Month: November 2022

A ‘Woke Cancel Culture Mob’ Conundrum & The Six Novel Project I’m Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I saw on Twitter today where someone was articulating an idea that is pretty much my worst fear at the moment — they essentially said “thanks, but no thanks” to people like me writing novels with non-white characters in them. Or, more specifically “love interests.”

The heroine of the first three novels in my six novel project looks like of like the above — that is, Nicole Scherzinger.

Well, jokes on you guys, my HEROINE is a POC — or, more specifically, Amerasian.

Now, there is a very specific reason for why I did this which gradually snowballed into something really cool. I needed an excuse for a character to abscond to South Korea later on in the series and what better way to do it than to make his mother — who is the protagonist of the first three novels — Amerasian?

I made this strategic move being only vaguely aware that there would be people in the POC community who would be annoyed that a CIS white male such as myself would do such a thing. I just did what I felt was best for the story, not really thinking about the broader creative and societal issues at play.

There are a lot of different ways this might play out. One is — no one will care and I’m over thinking things. Two is, if this series becomes as big as I want it to, EVERYONE will care and I’ll face something akin to an American Dirt situation.

…or Maggie Q?

Now, one issue that I find myself thinking a lot about these days is marketability. Is there a chance that the very thing I think is a positive — the organic “representation” in the novel, will be seen as too “woke” by some and that, by definition, will turn them off? I hope not.

I am dubious of the whole idea of a work of art being too “woke,” attributing most of people’s quibbles to what they’re watching or reading sacrificing good storytelling for banging a message over the audience’s head. I’m watching Andor right now and even though it’s obviously got some elements to it that might be thought of as “woke,” it’s good enough that I don’t even notice it.

…or maybe Olivia Munn?

It’s just a story. An interesting story that is, unfortunately, taking me some time to get into.

Anyway, I totally validate the criticism of CIS white men “telling the stories” of POC. Ok, I get it. But I’m ornery and, as such, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. The framework of the story is really, really strong and now all I have to do is buckle down and wrap up the first novel.

Is American Politics Snapping Back Into Place?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I’m reluctant to get too excited, there is a chance that now that the Republicans have massively screwed up the 2022 midterms that SOMETHING akin to normal American politics may reappear. For a little while.

There are a lot of problems with having too much glee about the prospect that Trump was some sort of “fluke” that we’re now recovering from. The biggest issue is the core, the base of the Republican Party continues to be enamored with fascism. That’s not gone anywhere.

What might be fading is Trump’s personal, specific brand of fascism. The type that makes it difficult for the more cultured elements of the Republican Party to support the rise of American Fascism. If this is the case, then we can expect pretty much the entire #NeverTrump movement to collapse and things really will snap back into place, to a certain extent.

All the neocons who have become liberal darlings will “come home” to the Republican Party and that will be that. There might some quibbling with the darker, more violent aspects of the post-Trump fascist movement that former #NeverTrumpers might have, but on a strict ideological level they’ll flock back to the GOP.

It will be interesting to see what happens next, all things considered. It could go either way. But one thing is for sure — the rise of American fascism isn’t going anywhere. By definition, to be a Republican is to be a fascist and Trump has simply served his political and historical purpose to the furtherance of that end. The issue if Trump is done would simply be — do we punt our problems down the road one more election cycle, or does someone like DeSantis finally strangle American democracy once and for all?

‘Twitter Killer’ Use Case: Brands

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here is how I imagine brands might use my “Twitter Killer” on a practical basis. The key issue to remember is Brands, like everyone else, would have a far more feature rich experience to use than they would on Twitter.

Instead of just a 280 character tweet, they would have an entire webpage to work with — that would be threaded! So, say you were a Widget Company and you were releasing a new Widget. You could create new Groups devoted to different elements of this Widget.

And because you would have control over who could Post to each of these groups — they would, essentially be read-only to most people — you could all but eliminate trolls and other people who might attack your brand just because they could. They could still attack your Brand elsewhere, of course. Just not in your Groups.

What’s more, people could buy your Widget straight from a Post — with our Twitter Killer getting a cut, of course.

If you were a content provider, meanwhile, you could push content from your own site –original formatting included — into the Twitter Killer itself. Then authorized users could inline edit your content inside a Group that was threaded.

All that sounds pretty cool to me, at least. Too bad this is all just the ranting of a broke writer who should be working on one of six novels he wants to write before he crokes.

Guessing Who My Online Stalker Is

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

  1. Zombie Annie Shapiro
  2. Someone who REALLY hates me from South Korea
  3. Someone who REALLY likes me from South Korea
  4. The person who murdered Annie Shapiro
  5. A serial killer (misc)
  6. Some rando who REALLY is interested in me for an innocent reason.

I Feel Like I’m Taking Crazy Pills: Why Is Nobody Talking About How Cara Delevingne and Selena Gómez Are Obviously Dating?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The only reason why I mention this is I hate, hate, hate it when people deny reality. It’s my pet peeve. But, here we are, and everyone is denying that it’s pretty obvious that Hollywood lesbian lothario Cara Delevingne is hot and heavy with Selena Gómez at the moment. (This doesn’t even begin to address how they played a same-sex couple in the latest season of Only Murders In The Building!)

I have no inside information and am always, always wrong, but look at this picture. Look at the body language.

“Just friends.”

That is NOT the body language of two women who just happen to be “friends.” That is the body language of two people romantically involved. You could put a dude that Gómez was dating in Delevingne’s position and we would take it for granted the dude in question was banging Gómez.

This goes back to my belief that there is an epic amount of same-sex bed hopping within Hollywood — especially among women — to the point that it would just be very difficult to properly explain what exactly was going on to the Poors.

Most of the time, it’s not like you can “ship” two women when they sleep together in Hollywood…they’re just FWB. Usually, both women still consider themselves straight and they just fall into bed every once in a while and spend the night together. That’s why Delevingne gets all the high end women she does — she knows not to get too attached and just to go with the flow. She serves the purpose of letting a continual flow of high profile women dabble in having a same-sex relationship without having to answer all the questions that might be asked if she admitted she was having an affair with a woman.

As such, woman after woman after woman can sleep with Delevingne and still retain a certain level of plausible deniability.

Approaching The End Of The Second Act of The First Draft Of My First Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have repeatedly gotten to this point in the past, only to have everything fall apart at some point. But I’m not getting any younger and I really am in a put up or shut up phase of things. So, I hope I can wrap up this first draft of my first novel AGAIN no later than the end of the year, if not sooner.

I’m really pleased with what I’ve managed to come up with. I am, however, well aware that selling a novel, any novel when I’m an unknown author in my early 50s is going to be like winning the literary lottery. And I’m not so full of myself that I won’t consider self-publishing if that’s what is obviously going to be my only option.

But I want to at least go through the traditional process of finding and agent and selling a novel to a publishing house that way. I, of course, continue to have a looming fear that if I do win the lottery that if you factor in post-production that we could be in the middle of a civil war by the time the novel is on bookshelves.

And, yet, lulz.

As my father would say — no one ever got anywhere in this world without taking a chance.

So, there you go. I’m going to try, at least, to get these six novels published in a traditional manner. And I have a few other novel concepts that I’m noodling around in my head and may turn to at some point as a “second tract” while I work towards getting this first novel traditionally published.

Or not. I’ve been very stubborn with just working within this one universe, damn the consequences.

The Curious Case Of Emily Ratajkowski

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I think Emily Ratajkowski is the best looking public woman at the moment, but I do find her curious at times. For someone who seems to love to wallow in her sexpot imagine, Ratajkowski is actually pretty normal and intelligent. She has also got to have one of the most languid personalities ever, giving off a perpetual southern Cali summer day vibe.

The thing about her is, I find it sometimes difficult to square her feminist views with her actions. She wants to be taken seriously…and then she turns around and really, really leans into being a sex kitten. I mean, she can do whatever she wants, that’s her right…but I sometimes think all her feminism has ” ” around it for the purposes of giving her younger fans something to latch on to.

She both wants to be “woke” AND have a different guy’s arm wrapped around hers every night.

Apparently she’s taking applications for a “step dad,” which, because I love to run scenarios, leads me to think about how I might pitch myself to her. Well, I don’t have any money, but I am great conversationalist and would probably make her laugh a lot. And I’m working on six novels and need a reader, so I have that going for me. I think she would have a lot of fun reading these novels I’m working on. But…I’m also pretty short for a dude — I think she and I are about the same height — so there is that, too.

Anyway, I do think Ms. Ratajkowski is a hoot and wish her well.

Did Trump Admit To Yet ANOTHER Crime? — Lulz, Who Am I Kidding, He’s Above The Law

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, there’s this.

What does it mean? Anything? It’s one of those things that might go either way. Trump is such a loudmouth dingus that he could very well be admitting to a very, very serious crime…or not. And, lulz, what would it matter, anyway. He’s above the law to the point that he can admit to any crime and nothing would come of it.

For the time being, I think Trump is just making shit up to prove a point — vote for him, not the upstart DeSantis. But time will tell, I guess.

A Potential Battle Royale Is Brewing Between Trump & DeSantis

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are two possible outcomes to what’s going on between lazy dingus Trump and would-be American autocrat DeSantis.

  1. Trump Politically Cockblocks DeSantis
    In this scenario, there is a huge battle royale between the two men for the soul of the Republican Party and, ultimately, Trump wins. In the end, DeSantis has to settle for being Trump’s 2024 veep and that’s that. We all wait until fat tub of lard Trump shuffles off this mortal coil and DeSantis becomes our first autocrat that way.
  2. The Bull Moose Endgame
    In this scenario, Trump gets fed up with the struggle of trying to get the nomination and he takes his marbles to the Patriot Party. Then we have the very real possibility that the Republican vote is split and we manage to punt our existential problems down the road at least one more presidential cycle.

    But remember, there is the Independent Legislature doctrine to be decided by SCOTUS, which might lead to the end of American democracy no matter how fucked up Republican politics might become otherwise. Or, to put it another way — macro trends as such that the United States is fucked, fucked, fucked. Something truly amazing would have to happen between now and Election Day 2024 for me not to feel pretty confident that all my hysterical, doom-and-gloom predictions for late 2024, early 2025 are spot on.

    And, yet, I’m always wrong, so only time will tell.

Ron DeSantis — American Autocrat

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If Trump will just get out of his way, Ron DeSantis will become president and, as such, become America’s first true autocrat. It will be, as they say, all over but the shouting for American democracy. But for Trump being a narcissistic ding-dong who doesn’t realize he’s served his political and historical purpose, DeSantis being our autocrat in waiting would now be an immutable fact of psychohistory.

Ron DeSantis

But.

There is the issue of Trump. The man has proven that not only is he lazy and stupid, but he always, always does the wrong thing. So, there’s every reason to believe that Trump either politically cockblock DeSantis or he will leave the Republican Party for the Patriot Party.

If the former happens, then the other two choices we face — civil war or military junta — continue to be very real possibilities. And if Trump bounces to the Patriot Party because he loses to DeSantis, he will split the Republican vote and we punt our existential problems down the road another presidential cycle.

Now, let me be clear — I want to be wrong. If somehow Republicans stop being fascists and we pull ourselves out this death spiral we’re in at the moment, great. But at the moment, the only way that happens is space aliens land on the White House front lawn.

Anyway, the point is — things are not quite sorted out yet. But should DeSantis end Trump politically, the United States is going to slip peacefully into autocracy.