The Advent of New Cultural Era?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though we’re — a last — experiencing something of a vibe shift. There are a number of new musical acts that are actually, well, good. There’s IDLES, So Good, Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo just to name a few who are really interesting and actually make music that serve the audience really well.

Another thing I’ve noticed is a growing number of young people on Tik-Tok doing “fit checks” where they look like a person from between 1968 and 1972. I haven’t seen anyone dressing like this out in the wild, but everything old is new again, so it seems possible that Tik-Tok might cause these isolated instances to spread across the country.

Chappell Roan
At the same time, technology is also lurching forward with the rise of AI and the Apple Vision Pro.

Put all these developments together and it definitely seems that we’re on the cusp of leaving the 20-odd year Post-911 era. A lot will depend on, of course, what happens with the election.

If Trump wins, there’s a good chance that there could be a rather amazing, severe break with the past one way or another. Either because we become a full blow MAGA Nazi autocracy, or, oh boy, we depose Trump then have a civil war because Red States get mad and leave the Union in a huff.

But it does seem as though the post-911 era is fading, if nothing else. The confluence of tech change along with cultural changes definitely seems to indicate that this is the case.

Moving At A Fast Clip Now

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I have “a version” done of the third draft, I’m going to go through and read it and pick out scenes that need to be re-written. There aren’t that many scenes at the beginning of the novel, but that number grows significantly the further I get into the text.

I hope to write a novel with a heroine as interesting as Lisbeth Salander.

I’m using AI to help with this by telling it to be a manuscript consultant for me. This only works so well, however, because when it comes to spicy scenes, too often the software just locks up. It balks at even looking at any copy that deals with sex or violence.

But it works well enough that it does speed the process up and it is fun to do something as novel as use AI to help me reach my goal. I still am on track to have something to hand to people at an event I’m set to attend on April 19th. This is very, very arbitrary because the REAL hard deadline is July 22.

And, what’s more, I have a sequel to this first novel that I want to start to work on. But the better this first novel gets, the more I realize I need to think hard about how to improve some of the elements of the second novel. Also, I still have a few scifi novels that I’m brooding on.

I’ve come up with a really interesting First Contact novel, but it’s got so many moving parts — and would require so much research — that it’s more a novel to write once I blow up with my novel money.

We’ve Given Up

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

What the fuck are we going to do about Trump. He tectonic demographic and political history forces that have put him in the situation he’s in are so powerful, so potent that it definitely seems he’s going to become POTUS again, no matter what.

Then the shit is REALLY going to hit the fan.

A second Trump Administration would be a total, fucking catastrophe in a way not seen since 1865. It would be truly ironic if we found ourselves caused by a civil war that Lincoln wanted to prevent in 1860 and one that Trump wanted to cause in 2024.

It’s really going to be interesting to see how bad things get. Everything is so fucked up and there doesn’t seem to be any ready way to fix things going forward. Trump is so dumb and yet so powerful as an idea to the MAGA fascist New Right that, lulz…virtually ANYTHING could happen between now and early 2025.

‘X10 Writer’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am using AI to help me rework scenes as I go through the methodical process of touching up the alpha release of the third draft in the transition to it becoming I can hand to someone in person.

I have to admit that I’m getting mixed results in doing this. And there are some scenes in the novel where I just can’t use AI at all because it balks and having to deal with spicy shit. I can only get so angry about this, of course, it kind keeps me honest in the scene that I still have to do all the hard work on some scenes without the an of an AI manuscript consultant.

But I do hope to zoom through things at a pretty nice clip. I am still on course to wrapping up A Version of this novel by April 19th. Then the next hard deadline is, of course, July 22.

So, we’ll see. I hope to be really judicious about what scenes I feel like I absolutely HAVE to re-write rather than just edit. Once I reach the second half of the novel, though, I fear I will be slowed down a great deal because of how many placeholder scenes I have there.

Sometimes, I Do Agree With Marc Andreessen

By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Marc Andreessen retweeted the above image from I assume Reddit and I have to say I agree. There does seem to be some bad juju in the air at the moment. It does seem as though Something Bad is about to happen in the near, near future.

Now, obviously, my interpretation of this potential Bad Thing is different than his. He thinks some sort of woke DEI hellscape is about to happen, while I think the exactly opposite — I think there’s a real risk the United States is going to lurch into an autocratic state.

Sigh.

Marc Andreessen is an very interesting guy. He’s obviously been Red Pilled and he’s so rich that should the absolute worst happen — the United States decend into anarchy because of fucking ding-dong Trump, he can just hop on a jet and flee the country.

But, alas, Poors like me don’t have that option.

So…lulz?

Plans

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I have SOMETHING finished that I can use as the basis for the Third Draft of my first novel, I need to contemplate my next move. I think what I’m going to do is sit down and do some long-delayed development. In fact, I’m kind of doing it in a bassackards way because I probably should done character studies and treatments BEFORE I started the novel.

But it’s too late now.

I still have a hard deadlines of first April 19th then July 22. I want to have a draft of the novel done by April 19th that I can physically hand a few copies to people at an event that I am set to go to.

So, now I’m going to allow myself a few days to plot my next move, given the time restraints I face. I think my best bet is to do to, sometime soon, go through what I’ve written and do some sort of triage to figure out what scenes can be salvaged and what scenes have to be totally re-written or significantly fleshed out.

But, in general, I’m feeling pretty stoked. This is a really accessible tale. It’s fun, fast paced and spicy.

I’m Really Impressed By Chappell Roan

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Chappell Roan has got to be one of the best new artists I’ve discovered of late. She is so, so good. Her music is in the sweetspot of pop rock music that we just don’t have enough of these days.

Chappell Roan
Her stuff definitely “has a beat and you can dance to it” as they used to say.

In fact, I’m surprised she not bigger. She’s just so, so good. Some of her tracks are so easy to dance to in that old fashion pop rock dance way that I really miss. I know if I was still a DJ in Seoul I would play the shit out of some of her songs.

I have to note that some of her songs are a bit….graphic. I don’t know how much of that is I’m just an old man and how much of that is true. And, yet, lulz, all good lyrics are really honest so you can’t really hold it against her too much.

I Half-Think I’d Get A Job At Samsung Training AIs If I Went Back To South Korea

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I occasionally muse about what might happen if I went back to South Korea for a visit. I had a lot of “rizz” as the kids say when I was in South Korea and I’m sure there are a few South Koreans who remember me quite well.

I can just see me walking around the street in Seoul if I went back any time soon and some random Korean from my years there who remembered me popping out of the woodwork and saying, “Hey, man, there’s this perfect job for you at Samsung I know about…”

But there are a lot of problems with such a scenario.

It’s not like I’m going back to Seoul anytime soon — if ever. I could be nearly 60 years old — or older — by the time my lot in life changes to the point that I can even think about a return to Asia.

There are some other issues, but lulz, I don’t feel like talking about it.

We Continue To Overestimate Trump The Man & Underestimate Trump The Idea

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Trump, besides being a malignant ding-dong, is something of a political terrorist. And he get his power from how people conflate his political power with actual power as a person. Politically, because he is an avatar for some pretty messed up shit in our political system, he is something of a God King.

But as an actual human being, he’s just a lazy, dumb piece of shit.

The point is — if he becomes president again, it will say more about us as a nation than him as a political leader.

He’s not a Great Man. He doesn’t warp history to his personal needs, he just rides its trends. And, at the moment, there is a macro trend towards the United States become a white Christian ethnostate — or being forced to decide if it wants to become one — and, as such, Trump could very well become POTUS again.

This, despite what a fucking idiot he is.

So, I dunno. It really could go either way this fall. And if Trump becomes POTUS again, we will have only ourselves to blame.

Now What

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I have a complete draft done — even if it’s shit — I can collect my thoughts and think about what happens next.

I need to sit down and write out canon for all of the major characters. I also need to figure out what I’m going to do about the second half of the novel in a very fast amount of time.

I only have until April 19th to make a pretty shitty second half of the novel worth reading.

Now, obviously, all of this is EXTREMELY arbitrary because, lulz, I just want to be able to hand a “finished” draft to some people. I want to be able to say, “Hey, here’s the third draft of my novel,” even though I know personally that I’m going to keep working on it because the REAL deadline is July 22.

Anyway. Wish me luck.