Back in the early months of 2014, I was browsing the infamous Other Site and received an unexpected call. A call to a short story contest, sponsored by Students for Liberty and the Libertarian Fiction Authors Association. The guidelines were simple: Write a short story that illustrates the positive role of freedom in human life.

Writing was something I had loved doing growing up, and continuing into my early adult years, mostly in the form of fanfiction. But by 2014, I had started really considering making a go of this whole writing business, and this contest seemed like an invitation to try my hand at it and see if I could prove myself. I had been working on the bones of a young adult (YA) science fiction novel for a while, a time travel adventure set on Mars in both the near future and the far distant past. So I decided to write a story that would tie in to that series and explore the concept of freedom in the ancient Martians’ dystopian past.

And… I was one of the lucky winners! Out of 150+ entries, mine was one of the ten selected for publication (and a prize of questionable monetary value).

I took that as a good sign about the series in general. So I kept working at it, and a couple years later, the first book in what would eventually become a four-book series was published.

Because of the series’ origin, with its first iteration being published in a libertarian magazine, I wanted to carry the principles of liberty over into the rest of the series. But this is a mainstream YA series, and the word “libertarian” is now a cancellable offense, being associated with some of those icky Republicans who like Ayn Rand. So I had to be even-handed about it. Moreover, I didn’t want to write propaganda—rather, I wanted to write a fun and enjoyable series that just happened to portray the principles of liberty in a positive light. Here’s how I went about it:

Putting the Ideas in a Side Character’s Mouth

To make the concepts of liberty more palatable to a mainstream audience, it was important not to beat them over the head with it. Having a main character who’s already on the side of liberty would probably get this labeled right away as a niche work. The main character needed to be a “normie,” someone generally apolitical and relatable to most readers. But all good main characters need to have a lovable best friend, and in this case, the lovable best friend also happens to be a kooky libertarian troublemaker who routinely spends his free time in detention. He’s dismissed out-of-hand by his friend group as being kind of a weirdo who no one listens to… until it turns out that he’s right. Repeatedly.

Through the best friend, I was able to sneak in more and more lingo, mostly as an in-joke between myself and the other Glibs, but one that I enjoyed immensely. By the second book in the series, I was able to get the phrase “libertarian moment” in there. By the third, “taxation is theft.” By the last one, characters were having serious discussions about the NAP while planning their revolution and no one was batting an eye.

Showing That Principles of Liberty Are for Everyone

Something that was important to me early on in the development of the series was to portray the principle of individual freedom as something that benefits all people, not just the “rich straight white men” stereotype that the media has tried to shoot down the liberty movement with. To that end, characters from a wide variety of economic backgrounds, ethnicities, and sexual orientations make up the main cast of the near-future timeline. (Obviously, in the ancient timeline, the Martians are all Martian.) As the cast expands to include more libertarian characters, including a group of rebels seeking to overthrow the authoritarian government, I was sure to continue showcasing the diversity of the liberty movement. I wanted to portray the liberty movement as something that’s both welcoming of and beneficial to all people from all walks of life.

Depicting Different Types of Free Societies

While the near-future timeline represents a world relatively like the one we live in now, assuming things continue in the same direction (or at least the direction they seemed like they were going in ten years ago, when I started writing the series), the ancient Martian timeline depicts a different type of world, which meant I was able to explore free societies in a different framework. In the ancient timeline (which is the same timeline that the SFL/LFA short story takes place in), we encounter an underground movement of people who have broken away and formed an independent community. This society is a voluntarist cooperative which self-governs through community consensus and adheres to the non-aggression principle, a far cry from the centralized authoritarian government they broke away from. This is the city the characters in the original short story escaped to find, so it was fun to explore their world in a bit more detail.

Not Beating You Over the Head with It

I think the biggest reason that these concepts managed to be successful in a mainstream YA book is because they’re worldbuilding elements, but not a sermon being preached at the reader. I wanted to show libertarian principles in a positive light, but they’re also not the main point of the series by any means. The most important focus of all four books in the series was to tell a good story, one that’s exciting, one with easily relatable characters, and one which holds readers’ interest and keeps them hooked. I hope I was successful with that.

All this to say… the last book in the series is out now! If you’re interested or think a kid in your life might enjoy (recommended age is 13-18), I hope you’ll check it out.