Month: April 2021

Novel Endings Endgame


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The first of the two novels I’m working on ends in a cliffhanger. I know exactly how the novel ends. What I don’t know is how to build up to that point. As it stands, everything up to the midpoint is pretty good and stable.

Everything past the midpoint is still something of a struggle. So, I’m going to do a lot of thinking as to how to re-imagine the second half of the novel to amp up the drama, conflict and tension.

I’m fully prepared to simply follow the outline I have for this first novel, but I have very high expectations for myself. As such, I may find myself tinkering with the specifics of scenes and their subject matter a lot more than I might otherwise.

But one thing that’s really helping is I finally have some sense of the totality of the work. So, it’s easier for me to plant things within the outline with an eye to the macro.

Anyway, in general, things are going reasonably well. Or, to put it another way, after a lot of work, I definitely feel the momentum is in my favor to wrap these two books up at some point in the near-ish future. I’m thinking I have about one more year of slow-but-steady work ahead of me to finish these two novels.

Once I finish them, I will try to sell them. If I can’t get past the traditional gatekeepers, then I’ll just self-publish and piviot to the next big creative project, whatever that may be.

‘The Quiet Before The Storm’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I suggest everyone enjoy the less than two years we have left before Congress flips and Republicans control two out of the three branches of government. That will be the first step towards the very stark choice America will face in 2024: autocracy or civil war.

Now, there may be some variations on all of this — I can’t predict the future, after all — but our democracy is so weak and its politics so undead right now that I just can’t see the return-to-normal that we have going on right now lasting beyond 2024.

There are so many would-be autocrats waiting in the wings for Trump to make up his mind about running again and the push to nullify any vote that Republicans in Congress don’t like so strong that 2020 may be looked back upon as the last free and fair election the United States had. Of course, if we have a civil war and the “good guys” win, then after about five or so years of WMD-caused mass death we may begin to return to a normal — if very changed — American again.

It really bothers me how oblivious Twitter liberals are about how dire things are right now in the United States. We’ve been lulled into a false sense of safety because Trump is gone, but take one look at the continued lunacy of MAGA Republicans and you see more than enough to send a chill down your spine.

MAGA Republicans have already made the cognitive leap necessary to begin murdering people for political reasons. All that has to happen is some sort of undue, unexpected pressure is placed on our political system and the rest will take care of itself.

It’s logical, right now, to assume that pressure will come simply from the passions of the 2024 presidential cycle. But it could be something else — that happens sooner. If, say, Trump pulls a Scalia on us and simply dies of natural causes because he’s old, that event, in itself, may be enough to spark massive political violence because, lulz, MAGA cocksuckers will assume the Deep State murdered him.

But let me say again — I can’t predict the future. Anything can happen. But the only reason why the stark choice of 2024 didn’t happen in 2020 is because of one person: Donald Trump. If Trump had been the person people thought they were electing in 2016 and not a ding-dong, then we wouldn’t have had a free and fair election in 2020 and we would now all be living under the thumb of Trumplandia.

As I keep saying — get out of the country if you can. After about 2024, America is going to be a place anyone who isn’t MAGA is going to want to live in. Or there’s going to be a civil war and we’re going to bomb ourselves into the stone age so American Karens don’t have to worry about being “canceled.”

The Curious Case Of Marie Yovanovitch, Donald Trump & Some Ukrainian Goons


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the lingering questions of the enormous clusterufck that was the Trump Administration is how much Trump knew in advance about the physical risk Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch faced when she abruptly bugged out of Kiev. If you could prove that Trump knew exactly what was going on and was cool with it, then you got yourself a pretty big scandal.

If you could get to the next step of proving Trump not only knew about the goons intentions but approved of them and even maybe directed them, then, well, we’re going to the show.

It’s been a while, so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but just using what we already know about particular situation, it’s enough to send chills down your spine. Trump said, at one point, that Ambassador Yovanovitch was “going to be going through some things” and I seem to recall Trump getting even more explicit to the point where it definitely seemed as though he wanted physical harm to come to her.

Now, too often in the past I’ve thought Trump was going to be dealt a mortal political blow for this or that thing he did and absolutely nothing came of it. So, the case could be made that even if you could prove Trump not only knew but directed the goons who forced Ambassador Yovanovitch to flee Ukraine for her life in the middle of the night…it’s very possible MAGA would see it as a lulz.

But of all the post-presidency things that might, just might kneecap Trump’s chances of being the Republican 2024 nominee….proof that he was active in a plot to murder the American ambassador to Ukraine might(?) be enough to do the trick.

The Ghost In The Machine


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, I’ve had some weird hacking problems in the past with my newest computer, but the thing that happened tonight has go to be the weirdest of all. So, I pull up my computer and lo and behold, there’s a tab on my browser where it appears as though someone — not me — wanted to look at Twitter but couldn’t because my computer wasn’t connected to WiFi.

I’m fully willing to admit that this was just a fluke of my computer. The only reason why I am weirded out by this event is the specific tab I was working on was the one that was used to attempt the connection to Twitter AND I wasn’t connected to the Internet via a Wifi link.

So, if it was a hacker, how did they even get into my computer in the first place?

It’s all very strange. I guess if you wanted to go completely bonkers, you might suggest, I don’t know, the Deep State was involved in some way. But right now, I’m a complete nobody. So much of a nobody that the Deep State — even if it actually existed — would have no reason to worry about me. There’s pretty much nothing I could possibly do that would cause any punitive Deep State want to fuck with my computer.

That leaves, I dunno, space aliens?

Unless the ghost in the machine starts to give me some indication of who they are and their motives, I guess I’m going to have to just assume it’s weird Windows issues going on.

It’s all very odd, though.

Observations About The Infotainment Industrial Complex


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The interesting thing about showbiz content producers is one hand so much of what is churned out is unoriginal dreck and, yet, when you’re working on your own project you always worry about that one asymmetrical attack that forces you to re-think or shelve what you’re working on.

Some of this, I know, is nothing more than “first time mom jitters,” in the sense that you work on something so much that you think, “Well, if this concept is so obvious to ME, then obviously, it will be obvious to SOMEONE ELSE.” (That’s a lot of obvious.)

This is where my personal belief that you have to make decisions on what you know, not on what you don’t know comes into play. If you worry about what might happen all the time, then you never take the risks necessary to even have a chance at being successful.

So, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m just moving forward for the time being. If something is released or announced for release that steals a march on me, then I’ll address it at that time.

But, for the time being, things are full speed ahead. Wish me luck.

The Status Of The Novel — Late April, 2021


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are going quite well with the novel right now. Things are moving along pretty well. I’m just about to enter into the second act, AGAIN in yet another first draft.

I can feel myself improving as a storyteller each time I attempt a first draft. Things are moving faster now because a lot of things I’ve been brooding over have clicked. My vision makes a lot more sense for no other reason than I’ve just written so much that I’ve finally been able to get a hang of writing a novel.

I continue to worry about someone out-of-the-blue stealing a creative march on me, but there’s little I can do about it. In hindsight, I would have been far more secretive about what I’ve been working on. But this was my first serious attempt at writing a novel so I made a lot of mistakes in more ways than one. If the worst does happen, I have half a dozen other concepts I can pivot to after the grieving process is over.

One thing I need to do is read a lot more. A whole lot more. I have all these books I bought with the best of intentions. But I struggle to tear my attention away from producing content enough so I can consume it. Yet some of the books are ones I really, really need to read to improve the overall experience of the novel.

So, I guess I’ll soon enough force myself to do all this reading I’ve been putting off.

An aspect of this novel (actually two novels, one story) is how it toys with the tropes of the Trump Era. Even though the Trump Era is over (for the time being?) I think by the time I’m trying to sell these two novels that people are going to be thinking about the Trump Era again because politics will be on people’s minds again.

At least, that’s my thinking.

A lot is going on with these two novels. A whole lot. I’m really throwing everything I got at them in various ways. I’ve split the story into two because I checked the number of scenes for the entire story and it was way too close to 200 for my liking. If you figure each scene is about 1,000 words, then that would be a 200,000 word novel, which is just too long.

And, the way I have it mapped out in my mind, I have a solid cliffhanger at the end of the first book. I’m still in the delusional phase of development and writing, however.

It won’t be until I attempt to query a literary agent that the delusional phase of all of this will come to an end.

Contemplating A Secession Crisis In 2021


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As always, America’s fate may rest with the actions of a ding-dong. I say this because there is a down low political crisis brewing in Arizona. If Republicans finally manage to “prove” that Trump “won” the state and then other states that Biden won that have deranged Republican legislatures follow suit, there may come a point when we have a severe political crisis on our hands.

And it would happen a lot quicker than you think.

All that would have to happen is just enough states flip from Biden to Trump through the nefarious machinations of Republicans to “prove” that Trump “really did win” and we might get that 2021 civil war way too many people seem interested in.

It’s easy to imagine Trump getting really excited and at the news that he “won” and crowing at every opportunity. (Now, over the years, I’ve come up with many, many, many over-the-top dystopian Trump scenarios and he’s proven himself to be too stupid and lazy to actually do any of them. So this could be another example of this. But hear me out.) This causes the small population lily white states of the Mountain area to call snap state conventions to secede from the Union because, well, lulz, Trump “won” YOLO.

I don’t really think this will happen, but there is a greater-than-zero-chance that it just might…in 2021.

And, yet, if you’re a fucking MAGA cucksucker who wants to murder liberals in cold blood as part of a Second American Civil War…you aren’t really thinking things through. Yes, you can probably get six or so states with very small — and white — populations to “leave” the Union…but what are you going to do about the South, you morons.

You’re so wrapped up in the Glorious Cause of “making America Great again” by having a ding-dong president for life, that you are completely missing the issue of race. Race and a Southern secession crisis is not something you just wave your Miller Lite at and mumble something about how you’re figure that out when you get to it. The moment MAGA legislatures in the South attempt to leave the Union so they can suck Donald Trump’s political cock, you got yourself a race war.

Race relations in the United States are pretty shitty as it is. Throw in MAGA Nazis wanting to put African Americans under their jackboot in the South and…oh boy. That is not going to go well.

But given how idiotic MAGA people are on this subject — they really, really want a fucking civil war — I would suggest there are a few milestones to look for in the coming days. If these things begin to happen, then, yes, you can spooge in your AR-15 then clean it off and start thinking how you can murder people like me in cold blood because of cancel culture.

  1. Trump “wins” because Biden’s wins in a number of states are overturned by MAGA legislatures.
  2. Trump goes nuts and runs around saying he won and is actually still president. He won’t shut up about it and the fucking cocksucker MAGA people start to listen
  3. A number of MAGA Nazi state legislatures call secessionist conventions to leave the Union because, lulz, Trump is “really” president.
  4. The secession crisis smacks into the South and African Americans begin to freak the fuck out and something akin to a race war erupts.
  5. Average people begin to vote with their feet, with Red people in Blue states and Blue people in Red states fleeing their states because they fear for their lives simply because of a difference in political views with people around them in their neighborhoods.
  6. The two sides differences harden because of this political consolidation and the U.S. Military even begins to have problems with people leaving their ranks to side with the secessionists.
  7. Trump forms some sort of “shadow government” and calls up troops from the states that have “left” the Union.
  8. All hells breaks loose. There’s a civil war. A lot of people die. But at least Mary Sue won’t have to worry about being canceled after she yelled at a African American clerk for getting her order wrong.

    Ugh.

‘Civil War 2021’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Come on, people. While I’ll give you that a Second American Civil War is one of two options we face in 2024, something pretty big would have to happen for a civil war to happen this year.

In fact, there’s only one scenario I can think of using existing information that might lead to a civil war: recount efforts in states that Trump lost pick up steam after Republicans in Arizona finally get the result they crave ( a Trump win) and that leads to such instability that something akin to a civil war happens before the end of the year.

That’s it. That’s all I got. Otherwise, all you good old boys smoking a doobie on the back parch in deepest Alabama who think dem dar libtards need to get murdered in cold blood ’cause of cancel culture are just going to have to wait until the 2024-2025 time frame to quench your bloodlust.

Also — fuck you, you fucking redneck, by the way.

Anyway, I am now getting a constant stream of people using keywords “civil war 2021” or “civil war in 2021?” or “revolution in 2021?” Chill out you fucking idiots. That Red fucktwads would be so excited about the prospect of a Second American Civil War is, in itself, a metric that should cause alarm.

The thing that bothers me the most is Twitter liberals are simply not taking the glorification of political violence on the part of the Right seriously. They are so busy thinking they can somehow magically make D.C. a state that they are totally oblivious to how a portion of the Right is chomping at the bit to start murdering people for their politics.

There are no easy answers to any of this, I’m afraid. Just get ready for it to get worse, a lot worse. In 2024, as I keep saying, we’re going to face a very stark choice — autocracy at the hands of MAGA or civil war. Everyone will have to pick a side.

I Nominate Alicia Vikander To Play ‘Lisbeth Salander’



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Though she’s a bit old as the character was originally imagined, there’s one person who would be perfect for a yet another reboot of the Lisbeth Salander franchise — Alicia Vikander.

She’s Swedish and would have the right accent. She is a bit tall for Salander as well, but, then, Hollywood cast Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher, so, lulz.

I guess the point of all of this is the Lisbeth Salander character has yet to be completely strip mined of any entertainment value. If you had the right script and producer to go along with Ms. Vikander as Salander, then I think you would have a recipe for success.

An Illuminative Conversation That May Portend A Second American Civil War


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I had a very interesting conversation with a very conservative relative recently. It was very illuminative about what’s going on with the Right until I got really angry and it abruptly ended. At the end of the conversation I got really, really mad because my interlocutor refused to acknowledge that Trump was the direct cause of the January 6th Capitol Insurrection. This, after we all saw Trump incite the revolt on TV. And, what’s more, the person I was talking to agreed with me right after the event!

But he had changed his mind, apparently, since then.

The interesting thing about talking to someone from the Right, especially someone who is smart and well educated is that many of their views are the exact opposite of mine. But it was interesting that there was one issue that he believed but could not support — he believed that it would be Leftists, not MAGA, who would attempt to establish an autocracy.

I pressed him on why he believed this, and he just blinked a few times until we moved on.

It’s how conversations like this one cause people to stop talking about politics altogether that indicate MAGA cocksuckers are going to get their long-sought after Second American Civil War soon enough. The bolts are popping of our political discourse in an alarming rate and soon enough, just like slave power in 1861, MAGA Republicans (in probably 2025) are going to come to believe that if they can’t get an autocracy that their only recourse is a civil war.

When two people from opposite ends of the political spectrum simply give up talking about politics because things grow too heated, then the whole system is going to collapse one way or another. Either you get an autocracy where half of the electorate has given up or you get a civil war where both sides believe politics is no longer a viable option to enact policy change.

So, my chief take away from the conversation I had recently is America is a powder keg. At some point — probably in the 2024-2025 timeframe — we will be presented with a very, very stark choice: civil war or a MAGA autocracy. The Right has already established the ideological framework for a civil war and, in fact, they crave it.

You can only rant about how much you hate “libtards” and because they love open boarders and “want to kill babies” before you organize in a collective manner to “end” that particular “problem” once an for all. As I keep saying, MAGA forgoing politics for political violence is very, very dumb for a number of reasons.

But it definitely seems — at least if my Webstats are any indication — that good old boys all over America want to murder people like me once they get the chance. How successful they will ultimately be is anyone’s guess.