I wanted to give you some updates and correct an error in the most recent issue of Prometheus, one which may very well be my fault. In that issue, it is written:

"... The excitement of this news is muted, however, as Smith has been asked to trim down the book ..."

As it turned out, the original three books came to a little less than the 200,000 words Jim Baen had asked me to limit the project to, so not a single word was cut. I did update some references to certain firearms (which had proved to have no historical staying-power) and American Soviet Socialist Republics spaceships (which I renamed after new and highly-deserving victims). I don't have a publication date yet (it may be on Baen's web site) but I've been "paid on acceptance" so it shouldn't be long.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting to hear from Tor's Jim Frenkel about The American Zone. My old friend Jim can be "encouraged" at

JamesFrenkel_TorBooks@CompuServe.com

I've been told by the folks at Mountain Media who published Vin Suprynowicz's magnificent Send in the Waco Killers that they want to publish my Lever Action this September (wow!). I'm aware that this is not science fiction—but it's a family affair. We're planning for that book to have a lot of cartoons in it by Rex "Baloo" May—who has a book of his own, Gesundheit, Dummy!, coming out very soon. It can be ordered at

http://www.kiva.net/~jonabook/gdummy.htm

Rex (who's recently moved back to Fort Collins from the wilds of Indiana) and I are gearing up to do something like four collaborative novels, starting with an alternate history adventure about Texas.

And of course I've just finished The Mitzvah with JPFO founder and boss, Aaron Zelman.

The Pulpless.com reissue of The War Dove, prequel to Henry Martyn and Bretta Martyn, can be had at Amazon.com as a trade (large format) paperback and will soon be available as an e-book at the Pulpless.com site itself.
Hope this interests your readers,

—N.

This year's Prometheus Awards ceremony is tentatively scheduled for 4:00 P.M., Friday, August 26, at the Anaheim Convention Center during this year's NASFiC. For information see

http://www.99.nasfic.org/

L. Neil Smith has announced release of The Mitzvah, coauthored with Aaron Zelman and published by Mazel Freedom Press and JPFO on June 15th. This contemporary novel portrays a Catholic monsignor from Chicago who suddenly learns that he's a Jewish Holocaust orphan and is confronted with both personal and political crises as a result, leading him to question his 1960s liberal and pacifist beliefs. Information on the novel is available at

http://www.jpfo.org/mitzvah.htm

Prometheus readers with an interest in roleplaying games may want to take a look at Steve Jackson Games forthcoming GURPS Alternate Earths II. This collection of six parahistorical settings includes several elements libertarians will recognize, including a timeline where Finance Minister von Mises brings the forgotten ideas of Adam Smith to the Austrian Empire.