Hot Fun In The Thriller

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m really at a loss as to how to write a sex scene. I once read a quote from a novel writing book where some guy said that people in novels have far, far more sex that anyone in real life.

So, I have to get over myself and figure out how to write a sexxy scene so I can stay in the game. Otherwise, I risk essentially writing a YA novel. Ugh. Fucking Ugh. Nothing against YA novels, but that’s not my vision for this project.

With that in mind, I have to mull how to tastefully depict some of my characters getting it on. I’ve already written one half-hearted sex scene, but I think I’m going to go back to it at some point and punch it up some. It has got to be better than it is right now. Right now, it’s kind of meh.

The thing about sex scenes is they drain all the tension out of the story. I’m sure there is some rule of them as to where to put sex scenes in the progression of the plot, but I have no idea what I’m doing so I put this particular sex scene where logically it would make sense.

But I have figured out a way to keep the tension going by the scene I use to break up the few scenes that make up the knocking boots event. I just have to keep thing moving and not let all the tension in the story drain out of it, even for a moment.

The Conundrum That is Writing A Thriller

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The first novel I’m writing, at the moment at least, probably doesn’t fit safely within the “thriller” genre for no other reason than it’s just not dark enough. It’s just not my nature to write about dark, scary things. But I am well aware of the expectations of thriller genre readers.

So, as such, at some point in the process of writing this novel, I’m probably going to have to give significant thought to amping the darkness up significantly. As it stands, I have an interesting, intriguing story that will keep you reading…but I’m not so sure it’s really as dark and twisted as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

It is because of one specific scene in The Girl With Dragon Tattoo — if you’ve read the book, you immediately know which one I’m talking about — that makes it both extremely engaging and extremely problematic. The scene is what gets you hooked for the fate of Lisbeth Salander because you find yourself really caring about her. And, yet, the scene is so horrible, you feel kind of traumatized having been exposed to it in the first place.

What I imagine the heroine of my first novel looks like.

I have a few ideas as to how to am up the twisted, dark nature of this novel, but it’s not going to come easy. People are just too quick to make assumptions about you if you write something too terribly dark and twisted in your novels and people already think I’m bonkers.

It’s going to be a real struggle to flesh out the potentially darker elements of this story. I already been squeamish writing a specific scene which isn’t even all that bad — there’s no sex or gore — but I was kind of nervous that audience members, especially women, might be turned off by the implications of what was going on.

But, lulz, everyone — so far — that I’ve mentioned the scene to were blase. Only time will tell. I do know the general conceit of this six novel writing project is really, really good. But I’m going to have to focus on taking things to the next level by making it clear that I’m writing thrillers.

The Name Game

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have a lingering concern about the name of woman who will be the center of this six novel project when the last novel is finished. I think a lot about what a great name “Lisbeth Salander” is because her first name is a variation on a pretty traditional name and her last name evokes the image of a small creature that’s quick on its feet: a salamander.

Lisbeth Salander

With that in mind, I have toyed with coming up with a slightly different name for my eventual heroine. That, combined with a minor risk of there being a perceived conflict with someone else’s IP, makes me think again and again if I can do better with a different name.

And, yet, the name I’ve come up inhabits a murky gray zone of IP because there is more than one way to look at it. I really like the name I’ve come up with, really grown very fond of it and I’m going to keep using it until something happens that makes it clear I have to go with something else.

My fear, of course, is everything will be great…then the IP problem will surface because the novel is a success and that will make continuing the rest of the series far more problemlatic.

But, for the moment, I think I’m overthinking things. There just is no reason for me to change the name at the moment and I think if I get anywhere near selling the first novel the issue of kinda sorta getting close to someone else’s IP will be addressed and decided one way or another.

Even though I love the character’s name, I’ll change it at the drop of a hat if it becomes an obstacle. I just hope I’m not too late in the process to easily change it.

My Hot Take On Sydney Sweeney As The New ‘Barbarella’ 

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In a clear sign that the old Hollywood adage, “Nobody knows nothing” when it comes to making movies we learn today that Sydney Sweeney is going to star in a remake of the extremely campy 60s movie Barbarella.

Sydney Sweeney

And, unto itself, there’s no problem with that. I’m sure she’ll do a great job and more than a few young men’s puberty will begin when they see the opening scene of Sydney Sweeney as Barbarella slowly taking all her clothes off in zero G.

My only complaint is not that Sydney Sweeney is starring, but that the obvious choice to play a modern day Barbarella — Miley Cyrus — was not chosen instead. Cyrus looks and acts like 60s Jane Fonda and is definitely as big a wild child as Fonda was in the 1960s.

Or, put another way, Sydney Sweeney just doesn’t jump to mind as someone to play Barbarella the way that Cyrus does.

Anyway. No one listens to me, anyway.

Future History: Jon Stewart As Blue America’s Zelensky in a Second Civil War

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

First, let me be clear — at the moment, I just do not believe the United States is going to have a second civil war. If any sort of “fourth turning” happens in the United States around 2025, it will be that we slip peacefully into autocracy. Millions of wealthy Twitter liberals will flee the country and that will be that.

But there IS a greater-than-zero -sum chance that instead of a peaceful transition into a MAGA themed autocracy, the United States buckles and we have battle to the death between Blues and Reds to see who gets the USA “brand.”

As such, there are a few people I think would be forced into leadership roles as the Second American Civil War progressed. One is Liz Cheney, which would be extremely ironic, given she’s more conservative than dirt. And the other is Jon Stewart.

If Blues suddenly break away from a MAGA dominated USA to start their own nation, then there really would be something akin to a revolution because people who are obvious leaders — like Stewart — would be shanghaied by the Hand of God (fate) into doing things that they might otherwise never do.

And there is an almost eerie one-to-one between Stewart and Ukrainian President Zelensky. It would be very amusing and apropo if American democracy was saved by Stewart, just as Ukrainian democracy was saved by Zelensky.

But all of this is very, very speculative. This particular dark fate is still too far out for me to have any confidence what will happen one way or another.

Here are some reasons why we will have a civil war.

  1. Republicans have come to glorify political violence
    Something you see a lot these days within the bullshit echo chamber of the MAGA New Right is the belief that because “liberals won’t leave us alone” that they are being “driven” to extremism. There’s a lot of leading not-so-vague talk as to what all this would ultimately mean. But it’s clear that for a number of “thought leaders” within the MAGA New Right that they have accepted that at some point in the future, they’re going to have to resort to violence to get what they want.
  2. Republicans no longer believe in democracy
    It is now clear that like any good fascists, Republicans no longer believe in democracy unless it’s for the specific purpose of gaining and keeping power. This view of the system they’re supposed to a part of leads them do extremely destabilizing things that help push the country to the brink.
  3. Trump 2024
    Just Trump being the 2024 nominee would, in itself, be enough to cause a civil war at some point in late 2024 – early 2025. He just has a special knack for “owning the libs” in such a way that if he stole in 2024 election and said the “quiet part outloud” that Blue States would grow so enraged that it would be they, not Red States, that left the Union and caused a Second Civil War. But Ron DeSantis is polling exceptionally well at the moment, so either Trump politically shivs him at some point, or he co-ops him, making him his VP, opening the door to DeSantis becoming America’s Putin at some point down the road a little bit.
  4. Steve K Bannon.
    Bannon and his toadies are actively working to destroy the framework that we use to administer free and fair elections. So, it’s very easy to imagine a situation where this gambit works in ways that Trump himself is too idiotic to pull off personally and it will be so egregious that, again, Blue States leave the Union and we have a Second American Civil War.
  5. Extreme negative polarization
    We’re in for a bump four or so years, no matter what, because negative polarization, on a systemic level, has reached a critical mass. When one of your political parties is fascist and would rather crash the global economy instead of even appear to work for the good of the nation — you got a problem.
  6. A lack of shared values
    As the big blow up on Twitter in the last 24 hours about a Stephen Colbert song and dance gag about getting vaccinated proves — we can’t even agree on what’s funny. A combination of this and negative polarization is leading to the United States being two nations, one Red, one Blue and when we get around to attempting to elect the next president, the system simply won’t be prepared for the passions it will stir up.
  7. A potentially historic miscalculation on the part of Republicans
    It’s possible that, much like European powers in the lead up to WW1, when the time comes and Republicans have a choice between peacefully transitioning us into autocracy or fucking with us all so we want to take up arms, they will choose the latter not because they have to, but because they want to. It’s possible that by the 2024 — 2025 period, Republicans will see a civil war as their only choice to consolidate power, even if it’s clear that they could get everything they ever wanted within the system they so obviously loath.

And, honestly, the only thing standing in the way of an autocrat becoming president in 2025 and seizing “total control” pretty quick is any potential cleaving between MAGA and the Republican Party that takes place between now and then.

Given what I’m seeing right now, it definitely doesn’t seem as though that’s going to be a problem. At this point, it seems as though Republicans will first win power in Congress in 2022, then win the presidency (one way or anther) in 2024 and that will be that.

The autocracy we feared during the Trump Era will come, just four years later than we all expected. But…

There’s a real chance that our transition from liberal democracy to autocracy won’t be as smooth as I think — there could be a civil war. One side — or the other — won’t accept the results of the election and the country will finally buckle. All the nightmare scenarios that I came up with in 2020-2021, will just happen in 2024-2025.

If what happened in 2020 is any indication, the first sign that we would have that something was amiss would be on the local level. Instead of people who simply do their job as Americans and do the rather perfunctory duty of certifying the win of A Democrat, this doesn’t happen. In crucial voting districts all across swing states, Bannon’s “spiritual shock troops” either refuse to certify the win of A Democrat, or they go so far as to YOLO things and switch the win to Trump.

As this happens, the tension in United States escalates day by day. The very rallying cry of MAGA in 2020 — “Stop The Steal” will be adopted by the center-Left when it becomes clear that the MAGA New Right is hell bent on brazenly stealing the 2024 election in broad daylight.

But remember, the center-Left has a very different personality than the MAGA New Right. The center-Left, for all it’s problems with “cancel culture” and being “woke” is still actually connected to reality. So, there would be a struggle between the natural inclination of centrist Liberals to let the “process work” and Leftists who would want to burn everything to the ground given how corrupted everything had become.

All of this turmoil on the local level would find elections in crucial states thrown into the political realm where MAGA state legislatures and Secretary’s of State would begin to actively ensure that A Democrat is prevented from winning. Every day between Election Day 2024 and Certification Day 2025 things would grow more and more unstable in the United States as it became clear that Bannon’s long-planned “administrative coup” was actually going to work.

There would be mass confusion. Lots of lawsuits

And, remember, if Trump is involved, as all of this is going on, he would do everything in his personal power to rile up both sides. If his ongoing, progressive cognitive decline has gotten bad enough, he might even go transactional.

It would be around this point that I could see Blue governors begin to make serious plans to leave the Union. A lot would depend on what California was willing to do. But it would definitely make sense that California would be the first state to call a Secessionist Convention in preparation of leaving the Union if the 2024 election is, in fact, stolen.

But by some point between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you could see some sort of summit of Blue Governors where they debate their plans to leave the Union if the very thing that the MAGA New Right wants — to turn the United States into an autocracy — actually happens.

And as we approached Certification Day in January 2025, the last step in the crisis would happen. If you thought Certification Day 2021 was bad, just wait until Republicans are actively going over and above what they did then when it rolls around in 2025. So, the system will have been corrupted at both the local and state level. And then if that doesn’t work, Republicans will again try to throw the election into the House and Senate to buy time, if nothing else.

So, let me be clear — anyone who thinks we’re going to have some sort of MAGA New Right revolution a la The Turner Diaries — is a fool. Any Second American Civil War we have is probably going to be started by Blue States leaving the Union out of disgust that the fix is in.

Therefore, by the time Certification Day 2025 rolls around, it could very well be a foregone conclusion that we’re going to have a pretty organized civil war. Republicans have no shame and don’t apparently care about the consequences of their actions, so, lulz, we could find ourselves in the absolute worst of worlds because not only are states actively thinking about leaving the Union around this time, but the whole process of figuring out who is POTUS will be languishing in Congress. Republicans, because they are politically blood thirsty and will cheat, will win the power struggle, but there’s a chance states will begin leaving the Union.

It won’t be deranged, individual MAGA New Right blowing stuff up in some sort of rearguard action. It’s going to be a Blue Nation verses a Red Nation. A lot of the same things that happened in the First American Civil War will happen in the second. The U.S. Military will implode as people from Blue States leave it to establish a new Blue State military.

But one thing we have to expect in late 2024 to early 2025 is a mass migration of people across the country as people no longer feel safe living in an area of the country that doesn’t fit their politics. It could be rather frightening.

If it were, God forbid, to happen, I would guess that a Second American Civil War will begin between Certification Day 2025 and Inauguration Day 2025. In other words, as Trump is being sworn in, mass chaos will have erupted across the United States.

Once the hollowed out American military turns it attention to the Blue rebellion at the behest of Trump, it won’t be too long before WMD are sized and used by both sides. Not only would America bomb itself into oblivion with its eyes wide open, but it will be done in the context of WW3 definitely breaking out across the globe because the US will be too busy imploding to ensure the continuation of the post WW2 global order.

How’s that for a New World Order.

Macro trends are not on America’s side. As I keep saying, 2024 is going to be it. It’s the year when either the United States turns into a Russian-style “managed democracy” or there’s a civil war. Now, this isn’t going to be a complete list of the 50 states, but I am going to highlight some of the states that may be more problematic should a Second American Civil War erupt.

Oregon
The state is really two states and, as such, is probably going to be a major flashpoint in any Second Civil War. What’s likely to happen is Portland will buck any attempt at a putsch on the part of bonkers Right wing nutjobs in the rest of the state and, as such, either there’s a really blood struggle in the state or there are a massive amount of political refugees from the Portland area as the rest of the state sides with MAGA.

Virginia
Again, this is really two states. There’s the NOVA-Richmond-Hampton Roads urban corridor and everything else. It’s very easy to imagine a situation — especially with Virginia’s historic ties to the first Civil War — where the state implodes as we grow closer and closer to a Second Civil War. Too many good old boys in the rural areas of Virginia might get wrapped up in the “Lost Cause” mythos and decide to seize places like Danville (the last capitol of the Confederacy) or Richmond (another Confederate capitol.) If nothing else, simply because of the larger population of the “Blue” parts of the state, there will be significant violence and political refugees as the Blues consolidate power.

Michigan
I don’t know as much about this state, but it definitely seems as though once the pre-war process of coups and political consolation begins that there will be at least a coup attempt on the part of the Far Right. Again, don’t underestimate how once you actually start murdering people that the dynamics of things change significantly. It’s very possible that there would be a coup in the state, it would fail, and there would be significant political violence as the state’s Blue population fought back and put the state firmly on the Blue side.

New York
Yet again, we have a situation where once politics fails us that the otherwise banal regional differences in a state tears it apart. New York City is far more progressive than the rest of New York State and, depending on how things work out, it’s possible that New York City could become a revolutionary hotbed to the point that is tears itself away from the rest of the state and proclaims itself a Free City. This almost happen during the first Civil War. If nothing else, there will be a serious jiggling of the relationship between NYC and the rest of the state to the point where it aligns itself in any Second Civil War with New Jersey and Connecticut in a way that update New York does not. Or, again, there could be significant political consolidation as Blues from all over the northeast flee to New York and the MAGA-friendly natives of the state flee elsewhere.

Maine
I really don’t know that much about this state other than a vague belief that the northern part of the state is far different than the southern part. It’s very easy to imagine significant consolation in the state one way or another as people flee to it as the rest of the country buckles. The state is big — if sparsely populated — and it’s strategic location near the Canadian border might be enough for it to be the home to large refugee camps.

Texas
Texas would be in an odd situation as the country fell into civil war because its long-term political trend is shifting Blue, but it’s part of the South and a lot of people consider themselves Southern and MAGA. So either it simply buckles into its own intra-civil war or the MAGA cocksucker fucktards push out all the Blues who flee to Blue States nearby. The end result would be a lot of pissed off former Texans who would be of great benefit to the Blue cause.

California
In a sense, the whole fate of the United States rests on what California does. If it simply bolts from the Union, then that significantly hobbles the Blue cause on the ground. California sitting on its hands and become its own nation in the event of a Second Civil War makes it far more likely that either Red states win or there is some sort of half-ass balkanization of the United States. But if California stays and fights, then they could provide not only the necessary economy and population for a Blue state victory — after many, many dead — but also something of a vision for what America would look like after we’re finished bombing ourselves into oblivion.

The Deep South
It’s very easy to imagine at the onset of a Second American Civil War most of the old Confederacy on a political level getting extremely excited and having a massive amount of momentum to either leave the Union outright or support the Republican controlled Congress’ attempt to brazenly steal the election. Then reality would sink in — all of the Southern states have significant African American populations and once politics is no longer a viable method of solving problems then the far more brutal dynamics of realpolitik would kick in. I just can’t imagine millions of African Americans lulzing a return to the Confederacy, no matter how badly the white political establishment of those states may want it. So, even though the South has a lot of people and a big economy, it would be, on a regional basis, too busy fighting a race war to really help the Red cause all that much. If things really grew as radical as I fear they will — probably because WMD are stolen and cities start to get vaporized — it’s the Deep South where you’re most likely to see some WW2 level atrocities as radicalized whites begin to murder blacks en mass.

As for the rest of the states, their ability to pick one side or the other is probably far easier and their biggest problem would be dealing with political refugees.

Or, put another way, we’re fucked. We’re totally, completely fucked one way or another. Either we turn into an autocracy or Red and Blue begin to murder each other in cold political blood. The usual outcome of all this bullshit that we have come to expect — simply muddling along until we come to some solution one way or another — is not longer a valid option.

Tik-Tok May Have Done It AGAIN

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This particular instance of suspected “mind reading” on Tik-Tok’s part is very dubious because there really are plenty of other potential explanations for this particular “spooky” incident.

But here’s what’s going on.

I have a VERY active imagination and a lot of mental energy to spare and so, as such, even though I’m constantly thinking about how to develop the universe associated with a six novel project, I also am aggressively world building a scifi concept as well.

As part of this, the last few days I’ve really been obsessing about the state I live — Virginia. The concept “Virginia” has been at the forefront of my internal monologue in a really intense way for some time now. Well, would you believe, today I got pushed a video on Tik-Tok about the name “Virginia” and how funny it is that that’s it’s inspired by the belief that Elizabeth I was the “Virgin Queen.”

This incident of suspected “mind reading” isn’t as clear as some because I do live in Virginia and I’m sure that there’s a solid case to be made for the Tik-Tok algorithms picking up on where I’m from and simply pushing a video about my state’s name.

No magical mystery powers of mind reading needed.

But it is interesting.

Form Follows Function — The Return Of Fascist Antisemitism

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Antisemitism has always been a part of America’s modern fascist movement, it’s just been lurking in the shadows in the guise of “Qanon.” But lately, especially with the tweets of Ye….the sentiment has grown more conspicuous. Now, let me be clear – I’m not Jewish and I’m just pointing out the obvious: if your country has a fascism problem, you’ve got an antisemitism problem just around the corner.

Now, in an ideal world, the rise of such antisemitic hate would cause a lot of prominent MAGA people to wash their hands of MAGA and that would be that. I mean, fucking Stephen Miller is MAGA ‘s Joseph Goebbels and you’d think being Jewish he might pause to reflect on the rise of antisemitism within MAGA ranks.

But, no, he’s a vile, nasty bigot who won’t stop being a true believer until it’s too late for him — and everyone else for that matter.

The thing I would suggest you keep an eye on Qanon as well as MAGA’s interpretation of Jared and Ivanka’s Jewishness. If Qanon completely consumed MAGA — as it’s on track to do at the moment, then it’s obvious antisemitism basis may grow more and more a feature and not a bug. I still am very concerned that should we become a MAGA-themed autocracy that it will be because of Qanon that we zoom past being a political clone of Hungary and end up circling the drain somewhere around being a Nazi clone. (Of course, America’s Fourth Reich won’t be expansition in nature, but more like something Pol Pot might think up.)

Also, if Jared and Ivanka’s position in MAGA grows untenable then…yeah, something really bad is about to happen for American Jews. Something we were all told Never Again and Never Forget.

I wish American Jews — even conservative American Jews — would be more at the forefront of the anti-MAGA movement. But I suppose — hopefully — that time will come.

I just hope it’s not too late.

In Defense Of Male Authors Writing From A Woman’s POV In Fiction

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I go where this novel takes me. And when I started this latest version of this story, or put another way, when I decided to start the story not in late 2019 but in early 1995, I had no idea where things would take me. But, here I am. Staring at my computer screen trying my best to write a scene from my heroine’s POV as she swoons for a dude she ultimately has sex with.

I’m well aware that “woke” people think that by definition, I’m being transgressive by even attempting such a thing. To them a man can never use his imagination to write from a female point of view — no matter what. It’s like some immutable law of nature or something.

Fuck that.

If I’m going to tell the story I want to tell, then not only am I going to use third person intimate to depict a woman going on a date, I’m also going to write from the POV of a nearly 16-year-old boy. That’s just the story I want to tell because I know, in the end, the payoff will be huge in the sense that fans of this project (if they ever exist) will have five more novels (at at least) to look forward to.

I say this even as I am well aware that I have to be very careful how I proceed. I have to be very careful in what I write, very conservative about how I go about things. If I don’t, then I’m going to make a fool out of myself and join a legion of other male writers who write about “girl stuff” and do nothing but embarrass themselves and cause women to giggle.

I guess the point is — don’t assume I can’t pull this kind of stuff off just because of who I am. I do have an imagination, you know. And, for the purposes of art and fiction I’m willing to — very carefully — wade into the problematic and perilous waters of being a middle age CIS white man writing from a woman’s POV in third person intimate.

I totally get why some “woke” people hate on my ilk for doing what I’m attempting to do. I totally validate it. And, yet, those people can suck it if they say I totally prohibited, by definition, from even doing it to begin with. Judge me for what I can do, not for who I am.

Silicon Valley Tech Bros Are Determined To Follow In The Path Of Charles Lindbergh When It Comes To MAGA & Putin

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I’ve said many times before, I have a lot of respect for tech people of Silicon Valley. Sometimes I wonder why they’re kind of sitting on their hands these days when it comes to changing the lives of everyday people, but, in general they have been the cause of a shocking amount of improvement in human life.

Fucking MAGA.

Then there are moments like this when the continue to be tone deaf about not just the rise of MAGA but Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

It’s all very odd. Here are these really smart guys who are just totally on the wrong side of not just history but common sense when it comes to the evils of both MAGA and Russian’s war of aggression on Ukraine. It makes you wonder what is going on. Why are they like this?

I really struggle with this particular situation. There is something about the mentality of Tech Bros that I just can’t understand. The fact that so many noteworthy Tech Bros hate democracy and are actively rooting for fascist MAGA to turn the United States into an autocracy is…unsettling, to say the least. And the idea that Tech Bros would be appeasers and apologists for a fascist thug like Putin is also not great.

The only explanation I might be able to say is Tech Bros are so busy thinking about cold hard metrics and nerd stuff like coding and its associated math that they totally miss the obvious moral implications of MAGA and Putin, even if they’re clear to the mass of other people.

Or something. I think that’s what’s going on. It’s all a mystery to me. I think if I were to talk to someone from Silicon Valley and they were willing to have a good faith conversation with me on the subject, I could probably figure it out. Then I would alternate between being mad and angry that people who should know better are no better than 1930s German Industrialists.

Time To Take A Deep Breath

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Age wise, I’m just about to enter the sweet spot of getting querying and getting this first novel in a projected six novel project published. I’m a few months away from turning 50 and it’s kind of put up or shut up time.

The key issue is soon my little dream, my little creative baby is going to have to take its first steps, as it were, in the guise of finding someone willing to actually spend money not just on me, but the novel itself. Given that generally I live in oblivion and no one takes me seriously — way too many people think I’m nothing more than a drunk crank, apparently — if I can stick the landing on this novel and actually get a literary agent….WOW.

Add to this that I’m definitely not getting any younger and I need to gird my loins creatively. I need to take this whole thing a lot more seriously and try to sprint — to some extent — over the course of the next few months so I can wrap up a solid second draft by sometime in spring 2023.

That will give me a few months to have beta readers look over the manuscript and maybe — just maybe — save up the money necessary to find an editor of some sort.

Who knows.

Then I reach the even more perilous stage of things in which I try to querying a literary agent. Then if I can get past that gatekeeper, they try to sell the novel to a publishing house. Then if get past THAT gatekeeper I have to cool my heels for as much as a year while post-production happens.

I could die of a heart attack or we could all be running around in a panic, trying to avoid bombs as part of a Second American Civil War by the time all those miracles manage to happen.

Of course, we’re past the event horizon for autocracy, civil war or miliary junta. All I can do is hurry up and try to get at lease one novel published before the “Fourth Turning” of late 2024 – early 2025.

But, in the end, you just have to believe. That’s all I’ve got.

Keep the faith.