My main contract with Balantine Del-Rey was now completed, and I was looking forward to getting into something new.

But sales on the Conrad series had been good, Del-Rey wanted to do it some more, and I am a greedy sort, being afflicted with an incurable addiction for food. I promised to write Lord Conrad's Lady, The Quest for Rubber, and Conrad's Crusade and was paid nicely for it.

To get Conrad's Lady going, I came up with another Mongol army, who burned Cracow and ravaged their way through Southern Poland before they are righteously snuffed.

Conrad had married Lady Francine, a French woman, mostly to defend himself from his Liege Lord's daughter. It was supposed to be a marriage of convenience, while the two of them maintained their previous relationship of a man and his mistress.

Of course, Francine has ideas of her own. Since the nobility of Southern and Eastern Poland had been almost completely obliterated, an election would soon have to be held to elect new leaders for this area. Her plan is that Conrad should be all of them, and she puts it into effect without telling Conrad.

This is not Conrad's plan. He wants to go back to running his army, and expanding the technology of Poland. He has no use for politics, and to him, a crown is just a hat that lets the rain in.

Sparks and explosions happen all over the place.

I wrote this book long before I came to Russia. It was only after I'd married my wife, Marina, that I realized how much she resembles Lady Francine. That kind of thing happens to me a lot.

Also, in one of the interludes, mention is made of what I called 'tubular graphite', being the strongest material possible. I knew that this would be so, even if it hadn't been invented yet. Now, it has. Okay, I didn't predict the electrical properties.

Enjoy.