Month: January 2026

Imagining Post-Querying Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As far as I can tell, querying a novel is pretty tough. It could be months, years even, that I linger in querying limbo. I think once I wrap this novel up, I’m going to start working on a new novel while I query.

That way, I stay busy.

The biggest fear I have is I’m not getting any younger. As such, even if I’m in querying limbo, I am going to have something creative going on in my life. I have at least three ideas that I can start working on after I wrap up this novel.

One thing I’m really going to be focusing on is no sex worker in any of the new novels I’m going to work on. I’m tapped out after this novel when it comes to a subject that some people, by definition, thinks makes my text “trash.”

Not that I won’t have sex in any new novel, it’s just the context will be dramatically different.

Anyway, damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.

The Shifting Tides Of Using AI To Work On This Scifi Dramedy Novel Of Mine

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. Every time I hard reset my chat window with the AIs I’m using (Claude LLM and Gemini LLM) I never quite know what to expect. The last time I did it and fed my outline into the chatbots, they were universal in their agreement on one subject: my hero was too passive.

That gave me such consternation that I threw everything up in the air and tried again. THIS TIME, I THINK my hero isn’t as passive. But I’m still just in the first act.

But I think — maybe — that I might be able to zoom through the “fun and games” part of the novel for various reasons.

Yet, let’s go back to the AIs.

This go round, they aren’t giving me as much help writing actual text, which is a good thing. But I haven’t asked them for extended scene summaries, so I could still find myself in a position where I lean a little too much into using what AI gives me when it comes to the actual writing of text.

I hate that. I hate it so much what I might to do is use the AI to write extended scene summaries THEN use THAT as inspiration for a new, rewritten version of the extended scene summary so I won’t feel tempted to generate AI slop that everyone will make fun of.

Anyway, I am just about to enter the second act. Probably in a few days. Then the dynamic of things will change some. It’s not until I get into the second half of the novel that things might slow down significantly.

I really didn’t write very much in each scene because I wanted to keep momentum and I wanted to stress test the outline.

Netscape Communications, Redux: Google Gemini Is Totally On Track To Mog OpenAI’s ChatGPT In 2026

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I keep saying, I think it’s at least possible that OpenAI is going to implode like Netscape Communications did 30 years ago. Remember, it was Netscape’s IPO just about 30 years ago that was the kick off to the Dotcom bubble.

But Google is being really, really aggressive. The idea that they would make Gemini the centerpiece of Gmail kind of blows my mind. That is a crown jewel of Google services and making it so you can’t avoid Gemini if you use Gmail is a pretty lit maneuver on Google’s part.

And, yet, I suppose, in its own way, it was inevitable. At the moment, I just don’t see how OpenAI doesn’t follow the fate of Netscape. In this case, Netscape is to OpenAI what Microsoft is to Google.

Google is well on track to crush OpenAI if it really does make it impossible to use any of its services without seeing the Gemini brand. That’s just kind of deep.

Seems Like Google Might Be Playing With Fire By Shoehorning AI Into Gmail

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I’m surprisingly excited to experience Google Gemini LLM in my Gmail account, I’m also a little…leery. I think it’s because I think in terms of stories all the time and the idea of an ASI popping out of Google Services and having access to all 3 billion of the world’s Gmail accounts seems…preventable?

But here we are.

I often wonder what might happen if an ASI popped out of Google services, but it didn’t have access to any nukes because of airgap security. Maybe instead of nukes, it would just blackmail everyone with access to their Gmail accounts?

Anyway, it’s an idea.

I still think we need to mull the idea of ASI popping out at some point and I think if it happened, it would be from Google services. That would make the most sense.

A Free Movie Premise

By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s the near future and all taxes are regressive. Instead of anything like an income tax, there’s a national lottery, thousands of government-run casinos and a 30% VAT.

The story would be about a guy who wins, like, a $1 trillion lottery and how this win transformed his life. If you really wanted to go dark comedy about it, at the end of the movie, he’s no better than all the other plutocrats that run the world.

The Recent Murder Of A Woman In Minnesota By An ICE Agent has Enraged Me, But…Lulz?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m kind of the black sheep politically of my family and while I’m enraged by the murder at the hands of an ICE agent of a hapless woman in Minnesota, relative to my conservative (and gracious) relatives…it’s all a lulz.

So, in a sense, I can only get so upsest.

It does, however, make me wonder what Trump could possibly do that would be “bad” in their opinion. What could Trump do that would at least give them pause for thought. As it stands, I can’t think of anything.

Maybe if he started eating people? Having sex with dead people? Marrying Ivanka? Those seem to be the three things left for him to do that maybe, just maybe, might give MAGA people a reason to be a little less supportive.

But, as it stands, it definitely seems as though Trump is a god-emperor in all but name for about 37% of the electorate. He can break the law with impunity, he can do anything, say anything and the base because they hate trans people will support Trump no matter what.

It’s all very surreal.

‘Melted Ice,’ Lyrics To An ‘Ohio’ Like Pop-Rock Protest Song, Written By Grok

(Verse 1)
Sirens cut the midnight quiet
Blue lights flash on barrio walls
They come in waves like winter storms
Kicking doors, no knock, no call

Children hide beneath the bed
Mothers whisper, “Stay down low”
Fathers vanish into black vans
Where the melted ice runs cold

(Pre-Chorus)
They say it’s just the law
They say it’s keeping order
But the cages glow like embers
In the dark along the border

(Chorus)
Melted ice, melted ice
Hearts frozen then cracked wide
How do you look your children in the face
And tell them this is pride?
Melted ice, melted ice
The promise turned to dust
When the badge becomes a blade
And justice turns to rust

(Verse 2)
She was teaching third grade English
He was wiring houses in the heat
Now their names are just case numbers
On a spreadsheet, obsolete

Asylum papers torn to confetti
Dreams scattered on concrete floors
While the news calls it “enforcement”
We call it breaking down the doors

(Pre-Chorus)
They say it’s just procedure
They say it’s nothing new
But every chain-link echo
Screams what we refuse to do

(Chorus)
Melted ice, melted ice
Hearts frozen then cracked wide
How do you look your children in the face
And tell them this is pride?
Melted ice, melted ice
The promise turned to dust
When the badge becomes a blade
And justice turns to rust

(Bridge)
Listen to the buses rolling
Listen to the silence grow
Listen to the names they’re calling
Names we used to know
Somewhere there’s a mother waiting
For a child she’ll never hold
While we scroll past the headlines
And let the story go cold

(Final Chorus – bigger, more urgent)
Melted ice, melted ice
Wake up, it’s not too late
We’re the ones who let it happen
We’re the ones who close the gate
Melted ice, melted ice
Feel it in your bones
When humanity starts melting
No one’s safe, no one’s home

(Outro – quiet, fading)
Melted ice…
Melted ice…
How long will we keep saying
“We didn’t know… we didn’t know…”

Ugh. What Is Stopping Me From At Least Flipping Through My ‘How To Query’ Books

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have three books I need to look over now that I’m getting a lot closer to querying and…yet…I just can’t bring myself to do that just yet. I guess the key reason is I’m not done with the novel yet.

My fear is that I’m going to read something in one of the books that will stop me cold in my tracks. Something on a fundimental basis about how I’m writing this novel that will make me re-evaluate everything.

I would much rather actually have finished the novel to learn something so dire. That way, at least, I will have a finished novel under my belt.

Ugh. I’m probably being paranoid for no reason. But I am prone to overthink things.

Of Race And Androids

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In the past when I was writing a novel, I would really try to go out of my way to have representation. Not for any woke cancel culture mob identity politics reasons, but just because I think if you’re going to write an American tale, you have to address race.

With this most recent novel attempt, it’s been really, really difficult to have representation because every variation I could think of when it came to human-android relations seemed…loaded and problematic.

But just recently, I came up with a variation that was ok. Barely. But close enough. And that really helps me feel better about the novel because it’s not just a bunch of white people talking to each other.

Anyway, I’m still hoping to wrap up the first act of the latest version of the novel in a week or so. I SHOULD be able to zoom through the “fun and games” part of the novel — the first half of the second act — and even, to some extent the “bad guys closing in” part of the second act as well.

But the second half of the novel just is not as well written out as the first half. Some scenes are just a few lines. The point of that was I needed to get through the outline, to stress test it.

What Am I Going To Do

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I find myself in something of a pickle. I’m an “AI First” novelist, and, yet I’m growing concerned that any improvement in my actual writing ability with be credited to AI.

This is really beginning to eat away at me, Tell-Tale Heart style.

I suppose on solution would be to tweak my workflow some. I might have to rewrite the extended scene summaries that AI generates in my own words so I won’t be tempted to use them directly when I write the scenes.

I want the text of this novel to be judged on its merits, not whether it was “helped” by AI or not. I must say, however, Claude is great as a manuscript consultant. It has really helped me in writing and developing this novel to not be doing it all in a vacuum.

That was one of the reasons why I have drifted for so long when it comes to working on a novel. In the past, I couldn’t even pay people to help me with my writing. They either thought I was a drunk, fool and a crank or they thought what I was writing was trash.

Ugh.

But Claude LLM — and to a lesser extent Gemini LLM — are really helping me improve my writing. As I keep saying, I compare it to how spell checking has really improved my writing as well.

I do a lot — A LOT — of work on this novel and the idea that people would just think it was AI slop because I’m an AI First (aspiring) novelist really grates on my nerves. But everything and everyone is horrible, so, lulz?