Nasty, Brutish and Short Stories [Paperback]

J. Neil Schulman (Author, Introduction), Brad Linaweaver (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999

The Prometheus Award-winning author of "Alongside Night" and "The Rainbow Cadenza" offers a collection of his short fiction, including two never-before-seen stories.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"His first fiction in years proves that this superb writer never lost his touch." -- Anders Monsen, Prometheus

"Nasty is one word I would not use to describe this collection of nine stories. Highly Recommended!" -- Manx Fiction

From the Publisher

Foreword

"There Ain't No Mainstream"

by Brad Linaweaver

J. Neil Schulman, Victor Koman and I have know each other for many years. This collection of short stories is what one would expect of Neil, since he has the same problem that Victor Koman and I have.

J. Neil Schulman is a writer.

What this means is that he can write anything. That's what it means to be a writer.

By way of explanation, I will relate a personal experience because I know that any writer will understand. I'm a member of both the Science Fiction Writers of America and the Horror Writers Association. I've been on panels with horror writers who dismiss my opinion because I write science fiction stories and, no surprise, I've had science fiction writers do the same thing with me because I write horror stories.

As he points out in his introduction, this is not a very long collection. But the variety is worthy of an encyclopedia. No surprise when you're dealing with a writer.

Schulman does not make the mistake of some writers who are identified with a particular genre. He doesn't deny that he's written science fiction. Nor does he deny the other genres on display in Nasty, Brutish and Short Stories. If he ever produces a Gothic Romance, he won't deny that's what he's done. Let him produce a novel set in the old west with lots of horses and gun play, and he won't feel the need to fabricate an outre label.

But he understands right down to the marrow of his bones why someone who has written science fiction might want to deny it. That's because genre writers are treated abysmally by the publishing industry even in the best of times.

These are not the best of times.

It is perhaps worth noting that science fiction writers are treated the worst of all genre writers. That's because a writer who wants to say something about the future of mankind in these dangerous times will naturally want to talk about the big picture. Such a writer is not thinking that the bigger his thoughts, the smaller will be his pay!

There are real people in these stories. That limits Schulman's effectiveness in genre writing.

There are real ideas here. That rules out any hope of his being taken seriously by the literati who like real people in fiction only when those "real people" are bereft of ideas. Try finding anyone that empty in real life and you'll see the problem with most fiction that Gore Vidal accurately describes as "written to be taught."

The mind that produced this collection of stories is uncomfortable with the artificial barriers thrown up between commercial fiction and literature. No wonder he's so fond of The Catcher in the Rye.

Can you imagine how tolerant he is of the barriers thrown up between different areas of genre fiction, as in my example of SFWA vs. HWA?

I am proud to have played a role in two of these stories coming out through conventional New York publishers. Neil relates in his introduction how I bought his story "Day of Atonement" for the anthology I co-edited with Ed Kramer for Tor Books, Free Space.

The other case was my keeping after him to dig "The Repossessed" out of the trunk and give it another chance to see the light of print. I'd placed a story of mine with Carol Serling's Adventures in the Twilight Zone and it occurred to me that here was Neil Schulman, author of one of the best episodes of the new Twilight Zone television series, and shouldn't he at least submit a story to her book? I made certain that the TV credit was not forgotten when the story went in. Co-editor Richard Gilliam was impressed, another enthusiast for "Profile in Silver."

Carol Serling led off the collection with "The Repossessed." For me, this kind of makes up for the series not producing the other Schulman script, "Colorblind." (That script and the whole story of that true adventure in the Twilight Zone is told in Profile in Silver and Other Screenwritings, the book, also from Pulpless.Com.)

The only other story where I remember doing some cheerleading is "When Freemen Shall Stand"; but I played no part in its final publication in a nationally distributed magazine, Liberty.

As Neil says, I'm always trying to get him to write short stories.

Read this book and you'll see why. There is no bad story in here. A lot of these tales would have found a home in slick magazines for short fiction back when there was a mainstream.

But there aint no mainstream today.

And the genres are dying.

That's why the world needs more books like this one and a company known as Pulpless.Com!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: Pulpless.Com, Inc. (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584451262
• ISBN-13: 978-1584451266
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,915,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

J. Neil Schulman is an award-winning writer and filmmaker, whom the Wall Street Journal called a pioneer of electronic publishing His 1979 Prometheus-Hall-of-Fame novel Alongside Night -- endorsed by Milton Friedman, Anthony Burgess, and Ron Paul -- projected the economic meltdown and was Freedom Book of the Month for May, 2009. It's currently in development as his second feature film, following his award-winning comic thriller, Lady Magdalene's, starring Nichelle Nichols, which Schulman wrote, produced, directed, and acted in. His 1983 novel, The Rainbow Cadenza, won the Prometheus Award, was adapted into a Laserium show, and Robert A. Heinlein told the 1983 L-5 Society, "Every libertarian should read it!" Schulman scripted the CBS revived Twilight Zone episode, "Profile in Silver." He taught a graduate course on electronic publishing for The New School, has written for popular magazines and newspapers including National Review, Reason, the Los Angeles Times, and Reader's Digest, and monographs ranging from animal rights, informational property rights, and medicalization of criminology have been widely anthologized by academic presses. His 12 books include Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns, endorsed by Charlton Heston and Dennis Prager, Self Control Not Gun Control endorsed by Walter Williams, and The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana, which Virginia Heinlein said "should be on the shelves of everyone interested in science fiction." His latest is Unchaining the Human Heart--A Revolutionary Manifesto. He's recipient of the James Madison Award from the Second Amendment Foundation, and on March 16, 2009 Schulman was awarded the Samuel Edward Konkin III Memorial Chauntecleer by the Karl Hess Club, the only previous recipients being Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Wally Conger. Full bio at http://www.pulpless.com/jneil/jnsbio.html

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brooding not brutish ..., December 25, 2003

By 

John Dechancie "Vegas Lizard" (Littlerock, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nasty, Brutish and Short Stories (Paperback)

A tasty smorgasbord of fictional delights:

"Benny Rich is Dead" has an especially ironic twist.

"When Freemen Shall Stand" is a bold political statement.

"Day of Atonement" is an unexpected off-center view of Judaism.

"The Second Remove" is a Salingeresque look at a troubled teenager.

All in all, a fair sampling of Schulman's talents in the short story form.