A Woman Of Two Worlds & The Men She Loves

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While it feels like I keep spinning my wheels with this third draft of the novel, something really intriguing is beginning to take shape. I *think* I may have come up with an interesting way to cause a lot of drama — my heroine has two men in her life.

I imagine my heroine looking like a younger version of Nicole Scherzinger.

Each one represents a different thing in her mind and heart. One represents the past, while the other represents the future. One represents the stripping part of her life, while the other represents the journalistic part of her life.

Or something. Something like that. It’s not a perfect fit, but just thinking in those terms is making my insight into the character a lot easier.

I’ve also of late been doing a lot of “outside the box” thinking about which POVs I use, which should come handy later on. I’m really giving people a sense of character when it comes to the unlikely “investigative team” by heroine ultimately assembles to solve the mystery she’s confronted with.

The key thing is I’m kind of in put-up-or-shut-up mode at the moment. I’m not getting any younger — Stieg Larsson dropped dead at my age — and I really, really need to push myself harder. I have to get into the second act as quickly as possible while still maintaining high quality copy.

And that doesn’t even begin to address how I want to dip into screenwriting now as well. But, lulz, I’m being delusional like always, I guess.

Mulling Late 2024, Early 2025

Well, At Least The First Scene Of This Third Draft is Rock-Solid

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If nothing else, I know how this novel opens. I have one scene — the first — that is where I want it to be. Everything else is totally fluid to an absurd level. I don’t know how much of all of this is I still have a lot of learning to do about storytelling and how much of it is I’m too much of a perfectionist.

Regardless, I’ve kind of given myself a half-deadline of early next week to kind of get things locked down one way or another.

Rage Against The Machine: Plotting A Glorious Revolution In Early 2025

by Ender

To My Fellow New Lincolnites

I love scenarios. So, let’s game how out Radical Moderates might topple Tyrant Trump when it becomes clear that he’s going full tyrant. This is just for fun. I mean no harm. And, besides, no one takes me seriously or listens to me, anyway. Lulz!

General Strike
If New Lincolnites and Radical Moderates of all political stripes could organize some sort of General Strike that would be the first indication that Tyrant Trump was in trouble. I would appeal to women. I would make it clear to women that Tyrant Trump wanted to ban abortion — and contraception of any sort — and if they just didn’t show up to work then maybe malignant ding-dong Tyrant Trump might sit up and taken notice.

Take Trump Tower

I hate violence, so this is just me spit-balling. But if you could organize the “taking of Trump Tower” that would be way to fucking rattle Tyrant Trump’s cage. Burn the shithole to the ground. Hopefully without anyone getting hurt.

Seize New York City

If you could somehow have a general uprising in New York City to the point that you had something along the lines of a “Free City” that, too, would be a way to hobble Tyrant Trump’s attempts to size control. Again, I don’t want anyone to get hurt! This is just a daydream!

Co-opt The U.S. Military

Our best best to topple ding-dong Tyrant Trump is to co-opt the U.S. Military. Get all the talking heads on TV to beg the U.S. Military to ignore Tyrant Trump’s orders. Given that the U.S. Military on an institutional basis just doesn’t want to get involved….you invoke your secret weapon.

Invoke The 14th Amendment

It is clear that Trump can’t even *be* president because of his involvement in the January 6th Insurrection. So, while you’re crippling the country with a Women’s Strike, you appeal to the U.S. Military by saying, “You’re still acting legally by toppling Trump because he can’t even be POTUS because of the 14th Amendment.”

Demand A Constitutional Convention

Another goal of the General Strike (Women’s Strike) would be a Constitutional Convention. And it would be organized in a way not to give MAGA the ability to fuck things up. (Having the U.S. Military on your side is pretty cool.)

The Absence of A MAGA SA Is Curious

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I kind of have this on the brain because I’m reading about the first 100 days of Nazi rule, but it’s very, very curious that for all their hateful plotting that both Agenda47 and Project 2025 have pretty big hole in their autocratic designs — no SA.

See, it was the Nazi paramilitary group the SA that was crucial to browbeating the 48% of the German population that didn’t support the Nazis. And, yet, as far as I can tell, there is no one central paramilitary arm of MAGA that Tyrant Trump can turn to in early 2025.

It seems as though Tyrant Trump believes that what the Nazis used the SA for he can use the regular old U.S. Military to do. And…I have my doubts on that front. If things get REALLY FUCKING BAD, I could totally see the U.S. Military either slow walking things are turning around and deposing Tyrant Trump outright. (Maybe under the guise of the 14the Amendment?)

It is the lack of an organized national American SA that gives me…hope? If MAGA just assumes that they can rely on the U.S. Military to be their goons, then, well, I think the Good Guys have a fighting chance.

‘It Looks Like Rain’ — #lyrics to a #pop #rock song

It Looks Like Rain
Lyrics by @sheltgarner
please give credit if you produce or perform

you can tell me the truth
I swear I won’t bite
the clouds are dark
I’m afraid
soon enough if I’m right
that it looks like rain

it looks like rain
it looks like rain
it looks like rain
baby

the darkness on the horizon
raises my fears that our love
is about to fade
what is our fate I want to know
is it going to rain
or is that just my fears
becoming a little too dear
’cause it looks like rain

it looks like rain
it looks like rain
it looks like rain
baby

(bridge)
it’s dry as dirt
my mouth is parched
no sign of rain
from the sight of my domain
but maybe I’m wrong
and a flood is on its way

it looks like rain
it looks like rain
it looks like rain
baby

‘Love Never Ends’ — #lyrics to a #pop song

Love Never Ends
lyrics by @sheltgarner
please give credit if you produce or perform

don’t know what to say
much to my dismay
lay down next to me
give me a taste
of your sigh
as a caress your thigh

love never ends
when you’re into sin
love never ends
when you’re into sin
love never ends
when you’re into sin
into sin
into sin
into sin

lovers come and go
and sometimes they blow
but give me a bow
and I’ll let you know
what it’s all about
no one can compare
when you give me
a bedroom stare

love never ends
when you’re into sin
love never ends
when you’re into sin
love never ends
when you’re into sin
into sin
into sin
into sin

(bridge)
I’ll be a saint
sweet as can be
if that will make you cling
keep your distance if you must
’cause we need to keep our
lust in the dust

love never ends
when you’re into sin
love never ends
when you’re into sin
love never ends
when you’re into sin
into sin
into sin
into sin

The Web Is Dead, Long Live The Web

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really hate the modern Web sometimes. I hate how boring it is. I hate that I have to use a browser — or an app. What I want is to have the Web replaced by a bunch of LLM that talk to each other.

Or, I don’t know, it would be cool if I had a LLM that knew every quirk of my personality to the point that it could “pre-emptively” answer my questions before I even asked them. Or something like that.

Of course, the dark side to this is everyone would fall in love with their LLM, like in the movie Her. But ignoring that problem, I want to information to come to me via LLM, rather than me have to search it out.

It makes you think about how maybe the major national newspapers might need to invest in LLM. Because it definitely seems as though everything on the Web is about to change in a rather abrupt manner. Almost overnight, it could be that the very notion of using a “browser” will seem quaint.

This will only accelerate as LLMs become a commodity. That seems to be inevitable.

This Pop Novel That Is Meant To Be An Old Brown Shoe For Stieg Larsson Fans Is Getting Really, Really Good

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m a storytelling snob. So much so, that it’s now nearly impossible for me to consume anyone else’s story. But, at last, I believe I may — may — have at last stumble upon a beginning to my novel that actually pleases even me.

Now, remember, I’m not nearly as dark as my hero Stieg Larsson. And it can be a real struggle for me to play it straight — I like to plop in some humor every now and again. I just can’t help myself.

Anyway. It is at least possible that things will zoom along at a pretty fast clip now. I’ve had to grit my teeth and break or bend some of the dumb arbitrary rules I’ve been using to write this novel simply so I can actually finish something, anything.

I am embarrassed by how long it’s taken me to get to this point. I now hope to finish the third draft in the February – March timeframe. Then I will have to figure out how to pay a manuscript consultant to help me take the thing to the next level.

The case could be made that my heroine looks kind of like Pom Klementieff.

What’s more all of this will be happening in the context of the United States careening towards autocracy or civil war / revolution starting in late 2024, early 2025 — just as I plan on querying the novel!

But I have hope. I hope that if I can sell this first novel, I will somehow be given the opportunity to not only write the other five planned novels, but also a few scifi novels I want to write. And maybe, if I’m EXTREMELY LUCKY, a few screenplays too.

But I’m old and they shoot writers, don’t they?

Is Dua Lipa Entering Her Nellie Furtado ‘Loose’ Era?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I can still remember way back when dinosaurs ruled the earth when a very giddy young woman came up to me DJing at the bar Nori in Seoul and asked for me to play Nellie Furtado’s new track “Maneater.”

“It’s huge in Bangkok right now,” she said.

It’s a great song. In fact, the entire album that Maneater comes off of is kind of the sweetspot of the type of music I love. I love music that has a beat and you can dance to it. As such, when I heard the latest cut from Dua Lipa, “Houdini,” my listening ears perked up.

The track is…really good?

It’s got that same Loose vibe to it. It’s not…quite…there…but it’s so close as to be no big deal. I would have the song go a little harder as a dance track, but beggars can’t be choosers. Houdini is a solid dance pop rock song. It’s not disco and yet is sure to get punk ass Zennials on the dance floor.

Anyway. I hope the rest of the album is as good as this one song.

I will note there is an amusing element to the song’s video. Lipa yet again gives us a little T&A…without actually showing anything. She loves to do shit like that. You go girl.