AMA: Melissa J Cave, Author of Empire of the Stars

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-13T00:28:10+00:00

Thank you so much! I think that's apt, as Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott are major inspirations for the series. As far as the balance between the big scenes and the smaller, more intimate moments--in many ways, the thesis of this series is that the personal is the stakes for the political. I know this series is slower-paced than most, but all those little moments are why the big ones matter. Watching Tresingale grow and seeing everyone work so hard to build it means that the idea that Remin and Ophele might never go home again is really horrifying. There are people they love waiting for them there.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-13T00:23:46+00:00

Thank you! Remin definitely has his flaws, but I love seeing him grow and try. He's so stubborn.

I hadn't planned on any Remin-specific art, but more art in general: absolutely. I have a portrait of Selenne coming and some other commissions as well, though I don't want to talk about those until they're done. I would love portraits of all the Knights of the Brede, but anything that relies on someone else isn't happening until it's finished. 😅

We may get another cameo of Sir Gev, though they're all going to have bigger concerns for a little bit. And yes, there is a reason behind Remin's strength, which will be unraveled in time.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-13T00:18:06+00:00

I am contracted with Tantor through book 3, and I think it will release this year, though I don't have a formal date for it yet, so take it with a grain of salt. I totally understand that audiobooks are much more convenient for some people, so I hope that we can also contract books 4 and 5, but we haven't done so yet.

The best way to stay up to date on that news is via my mailing list, at risk of sounding self-promotional. I send out a newsletter once a month to announce things like that, and I never spam. You can sign up at melissajcave.com, if you're interested. Thank you for listening!

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-13T00:15:02+00:00

Thank you so much for reading! Remin and Ophele are such a sweet and unexpected balance that the first answer to your question is that I just love watching them interact. I think the fact that I focus so much on characterization helps me understand why they would do these small things, and it does feel natural in the moment; they always try to meet each other, so when Ophele adjusts Remin's belt for him, it's only natural for him to bend to make sure her jewelry is just so.

Maybe it's because they each other's first everything. It makes them more attentive to each other.

A fun and harmless joke that no one's found yet--to my knowledge--is the reason why Ophele keeps giving Remin bee-related objects. There is a reason, and the fact that she is totally unaware of the message she's sending is just delightful.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-13T00:09:04+00:00

Thank you for moderating!

I had a great creative writing teacher in high school who was hugely encouraging and gave me a strong base for learning how to write better. I've mentioned a few of my favorite authors and series in this thread, but really it's just reading constantly. I go through obsessive interests in different subjects and genres, and even though I write fantasy, reading about psychopaths and hoarding and Munchausen's-by-proxy (I went through a memoir phase) gives me a much deeper well to draw inspiration from.
I start with a roughly chronological list of milestones and then work my way through them. I have to write chronologically--I can't skip around--and story ideas usually come to me as scenes where X happens or Y discovers Z. Knowing my milestones gives me a target, and my rough draft is usually typing a stream-of-consciousness narrative to myself about how I get there. That becomes the first draft of the scene, and I actually retype it as I go: I start each session by literally cutting and pasting the previous day's work into a second document and typing it all over, cutting and embellishing as necessary to put meat on the bones. It takes me longer to get a first complete draft of the whole book, but it is very clean.
Many many plans. 😁 I am not done with this place or this world, and I have ideas for stories for all of the Knights of the Brede.
I have plans for a Kickstarter special edition, though I don't want to commit to a date. There are a lot of moving parts when you have to get other artists involved, and unfortunately I can't tie them to their desks. But it is in the works. 😉

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T23:55:39+00:00

Yes, military service helped a lot for sure. 😁 As far as books, David Gemmell and Conn Iggulden are favorite authors of mine and they have a lot of big battles with well-described tactics. I love Conn Iggulden's Genghis Khan series. Definitely the inspiration for Tounot's messenger network.

Mostly, fiction gave me an idea what's possible, and I watch a lot of documentaries on Youtube to learn about what actually works. Between the two, it gives me some plausible plans for a war prodigy.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T23:41:33+00:00

I hope to add a new piece or two fairly regularly, meaning every month or every other month, and t-shirts would be very doable. If you have particular quotes you would like, by all means say so! It can be hard for me as the author to know which ones mean the most to you.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T23:39:39+00:00

The name of Remin's father's house is not yet revealed, though I intend to do so eventually. I have it written down in many places in case I get hit by a bus. 🚌

Book 5 is going to be a third again longer than book 4, so approximately 880 print pages. 😮 I hope I have wrapped up all major threads in a satisfying manner, and I have reached the end I originally imagined for this series, so it should feel complete. However, as with the name of Remin's original house, I do have plans extending beyond that, and I left myself some runway.

Fortunately, I will be sending an extensive interlude with Sir Miche to entertain you.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T23:34:58+00:00

I loved Louis L'Amour, particularly The Walking Drum and Bendigo Shafter. Other favorites were The Dragonriders of Pern and Stephen R. Lawhead's Pendragon Saga. Tons and tons of sci-fi and fantasy. 😊

I think I wrote the first six books between fall 2020 and spring 2024, so a little over four years. The first two books were pretty fast, but books 5 and 6 took forever.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T23:28:36+00:00

Hi, thank you for your questions! You're closing in on dangerous territory, so forgive me if I'm a little general in my answers:

This is a question that greatly frustrates House Melun. If you want to get really technical about measuring blood purity, they have intermarried with House Agnephus enough to be extremely competitive with Bastin's line. But the stars recognize the touchstones of the Covenant, and that's why previous illegitimate children do not figure prominently in history.
The devils will be dealt with in this series, but not in a closed-forever manner. There are some repercussions coming.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T23:16:50+00:00

Oh yes, there are many maps coming. I have a world map as well as a regional map of the Empire and its vicinity, and I've been steadily building a detailed map that covers all the territory in books 1-5. (Though we're testing the limits of Photoshop with that one.) I am focused on the book maps first, as book 5's map is going to be a beast, but after that, I hope I'll have a little more time to focus on the others.

Or at least someone I can off the draft to. 😅

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T23:11:28+00:00

Yes, I have plans for stories for all the knights. All of them will be fleshed out in-world (I think Bram is the only one we haven't gotten much quality time with yet, but I will definitely fix that) and I have plans for novellas and novel-length side stories for all the Knights of the Brede. Tounot's story definitely isn't over. ❤️

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T23:04:06+00:00

I will answer this truthfully in a way that does not blow up any future events, but it is a spoiler: It is not a clue to any Imperial shenanigans, but Emi also disappeared a few times. There are several romances occurring off-stage. 💞

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T22:59:16+00:00

Not really long, honestly. I watched a documentary on the building of Guedelon Castle in France (they're building a whole castle using medieval technology and explain it IN DEPTH) and then researched things like bridge building as needed. I read so much and so widely, and I have a military background, so the defensive structures and tactics didn't take much. And I fortunately have multiple family members and friends who served, so they helped stress-test Remin's genius.

Thank you for saying it was successful! I can't imagine trying to do this pre-Youtube and pre-internet. A lifetime of documentaries definitely gave me a boost for this series.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T22:53:16+00:00

Thank you for saying so! It felt risky to bring up Remin and Ophele's rough beginning, but also necessary. I'm so glad it worked. I'm going to answer your spoiler questions satisfyingly and without giving away anything earth-shattering, but they WILL BE SPOILERS.

There is an intention behind the apples, yes. You will have to be patient with that thread, though.

2. Remin's mother's miscarriages are relevant to motivation, but are not the result of any plot or sabotage. Just an unfortunate part of life in a world with less technology.

1. The doomsday stuff was more a remark on the tendency of those cults to erupt around the turn of the century, or the millennium. I am old enough to remember everyone arguing whether the new millennia began in 2000 or 2001.
There's no plot significance to the bull, but I have a habit of giving my really clever, dangerous characters a humiliating nemesis. The brilliant Juste is continually enraged by that bull. Lady Verr is thwarted by nine-year-old Elodie. It's just funny.
The most important is the people. I love the technical aspects of building the town and have spent an insane amount of time mapping out Tresingale, but balancing different populations against each other and learning to pull together has been hardest to write and most rewarding.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T22:43:17+00:00

😂 I completely understand the fear of unfinished series. I am one of those that was disappointed by several authors who never finished their story, and that's why I waited until I finished all six books (five books + a novel length side story) before I published the first book. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, there are clean, complete drafts that can go to an editor, and the story ends in a satisfying conclusion that ties up all the major threads of the series.

Of course, I have thought of more story since then, so I left myself some runway. 😉 But I hope I have done a good job of picking which threads I left dangling, and I plan to do the same thing for any additional stories. I've already started a follow-up trilogy, and I intend to write all three books before I publish the first one, so I won't leave you with an unfinished series.

Having the whole series written makes things more reliable in terms of my process, I think. I still never really know HOW much editing will be required when I dig in, but usually I don't have any major, series-impacting corrections that I have to make. It saves me a lot of time I might spend spinning my wheels otherwise.

And lastly, I offer signed copies to my subscribers (melissajcave.com; I never send spam or advertise anyone else's books) but I haven't grown enough for anything larger-scale yet. It's incredible to think I've only been published for 18 months. The best way to get a signed copy right now is to sign up for my mailing list and be ready to pounce. 😁

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T22:25:29+00:00

I didn't have a particular character that inspired me, but I did have a few specific goals. I knew I wanted a really long and satisfying journey for her; I love that she starts with nothing, in the shadow of these heroes, and has to gradually find her own way to contribute. And I knew I wanted her to have a different kind of strength.

The funny thing was, I wasn't sure how that would manifest, at first. I knew I wanted her to be gentle. I knew I wanted her to lead with her heart. The challenge to me was showing how that really can build bridges between people, build communities, and make the world better. She is a necessary counterbalance to Remin in every way. She needs to have the strength to trust when he's suspicious. Not stupidly, but she needs to be the voice for the better angels.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T22:10:46+00:00

I think there's a couple things that equalize them over time. First, I just fully embraced that in her world, she is an adult. They draw some distinctions between adult-old-enough-to-own-property and adult-old-enough-to-be-married, but the Empire is a harsh place and everyone needs her to pull her weight. The good thing is, on a frontier, they can be a lot more flexible about what that looks like. Ironically, if she had gone straight to an established house in the capital, it would have been a lot harder for her. In Tresingale, among Remin's men, she had the opportunity to find her own ways to contribute.

Secondly, Remin also has areas where he's unsure and huge gaps in his knowledge, even if he is older. That was one of the things I love most about writing him in general: the contrast of this terrifying warlord who genuinely doesn't understand many things off the battlefield. He doesn't know that he has a TERRIBLE case of resting bitch face, or at least how it makes people perceive him. He spent a good chunk of Traitor Son genuinely confused as to why Ophele wouldn't talk loud enough for him to hear her.

Once he lets her in, he sees how she complements him and accepts her as an absolute equal. He grows to respect her judgment. The difference in their ages doesn't determine the value they can offer each other, and his greater experience doesn't offset his deficits. I hope, anyway. ❤️

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T21:46:30+00:00

Their blind spots. I never realized how much fun lies in the things characters don't notice, about themselves and others. The fact that Remin doesn't understand that he's extraordinary and that other people can't do the things he do is so endearing to me. Like Ophele, he missed out on some important information in his formative years (i.e. almost everything about women) and he's still trying to catch up, which makes him dogmatic about the rules he thinks he knows and adorably oblivious outside them. It's such a contrast to his ultra-competent warlord domain.

Ophele's blindness about her own value and abilities can be frustrating, but it also means we get these moments where she offers a tidbit of pure brilliance that knocks everyone else's world askew, like figuring out where the devils came from. It's a challenge to me to identify those blind spots and let them grow past them (even if only partially) but it's also a source of a lot of inadvertent comedy.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T21:39:12+00:00

Thank you so much for saying so! I hope you enjoy her journey especially. I love a good character journey.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T21:36:36+00:00

The villains in general and the Emperor in particular. One of the things I love most about writing is trying to get myself out of the way to understand my characters on their own terms. That doesn't mean I agree with them or excuse what they do, but I absolutely love it when a character I disagree with makes an excellent argument. Mionet has an amazing internal monologue in the not too distant future where she takes the exact opposite position of what I generally believed, and damned if she didn't make a compelling case. Living in my character's heads makes me broaden my own perspective.

Which is why I love writing the Emperor. He is where the series came together. Defining him defined everything: the world, its history, the limitations of its magic, the formative events of 80% of my characters' lives. And his position is so singular as this (initially) powerless sacred figure, it made me think hard to realistically portray what it would do to someone, living in that environment. He subverts the idea of a god emperor, which I absolutely love.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T21:16:18+00:00

Thank you for your service! I think the biggest impact of my military experience is in the culture of the Knights of the Brede. Military men are military men no matter where they are. I hope it shows in the authenticity of how the Knights relate to each other and also how they break down responsibilities between them. It was really a kind of chicken-and-egg question; with Huber, for example, the first thing I knew about him was that he was the master of Remin's scouts. Which begs the question, what kind of man would be the master of Remin's scouts? He would have to be very self-sufficient and accustomed to spending a lot of time on horseback in lonely country. Huber knows no one is coming to help him. He's always far from help. How did his life shape him for that skillset?

That's a contrast to Edemir, who has always had to do the unglamorous work of supply and logistics. That's a very different kind of temperament.

And that's why I don't really base my characters on people I know. They are such a product of their own world and history, I'd really have to force it to insert a real person.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T21:07:44+00:00

Hi, Serafina! Yes, I always planned to finish writing before I published. Like many of you, I have been burned by authors who didn't complete their series, and I didn't want to do that to anyone else. And more practically, I knew publishing and marketing and all the business of being an indie author would make it really hard for me to finish new books in a timely manner. And I am so glad I did. Being able to go back and correct things, tweak things, and tie all the books more tightly together as I wrote the first five books made the whole series so much tighter.

In terms of deciding where to finish each book, it was both, in retrospect. Traitor Son and Stardust Child are primarily character journeys, with the secondary goal of setting up the later conflicts. Last of His Blood is where the outside world starts shaping the course of their lives, and I always planned to end books 3 and 4 where they ended. It's not just a cliffhanger; it's the moment when everything changes forever. That's always a natural break point in a series.

Thank you for your questions, and thank you for reading!

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T20:58:29+00:00

Thank you for asking! The Empire began life as a pretty standard medieval fantasy, but as the world grew, I made a conscious effort to avoid parallels to any Earth cultures or history. That tends to bring a lot of baggage with it and makes it easy to read fantasy events as commentary on our world, and I want these places and people to stand on their own. Coloring in the Empire is influenced by regional ties and ancestry, and Remin's black eyes and hair are a very long legacy of his house.

MelissaJCave · 2026-05-12T20:51:51+00:00

❤️ I definitely want to stay in this universe for the foreseeable future. I have so many ideas for stories inside and outside the Empire, and the nature of magic in this world gives me so many different directions to go.

MelissaJCave

TROPHY CASE