever by Queen
    Wherever You Will Go by The Calling
    I Will Stay by We Are The Fallen
     
    Story Background
     
    This ebook original novella came about quickly and unexpectedly. I’d recently completed the manuscript for Darker After Midnight —which was to be my first hardcover release, in January 2012—and I’d just unsuccessfully pitched the concept of a Midnight Breed Series Companion featuring a novella for Gideon and Savannah.
    As we were in the midst of contract negotiations for Books 11 and 12, my editor asked about the possibility of me writing an ebook original novella to be used to fill the time gap between Deeper Than Midnight and Darker After Midnight , the idea being the new novella would also help promote the upcoming hardcover. They wanted to include an excerpt from Darker After Midnight at the end of the novella, and later on, after the book was reissued in mass market paperback, the novella would then be included as bonus material in that release.
    It all sounded great to me…until they mentioned they wanted me to give them Gideon and Savannah’s story to use as the ebook original novella.
    Well, no way. Out of the question. As longtime readers of the series know, Gideon and Savannah met and fell in love thirty years before the timeline of Kiss of Midnight . To release their story on its own toward the big finale in Book 10 would make no sense in the fabric of the series. And on top of that, I wasn’t about to pull their story—a true series prequel—out of the Companion, which is where I felt it