“Recently there came a period when I had little to do. This was novel in a life so crammed with busy years, and I decided to amuse myself by writing a novel that was pure science fiction.”

During 1980-1981, L. Ron Hubbard produces two million words of fiction. Among his writings are two feature-length screenplays, Ai! Pedrito! and A Very Strange Trip. Both screenplays are later adapted and released as full-length novels and become New York Times bestsellers. He also produces the largest single-volume science fiction novel ever written, Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000, and his masterpiece of comic satire, Mission Earth—an unprecedented 1.2-million-word science fiction novel in ten volumes, for which he coins the term dekalogy.

1982

From his California ranch, Ron researches and releases his latest and final discoveries in Scientology. His own literary agency, Author Services, is established and he sees Battlefield Earth become an international bestseller after its 1982 release. He composes music and lyrics for Battlefield Earth—the first time a recorded “soundtrack” is created to directly accompany a bestselling novel. Shortly thereafter he composes twenty songs for the Mission Earth series.

1983

L. Ron Hubbard launches an international science fiction and fantasy short story and novelette competition for new and aspiring writers, which he calls the Writers of the Future Contest. The Illustrators’ Contest is founded in 1988 to encourage the speculative fiction artist in much the same way the Writers’ Contest has been doing for authors.