Category: Cold Civil War

I Love Developing & Writing Female Characters, But The Process Can Be a Pain In The Ass As A Male Author

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

People love, love, love to pick on male authors for all being a bunch of clueless hornytoads when it comes to the female characters that they write. I’m so self-conscious of this issue that I over think everything to do with my female characters.

My heroine looks like Corrie Yee.
Then, of course, I turn around and turn my heroine into a part-time sex worker (stripper.) And given that I often write from a female POV, I find myself in a situation where I just can’t avoid talking about T&A, even though that’s the very thing that the fucking “woke cancel culture mob” things I have no right to describe at all as a CIS white middle age male.

But I dunno. It’s typical of my lot in life that I would inevitable gravitate straight towards the most problematic situation possible. And given that I’m a smelly CIS white middle age male, for some members of the “woke cancel culture mob” there just isn’t anything I can write that they would validate. So, fuck it, why not just endure the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and see what happens.

I like to THINK that I can write about women as a male author that won’t be embarrassing or cause women in the audience to want to throw the book across the room. But the whole sex worker element of the novel definitely makes it a provocative novel in the context of how sexless the “woke cancel culture mob” tends to be.

I’m happen with what I’ve come up with. I know people will really enjoy this novel once I finish it. The question is, of course, will the liberal white women who are often literary agents be cool with not just the contents of this novel but the fact that it was written by a smelly CIS white middle aged male.

Hysterical Doom Shit: Did I Just Have The Last Peaceful Thanksgiving (For a Few Years?)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m a bit worried. A year from now, the country COULD be tearing itself apart as we lurch towards either a MAGA-themed autocracy or something akin to a civil war. I live in a really deep-Red area of Virginia and one of the signs that Something Bad is about to happen is if I don’t feel safe anymore.

If I have to flee my bum fuck Egypt home for a Blue part of Virginia…oh boy. Things would be careening towards a dark place. But to even speculate on such things really is hysterical doom shit.

It could be that Thanksgiving 2024 will be just…Thanksgiving. Nothing will change and I will do it like I always do. But, I dunno, bruh. It definitely seems as though the moment Election Day 2024 arrives things will be…bumpy.

By Thanksgiving 2024, either incoming POTUS Tyrant Trump will have made it clear who he’s going to arrest…or Biden’s re-election will cause a Secession Crisis and we’ll all being worried about Texas leaving the Union before January. But I just don’t know. It could go either way. It really could.

It might be that nothing of note happens by Thanksgiving 2024. But if Trump gets re-elected we are in DEEP TROUBLE.

The Shape Of Things To Come: ‘Her’ Is Our Future

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Not sense the 1930s movie The Shape Of Things To Come has a movie so predicted the future. Every day, it seems as though “Her” is pretty much our future in, what, 18 months?

If that is the case, then, holy shit. The entire knowledge economy is about to be totally re-imagined. And that will happen in the context of the fucking Fourth Turning. Or, put another way, holy shit are we in for a bumpy road over the next 18 or more months.

We could see a total transformation of the technological and political landscape in a rather abrupt manner. Late 2024, early 2025 has at least the making of a “holy shit” moment in human history. By 2030, the entire geopolitical world could be re-formed into something new and exotic, especially if you think a few regional wars might go hot with a limited nuclear exchange.

But remember — the whole thing will be scary as shit while it’s happening. There will be no narrative or value to what happens. And, if things get as bad as I fear, there will be long stretches of time where communication itself is something of a luxury.

Anyway. We definitely seem to be rushing towards some sort of “Petite Singularity” in the very near future. Buckle up.

Time To Put The ‘President Hillary Would Have Saved Us’ Counterfactual to Bed

by Ender

Way, way, WAY too many well meaning liberals have learned the wrong lesson from the lasting political power of malignant ding-dong Trump. They continue to cling on the delusional belief that if only Hillary Clinton had won in 2016 all of our problems would have been solved.

They. Are. So. Fucking. Delusional.

I say this because Trump is a symptom, not a cause. If Trump had lost in 2016 two things might have happened instead — he would have gotten worse and become president in 2020, or someone like him would have become POTUS in 2020 or 2024. There are severe macro issues bending American politics in weird ways and all the people who jerk off to the latest breathless Mueller, She Wrote tweet need to grow the fuck up.

In my mind, Mueller, She Wrote symbolizes everything wrong with modern liberalism. No one is going to save us, babe. We have to save ourselves. I wear your block on Twitter as a badge of honor.

The thing that liberals seem to think is if only Hillary Clinton had won, we would be awash in liberal-progressive judges. Ha! Bullshit. All that would have happened is there would be three or more vacancies on the SCOTUS — and many more throughout the judiciary — until Trump, or someone like him, was elected in 2020 or 2024.

If you think that’s “hysterical doom shit,” then fuck you. You’re an oblivious idiot who thinks that if only you tweet harder that somehow, magically the rise of fascism will be stopped without you having risk your life and scared honor in the real fucking world.

The Sprint Begins

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m just about to lock down the first two chapters of the third draft of my first novel. It’s some of the best writing I’ve ever done. I’m really, really pleased. I just have to keep the quality of work up.

I’m never going to be Gillian Flynn, but I am at least getting closer to Stieg Larsson quality writing (I know I read his stuff translated). The key thing that changed in the last month or so is I’ve finally — finally — figured out the relationship between different people as the story opens.

As such, now I can zoom through the much of the novel. I still have a lot of issues with some structure ahead of me — especially in the third act –but, in general, I know this story so well that things writing *should* move at a pretty nice clip.

But there are some known unknowns. One is the holiday season is now here and that is going to scramble things on an emotional basis. Meanwhile, I’ve been in a very — VERY — idyllic situation when it comes to writing for a long time and that is bound to change — one way or another — sooner rather than later. I just have to accept that.

What’s more EVEN IF I stick the landing of this novel, the looming Fourth Turning and Petite Singularity starting in late 2024, early 2025 is something I’ve quite worried about. And that’s over and above what a stressful pain in the ass the querying process is on whole.

Anyway. Wish me luck.

The Fear Is, Of Course, That Tyrant Trump Will Be More Pol Pot Than Hitler

by Ender

While neither Hitler nor Pol Pot were great guys, I think we’re missing the point to suggest that Tyrant Trump will be an American Hitler. I say this because while Tyrant Trump definitely shares a lot of traits with Hitler, there is one key element to MAGA that makes me think Pol Pot is a more accurate comparison: MAGA is a movement not of expansion, but of retrenchment.

What’s more, emptying the cities and having American Killing fields is definitely something I could imagine Trump — or his equally deranged fascist successor — doing. MAGA hates the elites and the cities to the point that if things went totally off the rails then soon enough, after the ICE infrastructure has been weaponized, MAGA may skip a few steps and simply empty the cities en masse.

That is an extremely dark scenario. And I don’t *really* think any such thing will happen. But if we’re going to think about what happens if Trump goes full tyrant, maybe we think more about the social impact of Pol Pot rather than Hitler.

Pondering The Potential Reception Of This Novel By Literary Agents

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’ve just about locked down the first two chapters of the third draft of this novel, I find myself pondering What Next. I still have a few more months of writing to finish the third draft, but I definitely am beginning to think about the querying process.

My big concern is, of course, that because I’m doing this in a vacuum that the somewhat provocative premise of the novel will make literary agents — who I imagine as being mostly liberal white women — either laugh or get angry. I have no idea if the “sex worker who solves a murder mystery” will be cool with literary agents or not because of that.

But “Barry” was popular, so, lulz, it’s at least *possible* that my similar type story might have broad appeal. And, yet, sexwork is so loaded in the minds of most people while being a hired assassin is a lulz that it’s possible it will just be too loaded for anyone to take seriously.

Yet the point is that I want a heroine is really, really interesting. Someone unexpected who you will want to hang out with for the time it takes to read ~140,000 words. I believe I have come up with just the type of evocative story that people will really find worth their time.

I hope.

The holiday season is now here, so that is an added complication. My fear is that because of the holiday season and other “known unknowns” that I’ll really be pushing it to wrap this novel up no later than April 2024. Then I will have to save up the money to get a professional manuscript consultant to read over the third draft.

THEN I have to start to query just as the “Perfect Storm” of The Fourth Turning and the AI generated Petite Singularity happens in late 2024, early 2025. But, if nothing else, I definitely am happy with this story. There are probably going to be a lot — A LOT — of structural changes to the third act in the transition from second to third draft.

But I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Now The Hard Part

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I love to write. Writing is like shedding skin for me. I do it a lot without even thinking about it. And, for years now, I’m been VERY delusional about what’s going on with my first novel. I’ve allowed myself this luxury because I knew it was the only way I would ever actually finish anythiing.

And, yet, now that it’s clear that I’ve finally figured out the beginning of the third draft of this novel and I’m going to — hopefully — wrap it up by, say, around April 1st, I have to put on my big boy pants

I have to start thinking about querying.

The reason why this scares the shit out of me is multifold. One is, well, I’m a drunk crank who doesn’t always follow the media narrative on social media. I retweet a lot — A LOT — of pictures of hot chicks. I get drunk and rant about the importance of heteronormative monoculture. And I have been known to say I fucking hate the Bechdel Test. AND, WHAT’s MORE, my novel could easily be reduced to the logline of smelly CIS white male spends 140,000 words to depict a “sex worker solving a murder mystery.”

I retweet a lot of pictures of hot chicks on Twitter.
None of those things endear me to the liberal women who often are literary agents. But I refuse to change anything. I’m going to accept the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, come what may.

I have a lot to consider going forward. I have to think about how I’m going to pay for a manuscript consultant to look over my copy. I have to buy AND READ a series of novels that I can “comp” my novel to, even though it’s a real struggle to consume anyone else’s content — and I’m a storytelling snob.

AND, all of this is happening the context of the rise of AI, the potential for a “Fourth Turning” in late 2024, early 2025 AND the very real possibility that my entire life could be thrown up in the air because of known unknowns.

I dig shit like this.
And, yet, the whole point of starting a novel in the first place was to get outside my comfort zone and to see how far I could get in the process before it became absolutely, 100% clear that I would have to — gulp — self-publish.

But I would only consider that after a good bit of fighting to get published traditionally. And I might even be so stubborn that I simply but the finished novel aside until I can get something ELSE published traditionally and use the leverage that gives me to get my first novel published.

Building Out An American SA For Tyrant Trump In Early 2025 Would Take Time & Not Happen In A Vacuum

by Ender

As it stands, Tyrant Trump seems to think that all his problems with a restless populace will be fixed by simply invoking the Insurrection Act. In that respect, MAGA “thoughtleaders” are making some pretty silly and child-like assumptions. They made similar assumptions about SCOTUS in the lead up to the January 6th Insurrection.

The problem is — after having read about the consolidation of Nazi power in early 1933, I realize that both Project 2025 and Agenda47 have a huge, gaping hole in their conspiracy: no SA.

And, it gets even more complicated. The US of 2025 is far larger in both population and geographic size than Germany in 1933. And the US is far more decentralized. And diverse. And has a far more potent tradition of democracy than the Weimer Republic.

It seems as though MAGA believes that simply by corrupting the administration of justice and the executive they can walk all over the American population. MAGA believes Americans will allow Tyrant Trump to throttle American democracy in broad daylight. I assume they think this because Trump has gotten away with a lot already, so, lulz, of course he can go full tyrant without any consequences.

But if Trump goes full tyrant and corrupts the administration of justice to the point that he is literally snatching people off the street and throwing them in jail, then….uhhh…there is going to be a reaction on the part of the American population.

The key thing is that the Nazis had an SA to browbeat the 48% of the Germany population that didn’t support them. Even if Trump decided to organize some sort of national paramilitary group at some point in early 2025 when it becomes clear that invoking the Insurrection Act isn’t going to cut it, there would be a lag time.

Trump would need a least maybe 300,000 or more MAGA SA members to scare the shit out of people in Blue States. But doing that would, unto itself, cause a reaction on the part of the American population. And remember, all of this would happen in the context of Trump being a lazy idiot who would just thrash around in anger rather than doing any sort of Great Man shit.

I suppose Trump could weaponize the existing ICE infrastructure and turn the organization into some sort of Gestapo. But doing that would ALSO really piss a lot of Blue State people off. And also alienate a lot of Traditionalists who just want to put kids in cages, not have their Blue family members roughed up and tortured in a camp.

I still believe that some sort of General Strike combined with the use of the 14th Amendment might lure the U.S. Military into supporting some sort of toppling of Tyrant Trump. But THAT would also cause a huge problem — probably in the guise of a Secession crisis.

The whole point is — unless we magically punt our problems down the road by peacefully re-electing Biden in 2024….we’re fucked.

I’m Very Pleased With This Novel At The Moment — But I’m Also Nervous

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have been in a very, very idyllic situation for an extended amount of time when it comes to writing a novel. And, finally, I feel as though I’ve locked in the beginning of the novel so things should move much, much faster now.

But.

The issue is that I fear Something is going to throw things up in the air. Something will happen that either causes the context of my efforts to write a novel dramatically or even significantly slow the writing down.

And, what’s more, the clock is ticking. I’m not going to live forever — I’m the exact age Stieg Larsson was when he died — AND the rise of AI and the potential Fourth Turning in late 2024, early 2025 is rather alarming.

There’s just nothing I can do. I just have to accept that I have to work harder and faster. I have to lean into my insecurities and fears to generate the creative energy necessary to get this novel done.