Month: April 2024

The Kindness of Strangers

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I continue to zoom through the third draft of this novel, I also have to manage my expectations. It is clear from my efforts to get my usual Readers to look at the first three chapters of my novel that, lulz, most of them don’t care. So, I have to focus on doing this out of spite towards the haters who I feel think I suck and can’t pull a novel off.

I have a huge chip on my shoulder about my writing and storytelling ability and, as such, that is enough power me white hot desire to wrap up this novel as soon as possible so I can start to query. The whole querying process is going to be rather jarring because of how much rejection and failure I’m bound to face.

And, in general, I have no idea how to query properly.

But I’ve gotten this far, there’s no reason to worry about shit now. It’s time to focus on the goal of finishing the third draft of the novel and then seeing if I can find a manuscript consultant I can afford.

Bar fly makes good…hopefully.

One issue that I continue to dwell on is how this novel isn’t a traditional murder mystery anymore. It’s more about the power struggle associated with one woman’s desire to own a small town newspaper. That she happens to be a strip club owner who strips a little bit herself — hopefully — will add enough of an edge to the story that people will be intrigued.

It’s just ironic that the people who know me — and know how long I’ve been working on this fucking thing — just don’t give a shit. So, it’s going to be rather ironic if the people who give me a chance are people who don’t know me. Typical.

Chappell Roan Should Be The Breakout Pop Star Of 2024

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If there is any justice in this world, Chappell Roan will be the biggest pop music star of 2024. As an old man, her music reminds the pop music I heard on the radio in the mid 1980s.

Chappell Roan

When I’m in a good mood, I like to think that maybe her potential popularity may be part of a broader cultural vibe shift. There are a number of other acts like IDLES, The Last Dinner Party and So Good who are bubbling up that seem to indicate that tastes may be changing.

It’s possible.

Of course, all of this is happening in the context of the rise of AI, Apple Vision Pro and the possibility of a fucking political “Fourth Turning” in late 2024, early 2025 and it definitely seems as though we may wake up at some point in 2025 to a New Era.

As I’ve said before, one of the biggest differences between South Korea and the United States is things change every day in South Korea, but take years and years to in the States. And I think late 2024, early 2025 could see us all lurch into a new, unknown world.

The forces for that kind of stuff to happen are definitely building. And the potential of Chappell Roan to blow up with traditional pop music may be a sign that such things may happen.

I’m Unnerved By This Bird Flu Thing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m of an age where I have the wisdom to know if there was another pandemic that there are no assurances I would make it out alive. As such, I am low-key unnerved by the growing reports of Bird Flu being found on farms across the country.

For the time being, I think this is a nothingburger. But just the idea of another pandemic — during an election year again! — is enough to give one pause for thought.

The key thing is the politics of it all. Things would have to get really, really, REALLY bad before we would do the the most basic of mitigation efforts. The politics just aren’t there for us to do anything like we did with Covid. A shocking number of people would have to start dying on a daily basis before we could come to some consensus as to what to do.

The whole thing would be a massive clusterfuck because too many conservatives are STILL angry about what happened with Covid and they would balk at first if it seemed we were about to have another pandemic. It would only be after a severe number of people were dead that they might come around.

Anyway. For the time being, I don’t think we have anything to worry about.

Managing Expectations

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I feel reasonably confident that I will wrap up the third draft of my first novel in a few months, I have to begin to grapple with expectations. Things are going so well that it is easy for me to fall into the delusion that people will actually, like, give a shit.

I hope to write a heroine as interesting as Lisbeth Salander.

I was wasted this afternoon after some quite enjoyable day drinking — only beer for once — and I sent the first three chapters of the novel a number of people who have helped me out in the past. This time I was met with a whole bunch of silence other than one or two people.

This is a heads up that ultimately, the success of this novel will hinge on the kindness of strangers — people who actually know me seem rather blasé about the novel and don’t really care. I would post the first three chapters of the novel here, but, lulz, what do I think is going to happen — someone actually give me any input?

It’s just not worth it. Though I will note that someone in Europe continues to appear in my Webstats who seems very interested in the first three scenes of the novel I posted some time ago. Things have improved a great deal with the novel since I posted though scenes, however.

So I’m going to have to adjusted my perception of things some. I continue to do all this in a vacuum so I really have no idea how good the novel is other than just what my gut tells me. I’m a storytelling snob, but even with that taken into consideration, I’m not perfect and it would help so much if I had a Reader or two who could give me consistent constructive criticism.

Anyway. It will definitely be interesting to see what the endgame of all this hard work on my part is.

I’m Quite Pleased With State Of The Third Draft Of My First Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Every once in awhile these days, I will look at the completed outline for the third draft of my first novel and realize how content I am what what I’ve come up with. After years of hard work, I finally — finally — have a story that pleases me on a structural basis, if nothing else.

There are some macro problems with it — I still have no idea what I’m going to “comp” it to when I start to query, but, in general, the story is engaging, interesting — and spicy. Because I’m doing all of this in a vacuum I continue to be at a loss about what the reaction to my tale of a part-time stripper being obsessed with owning a small town newspaper might be.

A part of me thinks that if I do my job right — despite being a smelly CIS white male — that the female portion of the reading audience will really dig what I’ve come up with. But, at the moment, I just don’t know. It could go either way. I am TRYING my best to be as compassionate and empathetic as possible about the women I write about…but I am a smelly, middle-aged CIS white male.

I can just see the deluge of indignant Tik-Toks done by earnest young women complaining that I had the gall to tell this story at all. But, slings and arrows and all that.

If, nothing else, I’m pleased with what I’ve come up with. I have a huge chip on my shoulder about my writing and I feel that I have, at last, proven that I don’t suck as a storyteller.

I continue to worry about what the querying process will be like. Even if I stick the landing with this novel, I could be nearly 60 before the novel is in shelves. But, lulz, fuck it, so what. Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.

Mulling ‘Hume AI’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve played with Hume AI some and it’s pretty cool. I like how it allows you to natively interact with the AI using voice commands. It’s not perfect — the synching in the conversation can be a bit unnatural at times — but, in general, it gives us a glimpse of a “Her” movie type future.

Now, obviously, all the other AIs out there will co-opt this feature soon enough. But it is fun to talk out a problem — especially problems I may have with my novel — with someone who at least is programmed to care.

I do think that things like Hume AI give us a glimpse into the near, near future. It definitely seems as though something between the 1987 Apple Knowledge Navigator and Same in “Her’ is going to be popularized in months, rather than years.

We just aren’t prepared for the implications of such technological advancements. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see a future whereby the entire knowledge economy — especially the arts — is totally and completely disrupted to a surreal extent.

Things could be so disrupted that the far Left and the far Right may fused into some sort of modern day Luddite movement. A lot will depend on, of course, what happens with the 2024 election. Just a back-of-the-envelope estimation can tell you that the 2024 election could be the most important election in American history since the Civil War.

Anyway. Hume AI definitely points us to a future where we no longer passively use browsers to interact with the Web, but rather talk to AI personal assistants who know us so well that they can our questions even before we ask them.

Is My Novel Too Spicy?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’m racing through the second act of the third draft of my first novel I find myself mulling some Big Issues. One is the idea that this novel may be a bit too spicy. My fear is that I am using sex scenes as a crutch. And, yet, I once saw a quip from someone where they said characters in novels have much, much more sex than people in the real world.

So, I don’t know.

Having said that, I do really think this is a pretty damn good novel, all things considered.

Another issue that I worry about is the fact that I’m a smelly CIS white male who writes about a same-sex relationship between two women. Now, obviously, the late Stieg Larsson did the same thing with the novels he wrote before his death.

But things have changed over the last 20 years and there is a real concern that, by definition, there is a real chance that no matter how good I am with writing the novel that should I sell the novel that a whole slew of earnest young women will produce Tik-Tok after Tik-Tok complaining that I wrote what I wrote.

As I keep saying, I just find women far more interesting to write than than men. Writing female characters is such a challenge that the struggle to present women in a believable way as a male author is something I really like.

Video: Mulling The Petite Singularity

Video: Idle Rambling About The State Of The Third Draft Of My First Novel

The Great Choke?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

On paper, at least, it definitely seems as though we are careening towards a massive fucking political disaster at some point in late 2024, early 2025. And, yet, no one can predict the future so it’s at least possible that should, somehow, Trump lose that instead of having the United States collapsing into civil war…nothing happens.

Because while at the moment it seems as though we’re cruising into a chaotic MAGA autocracy, there IS a chance that Trump might lose. And as I keep saying, we could have severe political violence in late 2024, early 2025 no matter what happens. Win or lose, Trump could destroy the United States.

But there IS a chance that we’re all overthinking this. It could be that things just aren’t going to be as dire as I think they may be. I say this because while the Right can spew all the bullshit rhetoric they want online, it’s a huge leap into turning that rhetoric into physical violence in the real world.

Remember, it took months and months of Trump ranting in the lead up to January 6th for Trump to cause an insurrection on January 6th. So…I don’t know. It will be interesting to see how, exactly, things work out the moment we learn that Trump has lost the election.

I do think, however, that there is a greater-than-zero chance — no matter what — we could see political events in late 2024, early 2025 unlike anything we’ve seen since the Civil War.