Month: March 2024

My First Novel Is No Longer A Traditional Murder Mystery Thriller

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My first novel now has to be a lot more character driven than it once was. To the point that I need to do some reading to flesh out my characters. I mean, at the moment, I don’t know much about mid-90s feminism or Riot Grrrls. But I can read and, as such, I can make my characters a lot better.

I’m no longer a drunk writer.

But time is running out.

I need to wrap this baby up ASAP so I can start to query it — and maybe its sequel.

I definitely feel a bit uneasy about a few things. One is how much work I need to do to with this new version of the first novel. The second novel is thought-out pretty well because it’s essentially two third of the original second draft. It’s the murder mystery part of the first novel that I took out to make it a character-driven novel about a power struggle over a community newspaper.

Anyway, I have two novels that I want to at try to finish by July 22 — the 20th anniversary of my first journey to South Korea in 2004. I think there is at least a chance that I can pull such a thing off, but it’s going to require a lot — A LOT — of hard work on my part.

A Window Of Opportunity Lingers To Start a Gawker-Like Podcast

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Podcasting is just about mature. And, yet, New York City remains oddly underserved for some reason in the sense that there isn’t — as far as I know — a really popular podcast that is effectively a Gawker but in podcast form. There’s not one, specific, blog that wallows in the NYC life and the goings on at The New York Times and other media outlets.

Maybe Crooked Media could start a NYC-focused podcast?

And the ones that do exist — like The Powers That Be — aren’t very….fun. They’re kind of drab in comparison to what I want, which is an energy-filled morning zoo like podcast that gets really worked up by every Julia Fox twitch or person who is moved around offices of The New York Times.

But there is a only a brief window of opportunity for my dream of a Gawker-like podcast to come out. Developments in AI are moving too fast and the advent of the Appel Vision Pro also indicate that we’re finally about to have a vibe shift to the point that podcasting will be passe.

What’s more, we also have to deal with the possibility that we’re either going to turn into an autocracy or have a revolution / civil war. So, gather ye rosebuds while you may with podcasting — we may be too busy dodging bullets in a civil war to record anything.

2025: Trump As Tyrant

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While all the conditions are there for Trump to lose, the conditions are ALSO there for Trump to win. The key thing is if Trump does all the crazy tyrannical shit he vows to do in 2025, what will be the reaction? Because that is the thing that not enough people have been willing to address.

If Trump wins, leading up to Trump being sworn in, a lot of smug Twitter liberals will leave the country in a panic. But that will leave us Poors to deal with Tyrant Trump. One issue is what will happen when on “day one” starts to round up undocumented people in hopes up putting them in camps and deporting them.

Now, a lot that may happen depends on who controls the House. If Trump goes full tyrant, then he will probably be promptly impeached if Democrats control the House. Then there is a possibility that maybe, just maybe there might be some sort of Women’s Strike or General Strike on the part of Blues to pressure the Senate to actually do its job and get rid of Trump.

But the thing is, Trump would have to get really, really, really bad — push the entire nation to the breaking point — for something as dramatic as a Blue General Strike to be successful. It would be a dark, chaotic moment in America’s over two centuries of history.

And if we managed to impeach Trump successfully because of the pressure of a General Strike, then there’s a chance that not only could his veep be the person who actually turns us into an autocracy, it could also start a civil war when Red States leave the union.

So, I don’t know what to tell you. The next 18 months could be totally fucked up and historic in some pretty astonishing ways.

A Brief Review of Ben Smith’s ‘Traffic’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The media book “Traffic” from Ben Smith is really good. I highly recommend it if you’re a media nerd like me. There was a minimum amount of eye-rolling on my part and maybe a little too much skipping on some chapters that I already had a very concrete opinion on.

One thing I did enjoy was the talk about Gawker founder Nick Denton (who has blocked me on Twitter because of my Gawker obsession.) It is very interesting that Smith skipped over some notable things in Gawker history — like when Denton published a gruesome picture of a guy with pruning sheers through his face on the blog’s front page without warning.

Anyway, it’s a good book. It’s very well written.

I Don’t Know What To Tell You About This Megan Fox Sleeve Tattoo Thing & My Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So. Sex bomb Megan Fox…apparently has a sleeve tattoo now? Maybe? Is it a fake one just for a part? I dunno.

Megan Fox….with a sleeve tattoo?

This is only important to me because my heroine…has a sleeve tattoo. It’s colorful and elaborate like Fox’s too. But there is one specific difference between the tattoos that makes any direct comparison between the two different pieces of ink difficult to do — my heroine has the name of a newspaper on her arm in big black letters.

So. I dunno. If Fox’s tattoo is fake and is for a part, then that obviously makes things more complex. But if she just got a tattoo because of her relationship with Machine Gun Kelly then…lulz? I don’t see there being any creative issue with the real tattoo and my imaginary tattoo.

I don’t think so. But it is surreal and…eerie…that something that is so important to the plot of my novel would come so close to being….real in such a conspicuous manner. Of course, people might say, “Oh, so just like Megan Fox?” which will make me angry because I came up with the idea first!

But you just can’t put the world on hold. Things keep moving forward and its inevitable that, given how long it’s taken me to write this novel, that some Real World event would put a different spin on things.

UGH.

Is Trump An American Caesar?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have long believed that Trump is NOT a great man of history like Caesar. But I do think he is a historical and constitutional torpedo headed towards the American ship of state. The key issue is — Trump is, just like Biden, old as hell. And Trump isn’t in the greatest of health because of his weight.

So, there is every reason to believe that Trump could destroy everything…then it will be his MAGA Nazi successor who will do the mop up work. Or, even less conclusively, it could be that the process of turning America into a white Christian ethnostate is half done.

It could be that Trump gets us as far as starting the process of crushing American democracy through a rouge Constitutional Convention…then shuffles off this mortal coil. That would cause even more chaos and uncertainty because…then what?

I think the key thing is that the Republican Party is not fascist and it’s just a question of if we collectively shrug when they attempt to turn us into a fascist state, or if we do something about it. (Not advocating anything.)

The next 18 months will be….interesting, not matter what.

Crooked Media’s ‘What A Weekday’ As A Prototype For A New Gawker-Like Podcast Covering NYC

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The more I think about it, the more it is clear that Crooked Media’s What A Weekday is not only great, but is very similar to the vibe of my dream podcast that would be devoted to NYC.

This hypothetical podcast would be topical, funny and peripatetic. It would have a thinking man’s Morning Zoo vibe to it. Most of all, there would be ENERGY. It would have a lot of young, smart, just-out-of-college people talking about the parties they’ve attended, the people they’ve fucked while sprinkling in a white-hot obsession with New York Media — specifically The Old Gray Lady.

I think if you treated the constant power struggles of The New York Times as if it was life-or-death type of situation, people would love it. That was part of what made Gawker so much fun — they “gawked” — if you will — at the colorful characters of media and entertainment in NYC.

I continue to think Ye’s former muse Julia Fox is so naturally intriguing that she would be the one person that the podcast obsessed over the most — maybe to the point of having her come on as a regular guest and just talk about her “dope” life and all the “dope shit” she does.

Also, I think covering fashion would be something the podcast should a lot of. You draw Alpha Males to the podcast by talking constantly about the Wall Street and the women in by taking the colorful figures of fashion seriously. New York Fashion Week would be like the Superbowl for this hypothetical podcast.

Or something like that. That’s the vision I have.

I continue to find it odd that New York City doesn’t have it’s own devoted podcast that is popular enough outside of NYC that rubes in the hinterlands like me know about it and can listen to it.

I want a podcast that is like Late Night With David Letterman and Spy Magazine in the 1980s and Gawker in the aughts. But, as I keep saying, the window of opportunity is closing — soon enough, AI agents will mediate everything for us and there won’t be ANY human generated media at all.

All while we’re living in a fucking MAGA fascist state.

UGH.

The Trouble With Titles

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I have split my novel into two, I find myself struggling with a new title. I know what the novel is about — a power struggle over a community newspaper — but I don’t know what the call it. I have at least one strong idea, but I’m not 100% sure that I want to use it.

I have a naming convention for the rest of the novels in the series and I want to keep to it if I can, but….I dunno. The title I have makes it clear exactly what the story is about, even if it’s in an somewhat ironic manner.

The key issue is to just keep writing. I need to buckle down and write as quickly as possible. I can’t keep just drifting towards my goal, especially with the deadline I’ve given myself. I also need to focus on BOTH novels, not just the first one if I’m going to have any sort of chance of getting both novels finished by my hard deadline.

It will be interesting to see how things work out. In one way, things are moving really fast. In another, I have a real problem with daydreaming way, way too much which does tend to slow me down.

But I am pretty sure that I can have ONE novel done by my hard deadline of July 22. And, if I work REALLY HARD, I might have two done.

The State of The Novel(s) I’m Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While it’s still at least possible that I will finish not one but two novels by my hard deadline of July 22, it’s beginning to sink in that maybe I should cool it talking about that possibility so much. It’s possible, just not probable.

I have a huge amount of work to do on the first novel and the only way I might finish both novel is if I do a lot of work on the second book while I work on the first. I may not finish two novels by my hard deadline, but I can DEFINITELY finish two novels by the end of the year.

And I hope to start to work on a third novel, a scifi Western, this year as well.

I continue to stew in my juices about how, exactly, I’m going to “comp” these novels. I really don’t read a lot these days and I can’t just comp the two mystery thrillers I’m working on to Stieg Larsson’s stuff. I have to find other novels to compare them to as well.

And, what’s more, I continue to be very worried about what is going to happen when the white liberal women who make up literary agents do “due diligence” on me, a freaky weirdo. At least I’m not a drunk crank anymore, but, rather a sober one.

I can’t help who I am.

One of my biggest concerns is that me being a drunk loser for so long will, by definition, prohibit me from ever — EVER — being a published author. But you have to have hope, no matter what. While there’s life, there’s hope.

Does Dune 2 Portend The End Of Woke Hollywood?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I continue to see a deluge of dude’s dudes being ecstatic about Dune 2. And, I think as Scott Galloway would note, the reason for the success of the movie is it wallows in “dude stuff” that young men feel a connection to.

And I will admit that even as a middle aged man, I was leaning into when some of the “dude stuff” scenes were on the scene. Even though Dune 2 is a “film” and The Empire Strikes Back was a “movie” both movies appeal to young men’s sense of themselves.

A whole 10,000 word New Yorker article could be written contrasting and comparing The Empire Strikes Back with Dune 2. The Star Wars franchise stole from the Dune books a great deal and is far more accessible to the audience, but the Star Wars franchise is a “woke” mess at the moment.

While I think the term “woke” is bullshit, I do think that maybe Disney and LucasFilm could think more about how to tell a good story than how to give a reach around to the advocates of identity politics. And don’t get me started about selling little kids toys.

I do think it’s at least possible that Dune could now become a new major scifi franchise because young men — at least on Tik-Tok — are going crazy for Dune 2. What’s so curious about this is the movie is not a popcorn movie, but a prestige film. It will be interesting to see not only how things progress with the next movie but how the success of Dune 2 will influence Hollywood in general.

Is it at least possible that Hollywood will begin to think more about storytelling and not either churning out either a new MCU movie or another vanity project “woke” movie? Only time will tell.