J. Neil Schulman
@ Agorist.com
An Open Statement to Law Enforcement
Late last night I opened up my email queue and found a Google alert. Google Alerts are like the old newspaper clipping services professional publicists used to subscribe to for their clients. These days it’s a simple, no-cost key word search on the web, and I’ve set up several for my name and the titles of things I’ve written. One of them is my 1979 novel, Alongside Night.
This Google alert sent me to the website of an ABC News local station in Tampa, Florida.
Here’s the website link to the news story:
‘Silk Road’ website called the Amazon, eBay of heroin, cocaine, drug trafficking
That got my attention. I read the story. And discovered that my three-decade-old novel directly inspired this drug-trafficking website.
So let me make this clear and open statement to any law-enforcement investigators.
I don’t know anything more than this news story told me.
Nobody from this website has ever told me they were going to do this, are doing it, or identified themselves to me in any way.
I neither buy nor sell nor use illegal drugs.
Investigating me as a way to get to them is a dry hole.
Alongside Night has been in print since 1979. It’s won literary awards, got reviewed a lot, has gotten written about a lot. In the past couple of years there have been over 275,000 downloads of the novel from my website. No, I don’t have any records of who downloaded the novel.
I’m saying this right up front because I have no desire to have a SWAT team raid the home where I am writing this. If you want to interview me for an investigation, my contact information is publicly available here. Make an appointment with me and I’ll willingly tell you everything I know, which — by the way — I just did.
Here are all the links you need to find out everything about Alongside Night:
Download the Novel for Free
Official Movie Website
Official Novel Facebook Page
Official Movie Facebook Page
Amazon.com Page
Wikipedia Article
IMDb Page
Sincerely,
J. Neil Schulman
P.S. I’m currently working on turning Alongside Night into a movie. If you think financing my movie will be helpful to your investigation, I’m willing to take your money.
Winner of the Special Jury Prize for Libertarian Ideals from the 2011 Anthem Film Festival! My comic thriller Lady Magdalene’s — a movie I wrote, produced, directed, and acted in it — is now available as a DVD on Amazon.com and for sale or rental on Amazon.com Instant Video. If you like the way I think, I think you’ll like this movie. Check it out!
June 11, 2011 - 9:04 am
From a “fulfilled prophecy” standpoint, I think you’re probably outperforming both Rand and Heinlein at this point!
June 11, 2011 - 12:22 pm
“If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” — Isaac Newton
Lucky for me, neither of these two giants shrugged me off when I interviewed them back in 1973.
June 12, 2011 - 12:53 am
So I downloaded the novel for free 10 hours ago…and I just finished it about an hour ago.
Great story, great characters, and lots of practical solutions to seemingly overwhelming problems.
Well done, sir!
June 13, 2011 - 6:18 pm
have they been contacting you?
June 13, 2011 - 6:50 pm
This is the first I’ve heard of the Silk Road site. Without reading anything further, my initial reaction is this is a sting. People will get online to place orders and down the road the DEA will be rounding up tens of thousands of users.
Call me cynical but It wouldn’t surprise me if this was cooked up by the private prison industry.
June 13, 2011 - 7:55 pm
Not so far.
June 13, 2011 - 11:12 pm
Aw shucks! Thank you.