The Council Revolt has started. The Council has struck at the Throne.

As the Council plots to place their own candidate on the Throne, a single survivor is dragged out of the fires burning in the Imperial Residence.

Hoping to take advantage of the capital's chaos, enemies internal and external move against the Empire.

With enemies without and within, can the new ruler hope to save the Sintaran Empire?

INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND

Some readers were upset at you about the ending to the second book of EMPIRE.

Yes, but it was inevitable. The Council would not subside, would not buckle under to the Throne. In fact, they were elevating even looser cannons into their midst to carry the fight to the Throne. And yet, the Throne had to let them strike first, to keep clean hands in the matter. There was only one way that was going to come out.

This was planned from the start as a five-book series, right?

At least. Five books were rough-plotted before I started. As it shook out, the first three books form a trilogy, the first EMPIRE trilogy. As such, the second book doesn't have a happy ending, which is pretty typical of trilogies. There is at least one more trilogy in the EMPIRE universe.

The main character of this book is Robert Allen Dunham?

Bobby Dunham. Yes. EMPIRE was always the story of Bobby Dunham, from my very earliest plotting, for reasons that will become abundantly clear in the next trilogy. But if you look back to book 1, to the very beginning of the book, the first person you meet of that next generation is Bobby, out hunting at age fourteen. He is the hero of the series.

And he takes the reign name Trajan?

Yes. Trajan was the second of Rome's so-called Five Good Emperors: Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. Trajan was the best of them, the best emperor Rome ever had, and perhaps the best emperor anyone ever had, anywhere. Like Bobby, he was a commoner and a military man, and instituted reforms and kept the peace, even as he suppressed border wars by the simple expedient of winning them. He is Bobby's role model.

How long did this book take to write?

Thirty-three days, for 80,000 words. That's about 2500 words per day average, which is a pretty comfortable pace for me. I write just about every day. I can have 5500 word days and 500 word days. It depends on how clear the plot right in front of me is. If it's clear, I write about as fast as I can type, until I hit a spot where I can't see what happens next. Then I go stare out the window.

So you do make it up as you go along?

Yes, absolutely. I often have no clue -- or only a vague idea -- of what is beyond the piece I'm writing at the moment. I had no idea that Amanda Peters existed until I was a quarter of the way into this book. She just came around the corner of the lane in the gardens one day, singing and dancing. It makes it fun and exciting for me to write, and I hope it also makes it fun and exciting to read.

The cover continues your use of artist drawings for this series.

Yes. Aaron Griffin is the artist once again. He's a tremendously talented artist in the UK. I signed him for the whole series.

What's next in EMPIRE?

The first book of the second trilogy, tentatively titled EMPIRE: Warlord. This one won't be out in a month, though. I don't see it in my head yet, beyond the gross plot points. I have to think through a lot of military technology, not so I can describe it, but I have to know how it works or I can't write about it. I can't plot around it.

Any hints about EMPIRE: Warlord?

Let's just say that not everyone is happy about how well the Sintaran Empire is doing under its new management, and leave it at that.