Month: March 2024

From Hungary With Love: Why Trump May Fail To Bring Orbanism To America

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Because of the Electoral College, Trump is just 60,000 votes in five swing states away from being president again — barring a Black Swan event. As such, it’s clear that Trump could very well become POTUS again, despite being a ding-dong and a bad candidate.

Viktor Orban

But what Trump — and the MAGA Republican Party — want to do is to bring the Viktor Orban-style autocracy to America. And if it was anyone else but Trump charged with doing that, it would work. But this is Trump we’re talking about — he is very stupid and lazy.

So what could very well happen is Trump could go full tyrant on us and the country will collapse into chaos because he literally starts to snatch people off the street. Or, what’s worse, what happens if he starts to *shoot* people in the streets?

If Trump starts to do tyrannical things like that, then there is a real chance that there might be a Blue General Strike that might pressure the U.S. Military into deposing Trump in some way and….then there’s a civil war because Red States will leave the Union.

That’s the dystopian nightmare. But I suppose there is some sort of spectrum of how bad things might get. But we have to understand that things could get very bumpy in 2025 if Trump is re-elected.

Pray.

A Mistral AI Recruiter Searched For Me On LinkedIn

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m an absolute nobody at the moment. I have a lot of “high hopes” as the song goes, but, in general, lulz, I could walk off the face of the earth today and it would take a few weeks for anyone to notice or care.

With that in mind, any time even the smallest thing out of the ordinary happens, it fills me with some meaning to my life. So, when I saw that a recruiter Mistral AI searched for me recently on LinkedIn that made my day!

I can’t program, but I do have the right personality to “Red Team” an AI. I could push an AI to its limits by asking it a lot of very pointed questions. With humans, I can come across as a bit overbearing at times, but that specific annoying quality might be good with training an AI.

Or not.

What do I know.

Once More Unto The Breach! — Things Are Moving Really Fast With The Third Draft Of My First Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m on the cusp of gaming out the third draft of my first novel to just about the midpoint any day now. Then, the hard work will be to well, write. The way I develop and write my novels can be so ad hoc, fluid and haphazard that it slows me a down a lot.

The heroine of my novel looks like Morena Baccarin.

In fact, most of the work I’ve been doing since I started developing what is now potentially a seven-novel project — if I don’t croak before it is wrapped up — is just improving my storytelling ability. There is A LOT about nuts-and-blots of structuring a novel-length story with multiple POVs that I know absolutely nothing about.

And now I’m worried that somehow, someway, screenwriters from Hollywood are going to read this blog and cherrypick the best bits of the novel and I’ll wake up to news that a character fitting my heroine is going to be in a movie soon. And, yet, you know, I’m such an extrovert that it’s not like I would be able to be quiet about such things.

I am who I am.

The point is to finish the first novel in the project as quickly as possible. I’m just a broke-ass kook living in the middle of nowhere with a great idea for a novel that I’m willing to put the effort in to finish.

My heroine sports a sleeve tattoo much like the one Megan Fox now has, even though I thought of the idea first!

As of right now, I hope to finish the first novel of this series at some point between now at around July 22, 2024 — the 20th anniversary of my first trek to South Korea.

I also have two other novels that I’m trying to develop. One is the sequel to this first novel, while the other a pandemic themed scifi novel. It’s really, really good. I’ve been fucking around with AI to develop it and it’s made me an “10X” writer….ha!

Yes, I know, in the end, AI will make all writers moot.

Let’s Play, ‘Why The Fuck Was Someone Interested In Me & ROKon Magazine?’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

What happened with ROKon Magazine was so long ago that not even I, the keeper of its memory, care anymore other than drawing upon its legacy to write a novel. I know how great a story it is and what could be done with it under the right conditions, but, lulz, absolutely no one else will care or listen to me.

The late Annie Shapiro and me back in our ROKon Magazine days when I was still cute.

But today, out of the blue, someone came to this site through Instagram and made a beeline to what they could find about ROKon Magazine. I am WELL AWARE of how one could perceive my obsession with my Webstats as…creepy…but…lulz, my life is so devoid of anything interesting these days, please give me this one thing.

Here’s what I think happened — someone got wind of me and ROKon Magazine and did a search for me. My Instagram account was the first link they found, then they went from there to this site. Why anyone would give a shit about ROKon Magazine at this point without me prompting them is…intriguing.

My favorite cover of ROKon Magazine.

I am working with some people on a new online literary zine, so maybe someone was curious about me through that? But how they would know about ROKon Magazine specifically if that was the case is a mystery.

But I find the whole thing — while intriguing — a lulz. I’m so old at this point that I only keep breathing out of spite. Sigh.

I May Have Seven Planned Novels In This Project Now — Maybe

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There is at least a possibility that I now have six additional novels in this project after I finish this first novel. Maybe. Possibly. I’ve thought out a total of seven novels, that is. But I’m not going to live forever and if I manage to actually write and sell a break out hit novel, I’m going to try to squeeze as much out of what few years I have left in life as possible.

The heroine of my novel looks like Morena Baccarin.

I want to be a regular fucking modern day Tom Wolf.

But even he had time to both be an icon and write novels, so it’s not impossible that I could possibly do both.

And, yet, you know, I really — REALLY — need to start to manage my expectations. Even if I get what I want — success – I won’t get what I want, which is to be successful, cute and young.

I’m going to be old, no matter what. And it will just be creepy if I swoop in and try to be cool with 24 year olds at this point in my life.

It’s all very disheartening.

I Hate Being Sober — But Here I Am

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After years of living in an semi-acholic daze, I’m now completely sober and I hate it. I hate it because it used to be I would day drink and then spend the afternoon writing.

No longer a barfly.

Now, my whole writing technique is upended and I have to write everything without the added creativity of booze to grease things. I even have to write the scenes that make me uncomfortable — spicy scenes — without getting wasted so I don’t get all wiggly-giggling about things.

But, I just can’t keep drinking like I was. I was beginning to have health issues directly related to drinking too much and because I’m NOT an alcoholic, I just stopped cold.

It sucks. It sucks so bad. But, here I am.

It would be a lot more fun if being sober somehow made me more stable. But it hasn’t made me more stable at all. I’m just as big a kook as I was before.

UGH.

A Bit Of Hope

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’m careening towards the querying my first novel, the issue of potentially finding an editor is at the forefront of my mind. It is *possible* that I *may* have found an affordable one that I can use once I finish the novel.

The heroine of my novel looks like Morena Baccarin in my mind as I write her.

I showed the person the first scene of the novel and I was impressed with how well they did. Their input is exactly what I need to take this novel to the next level. Before I actually used them as my editor, however, I would like to have a Zoom call with them to establish the lay of the land.

My heroine sports a sleeve tattoo much like the one Megan Fox now has, even though I thought of the idea first!

But, in general, just the fact that it’s possible I may be able to afford an editor before I begin to query makes me very, very happy. Of course, the fact that it could be the spring 2025 querying season before I start to query — just as the Fourth Turning happens or AI makes all human-generated art moot — has not escaped my attention.

But you have to have hope.

Should I Be Worried?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Someone from Sweden is interested in my novel — I see them in my Webstats. Now, only because I’m delusional, I automatically fear it’s someone from the estate of Stieg Larsson checking up on me. As far as I know, even though my novel is definitely an obvious homage to Larsson’s work there’s no reason for either one of us to be worried about it.

The heroine of my novel looks like Morena Baccarin.

There are some obvious, clear cut influences between my novel and The Girl Who Played With Fire, but most, if not all, of it is an issue of Form Follows Function and the fact that I used TGWPWF as my “textbook.”

I just am worried that people connected to the late Larsson see me as some sort of threat — but why? — and they’re keeping an eye on me.

My heroine sports a sleeve tattoo similar to that now worn by Megan Fox — even though I thought of the idea first!

Anyway, my novel is on a micro basis is very, very, very different than anything Larsson wrote. And the first novel isn’t even a mystery thriller, but rather about a power struggle over a community newspaper. So, lulz?

But I am VERY PLEASED with what I’ve managed to come up with for my first novel. Things are flowing really well now that I understand what the novel is about. It’s not a traditional murder-mystery, but, rather a character-driven novel that sets up a universe that I hope readers will want to hang out in for a number of novels — as many as seven.

I’m At A Loss As To What I’m Going To Do About Querying My First Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m well on my way to finishing the third draft of my first novel. The novel will tell a coherent, cohesive story. It’s not the story I thought I was going to tell when I started this process a few years ago — but it tells a story. And, what’s more, it ques up a number of successor novels in the same universe that will be really compelling.

The heroine of my novel looks like Morena Baccarin.

At least, that’s what I believe.

I am soon going to wrap up the “actively delusional” part of this journey and enter the world of reality where I have to convince liberal white women who make up the majority of literary agents that I can tell a good story about a part-time sex worker who is trying to buy a community newspaper.

At least I can explain the story a lot easier than before. It used to be that the story was a lot more muddled and difficult to explain. Now, I understand what the story is about.

But there are A LOT of problems.

Like, what novel do I “comp” this novel to? What genre is this novel, since the murder doesn’t happen until well into the second half of the story. I just don’t know. And, when you add how bitter people seem to become whenever they enter into the land of querying, well, lulz, oh boy.

My heroine sports a sleeve tattoo similar to the one that Megan Fox now has, even though I came up with the idea first.

I’m going to have to shift gears bigtime once I finish the novel and start to query seriously. So much so, that I don’t even know if I can continue to write, even though I know I have to. Querying is a job and struggle unto itself, it seems.

But I do have a number of other stories I want to work on while I query the first novel. And I hope to have the second novel in the series I’m working on — one that is a traditional murder-mystery-thriller done pretty soon as well. It will have most of all of the same characters as the first novel and a few new ones.

It will definitely be interesting to see how things work out. I’m sure I’m going to make many, many, many, many mistakes and probably have already made a lot by just being me.

But For Macro Historical Trends Helping Him, I Would Believe Trump Has Setup The Conditions For A Biden Blow Out In November

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve spent A LOT of time writing and talking about a lot of dystopian hellscapes that might happen in the next 18 months. And, yet, Trump keeps doing things that suggest he is setting up the conditions for a massive Biden blowout in the fall.

His latest dumb move has been to gut the Republican National Committee and to replace all its staff with MAGA toadies — including his daughter-in-law. That’s a “Not Great, Bob,” situation if you want to win an election. And YET, there are severe macro things happening that are warping the election process to the point that, lulz, Trump is still just 60,000 votes in five swing states away from winning.

And, what’s more, if he does lose, there’s nothing to stop him from ranting about the need for a national divorce and, unto himself, causing a civil war.

So. I dunno. I just don’t know what to tell you. It could still go either way. I do think we’re probably going to just slip peacefully into autocracy — but for what an abject idiot Trump is. He could be re-elected and be the only person in such a position who would thrash around so much that he would cause the first-ever deposing of a president by the military after a General Strike because he is just so absolutely dumb and tyrannical.

Hopefully, of course, it won’t come to that.