SOMEONE'S TRYING TO START A WAR The once-friendly Republic of Villacqua and Kingdom of Wilbourne are stumbling toward war. But why? The Association of Planets' intelligence agency is concerned. The Agency is a myth, of course. The government denies it exists. Everyone knows it's not real. The Agency sends their top operative, Bert Mangum, to head off the war. His Find out who's causing it and stop them. Permanently. Mangum and his alien sidekick Sam ally with Gloria Dent, of Gaston's Bureau of Intelligence and Espionage, to find and stop the war instigator. But can even they succeed against their wily adversary? . INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND "Eve of War" starts a new series? Yes, the Agency series. Espionage thrillers, in an SF context. That's a new genre for you, as well. Yes. I like to have a change of pace. The Childers series was straight Military SF. The EMPIRE series was Galactic Empire SF. The COLONY series was Colonization SF. And the PANTHEON series was Hard Fantasy. So I was looking for something different to write. Is Espionage SF even a subgenre? There aren't many, but there are some. Keith Laumer's Retief series comes to mind. And Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry series. But in writing "Eve of War" I took a different tack. I kept more in mind the non-SF espionage books. Not the Le Carré sort of thing as much as James Bond, Matt Helm, and even Derek Flint. So this is James Bond in Space? More or less. Handsome, dangerous men. Beautiful, dangerous women. Twisted, dangerous villains. Lots of sex. Guns, and assassination attempts, and treason. High stakes. All the elements of that genre, but in a science fiction milieu. And "Eve of War" has your first sentient alien? Yes. Sam, Bert's sidekick. I haven't attempted aliens before. Part of my problem with aliens in science fiction is that they seldom satisfy my intellectual appreciation for just how alien an alien is likely to be. I want more than to put pointy ears on Leonard Nimoy or a rubber face mask on Michael Dorn. And even the aliens who aren't physically humaniform are emotionally or motivationally humaniform. I mean, if you're going to write about someone with human emotions and motivations, why not just make them human? This book has a dedication as well. That's new for you, isn't it? Yes. Sam Valenti was a friend of fifty years, and he died suddenly last year of a heart attack. Sam had a subscription to Analog for sixty years and read every issue cover to cover. There are few people I know who are so deeply knowledgeable about science fiction as he was. He was one of my alpha readers through most of my books, especially EMPIRE. They were much better because of him. What's the cover about? That's Bert Mangum, our hero, front and center. The woman is Gloria Dent, an operative of another intelligence agency, who teams up with Mangum on this assignment. And the golden doodle dog is Sam, the shape-shifting alien. The cover is another outstanding work by Luca Oleastri and Paola Giari of Rotwang Studio in Italy. What's next for your writing? Most likely another Agency thriller with Bert Mangum. There is a difference here from my other series, though. Childers, EMPIRE, COLONY, and PANTHEON are all serializations. That is, the story continues across a span of books, which should be read in order. The Agency series is episodic, like the James Bond books or a TV series. You can read them in any order, as they are each complete stories in themselves. Given that, though, I can come back to Bert Mangum anytime. So I might do something else next. I don't know. I never do.

IT STARTED AS A SIMPLE FAVOR... Bert Mangum, an operative for the secretive Agency, is back on the Crossroads space station waiting for a new assignment when Detective Elina Stavros of the Crossroads P.D. asks him to do her a favor. Could he help her figure out how the dangerous and illegal drug RDT is getting onto the station? But the more they dig, the more they find, until they're facing a cluster-wide drug manufacturing and smuggling operation. Worse, if they shut it down, Crossroads will go under and the economy of the cluster will go with it. Mangum, Stavros, and Sam, with help from Gloria Dent and Claude Portnoy, have to find a solution before the economy of the cluster falls down around them. . INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND What's the setup for 'The Favor'? This book picks up the morning after 'Eve Of War' ends. Bert Mangum is on Crossroads station. Gloria Dent has gone to Wilbourne, and Mangum is with Elina Stavros, the beautiful police detective. She asks him if he can help track down how the dangerous drug RDT is getting onto the station. I assume they find something more than a local pusher. Yes. Spoilers are possible. But the investigation ends up spanning multiple star nations, drawing in Gloria Dent and Claude Portnoy as well as the chief executives of the six star nations of the local cluster. We have guns and assassins and thugs and evil masterminds and even nuclear weapons. And sex. Lots of sex. Well, yes. It's a spy novel. Dangerous men and dangerous women, adrenaline junkies who live their lives on the edge of danger and sudden death. Minor moral issues do not get in their way. All the same, as is my standard practice, the narrator leaves the room when things get steamy and comes back later. Sex is, by and large, not a spectator sport, and I find verbal descriptions even less interesting. How did 'The Favor' write? It started out slow. Espionage and mystery books always do for a pantser. I don't know anything more than our characters do as they dig into what's going on. I didn't know who the bad guy was until almost halfway into the book. That said, it wrote in forty-six calendar days, at about 1750 words a day. Fifteen days off in there to attend to chores that needed doing before the weather set in made it seem longer. So you wrote 'The Favor' into the dark? Oh, yes. And there are lots of twists and turns I could never have plotted out in advance. Some of them are even funny, if you have a certain kind of sense of humor. For instance, I had no idea that Gloria Dent has a wicked backhand with a cricket bat. What about the cover? Bert Mangum, Elina Stavros, Sam, and Jules. Another incredible piece of original art done for me by Luca Oleastri and Paola Giari of Rotwang Studio in Italy. That's a fetching outfit she almost has on. It's directly from the book. In the first chapter, actually. And a puppy? Yes. Spoilers are possible there, too. No further comment. What's next for your writing? I can see two more Agency books ahead in very broad form. So I will probably write those next before starting something else.

HIS SON DIED AND HE WANTS VENGEANCE Prince Michael, a.k.a. Lt. Cmdr. Michael Vauxhall, died when Bert Mangum and his crew on Silverheel had to fight their way out of the Earth system. Now King Albert wants revenge. He assigns investigators to find out who killed his son, and where they are. Bert Mangum, Elina Stavros, Chuck Pendergast, Gloria Dent, and Davian Varley are in the king's sights now, and he wants them dead. Will they convince the king to leave them alone? Or will the king's vendetta succeed and kill them all? . AN INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND So what's the setup for Agency #4: Marque? In Agency #3: The Cure, our heroes freed Davian Varley, the inventor of the cure for RDT addiction, who had been held without charges for eighteen years. They were about to make it out of the Earth system, taking Varley with them, when the Earth Planetary Police decided to randomly check their ship. It all falls into the pot from there, and they had to fight their way out of the system. Yes, yes, but how does that lead to book #4? When their missile struck the Vauxhall heavy cruiser, there were secondary explosions of the missiles in the cruiser's feed queue. Those secondary explosions killed dozens of crew members, including one Lieutenant Commander Michael Vauxhall, Prince Michael, King Albert's third child. Oh, and the king wants revenge. Yes. King Albert wants Mangum, Stavros, Dent, Pendergast and Varley dead. He very nearly succeeds. Our heroes have to convince him to knock it off. How did Agency #4: Marque write? Thirty-five writing days, at an average 2250 words per day. That's on a par with Agency #3: The Cure, and faster than the first two Agency books. They took longer as I learned the sub-genre of espionage SF, but I'm now at a pretty normal pace for me. What's on the cover? Another great cover done specifically for me by Luca Oleastri and Paola Giari of Rotwang Studios. The cover depicts the team the cluster sends to convince King Albert to knock it off. Phyllis Stickney, high-adept computer hacker/cracker from Gaston's BIE, Chuck Pendergast, direct action operative for the Agency, Judy Blunt, a specialist for the Agency, and Jules, the alien shape-shifter. Specialist? What does Judy Blunt specialize in? Nope. Spoilers are possible. It's fun - in a thriller context, anyway - and let's leave it at that. So what's next? Is there another Agency book, or is this the end of the series? There's at least one more Agency book. The kingdoms of the core worlds and the democracies of the cluster are on a collision course. Who will prevail? We'll see.

WILL VAUXHALL CONQUER THE CLUSTER? King Albert of Vauxhall, frustrated in his efforts for vengeance against the people he blames for his son's death, is now building a navy to conquer the cluster. But the cluster sees the threat and is enhancing its own capabilities. King Albert and Isabela Febo square off in this epic conclusion to the Agency series. They're playing a high-stakes game, and only one system will survive. Will it be the isolated democracies of the cluster, or will the powerful core world monarchies extend their dominion over all of human space? What role will Sam and Jules play in this struggle? . AN INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND What's the setup for Agency #5: Reprisal? In Agency #4: Marque, the King of Vauxhall's plan to use letters of marque to get his revenge didn't work, so he sets to a longer-term plan to conquer the cluster by building a new navy that can go up against the cluster's navy. But the cluster knows that's what he's doing - they bugged his office in Agency #4: Marque - and Isabela Febo decides to go after the King of Vauxhall. So Agency #4 was his letters of marque, but Agency #5 is her reprisal? Yes. She decides not to let him scheme against the cluster without interference. Who are the main characters in Agency #5: Reprisal? Oh, everybody's back. Bert Mangum and Elina Stavros, Claude Portnoy and Phyllis Stickney, Gloria Dent and Davian Varley, Jules and Sam, Serp Kendall and Marge Schofield, Isabela Febo and Michael Corliss. Even Judy Blunt is back. I got a chill on that last one. Judy Blunt is back? Oh, yes. She's back, and the leash is off, in a really big way. How did Agency #5: Reprisal write? This one wrote fast. Twenty-three writing days, at almost 3500 words per day. I even had an 8900-word day in there. Action sequences write faster, and when you get deeper in a series, they write faster. Your universe is all set up, your characters are all set up. You still describe things, but you don't have to think them up. You already did that part. What is with that cover? Another outstanding piece of original art by Luca Oleastri and Paola Giari of Rotwang Studio in Italy. It's a rip-off of 'Liberty Leading the People,' the famous piece in the Louvre. That's Judy Blunt as Liberty. What's with the dinosaurs? Nope. That would be a major spoiler. This is the last of the Agency series? Yes. It's set up that way. I round things up pretty tight at the end. But not in such a way that there couldn't be other Agency stories. I just wrapped all the story arc of this series. All the characters of this series. So what's next for your writing? Not a clue. I usually get a lot of story ideas out of LibertyCon. That's at the end of June, so starting July 1, I'll be off on some new adventure.