MAGA Has Gone Septic

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It continues to appear as though, baring something I can’t predict, 2024 is going to Be It. We’re going to make an existential decision — one way or another — as to the fate of our democracy. The 2024 presidential cycle could be the most historically significant since 1860.

But there is a lot still up in the air about what, specifically, will happen. There are four possible options, it seems. One is, Trump wins outright and we peacefully slide into autocracy. The next possibility is, Trump wins and there’s some sort of “Resistance Revolution.” Another option would be Trump loses and there’s a civil war when Red States begin to leave the Union. And then, of course, there is the least likely possibility — Biden or some other Democrat wins and we just punt things down the road again.

At the moment, I just can’t figure out which of those four options will actually become a reality. I’m always, always wrong, so it’s probably going to be some outcome that I just can’t predict.

But I do think that at the moment the most likely outcome is Trump wins again and smug liberals just leave the country. The United States will peacefully slide into autocracy and before you know it we’ll have a MAGA-induced Constitutional Convention and we’ll have some sort of MAGA Enabling Acts bolted onto the Constitution.

It seems to me that the United States will follow the path of Russia over the last 20 years in which we slide into autocracy. The big issue is, of course, will it be a “light touch” autocracy or will our new autocrat be so insecure that they begin to consolidate power in a way that it bumps up against the American self-perception that we’re a democracy.

That is the real crux of what we face in late 2024, early 2025. At the moment, I think people are just to blase and no matter how radical Trump’s incoming agenda is, nothing of note is going to happen in regards to any sort of resistance. We’ll become a MAGA-themed autocracy and that will be that.

And, yet, there is a greater-than-zero chance that if Trump’s incoming agenda is really as radical as we all fear, that something extraordinary might happen. And that doesn’t even begin to address the possibility of a civil war if Trump loses. I could totally see Red States — starting with, say, Texas — leaving the Union in late 2024, early 2025 if Trump loses.

But, again, it’s at least possible that we’ll just punt things down the road again. I just don’t know what is going to happen at the moment.

The Vision Thing For This Six Novel Project

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While it’s clear that I’m so old now that I could just drop dead at any moment and all my dreams will be very moot, in general, here’s my vision for the six novels I’m working on.

My heroine looks like a younger version of Olivia Munn.

The point of the six novels is you will get to see, over the course of 25 years, the arc of all the characters first introduced in the first novel. The last two novels are meant to be something of an allegory for modern America but yet they will be good enough at face value that you will enjoy them for what they are: techno mystery-thrillers.

That’s the dream, the vision at least.

These six novels are meant to be the precursor to an open-ended series of novels about an American Lisbeth Salander-type character who goes on global missions doing all kinds of Mission:Impossible and James Bond type stuff. The dream is, if these first six novels are a success that I will have the resources to, say, have a novel set in Asia or some such.

I know I’m being both delusional and extremely ambitious, but, lulz, freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose. I need something, anything to keep me going, keeping me breathing and a project as ambitious as this is exactly what I’m looking for.

But, as I keep saying, I also want to work on a scifi novel as something of a backup.

It will be interesting to see if I can pull off my vision for the main character of the first novel in this six-novel project. She is the heart and soul of the project, but her position in each of the novels is different. She is definitely at the center of the first three novels, but the last three she’s isn’t the protagonist anymore. But I hope I create an interesting enough character that people will be invested in her fate enough to want to read all six novels.

The heroine of the first three novels is a really cool. She’s been a lot of fun to develop and I think I’ve come up with a number of interesting quirks to her personality that will draw the audience in, want to spend some time with her. She kind of looks, in my mind’s eye, like a young Olivia Munn. But there are any number of women with a similar phenotype who could play her well.

A Nit-Picky Quibble With The Latest Mission:Impossible Movie

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really enjoyed the latest Mission:Impossible movie, but there was one oversight that is both comical and dumb. So dumb, I probably shouldn’t even mention it, but it involves boobs, so here goes.

There is a scene when Hayley Atwell has a mask on and is pretending to be Vanessa Kirby. What bothers me is — Atwell’s rack is significantly bigger than Kirby’s and there’s no way anyone — especially a man — who knew Kirby’s character would accept that Kirby ‘s bosom had suddenly and inexplicably ballooned.

They would notice instantly that something was awry, even if the high tech mask was perfect. Anyway. It’s a very, very dumb quibble. The movie was overall really good and I really enjoyed it.

I’ve Reworked The Beginning Of The Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The beta reader process is — as expected — turning out to be something of a dud. People just aren’t giving me any input. I expected that for various reasons and I think, ultimately, I’m going to have to wait until I finish the third draft to get the input that I really need.

I need input that is constructive, but not harsh. Encouraging, not nit-picky. Anyway, the second draft was 81,000 words and, as such, I feel I can safely add 20,000 words without making the novel too long to get published. The key reason why I’m adding some words to the beginning is world and character building.

I want people to actually care enough by the time things get moving that they’re willing to read the novel to the end. The novel is already a very accessible, easy read. I have to take things to the next level by fleshing out and explaining the world I’ve created so more of the novel is on the page, rather than in my mind. That seems to be one of the biggest complaints from those willing to give me any input — they just don’t understand what’s going on.

I continue to worry about the issue of having more than on POV within a chapter, but I refuse to believe that audience expectation have changed so much that I can’t do the same thing that Stieg Larsson did with his work. And, yet, I am worried enough about this particular problem that I am definitely going to start to work on a backup scifi novel just in case I need to be able to say, “Well, if you don’t like this novel, I’ve got a first person, single POV novel for you to read.”

Or something like that. Whatever else is going on, the key thing is I have to finish something, anything so I can start to query ASAP. Even with that in mind, I think I probably have about a year ahead of me. I say that because of time and money.

In a sense, it’s all kind of comical because the world could be collapsing just as I’m ready to query in late 2024. It could be that civil war / revolution breaks out in the United States just as I’m about to pitch my first novel to agents. And that doesn’t even begin to address the issue of AI really making all my hard work moot.

But, sometimes, you just have to believe.

I’ve Started Writing The Third Draft

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After about a month-long pause, I’ve started writing the third draft of my first novel. But given that the beta reader process is still going on — and I still want to read some more — I’m probably going to only do it in fits and starts until I really throw myself into things starting around Sept 1st.

But the outline I have is pretty strong (so far) and I think I can probably zip through the third draft pretty quickly, baring something I can’t predict. Once I finish the third draft, I am going to start to save up for someone professional or semi-professional to read the whole thing and give me some advice before I turn around and start to query things.

I also between now and September 1st hope to really think about not just the other novels in the series but a few scifi concepts I have rolling around in my mind. I’m still smarting over the really great scifi concept I had that turned out to be way too similar to Wool / Silo for me to continue it the way it was. I’ve come up with a reworked version with is very similar but it’s going to take me some time to game it out.

I really have to focus. I really have to think up ways to make this third draft a lot — A LOT — better. I have some specific person who is participating in the Beta Reader process that I fear is going to give me a pretty brutal critique of the novel. While it’s going to sting, I really need such brutality if I’m going to get a novel anywhere near being good enough to query.

But, in general, I’m very pleased with the novel I’m come up with. I think it’s going to be about 100,000 words this go round, rather than its current 80,000. I have come up with an idea for how to make the beginning of the novel significantly better.

So Joe Biden Is Going Be Impeached?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Of all the reasons for Joe Biden to be impeached, the one that House Republicans have come up with has got to be the dumbest. If they impeached Biden over the border, or, hell, the indictment of Trump, then, yeah, I could at least give them points for being logical.

But…Hunter Biden? They’re going to impeach Biden over some dumb conspiracy theory they have no proof for? It’s all very curious. I suppose, maybe, they can always impeach Biden for the other shit later.

Ugh. It’s all so very, very dumb.

The Online Writing Community Often Makes Me Angry

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t mind people talking — or writing — about writing. I do it all the time. But WHAT some of the people online talk about really drives me nuts. They talk about how much they hate to write. They talk about the absolute stupidest shit. Jt’s so stupid that I just roll my eyes and think, “Shut up and write.”

Anyway.

I’m in a bad mood.

I think I’m growing closer and closer to a tipping point where I will start writing the third draft of this novel. I think that may be the source of a lot of my anger over all the stupid shit I see from other people in the online writing community.

Does ‘Barbenheimer’ Portend Our Long-Awaited ‘Vibe Shift?’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely FEELS like we’ve reached the absolute end of one pop culture era and we’re waiting for a new one to arise from the ashes. And, yet, given that we may face a perfect storm of Petite Singularity and The Fourth Turning in late 2024, early 2025, these months leading up that era in time may be nothing more than wasted time.

We may just drift through cultural time without any sort of clear idea of where things stand until we make up our minds about if we’re going to continue to be a democracy or not. And, at the same time, we also have to decide if AI is going to completely and totally take over huge swaths of the human experience or not. I’m very weary about both of these events, given that they’re going to take place at the same time.

So, I don’t know. It could go either way. It could be that we just slide into autocracy and we let AI write and produce all our entertainment and we live in a permanent Black Mirror episode. Or, it could be that we have some sort of sharp, violent political event starting in late 2024, early 2025 and not until that’s settled we make any big decisions about AI.

It just seems like we’re lurching towards Something New in a rather abrupt manner and it will be interesting to see when exactly this happens. I suspect we may continue to be in something of a cultural vacuum for a few more months. We really haven’t reached a tipping point, I don’t think. It’s definitely one of those — you know it when you see it kind of things.

I look forward to what’s next, though. We’ve been suck in the post-911 cultural era for way, way too long.

I Want To Visit Asia

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I find myself wanting to visit Asia. Because of my life situation at the moment, Something Big could happen at any moment that would dramatically change the context of my life to the point that I might actually be in a position to go back to Asia sooner rather than later. I don’t want this Something Big event to happen, but it’s definitely out there, lurking in the aether.

I wonder what might greet me if I did return to Asia sooner rather than later. The key thing is that I’m a lot older than I was the last time I was in Asia. And I would be just visiting — probably a week in Japan – South Korea, then a week in Southeast Asia — so I would only be able to able to do so much.

And, in all honesty, the world is so big and wonderful, I probably would be better off going to Europe instead. And, yet, I like Asia because I know it and it would be really easy to slip back into my expat mentality within moments I reaching it.

I don’t even know why I’ve suddenly found myself thinking about such things. I’m so very, very, very poor at the moment that there are only two ways I would be able to visit Asia again — the Something Big event or selling my first novel and it being a real success.

I guess what’s really going on is I’m having a minor midlife crisis, I guess. My life is in permanent limbo these days, so I find myself wondering how this particular situation is going to end. For the moment, I’m trying to keep my eyes on the prize — querying my novel in about a year.

Should I Be Worried?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Someone with some connection to “making movies” looked at my LinkedIn profile out of the blue and this has, of course, prompted me freak out a little bit. Because of what happened with me and ROKon Magazine, I am, to this day, still on edge that someone will swoop in and “steal” my novel.

And, yet, if you give this fear any thought at all, it kind of falls apart. The key issue is — getting a movie made is really, really difficult. What’s more, I know the state of the novel at the moment and it’s still nowhere near where it should be.

So, a lot — A LOT — would have to go wrong for someone to “steal” my novel and, like, turn it into a screenplay or something. I suppose it’s possible — the Public Beta of the novel is floating around out there now — but it’s still unlikely enough that I can only grow so concerned.

What’s more, it’s not like I wouldn’t have any recourse if someone “stole” my novel beat for beat to turn it into a novel. I could sue. And, in its own weird way, if someone did manage to turn my novel into a movie it would be strangely flattering.

I mean, it definitely would prove my goal — that I’m a good enough storyteller and all the haters can fuck off.

Anyway. I am growing more and more eager to do some practical development so I can start writing a significantly improved third draft. And I need to start working on the other novels in the series as well as one of the scifi novels I have rolling around in my mind.