Month: April 2026

Trump Continues To Prove How Fucking Bonkers He Is With The Iran War

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

At this point, there’s not much more to say about Trump’s mental state in relation to the Iran War that he’s currently waging. The man is totally bonkers. And has been for some time.

I don’t think Trump will use nukes or anything. And I think there’s a pretty good chance that he will just randomly declare victory and walk away, no matter what the state of play on the ground.

With Trump, anything is fucking possible.

Anyway, I really haven’t commented on the Iran War because there just isn’t much to say at the moment. I’m very much in a wait and see type situation. If things really started to escalate, then I might start to write more about it all.

My Biggest Worries About My Novel At The Moment

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

  1. Too Much AI
    I am very self-conscious about there being any AI used to actually write anything in this novel. My hope is, through the editing process, I can eliminate any “AI speak” that may have slipped through the development process. I have worked so hard on this novel, I would be devastated if it was unpublishable because I had used AI too much to actually write it. (Which I haven’t.)
  2. It’s Too Spicy
    There is a lot of sex in this novel. And I’m worried that the very nature, the very premise, of the novel will be seen as “too trashy” for the liberal white women I imagine make up most literary agents. But who knows. The novel is shaping up to be pretty good, all things considered.
  3. I’m Too Big A Kook
    I’m really worried that whenever I get into the querying process and literary agents are doing “due diligence” on me that they will read this blog, or my social media presence and be extremely spooked that I’m just too big of a weirdo to sell a novel. But we’ll see, I guess. Stranger things and all that.

Feeling Insecure About My Novel’s ‘Comp,’ Annie Bot

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The core difference between my novel and Annie Bot is mine is told from the POV of the “owner” of the android. Similar premises, in a sense, but told from the exact opposite POV.

Now, I decided to tell my novel this way because, well, lulz, the woke cancel culture mob demands that men only write from a male POV and as such, lulz, I have to write it the way I am.

Of course, given GenZ’s general “no sex please” sentiment that is ANOTHER issue that I have to worry about. My novel has a lot of spicy content in it for various and obvious reasons.

But I worry that 1) Annie Bot is better written than my novel and 2) the woke cancel culture mob will poo-poo my attempt to write a dramedy about a man’s relationship to an android he subscribes to.

And, yet, I really like what I’ve come up with. It is, all things considered, pretty good. It’s quite an entertaining yarn, if I do say so myself.

Turbulence Ahead

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m beginning to believe that the long dreaded turbulence I’ve expected for my personal life is going to happen soon. It could totally throw the context of me working on this novel out of whack.

And, yet, I’ve been grateful for how long I’ve had the idyllic situation.

At this point, I just want to finish a novel that I’m proud of. Any thing else that might happen will be icing on the cake, as it were.

I still haven’t read Annie Bot. I still haven’t read any of the books I have on querying. I just can’t bring myself to do such things just yet.

I think once I actually finish the novel — no matter how trashy it might ultimately be — that is when I will really start to take querying more seriously. Right now, it’s still something of an abstract.

Edging Ever Closer To The Midpoint Of The Latest Version Of The Scifi Dramedy

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I keep saying, I’m cruising towards the midpoint of the scifi dramedy novel I’m working on. Things are very much in flux and I hope to nail things down good enough that once I make another go at reading the novel I won’t have to re-write so much, if hardly any.

The next go through will simply be to absolutely double-check that there isn’t too much “AI talk” in the copy. I want it to be as much in my own, human voice as humanly possible.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes me to get through the second half of the novel once get into it. The second half of this novel has been, in previous versions, not nearly as well written out.

But, we’ll see.

I probably will get to the midpoint by….maybe next week sometime?

A Few Small Quibbles With ‘Project Hail Mary’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really liked both the book and the movie Project Hail Mary. But the movie really had a few elements that made me annoyed.

The first and biggest one was how our intrepid hero was able to figure out how to pilot a huge space craft that he otherwise should know nothing about. I would have introduced an AI of some sort as a character that would have taken care of all that and filled that particular plot hole.

Meanwhile, another issue was the selection of The Beatles “Two of Us” for a very crucial scene, when, I think the case could be made that “Get Back” was a lot better. But I get it — they wanted to convey a lot of information with one song and in this instance, “Two of Us” did a double duty that “Get Back” could not.

Anyway, I really liked the movie. It was really good.