J. Neil Schulman

Joseph Neil Schulman (born April 16, 1953 in Forest Hills, New York, U.S.) is a novelist, screenwriter, journalist, radio personality, filmmaker, composer, and actor. His eleven books include the novels Alongside Night and The Rainbow Cadenza, both of which won the Libertarian Futurist Society's Prometheus Award for best libertarian novel, and the anthology Nasty, Brutish, And Short Stories. His latest novel is the comic fantasy, Escape from Heaven, in which a radio-talk-show host manages the election campaign of Jesus to win back the earth from Jesus’ ex-wife, Satan. His articles and essays have been published in magazines ranging from National Review to Cult Movies, and in newspapers including articles for the Los Angeles Times. His nonfiction books include Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns, endorsed by Academy-Award-winner Charlton Heston, The Frame of the Century? in which he suggested an alternate killer who could have framed O. J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife, and his autobiographical audiobook, I Met God, in which this former atheist describes the experiences that led him to conclude the existence of God, but still distance himself from all religions. His official blog is J. Neil Schulman.
== Life and work ==
From 1972 to 1990 he was an editor and writer for Samuel Edward Konkin III's magazines, New Libertarian Notes, New Libertarian Weekly, and New Libertarian, there contributing his first published short stories, interviewing science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein (later writing the book The Robert Heinlein Interview, and other Heinleiniana), and writing articles on topics ranging from film music to the Holocaust.
On March 16, 2009 Schulman was awarded the Samuel Edward Konkin III Memorial Chauntecleer by the Karl Hess Club. The award was presented to Schulman by the club's surviving three founders, Mike Everling, J. Kent Hastings, and Brad Linaweaver.
In Schulman's new audiobook, I Met God, he reports on an eight-hour experience on February 18, 1997, in which God directly revealed himself to the former atheist.
=== Political writing ===
Schulman's earliest political writings, beginning in 1972, were in libertarian publications including Samuel Edward Konkin III's New Libertarian Notes, New Libertarian Weekly, and New Libertarian, for which Schulman was also an editor. He also wrote for other libertarian publications including Liberty, Reason, and Murray Rothbard's Libertarian Forum.
Schulman's writings on what he calls "gun prohibition" have received national attention. Dennis Prager, attributed his conversion from favoring gun bans to favoring private gun ownership to Schulman's January 1, 1992 Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, "A Massacre We Didn't Hear About." An interview Schulman conducted for the September 13, 1991 issue of the Second Amendment Foundation's New Gun Week, with English usage expert Roy Copperud, on the grammatical meaning of the Second Amendment, has been incorporated into legislative and judicial arguments. An interview Schulman conducted for the September 19, 1993 Orange County Register with criminologist Gary Kleck was subsequently quoted by witnesses on both sides of hearings on gun-control before the House Judiciary Committee's SubCommittee on Crime. These articles and others Schulman wrote are collected in Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns and in Self Control Not Gun Control. The book received many positive reviews including from Jacob Sullum in National Review, NRA spokesperson Charleton Heston, and pro-gun-control Los Angeles radio talk-show host, Michael Jackson (radio commentator).
On the Rational Review site, Schulman, who identified himself as a small-l libertarian, supported Operation Iraqi Freedom though he had opposed the first Gulf War. Since 2007 he has withdrawn his support for continued U.S. military presence in the Middle East and has been a vocal opponent of any use of "enhanced" interrogation of captured prisoners or imprisonment without conviction of war crimes or criminal terrorism. He voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. In 2008 he supported the candidacy of Ron Paul and when Paul lost the Republican nomination voted for Barack Obama.http://www.rationalreview.com/content/51111#more-51111 Since 2002, Schulman has been a Reverse Zionist and considers the State of Israel to be a non-viable and unsafe long-term homeland for the Jewish people and favors plans to evacuate Israel's Jewish population to the United States and Canada.http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/special/unholy.html
=== Filmmaking ===
Most recently Schulman moved into independent filmmaking as the writer, director, and executive producer of the feature film, Lady Magdalene's, shot in May-June, 2006, starring Star Trek icon (and fellow executive producer) Nichelle Nichols. Schulman played Al Qaeda terrorist Ali in the film, and even composed the music for two songs (and lyrics for three more) for the soundtrack. The production held its world première screening on February 2, 2008 at the San Diego Black Film Festival, where it won the festival's "Best Cutting Edge Film" award. On October 1, 2008, following its fifth film-festival screening, Lady Magdalene's won "Audience Choice" at the Cinema City International Film Festival.
In October, 2008, Schulman completed a screenplay adaptation of his 1979 novel, Alongside Night.
=== Other ===
Schulman was an early adopter of electronic publishing, and was recognized by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times for founding the first two book publishing companies, SoftServ Publishing (1990) and Pulpless.Com (1995) that offered books by bestselling authors including Piers Anthony, Robert Silverberg, and Harlan Ellison for download to home computers and as on-demand printed editions. He taught "Book Publishing in the 21st Century" in the early 1990s for Connected Education.
== References ==
==External links==
* Official Biography.
* Official Blog
* Interview: God's Libertarian Prophet?
* The World Wide Web Gun Defense Clock
* J. Neil Schulman's Books
* Alongside Night Official Website
* Alongside Night Alongside Night on Facebook
* Alongside Night Free 30th Anniversary PDF Download
Includes full text of novel plus:
** "Are We Alongside Night?" (1979)
** "Pulling Alongside Night: The Enabling Technology is Here" by J. Kent Hastings (1996)
** "How Far Alongside Night?" by Samuel Edward Konkin III (1987)
** "Remarks Upon Acceptance into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Alongside Night" by J. Neil Schulman (1989)
** "God Here And Now: An Introduction to Gloamingerism" by Reverend Virgil Moore
** "The Last, True Hope" by Bishop Alam Kimar Whyte, Church of the Human God
*
Category:1953 births
Category:American libertarians
Category:American anarchists
Category:Anarcho-capitalists
Category:American novelists
Category:American science fiction writers
Category:American screenwriters
Category:American short story writers
Category:Writers from California
Category:Former atheists and agnostics
Category:Prometheus Award winning authors
Category:Living people
es:J. Neil Schulman