I have a pretty good system going when it comes to this novel. I alternate between developing and writing and sitting down and reading through what I’ve written. This helps a lot because I’ve noticed a lot — A LOT — of structural problems with the flow of reading.
This novel has a very Barry-eques nature to it. But the downside of this is I’ve found myself spinning my wheels in the first few chapters of the third draft. I’m officially in a put-up-or-shut up era of this novel’s development. I need to start progressing past the first act and start a new, third draft of the rest of the novel.
I’ve kind of decided that whatever I have by November 1st, is what I got for the first act. But I think there’s a good chance that I will be in the second act well before that. I continue to do all of this in a vacuum, so, lulz, I have no idea if any of this is any good or not.
My hunch is it is. There is a progression of events that is pretty good. It’s very interesting. The ebb and flow of the story is such that I know that if you are willing to give it a chapter or two that you’ll be hooked and you’ll be willing to spend the time necessary to finish the novel.
The key thing is as the novel evolves, I’ve managed to infuse a story that to date as been all plot with a lot of character development.
I’m a nobody at the moment. Sometimes, I feel like I could walk off the edge of the world and it would take a while — if ever — for anyone to notice. So, ANY attention I get is of note to me. But I’m not going to complain about how I have one stalker(?) who obsessively checks this site.
No, I’m interested in those curious instances where someone looks at this Website, but clearly doesn’t want me to know where they’re really coming from. It’s no big deal — whatever — but it is curious that anyone would care enough to hide their domain name.
There was a moment in time, when such things really got me excited. But, now, not so much. I just don’t care. It’s no big deal. The idea that someone of note would be interested in me and would go out of their way to hide their URL is intriguing.
I will note that I find it really interesting when it comes to celebrity’s relationship to social media. I think there is a spectrum, with one end a celebrity being too busy doing dope shit to worry about social media and on the other end you have very insecure celebrities with a lot — A LOT — of burner accounts.
One of the most curious situations is people who not only come out of nowhere, but they find some random link deep in the site. It’s very curious. I sometimes think there is a lot going on in my Webstats that I’m not seeing. I think some of it comes from my Webstat software mistaking some people looking at this site as robots and, as such, I don’t see what they’re looking at.
Or something. Something like that. But, in the end, it’s all value free. It is going to be very interesting to see on the backend once I start querying. Of course I’m going to see a deluge of normal people with real careers and real money look through all the drunken ranting I’ve done on this site.
But I know this novel is getting really, really good. And that’s all that matters.
Here are my current theories as to who in the general Queens area keeps checking this site repeatedly during the day.
Someone who knows me from my time in South Korea This makes the most sense. I was kind of crazy in South Korea and it would make total sense for someone to continue to want to keep tabs on me, even 15 years after the fact.
Someone from the Kermit & Friends Community This ALSO makes total sense. I seem to recall one specific young man who was completely obsessed with me who was a part of the KaF community.
One of my personality quirks is I like to make my many abstract fears concrete. As such, here are various absolute-worst-case-scenarios when it comes to Biden shuffling off this mortal coil.
It happens after January 20th, 2025 I don’t want it to happen at all, but if it DID happen, the best time for it happen for the country would be at some point during Biden’s second term. There is a specific set of events that would happen and after a proper amount of grief, the country could go back to tearing itself apart.
It happens sooner rather than later If Biden shuffles off this mortal coil this late in the 2024 POTUS election cycle, then everything gets thrown up in the air. Chaos would descend upon the land. And, what’s worse, we STILL wouldn’t know if acting Speaker McHenry could become POTUS. And given how tense the country is, if there is some question as to if a Red Speaker of the House or a Blue Senate President Pro Temp was going to be POTUS, well, that’s a recipe for disaster. For that to happen, something really bad would have to happen, but the stakes would be so high that you know MAGA would figure out a way to force the issue one way or another.
It happens later rather than sooner If such a horrible thing happens a lot later, but before, say, ballets are printed, then chaos would erupt. The key thing would be, such a horrible thing happening would make the 2024 Democratic Convention a sight to see because there would be a massive struggle over who the nominee would be.
He lingers Another really bad scenario would be something happens such that the 25 Amendment has to be invoked. This horrible situation would also cause mass chaos because of how the country is tearing itself apart.
It happens between Election Day and Certification Day The absolute worst situation would be Biden shuffles off this mortal coil between Election Day and Certification Day. It’s happened once — as part of the election of 1872 — and the solution they used, with the dearly departed’s Electoral votes being dispersed to the living candidates doesn’t seem like a viable option in the modern era. I just don’t know what to tell you in that situation. I don’t think it would cause a civil war, but it would definitely be a “Not great, Bob,” situation.
When the history of this era of American history is written, the fate of one Mike Pence will be worth a few books. Given how “the Resistance” has accepted Liz Chaney with open arms, if Pence had a Road-to-Damascus moment and actually stood for some of the values he professes to believe and started hating on Trump, his life would be A LOT better.
I can’t promise you he’d ever be POTUS, but Pence’s political influence would increase dramatically if he became a Liz Chaney-like figure. If became something akin to a modern-day War Democrat, Pence would be on CNN and MSNBC a great deal. Hell, he might even get a show on one of those channels.
But, no. Pence is such a weak-willed weasel that he can not, will not do something so dramatic. It’s all sort of sad. The next speed bump that Pence is going to have to go over is what he’s going to do in late 2024, early 2025 should the country completely collapse.
Even if the country doesn’t collapse, given how Pence refused to do the one thing that might have kept Trump in office, you have to wonder if Trump goes full-tyrant on the American people that Pence might, at last, have his nuts descend and find his manhood.
I have my doubts, however. It definitively seems as though Pence has decided to simply fade away into political oblivion.
At the moment, I continue to drift towards my goal of being a traditionally published author in a delusional haze. But there is going to come a moment when I begin to query this novel when the cold, hard metrics of reality are going to come crashing down on me.
What I’m thinking about specifically is the due diligence that literary agents are inevitably going to do on me. Given that I’m 100% extroverted, I really have been out there on social media, being my drunk crank self. And that doesn’t even begin to address the various things I’ve said on this blog that could very easily get me “canceled.”
I’ve repeatedly been what some “woke cancel culture mob” people might say is “fat phobic” when I called Trump’s former Sectary of State Mike Pompeo a “fat fuck.” But not only did he deserve it because if he was ever POTUS, I’m the specific type person he would come after, but I would like to think such low brow political rhetoric is protected political speech.
But, no, any literary agent who sees that will probably just roll their eyes and move on.
That the thing about being a drunk crank who’s a loser who aspires to be a success — you just can’t win. The only difference between a drunk crank loser and someone who is “unique” is just success. But the transition from drunk crank loser to being “a colorful, unique eccentric” can be almost impossible because, generally, people are judgement assholes.
It all boils down to — I can’t help who the fuck I am. I just can’t help how old I am or that I’m a smelly “CIS white male” who likes to drink and spout off on various forms of social media while intoxictaed.
I’m all for people reading this blog, but there is one person in my Webstats who is a bit EXCESSIVE. They check this blog so much during the course of one day that I am a bit uneasy. They used to be in California, but now they’re in the New York City Area.
I wish they would stop being so obsessive. It’s kind of freaking me out. I struggle to think why anyone would care enough about what I have to say to check this site so many times in one day. I have a hyperactive imagination to the point that I automatically assume the person has ill intent, even if they just find me a REALLY interesting person.
But, to date, I don’t see any reason to be TOO worried.
One of the rules of thumb about writing a novel is one should avoid pontificating on the nature of any supposed Hollywood adaptation of your novel when you’re still struggling to get the damn thing done. But, lulz, I never do what I’m supposed to do, so here goes.
The key thing about this novel is, given both marketing and human nature, the thing everyone will hone in on is my heroine being both being involved in sex work and owning an alternative weekly. That is the thing that everyone will run around yelling and debating if this novel ever is sold and has even a modicum of success.
If I was a transgendered, undocumented twentysomething woman then, yes, of course, any qualms the “woke cancel culture mob” had about such a novel would evaporate. But here I am, a 50-year-old CIS white male writing something that in the eyes of some, I have no business writing about. Some people’s minds will shut down the moment they hear “stripper” and “written by a CIS white male.”
But, just for shits and giggles, let’s assume I somehow manage to get past that obstacle. Given what I know of Hollywood actresses, plenty of them would get off on playing such an interesting character, especially one in which they get a few scenes where they work the pole. And I have done my best not to make the whole stripper angle not seem to gratuitous.
It’s done in a rather matter-of-fact way. I like this potentially controversial element of the story because there’s all this conflict involved as the two sides of my heroine’s life occasionally smash into each other in unexpected an interesting ways.
In my mind, my heroine looks like a younger version of Olivia Munn. In fact, I would say Ms. Munn would be perfect to play the heroine, but for her being about a decade too old. Another woman who I have rolling around in my mind as I write my heroine is Nicole Scherzinger. But, again, she’s too old. But Ms. Scherzinger’s phenotype is definitely pretty much exactly what I have in mind as what my heroine looks like.
I’ve lost this actress’ name, but the below picture is a close approximation of my heroine’s appearance.
About what I imagine my heroine looks like as I write her.
Anyway, all of this is mental masturbation. I still have a long ways to go before I get anywhere near seeing the waking dreams of my novel on the big screen. But the story is really, really interesting and unexpected. The story isn’t nearly as dark as Stieg Larsson’s original Millennium series. That kind of shit just isn’t my scene.
But I’ve made the overall story interesting enough that I think its possible that by the time the development and writing process is over, I’ll be within shouting distance of getting an agent and, in turn a book deal. Of course, by the time all that happens I’ll be so fucking old that, well, ugh.
It definitely seems as though our relationship to Web search is about to be totally upended. The advent of AI indicates that there may come a time soon when we all have a Her-like digital assistant who searches the Web for us using vocal commands. What’s more, it’s also possible that the “practical obscurity” of the Dark Web will come to an end.
In the near future, a Her-like digital assistant may be able to search the entire Web — Dark Web, too — and give us information that maybe we don’t want to know or weren’t expecting.
The question is, of course, what does this sea change mean for Google?
I think it could be that Google will be one of several companies that SELLS you the Her-like AGI that helps you during the course of the day with voice commands. Or, put another way, it could be all the jobs we expect to happen because of a fusion of AGI and robotics could be from humans still having control over the back end.
Or maybe not.
AGI is a very powerful concept. Once AI comes anywhere close to being “more human than human,” I struggle to discern why any humans would have a job at all. That combination is so potent that a Universal Basic Income seems to be the inevitable conclusion.
But, who knows. I’m, as always, being very speculative and I can’t predict the future.
I’m a long-term fan of Jennifer Lawrence. She continues to be a very interesting person. One thing I’ve noticed about JLaw is she is your stereotypical hot girl who has female friends who are less attractive but are funny. If it’s not Amy Schumer, then JLaw is hanging out with Phoebe Waller-Bridge. (Though I do think Waller-Bridge is hot, in her own way.)
I suspect when JLaw was younger and single, dudes had to engage in Game Theory to figure out how to get her number while keeping her more homely friend occupied.
Another thing about JLaw is what the fuck was up with her and Harvey Weinstein back in the day. Though she denies it now, it definitely SEEMS as though she slept with that ogre in a quest to help her career. He certainly wanted everyone to think it happened.
The only reason why I even bring it up is if we knew one way or another what happened between the two of them, then we would have a far better sense of who JLaw is as person. Which, of course, is why we’ll probably never know. At least, not for a few decades.
But I really do like JLaw. She’s got a great personality and she seems to be settling into having something akin to a Meryl Streep career where she wins the occasional Oscar now and again.
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