Part 24 (1/2)

I am enthralled with Gideon and Savannah. Will we get to see their specific story any time soon? I would love to find out why he made the promise (to refrain from combat) and the situation surrounding their meeting and bonding.

-Donna B., San Antonio, TX USA Thank you, Donna! And thank you to everyone else who's told me over the years how much you enjoy Gideon and Savannah and want to know the story of how they met and fell in love. That's the hands-down most frequent question I hear from readers. I truly appreciate the outpouring of the affection for this couple, and I'm delighted to tell you that all those questions and more are answered-at last-in A Touch of Midnight, the original novella included right here in the book you're reading now!

How do you think up of all of the special gifts the Breedmates have? It is so hard for me to think of just one that isn't silly.

-Lawren B., Menifee, CA,USA Oh, it's hard for me too! Since the Breed inherits superhuman strength, speed, longevity, etc., from their alien fathers, I thought it would make for a nice balance if each Breed male inherited not only his Breedmate mother's hair, eye and skin coloring, but also her unique ESP or empathic power. Because I was only concentrating on world building for the plot of one book in the beginning, I wasn't thinking about what that decision would mean down the road.

I didn't truly grasp the impact of that problem until I was beginning the third book of the series and suddenly had an offer from my publisher for three more. Each Breed male I introduce must have a unique ability, and so must each Breedmate, and so must every other Breed male or Breedmate who populates the story world, even in a minor role. Gah!

I've since created a big list of psychic abilities, superhero powers and weaknesses, etc., from which I can pick and choose and adapt or combine to fit my characters and make them unique. I try to give each main character an ability that will either enrich their story somehow (e.g., Nikolai, Brock, Tess, Claire) or complicate it (e.g., Dante, Reichen, Kade, Elise).

Will you write a book for Conlan and Danika's son?

-Loren B., Tuckerton, NJ USA I don't have a full novel slated for Connor, but I do expect him to be involved in the series going forward. If I find a good heroine and storyline for him, I'll likely feature him in a novella.

Is the Ancient really dead, or will he come back?

-Joni J., Grants Pa.s.s, OR USA He's really dead and won't be coming back.

I want to know why you ”killed off” the last Ancient. I was hoping you would make him have his own love storyline!

-Amber C., Rosharon, TX USA It was so tempting to try to find a place for the last surviving Ancient in the series! Sadly, he had to go for a handful of reasons. First, I had already established in the series history that pairings with Ancients and Breedmates tend not to end well, even if there is love between them at one time (see Lucan's parents). The Ancients are a conquering, savage race of alien beings whose culture is one of domination and destruction. Like any other wild predator, Ancients are never fully tamed and it's very hard-if not impossible-for them to curb their alien side.

Another reason for the Ancient's demise was that if he had lived, then all of the Breedmates who bore his offspring in Dragos's labs would be unable to bond with other Breed males so long as the Ancient was alive. Ancients, being alien, do not blood bond to one mate like the Breed, but those Breedmates who were forced to drink his blood while in captivity each shared a blood bond connection to him until his death.

The Breed can only have children with their mates and they can only have one mate at a time. How is it the Ancient was able to have multiple Breedmates pregnant at the same time?

-Amy H., West Seneca, NY USA The blood bond is an exclusive, non-breakable connection between a Breed (male) and a Breedmate (female). The Ancients are alien, something other than Breed. Unlike their Breed sons, Ancients do not need to be blood bonded to a female in order to reproduce. This is how the Breed first came into being on Earth-as the scattered offspring of raiding Ancients who tore through human settlements and populations after crash-landing on this planet. Occasionally, some of the women in the path of those marauding Ancients turned out to be Breedmates, and if they fought back-bit their attackers, or somehow ingested some of their alien blood while a rape was occurring-that alien seed took root and a Breed son would be born. But the Ancients were not bonded in any way to the Breedmates who carried their offspring.

This is sort of a dumb question, but do you get to decide what the t.i.tle of your books will be or is that decided by someone else?

-Tonya C., San Angelo, TX USA Not a dumb question at all! Most of the book t.i.tles are my original choices, but there are a few that were nixed by my publisher for one reason or another. For instance, Kiss of Midnight was originally going to be called Kiss of Darkness, but a few months before my release date, a best-selling author came out with a vampire book under that t.i.tle and we decided to change mine. I was really b.u.mmed at the time, because I'd written the entire book thinking of it as Kiss of Darkness. We even had the cover art designed with that t.i.tle and had to make a last-minute revision! In the end, it worked out for the best, because Kiss of Midnight helped define the branding of the series and set the pattern for the t.i.tles of the next nine novels to come.

Can Breedmates get pregnant by normal human guys, or just Breed?

-Cara C., Hopkinsville, KY USA If a woman born with the Breedmate birthmark does not share a blood bond with a Breed male, she will live her life as a normal, mortal woman. So, yes, she could carry a human male's child.

If a Breedmate has a daughter from a human man, will she be a Breedmate, too?

-Bettina H., Maglod, Hungary No. Any child a Breedmate has with a human male will be born human.

Why did the Ancient make Jenna choose life or death before implanting a piece of himself in her?

-Necole C., Suamico, WI USA There is most definitely a reason behind that choice, and it will be revealed before the series ends.

Are there more ”otherworlders” that did not come to Earth with the original Ancients, and could we possibly see them show up in future books?

-Linda M., Mentor, OH USA The Ancients are part of an alien race from another planet. There are others like them there, including females of their kind, of course, but I don't have plans to bring any more of those beings into the series. I felt it was important for me, as a writer, to have an understanding of the world they came from and the society they inhabited, so I sketched out a lot of details early on, which don't necessarily have a place in the series itself, but do form the background for what the Ancients are and how they lived among their own kind.

Did any other series influence you in creating the world and characters that you created?

-Yvette C., Hialeah, FL USA This may sound odd coming from the author of a long-running series, but I'm a fickle reader and I get bored too easily to follow any series for more than a few books before I'm wandering off to look for something s.h.i.+ny and new. Of course, as a teen I loved Anne Rice, but when I began writing Kiss of Midnight in the summer of 2005, I wasn't following any series in any genre.

I'd read dozens of paranormal romances and urban fantasies, but there really wasn't a lot to choose from at that time when it came to vampires in romance. Twilight hadn't come out yet (which I've yet to read!) and J. R. Ward's wonderful, genre-bending series debut was still a couple of months away too. I'd read a few of Sherrilyn Kenyon's novels, which I really enjoyed for the complexity of her world-building and the camaraderie between her daimon-slaying vampire heroes. I'd read one or two of Christine Feehan's early vampire books, some very early Nancy Gideon vampire romances (a terrific writer, by the way), and a handful of others, but my tastes ran a bit darker than what I was finding in the genre at the time. I also enjoyed Lynn Viehl's engrossing series debut, which satisfied my craving for darkness and intriguing characters, but left me longing for a bit more romance. So, I can't point to any one series as influencing the genesis of mine, but it was more a matter of creating something that spoke to my own personal wants as a reader.

Breed vampires heal from injuries, so why is Rio disfigured and never healed?

-Nancy C., Hope Mills, NC USA The Breed can heal on their own from UV burns and basic injury, but Rio's wounds were severe-nearly fatal. If he'd fed during his healing, and particularly if he'd fed from his Breedmate, he probably could have healed almost back to normal. But his mate, Eva, killed herself very soon after he was injured, and Rio was weakened and didn't feed for quite a long time afterward. By then, the scars were set and could not be taken away.

When will we learn more about the Atlanteans and their relations.h.i.+p with the Breedmates?

-Cameron J., Orange, CA USA The connection between the Atlanteans and the Breedmates was first hinted at in Deeper Than Midnight, when Savannah's sister tells Corinne that Savannah's birthmark (her Breedmate mark) is where she was ”kissed by faeries.” The Atlanteans aren't cla.s.sic Fae, but they are an immortal race of beings gifted with supernatural, extrasensory powers.

Just as I've twisted traditional vampire lore to give it otherworldly origins, I've also given an ”alien” twist to traditional Fae mythology with regard to the Atlanteans in my series. As for the relations.h.i.+p between the Breedmates and the Atlanteans, it truly came to light in Darker After Midnight, when Jenna began making the connections between the Breedmates at the Boston compound and their true birth fathers. This relations.h.i.+p will continue to unfold and expand as the series continues.

Why did you choose Boston (for the series setting)?

-Sara F., Funchal, Madeira Portugal Simply because I love Boston! My dad is from the area, and my family roots in Ma.s.sachusetts go back to the Pilgrims' arrival. I've also lived in various New England states for more than fifteen years, so Boston and its surrounds feel like home to me. Plus, I wanted a setting that was different from the usual places you'd expect to see in a vampire series. Boston has an historic richness and old-World character, yet it's also very contemporary, urban and gritty. The same could be said of the Breed, so it just felt right to me that the series would be based in Boston.

Will you be introducing the Atlantean aspect in the new series?

-Angila D., McMinnville, OR USA Yes! The Atlanteans play a much bigger, and more complex, part in the series beginning with Edge of Dawn. You'll meet characters from their world-some good, some bad and some with a foot in both camps. You'll also discover how the Atlanteans came to be and how their history (and future) intertwines with the Ancients, the Breed, and man.

In Jenna's dream the Ancient and a warrior (the inhabitant of Atlantis) talk about a Queen. Who is she?

-Sara C., S.Albino-Montepulciano, Siena-Tuscany Italy Heh, heh, heh. You'll find out very soon!

After reading and rereading your series, I am curious as to how you came up with such amazing ideas for the background of the Ancients.

-Tracy F., Watkinsville, GA USA The original germ of the idea is all my husband's fault! *g* As I was constructing the story background for Kiss of Midnight, and deciding on the rules of my vampire world, I shared with John that as much as I loved traditional vampire lore, I didn't want Lucan and the rest of the Breed to be undead or d.a.m.ned. I wanted them to be living, breathing, top-of-the-foodchain, superhuman beings with vampire characteristics. He jokingly said, ”Maybe they're aliens.”

He laughed, but I grabbed my pen and notebook and started jotting down details as fast as I could. The entire background of the Ancients came to me in rapid fire-from the climate of their planet, their social structure, their physical traits, strengths and weaknesses, everything. I like to think of my vampires as something of a cross between (the movies) Predator and Blade.

Why haven't or can't the Ancients produce a female? I mean in all those generations resulting after them, why can't there be some female offspring as a result?

-Tori R., Port Saint Lucie, FL USA Remember, the Breed is the offspring of the Ancients (alien) and Breedmate females (half human, half Atlantean). The Ancients' DNA is the stronger of this pairing, even down the line in later generations of the Breed, so their genes determine gender in their offspring. In the case of this story world, it's always produced males. Dragos was able to manipulate gender and breeding in his labs, but scientific interference in reproduction is frowned upon by Breed society as being unnatural. On the Ancients' planet, among their own kind, they produce both male and female offspring.

Why did you choose the Atlanteans to be the fathers of the Breedmates and as the new (old) enemies of the Breed?

-Tamara K., Birkenau, Hessen Germany It was actually a happy accident that Atlanteans played into the series in any way at all. In Kiss of Midnight, I had mentioned that the Ancients devastated entire civilizations after coming to Earth. One of those civilizations I listed was Atlantis. When I wrote that, it was nothing more than a throwaway mention, but later on, many books later, I realized I needed not only a way to explain the existence of Breedmates, but I also needed to find a bigger, more powerful enemy for the Order than Dragos as the series continued to grow. Making the connection between a mysterious, hidden civilization like Atlantis and the Ancients felt like a perfect fit-one that had been right in front of me the whole time!

Was it hard to get a publisher to pick up a story with ”alien” vampires in it? It seems to me the alien/science fiction genre is a little harder to pull into mainstream.

-Amanda K., Littleton, CO USA I'm happy to say it was no problem at all. From the very beginning, I've had wonderful editorial support on pretty much anything I wanted to do with the series. I think the alien element of the Midnight Breed world is subtle enough that it doesn't fall into s.p.a.ce-y Science Fiction/Fantasy categories, which aren't really my personal reading interest anyway, and which might have been problematic from a marketing standpoint. But no one has ever asked me to tone anything down or avoid certain storytelling choices in any way, and for that I feel quite fortunate.

I am a huge fan of the Midnight Breed series. I have every book to date. I am not sure if anyone has ever asked this or not, but out of all of the Breed members that you have written so far, who is your favorite and why?

-Jennifer L., Euclid, OH USA Thank you, Jennifer! I'm so glad you're enjoying my books. I don't have a personal favorite character in the series, and that's a deliberate choice. I try not to let myself fall too much in love with any one character in particular, but instead focus all of my attention-and affection-on the characters I'm writing at the moment.

I think as a writer it can be all too easy to lavish all the love on one series ”star” to the neglect of the others. I want each character, and each book's romantic pairing, to be as special as I can make it, and let no one pale in comparison to another character. I feel I've done my job when readers tell me who they love most and there's no clear winner, but favorites across the board!