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![L. Neil Smith's](../gifs/lneilsmiths_2.gif) THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE
Number 871, May 8, 2016
Taxation is evil. Taxation is theft. Taxation is slavery. Taxation is the fuel of war.
What Shall I Write Next?
by L. Neil Smith
[email protected]
Publisher and Senior Correspondent
Attribute to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise
Over the past three and a fraction decades, I have managed to
write about one book per year, some of them nonfiction, a couple of
them political "thrillers", and the great bulk science fiction
adventures.
A few days after you read this, I shall have turned 70 years of
age, and while I am by no means ready to kick the bucket, I am
compelled to recognize that there is a limit to all things, even to my
own precious existence. I was told, when I underwent cardiac bypass
surgery earlier this year, that I might expect it to add 20 years to
my life (can you imagine me at 90?), so the question before me now is
this: how shall I spend them?
What are the next 20 books I should write?
As I have conducted my career so far, I have always had a handful
of projects planned for the future. Sometimes it took me a few weeks
to write them, sometimes (as with Ares, which I'm currently still
working on) it has required several years. On the occasion of my
upcoming birthday, it's kind of piled up unexpectedly, so I'm going to
make a list of the books I'm thinking about, and give my readers a
chance to render their preferences among them.
Here they all are, in no particular order. You can "vote" for your
favorites in the time-honored free-market manner, by clicking on the
PayPal button associated with each prospective book, and contributing
whatever amount you feel is appropriate. Don't forget to note what
book you're voting for. Naturally, there is no limit to how many
choices you can make. As they say, "Vote Early and Often!" I will
announce the result in about six months, and I promise to be guided by
your suggestions.
As of September 24, 2017, the votes have been counted, and read
the results here.
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The Aggressor's Eyesword: Mav and Mymy, lamviin detectives
from the desert planet Sodde Lydfe, follow the tracks of the legendary
discoverer and founder of their homeland, the island empire of Great
Foddu.
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In Beautiful Dreamer, popular science writer Brody Ngu,
Emerson Ngu's youngest son, whom we last will have seen in Ares, is
prematurely old, dying an abject failure at life and love, when he
signs onto a scientific survey vessel and finds not only a uniquely
fascinating world, created entirely by the minds of those who inhabit
it, but the greatest romance that he could ever imagine.
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Brain Death: a Denver police detective, already stretched to
the limit over personal and professional matters, must confront a
terrifying extraterrestrial threat.
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In Ares and Ceres, Julie Segovia Ngu, Llyra Ngu's
grandmother. is, among other things, a 17-year-old escapee from the
teeming slums of East America who became a famous (or notorious,
depending on your point of view) writer of anti-authoritarian,
freedom-oriented childrens' books, banned by governments everywhere.
Five or six in number, they are all about a preteen girl, Conchita,
and her little cousin Alonzo, for whom she babysits, falling into a
heavily government-burdened dimension and trying to find their way
back to their stateless civilization. Typical titles include:
Conchita y Alonzo in the Land of Wimpersnits and Oogies, and
Conchita y Alonzo and the Brain-Devouring Psychovultures.
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A new Win Bear adventure, The Frozen Stars, involves a pair
of strange, crystalline aliens who arrive in the Venus Belt and wake
Win and Clarissa up from stasis offering to cure her of the dreaded
Koman's Mitochondriasis some 50,000,000 years in the apparent future.
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EarthScan finds former U.S. President Alexander Hope in
retirement with his pretty young wife and their six children, when
they receive data that could overthrow all human institutions and
change the course of history. What would we find if we could X-ray the
Earth?
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The MacBear/Lysandra "Heptalogy", the remaining five volumes.
These books follow Brighsuit MacBear and Taflak Lysandra and would
be considered "YR" or Young Readers' novels, except that they follow
Robert Heinlein's precepts about such books, and adults seem to enjoy
them perfectly well.
In addition to Mac Bear, Win Bear's great grandson, and Elsie
"Lysandra" Nahuatl, G. Howell Nahuatl's daughter, they feature Howell,
himself, Pemot a lamviin scientist, and Anton Mesmer, a unique
virtual personality.
III. FLINTKNAPPER MACBEAR
IV. LAMVIIN LYSANDRA
V. ALMIGHTY NAHUATL
VI. KRAKENSLAYER MACBEAR
VII. SEVENHUNTER LYSANDRA
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In the Days of the Moratorium is a police procedural set in
the midwest, in an era when no new laws may be passed (except for
repeals) and the Bill of Rights is absolute. Features "Let's Be
Neiss", about "the man who murdered Denver".
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Take Me Out At The Ball Game, is a Win Bear murder mystery
set at the LaPorte ballpark and explores my ideas for improving the
Confederate Pasttime.
Alternative title The Umpire Strikes Back. (I did not say this;
I am not here.)
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Named for the entrepreneur's wife, Rosalie's World,
accidentally discovered by Emerson Ngu's long-lost Fifth Force
expedition, is the name of the first extra-solar planet ever settled
by humanity. (It's also the name of the novel.) Watch Llyra Ngu, her
husband, and their young family battle alien animals, the elements,
and political adversaries to make a place for themselves light years
from Earth and everything they know.
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In Nine of Flames, Mav and Mymy, the lamviin investigators
are charged by the Royal Triune of Great Foddu to prevent a clever and
possibly dangerous occult figure from exercizing too much influence
over the royal offspring.
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In Smartbait, an adventurer, a mad scientist, and his lovely
daughter—all of whom happen to be sapient crickets—set out via
HO-gauge railroad and on tarantula-back where the tracks end to
discover the terrible truth about what happened to their gods.
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Splinters and Slabs: all I've learned in 70 years about
making and collecting edged weapons and tools.
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If I ever get it written, the fifth Bernie Gruenblum
story will be "A Little Knife Music", a new kind of locked-room
mystery.
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Publisher and Senior Columnist L. Neil Smith is the author of over
thirty books, mostly science fiction novels, L. Neil Smith has been
a libertarian activist since 1962. His many books and those of other
pro-gun libertarians may be found (and ordered) at L. Neil Smith's
THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE "Free Radical Book Store" The preceding
essays were originally prepared for and appeared in L. Neil Smith's
THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE. Use them to fight the continuing war
against tyranny.
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