Everything is still up in the air with these five thriller novels. I vacillate widely as to what I’m going to do about this huge project from day to day. But, for the moment, I think what I may do is continue to sketch out all five novels but to really focus on the first novel.
The reason is, the first novel is meant to be a calling card for the other four thrillers. And I’m not getting any younger. I would really like to wrap up A Novel before I Turn 39 And Holding and I don’t think there’s any shame in simply finishing the first novel and trying to sell it.
That way, I can complete going through the entire process a lot quicker than if I were to write all five novels then turn around and try to sell them all in one big shot.
But, like I said, everything is up in the air. I am very stubborn and I could just say fuck it and do the exact opposite of what I’m proposing right now. But the idea of wrapping up this process in some way a lot sooner than I might otherwise gives me hope.
One of my biggest problems with this project is I keep moving scenes around over and over again to a ridiculous level. But all of that has more to do with me not knowing what I’m doing than anything else.
I believe that once I finish writing these five thriller novels that I’ll so know how I, specifically, develop and write novels that things should move a lot quicker with whatever new projects I come up.
Having said all that, it really has been an embarrassingly long time that I’ve been working on all of this. It’s time to put up or shut up. I have to just produce something, anything, that I can use to try to sell.
But, as I’ve said, I’m so stubborn that I might do a once through of all five novels before I focus on trying to sell the first novel. I really want that sense of accomplishment. One thing I’m really struggling with is how I’m going to accurately portray the police procedural element of the story. All I got is I have to get outside my comfort zone and also I may have to track down some sort of service that lets aspiring authors like me talk to police officers to get some sense of how they would actually work on a cause.
I think some of that is just existential angst. I can overcome those problems, but it’s not going to be obvious as to how to do it. If all else fails, I can just really be extremely careful with any scene that involves a police officer investigating things. I have to believe in myself, if nothing else.
It’s just going to take a while. If I’m going to ever finish this huge, massive project, I’m going to have to push myself harder. I have to focus. I have a number of other great ideas besides the five novels, but they would require a lot of work on the development front that I’m not prepared to do right now.
The Mare of Easttown meets Stieg Larsson universe that I’ve come up with is sufficiently addictive to me that I’ve grown obsessed with it. There are so many scenes that I have thought up that I want to see on the page that I simply refuse to give up.
Now, obvious, if someone steals a creative march on me somehow, then, after a lot of sulking, I’ll throw myself into one of the other concepts I have. But, as I keep saying, you have to make decisions on what you do know, not on what you don’t know.
There’s a lot of nervousness about the possibility that the Russians might use nukes of some sort against Ukraine. But there is something we need to take into consideration: it’s my impression that any time you use a nuke, you also get an EMP.
And, as such, if there was a a nuclear explosion, the first thing that would happen is we would get reports of all the electronics in the general area of the blast being zapped.
So, I wouldn’t get too excited if you see a really big explosion in Ukraine until you get such reports.
Absolutely no one listens to me. And I’m no expert on Russia, but I do love scenarios. So, here’s my back-of-the-envelope scenario for a Second Russian Revolution.
It seems to me the main issue facing Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union is Russia has had an identity crisis. It really doesn’t know what it is. It doesn’t really have a core set of beliefs that it can hang its national Id on. So, if the Russian government collapsed and there was some sort of 1917-like power vacuum, what I would do is grab the nearest Romanov and proclaim them the new tsar.
I, being the real power behind the throne, would then dress up my cause with the built-in legacy of the Russian Empire. But I would flip the script and promise people a constitutional monarchy with an iron-clad bill of rights. I would also promise extensive economic reforms meant to pull Russia into the 21st century.
Russia has the potential to be a major economic power — especially with in the context of global climate change. So, as part of your revolution, you do some creative destruction and dramatically reform a whole host of different aspects of the Russian economy.
I would also promise that if I got control of the government that I would totally re-imagine the Russian military infrastructure.
Anyway. I’m a nobody in America. I just had to get that out of my system.
History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Though I loath to put this idea out into the universe, we have to take how bonkers Kanye West has become of late seriously.
As I have written before, Ye has the means, motive and opportunity to pull an OJ on us. If that happened, it would be a second Trial of the Century only with Tik-Tok and Twitter. I don’t really expect anything as horrific to happen as the whole OJ clusterfuck, but I also feel we’re not taking this situation seriously enough.
We’re just letting Ye run around being very conspicuous in his deranged hatred of Pete Davidson as if it’s all a lulz. It just seems to me as if this is all something of a set up, for something bad that we will look back upon and realize it was going on in broad daylight.
And, honestly, Ye doesn’t even have to do anything of OJ level badness for this to turn into a huge clusterfuck circus really quick. Virtually any criminal behavior on his part towards Davidson or Kardashian would be enough to cause pop culture to go septic with OJ Trial level stupid silliness.
Hopefully, I’m over reacting. I tend to do that. But I am very concerned that the insane behavior on West’s part that we’re laughing at is the lead up to a tragedy. We should act accordingly.
Out of desperation, I have essentially shoe horned myself into the plot of the first novel. You’re not really supposed to do that — in fact, it’s seriously frowned upon — but I’m desperate. I realized there weren’t really any stakes in the first novel, so putting myself into the novel fixes that problem.
And, really, by the time the process is over, I doubt it will be a 1 to 1 when it comes to me being “in” the novel. Someone like me, someone I know, will be the protagonist, but it won’t be “me.”
But I am pleased with what I’ve managed to come up with. The story is similar to what I had, but not exactly the same. I had to do something radical to give the story some sort of point, however. Now it has a point, an emotional heart that people can identify with.
In general, my writing and storytelling ability have improved dramatically of late. I really understand these five novels well enough that I SHOULD be able to write them all pretty fast.
There is one logistical issue that I have yet to figure out — how, exactly, am I going to write these five novels. Am I going to go all the way through them, make one pass of a first draft for each, or should I focus on the first novel, try to get it published with the idea that I can, that I can then sell the other four novels?
I think, out of sheer stubbornness, I’m going to try to at least write a first (or second) draft for all five novels THEN try to sell the first one. I really love the arc of these five (3 + 2) novels and it’s just a matter of doing the hard work of developing and writing them.
Russians II lyrics by Shelt Garner @sheltgarner Please give credit if you produce or perform
saw the news today where the Russians wanted free the freed I asked myself what did this mean why do we have to do this again Ukrainians love their land they’ll going to make the Russians pay
Russians have children too they have to look at them can they?
Russians have children too Russians have children too Russians have children too they have to look at them can they?
the fight is for hearts and minds the shock and awe is here destroying everything we hold dear but in the end the Russians have to look themselves in the mirror
Russians have children too they have to look at them can they?
Russians have children too Russians have children too Russians have children too they have to look at them can they?
(bridge) we’re all grown ups we should know better don’t take what’s not yours but here we are fighting for toys that could lead to a global war
Russians have children too they have to look at them can they?
Russians have children too Russians have children too Russians have children too they have to look at them can they?
You’re a fool if you think Ron DeSantis isn’t probably going to be the next president of the United States. As of right now, he’s got a straight shot at becoming America’s Putin. He will gradually at first, then more and more quickly, strangle American democracy and we’ll wake up in 20 years with him still being president.
But there are still some obstacles to him becoming America’s Putin. First of all, there’s Trump. Either Trump destroys DeSantis politically, or the two come to some agreement whereby DeSantis is Trump’s veep and ultimate successor. The latter is a win-win for both Trump and DeSantis, but Trump is so stupid and lazy that I could easily see Trump naming someone really crazy like Mike Flynn to be his veep.
Then we really would have something to cry about.
Another wildcard is the Russo-Ukrainian War. If it escalates into something closer to WW3, then there is a small chance that everything will be so changed that Biden or Harris (or name a Democrat) might be in a position to leverage that particular clusterfuck to at least punt the existential choice of autocracy or civil war down the road one more presidential election cycle.
But the point is — we’re fucked. We’re totally, completely fucked. No one is going to save us and at this point, the only question is who is going to be America’s Putin. We can only punt the fall of our democracy down the road for so long.
It’s growing more and more obvious that, tragically, the only hope of saving our democracy may be the high risk, high reward option of civil war. But there are no assurances that there would be a pat endgame. Things could be very muddled and the world will fly past a broken America.
We really need to manage our expectations when it comes to this war in the near term. It could very well be that the Russians will “win” in the near term simply because they’re bloodthirsty enough to burn Ukraine to the ground to get what they want.
My fear for the future of Ukraine.
Part of this would be the fall of Kyiv.
What worries me is not so much what this would mean for events on the ground — the Ukrainians would keep fighting, no matter what — as it it would mean for the Western media narrative.
If and when Kyiv falls, then the Western media might grow a lot more doom -and -gloom about Ukraine’s prospects. To the point that they might move on to the next big news event. Which, come to think of it, they are going to do anyway, given the impending arrival of the political silly season later on this year as part of the the 2022 mid-terms.
So, in a sense, if the Russians don’t sue for peace, but rather escalate things and simply burn Ukraine to the ground, the whole thing might become background noise to the more pressing issue of Trump potentially becoming Speaker of the House in 2023.
Thus, I think we may look back on 2016 as the last “normal” year we’re going to have for a long, long time. In fact, the era between 2016 and, maybe 2030 could be seen as a macro “Great Reset” that either leaves humanity united and able to handle Big Issues like Global Climate change or hopelessly divided to the point that our continued existence is moot.
Anyway, the the clock is ticking. If the Russo-Ukrainian Winter war drags on beyond winter and is still going strong this fall, then everything will be different. If it’s still going on next year, then the quisling MAGA politicians who will then be running Congress may lulz the whole thing since they’ll be impeaching both Biden and Harris repeatedly.
So, it’s March 1st and I’m going to start the first novel in this five novel series from scratch. Again. But I’m going to try to clear my mind so I can wrap this first novel up ASAP.
I have five well thought out novels in my mind and it’s just a matter of being willing to write something, anything, so I can later come back and rewrite them. I love being creatively overwhelmed. That was the entire point of this project from the start.
And, also, it’s not like I wouldn’t have these frustrations if I started working on something else. I would. A lot of the delay comes from how bad a storyteller I’ve been and how much I’ve improved over the last few years. It’s just there comes a point where you have to stop running in circles and actually allow yourself to write crap so you can revise it and make it better.
The key difference is I know what the stakes of this first novel are. But it took some radical rethinking of who the hero of the story was to do that. I am, however, pleased with what I’ve managed to come up with. I just have to stop screwing around, taking a deep breath and start writing.
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