The Existential Nature of a CIS White Male Writing a Novel With an Amerasian Heroine

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The more I learn about how novels are actually bought and marketed the more I begin to realize there may be some existential issues that I just can’t wiggle my way out of.

There are two such issues that are giving me serious pause for thought. One is that my protagonist is a POC — specifically Amerasian. The idea that THAT would make it more difficult to sell my novel kind of boggles my mind. Any modern American story has to address that American is browning and, as such, not every story can be just a bunch of white people talking to each other.

Having a non-White heroine — who, in my mind, looks a lot like Olivia Munn — is existential to the story I want to tell. And I’ve come up with a really interesting, clever story that I think is engaging and will appeal to people who liked stories like Mare of Easttown and Stieg Larsson’s stuff.

The other existential issue is, of course — me. The idea that a middle aged CIS white male would write a novel with a non-white heroine as its protagonist is, unto itself a big issue with the “woke cancel culture mob.” And the fact that I would write in the third person intimate POV and I shift POVs is another issue that could cause a lot of problems. Or not. Maybe I’m being paranoid.

This was a huge issue in the controversy around the novel “American Dirt” which was written, as I understand it, by a white woman. It told the story of, I think, an undocumented Latinx.

There are two lesser issues. One is, well, how I hope to make it clear over the course of these six novels how much I fucking hate Trumplandia. I hate it with the hate equal to the center of the sun. I suppose if I actually sold this first novel, my political views would become known and that, unto itself, might turn some people off.

Meanwhile, there is the still very nebulous prospect that Something Big and Bad might happen in late 2024, early 2025, to the point that it will be difficult for any novel I sell to actually be read because either people will be dodging explosions or a weaponized ICE will start to knock heads.

But I would like to think that, maybe, if I manage to write a good enough story that all of these obstacles might not be such such an issue. I am also the first to admit that this project is based on delusion and me having a huge ego. And, yet, lulz. Why not?

All of this gives me something to think about. Something to focus on other than how I’m about to be 50 and have nothing to my name other than a failed expat magazine in Seoul.

I’ve Reached The Terrifying Stage Of This Six Novel Project

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For some time, I’ve been willfully delusional about this six novel project I’m currently working on. But, as I approach my 50th birthday — which was supposed to be the deadline for getting published — I’m beginning to feel not just my own mortality but to begin to focus on the specifics of how I’m going to get this first novel published.

As such, I’m beginning to force myself to be a lot more realistic about my chances. With any endeavor, the more you know about how something really works, the more you realize how hard it is. And getting published in the traditional manner is no exception.

Getting published through the traditional route is like winning the lottery. Especially when it comes to be a first time, untested author who you as a literary agent might do a due diligence on, only to realize they’re a crank (that would be me.)

The reason why I’m thinking this way is I’ve finished a solid fleshed out outline of the first novel and I’m feeling pretty good about the idea that I will be in the position to query a very good pop novel in fall of 2023. So, as such, I’m beginning to think about the specifics of querying and What It All Means. And, yet, when I started this project a few years ago the whole point of it was to have an overarching creative project that would consume my mental energy so I would have something to think about other than what a fucking loser I am.

So, lulz. It’s fun to continue to go through the process, even as the more I learn about how exactly things work, the more I realize that this entire effort is extremely delusional and generated by my huge fucking ego.

And, remember, once I finish the first novel I will have the pride of having finished a novel of about ~120,000 words. If all else fails, I suppose I can either self-publish or turn to a different novel that is not in this universe. Just because I want to write a total of at least six novels in this universe, doesn’t mean I will or have to.

Anyway. Wish me luck.

Citizen Trump As Chaos Agent

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve been reading a political biography of Hitler in an effort to better understand Trump and I continue to be startled by how different the two men are. While Hitler was definitely a right place, right time kind of guy, he had the wherewithal to bend history to his will. He actually had something that Trump obviously doesn’t have — the ability to think in the abstract.

Trump’s political instincts are that of a grunt. He knows what plays to be base — he IS the base — and that’s about it. There are some very dark forces at work in the collective psych of the American population and they are so dark and powerful that all Trump does is coast off of the energy generated by whatever the fuck that is going on.

In a sense, Trump has served his political and historical purpose. He’s weakened America’s political norms to the point that ANY Republican — be it Ron DeSantis or Glenn Youngkin — will be America’s first autocrat. All the conditions are there for us to slip peacefully into autocracy and 20 years from now someone going back and forth between the United States and Russia won’t be able to tell any difference on a political basis.

But there’s a problem — Trump is such a fighter that as long as he has air in his lungs, he’s going to do whatever he can to save his own hide. He really wants to be POTUS again, setting up a situation where Trump is the Republican primary and it’s not POTUS, but veep, that is the position that everyone wants so bad. Trump is such an old, fat tub of lard that whomever he picks to be his veep will have a good chance of being America’s Putin.

Of course, there is another issue — Trump could cause a civil war in a variety of ways.

  1. An Effort to Stop Criminal Accountability
    This is the one scenario whereby the MAGA New Right people who keep coming to this Website looking for a sooner-rather-than-later timetable for being able to murder people like me without criminal recourse might happen. If Trump really felt he might, at last, face some criminal accountability, he could very well begin to rant that Red States need to leave the Union because of how unjust it all is. I suppose he might, in general, demand in his usual dog whistle kind of way general political violence, but I doubt it. When you have an entire party — the Republican Party –with a cult-like devotion to you, why go for general violence when you can get entire states to leave the Union at your behest?
  2. A Ploy to Convict Biden / Harris in the Senate
    In this scenario, it’s 2023 and Republicans have gone nuts. They have impeached both Biden and Harris out of spite. Now, for Trump to actively be trying to destroy the country, he would, of course, need to have some personal investment in it. So, this one only really works if he is the Speaker of the House and he thinks he can become POTUS again early. So, in a bid to scare the living shit out of the Senate, he, as Speaker, begins to demand Red States leave the Union in order to get what he wants. He says this just as a rhetorical flourish, but MAGA legislatures take him seriously and states, probably beginning with Texas, begin to convene Secessionist Conventions. An away we go.
  3. A 2024 Clusterfuck — MAGA Counter Revolution
    This endgame was two parts to it. It could be that at some point in late 2024, after Election Day, it will be obvious to Blue States that the election was stolen and they have no recourse but to begin the process of leaving the Union. By the time Certification Day 2025 rolls around, we are in a full fledged Secession Crisis. The other possibility is that Trump wins outright — even though he’ll cheat no matter what — and by late January it becomes clear that Trump’s second term agenda is so fascist and radical that Blue States begin to leave the Union.

    But there is a problem with such thinking — Trump, unlike Hitler, really isn’t smart enough to do anything as diabolical as do the simple act of telling Red states to leave the Union in an effort to protect him. If he did it, it would be out of extreme desperation caused by his mind being focused by the prospect of going to prison.

    The point is — America’s political culture is going to be very bumpy between now and January 205. Something’s gotta give. We can’t keep this up forever. We’re going to fish or cut bait on the fate of our democracy at some point.

I’m Curious How J.K. Rowling Pulls Off Her Latest Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As someone who is struggling to write a mystery-thriller, the description of J.K. Rowling’s latest novel sounds fascinating. The idea that she could write a 1,000 page novel about a person that fits her description who is murdered for their views on transgender people seems pretty tough to do.

I guess it’s an example of how any publicity is good publicity. I still find why she’s in so much trouble kind of crazy. It’s a testament not to the “woke cancel culture mob” but just that the younger generations come up have dramatically different expectation about certain things than Olds. But that is to be expected. The only difference is how fast it’s all happening — there is a definite Singularity-like quickness to how things are changing in culture these days and a lot of Olds are having trouble adapting.

Also, buying a novel from such a problematic author fits into my personality of being generally ornery. I hate the idea that I am forbitten from reading something just because the Youngs have “canceled” her. I haven’t read ANYTHING else she’s written — I’m not a fan of fantasy, to say the least — and I think maybe reading such a book would be a good introduction to her writing.

Maybe. I don’t know. I just feel like being weird and buying the book to see how she manages to write that many words, essentially, about herself. It seems extremely self-indulgent.

Back To Writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s now Sept. 1st and as I vowed to myself — I’m going to get back to writing in a big way. I hope to do this in the context of reading a lot, too. I hope, in fact, to force myself to read Stephen King’s “IT” starting today in an effort to start a yearly tradition of doing so just about when it gets to spooky season. I’ve read the book three times already and it, along with John Irving’s “The World According to Garp” are my favorite books.

I face two issues when it comes to working on this first novel. One is I fear the novel is simply too long. I’m embarrassed by how many scenes I have, given that each scene is probably going to be on average 1,000 words. The other the process of writing this novel is way too slow. And, yet, I really like the process I’ve come up with, even though it’s slows me down.

But I think I think one key issue is I need to remember why I started this project to begin with — I fucking hate Trumplandia. And it’s quite clear that Trumplandia is coming back. And, given that I want to write six novels in this universe, I’m pretty nervous about what is going to happen in late 2024, early 2025.

And, yet, I think if I just believe in my self and see what happens. I can’t make decisions on what I don’t know, only on what I do know.