Month: March 2024

I’m Nervous I’m Too Bonkers To Find An Editor — Or An Agent

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve been “different” my entire life. What’s more, I wear my heart on my sleeve and am very active — probably too active — on social media. And I’ve already had problems with manuscript consultants thinking I was too weird to work with.

Now, I find myself needing an editor soon — if I can afford it.

And I’m growing more and more concerned that even if I can scrounge up the money to pay for an editor that I won’t be able to get one because, well, I’m bonkers. A kook. They will do due diligence on me and just shake their head and think, “Oh boy.”

The same — but more so — goes for a literary agent.

I can’t help how old I am and I can’t help what a kook I’ve been my entire life. I’m colorful. But when you’re a broke ass writer who hasn’t done much with your life in a loooooong time, what comes across as “fun” and “interesting” when you’re a success, comes across as “loser” when you’re not.

I don’t know what to tell you. I guess….this is when things get interesting?

Thoughts At The Midpoint of The Third Draft

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Two things about me have helped me get to this point with this novel — I don’t have much going on in my life other than this novel and I’m willing to let the project consume me. As such, here I am, 51, knowing damn well I could be at least 56 before my first novel hits shelves — if I’m lucky.

I hope to write a heroine who is as engaging as Lisbeth Salander.

But having this novel in my life has really been a lot of fun and has allowed me to grow as a writer and storyteller in ways I did not expect. I’m getting just about to the point that I know how *I* develop and write a novel so I can repeat the process a lot more quickly next time.

Now, obviously, everything could change at any moment and the whole context of how all of this is going on could change. But, for the time being, I have to just be content that I’ve put in the hard work and, at last, I’ve begun to see some results.

I just can’t help how old I am.

What’s Going On With Trump & Little Marco?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In a curious development that none of us expected, Trump apparently is keen on making “Little Marco” Rubio his 2024 veep. I find this very curious for a number of reasons.

But, in a sense, it makes sense — Trump wants to win, so he, just like he did with Pence, he will pick a traditional pol to be his toady and stooge. And, yet, you would think that in his animal brain, Trump would be more open to someone like Mike Flynn as his veep as a type of insurance against getting impeached.

All I know is, the next 18 months are going to be bumpy one way or another and we have to prepare for it.

Sometimes, I Wonder About A.I. People

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t think it makes me an AI “doomer” to simply suggest there be SOME sort of guardrails built in to AI, especially given the very real possibility that AI could consume, well, everything.

Just like nuclear power can both power a city and blow it up, so, too, can AI power take humanity to a new level of peace and prosperity…and make reality a living hell.

Of course, some of all this desire to have “unbiased” and “unaligned” AI comes from people who are either oblivious to the consequences of that desire or people who want to blow up the world. The whole thing is fucked up.

If AI is going to be as important as I believe it will be, then, yeah, we need some controls to make sure it doesn’t let people easily figure out how to hurt a lot of people. But, alas, Something Bad is going to happen — really bad — before we have the political will to do anything about “aligning” or “unaligning” AI.

I do think that the AI / robotics revolution has only just begun. We’re not even at the end of the beginning yet. It could very well be that we reach a Petite Singularity between now and early 2025 — so we could face The Fourth Turning politically and the Petite Singularity on the technological front.

At The Midpoint of The Third Draft

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After a lot more months than I expected, I am finally at the midpoint of the third draft of my first novel. I hope to zoom through the rest of the novel to the point that I can go through and add some uniformity to the novel in some form of Third Draft, Beta Release.

Nathalie Emmanuel in this photo looks exactly like the heroine of my novel.

THEN, after THAT is done, I will try to find an editor of some sort. I don’t know how am I’m going to afford that, however. In fact, if it takes too long, I may just start querying without worrying about an editor.

My heroine sports a sleeve tattoo similar to the one Megan Fox has now.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that two things will probably only happen if something really weird happens that I can’t predict — a find an editor and I get an agent. That’s because the odds are against me when it comes to either one of those goals.

So, if I somehow manage to get either one of those things, something really unexpected and weird will have happened.

How Biden May Finally Get Impeached

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are two possible ways that Biden will finally be impeached.

  1. Comer and his merry band of GQP ding-dongs just do it
    In this scenario, House Republicans decide to just force a vote as close as possible to the election so when low information voters are headed to the polls they will think “well, both candidates have been impeached, so, fascism here we come.”
  2. A Black Swan
    In this scenario, some random scandal that would otherwise no big that big a deal will lead directly to impeachment because, lulz, the country is so tightly wound, so highly partisan — and seemingly on the cusp of civil war — that if Biden does actually do something vaguely improper, he will be impeached by the House.

    We’ll see, I guess.

America May Be Finally Felled By…Vibes?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The issue of the moment is how the vibes are off in America, no matter how well the economy is actually doing. People are just unhappy and grumpy. It makes you wonder what the fuck is going on in America, why this is the case.

It definitely seems as though we’re going to vote malignant ding-dong Donald Trump back into office because we have just given up because of bad vibes. And, yet, as I have said before, I think maybe we should not fear this particular situation, but embrace it.

I say this because — we’re fucked.

Because of long term macro demographic changes in the United States, the Republican Party is now a pure, uncut fascist party. And, really, it’s just a matter of time that because of the ebb and flow of any semi-functioning democracy that one of the two major parties will get power again.

As such, of all the people to attempt to transition us into a fascist autocracy, Trump is probably the “best” of the available options. And, given how bad he will be in his tyranny, maybe….the good guys will win sooner rather than later?

I’m not advocating anything, but if I had to organize an General Strike against a American tyrant, I should would rather do it against Red King Trump I than anyone else who might be available.

But, hopefully, it won’t come to that.

Sometimes, It’s Actually Pleasant That No One Listens to Me

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Absolutely no one listens to me or takes me seriously, at least at the moment. This is so much the case that it will be astonishing and surreal if this particular situation ever changes. If something happens, say, I sell a novel, and people actually listen to me and care about what I have to say…whoa buddy.

I’m just a reformed barfly.

My head will spin.

The only time anyone actually listened to me was in Seoul and Cool Stuff happened. Of course, there was a catch — people only listened to me because of the late Annie Shapiro.

That’s why we made such a great team — I had the vision and she had the “persuasive ability.”

But that was a long time ago. I now just drift through life working on a novel and ranting about this or that thing that gets me spun up…and no one, absolutely no one — other than a few stalkers who read this blog — gives a shit.

As such, there are no consequences if I rant about something that doesn’t fit the “media narrative” about this or that thing — at least for now. Should this particular situation change, however, it’s really going to take me a little bit to process it all.

American Orbanism

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The crux of what Republicans want to bring to America is the idea that people will assume the system is so rigged against the center-Left that they will just give up. Now, one key issue is Trump is so stupid and lazy — and so prone to trashing around in his tyranny — that the case could be made that he is the absolute worst person to attempt to bring Hungary-style autocracy or “Orbanism” to America.

He’s more likely to piss everyone off so much that there’s a revolution / civil war than there is any sort of peaceful slide into autocracy. But what would it look like if he — or someone like him — did bring Orbanism to America?

Well, I don’t know that much about Orbanism, but from what I know about autocracy, it seems two things would change overnight in Orbanistic America — the end of Birthright Citizenship and a lot of media conglomerates would magically be aligned with the autocrat.

As such, I could see a purge of late night talk show hosts. All the liberal leaning talk show hosts would be replaced, may gradually, maybe all at once, with “centrists” who either didn’t talk about politics at all or who wallowed in sucking at the teet of the autocrat.

Meanwhile, once Birthright Citizenship is gone, then you have to worry about “showing your papers” if you get in trouble with the state. Once of the first things the Nazis did when they were in power was to narrow who constituted a “citizen.” There’s every reason to believe the same thing will happen the moment Republicans can make that a reality.

I will note, however, what a bad and weak candidate Trump is at the moment. But for how racism and misogyny are warping our politics and the Electoral College, Biden would win in a blow out this fall.

Jeon Jong-Seo Is A Serious Babe

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Anyone who has ever lived in South Korea any amount of time will tell you that young Koreans are some of the best looking people in the world. So, when I saw Korean actress Jeon Jong-Seo throw out the first pitch at a Dodgers game in Seoul — hubba hubba.

Jeon Jong-Seo

She’s a serious babe! And, from what I’ve heard, she can speak English pretty well. So, it’s at least possible that she might have a bright future in Hollywood. It will be interesting to see if she decides to such a thing.