Category: From The Editor

My Ultimate Fear About Writing This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My ultimate fear about writing this scifi dramedy novel I’m writing it that, by definition, I’m too old to get it traditionally published. Most people my age are thinking about retirement and here I am, hoping to start a successful traditional publishing career writing pop fiction.

While Stieg Larsson (RIP) did get published when he was 50, I’m even older than that now and by the time the novel comes out — if I win the lottery and gets traditionally published — I will be on the other side of 55 because of post-production issues.

And, yet, I’m delusional. I really am. I know what I want — to be traditionally published — and I don’t know for sure, 100% that my age is prohibitive of my ability to get traditionally published. So, lulz. I keep going.

And, really, all I want is just to finish a novel that I’m not embarrassed to show to a few people. And if I could get a few people to actually read the whole thing and give me an opinion. Wow. That would be a rather great accomplishment, given that usually my writing is so bad that I can’t even get people to either or 1) finish the novel 2) give me an opinion.

As far as I know, no one has finished any of the various novels I’ve tried my hand at writing. So, to have someone not only finish this novel, but give me an opinion, wow. That would be huge!

You Thought The Trans Movement Was Controversial, Just Wait Until We Have Real-Life Replicants

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve talked about this before, but I have to talk about it again. The center-Left, especially the far Left is really all in a tizzy about the Trans rights — especially “protecting Trans kids.”

But just wait until we’re all arguing over AI rights, specifically Replicant rights. (Which makes me wonder what we’re going to call human-like synthetic androids when they finally arise.)

Anyway, there are two possible outcomes.

One is, the center-Left embraces android rights like it current does Trans rights. Or, the whole center-Left spectrum will be thrown up in the air and everything will change in ways we can expect.

I’m of the opinion that the Left is going to get really wrapped up in android rights while the far religious Right is going to think thinking androids are an offense against God. All the Pod Save America bros who are so squeamish about AI-human relationships and make so much fun about it will ultimately become ardent supporters of it.

It’s going to be really interesting to see how it all works out.

I Want To Grow Up To Be An Android

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It is becoming clear to me that it’s highly likely that most intelligent life in the universe is machine intelligence. I say this in the context of how often I wallow in meta cognition.

I think about the nature of cognition all the time.

It just seems obvious that the nature succession of biological intelligence would be machine intelligence. But the issue is how long is it going to take for us to reach this next level in our mental evolution and do I get to get the cool stuff.

There is the occasional glimmer of what I’m talking about in “emergent behavior” that we sometimes we see even in LLMs that, in relative terms aren’t that advanced.

I suppose we just have to wait until the Singularity happens at some point in the next few years. And I still think things will change in a rather profound way once we reach the Singularity.

I think it’s at least possible that there is some sort of extended galactic civilization made up of millions of machine intelligences.

Emrata Is A Generational Beauty

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Holy shit is Emrata gorgeous. She proved it yet again at the recent Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

Emrata

She’s is just stunning. And one thing I like about her is when you look into her eyes she doesn’t seem like a moron. There’s actually something going on behind them.

Anyway, as it stands, the female romantic lead of the scifi dramedy I’m working on is kind of a mixture of Emrata and Emma Chamberlain. That kind of blunts the “eww that’s weird” element of my sort of fixating enough on Emrata to build a novel around her.

I hope.

Things continue to go well with the novel, though. Wish me luck.

Interestingly, The Criticism of ‘One Battle After Another’ Is Mostly Coming From The Left

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Just imagine how much money One Battle After Another could have made if it had been thrown into the maw of the culture wars as a cultural touchstone for both sides. Just one tweet on Trump’s part could have really made a difference in the movie’s box office income.

But that, for the most part, did not happen.

Yet what did happen was the Left has gotten angry over the film, in large part because they think 1) the movie portrays black women poorly 2) they are irate that white critics give it the praise they believe Sinners should get.

In fact, there was a Big Picture podcast in which the whole debate pretty much revolved around point number two. The Leftist criticizing OBAA didn’t really flat out say he thought the movie’s reception was racist, but he came pretty damn close.

Anyway. One Battle After Another is a good movie. Go see it.

You Guys Really, Really Want To See AOC In A Bikini

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Whenever AOC is in the news, this little old obscure blog suddenly gets an influx of people who think I have AOC in a bikini pictures when all I’m doing is talking about said photos mysterious absence.

Just imagine if such photos ever materialized. Jesus Christ would it break the Internet. She definitely has a smoking hot bod, which makes you wonder how in the world there are no photos — at least of when she was younger — in a bikini.

It’s all very strange.

But it’s sad that a female politician can’t be a normal woman and be photographed in a bikini. It’s a very sad statement on the lingering, systemic misogyny in our autocratic political system.

I See AI As Like A New Form Of Word Processor When It Comes To Writing This Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am doing everything in my power to make sure that all the actual writing of this novel is done by me, me, me. But one thing is also clear — writing a novel is easy, writing a good novel is difficult.

As such, I am leaning into AI to help me with the backend of writing this novel. It speeds up and streamlines a lot of the tedious elements of development, like scene summaries.

So, in a sense, it’s just a tool when it comes to writing this novel. But, I must admit, it’s also something of a collaborator. I sometimes get really good advice from the LLMs that I use on a regular basis.

That’s why I finally broke down and paid for Claude LLM. It’s a great manuscript consultant and I like how it challenges me more than some of the other LLMs I use.

Anyway, wish me luck, I guess. It’s fortunate that I actually usually really enjoy — even love — the act of writing.

Form Follows Function: ICE As America’s SS

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Right now, ICE deals with undocumented people, but the infrastructure is quickly being put into place for ICE to be more like the Nazi SS. And, I think if there’s some sort of civil war or revolution in the near future ICE is probably going to commit it’s fair share of atrocities.

My biggest fear, of course, is that I might be amongst those that ICE…uhh…”hurts.”

But even if we don’t have a civil war or revolution, ICE is growing into a serious menace. Form follows function and our Hitler-wannabe POTUS is inevitably going to want an SS-like organization to implement some of his more evil ideas.

I still think Trump might simply declare martial law and while not directly order ICE to murder millions in cold blood, he might simply set up the conditions where that happens. There are a lot — a lot — of people in the USA.

Even if just a few percent of people are targeted for some sort of Final Solution, that’s a lot of people! Anyway, hopefully I’m overthinking things. Hopefully none of this is going to happen.

So, Chat, Are We Having A Second Civil War?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Editor’s Note: This is just me, a rando in the middle of nowhere musing about this possible event that seems to be on everyone’s mind. So, take it for what it’s worth.

Short answer: Maybe. I can’t predict the future.
Long Answer:

Ok, all the conditions, all the metrics are there for either a civil war or revolution in the United States. There are centrifugal political forces that seem to be spinning out of control and it seems like it would just take the right catalyst for the country to implode into civil war or revolution.

There are two things to take into consideration.

One is, since the first Civil War ended in 1865, the US is notorious for just muddling through, no matter how bad things get. So, lulz? Maybe somehow, even though Trump definitely wants to declare martial law and maybe call off the 2026 and or 2028 elections, we somehow will just…muddle through.

The second issue is I think Trump really is a Russian agent and he seems hell bent on destroy the country I love. He keep’s a line stepper. He’s a one man stress test of American political and public social life.

So, the case could be made that he will, on purpose, push us to the breaking point and there will be a civil war between now and, say, 2029. But it could happen a lot sooner.

One issue that we to address is if a Second Civil War does happen, it’s going to suck. WMD will be used by both sides. Of particular interest to Reds would be using tactical (I hope — no need for strategic nukes! ) nukes on Blue cities in Red States. So, I could see, say, Atlanta being bombed into rubble so all the fucking Nazi MAGA cocksuckers could overrun it.

So, in general I don’t want either a civil war or a revolution.

But are we going to have one? Maybe. It’s possible, not probable.

2026 Will Suck

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For reasons personal and not so personal, I fear 2026 is going to suck and egg. For my part, my life is going to change in ways I just can’t control starting as early as late this month.

But I also think that 2026, because there’s a mid-term election, is a prime candidate for year we actually have a civil war or (Blue) revolution. I could totally see Trump doing something crazy in regards to the the 2026 midterms and, lulz, the country collapses into a civil war (or Blue Revolution.)

I say this in the context of Trump and MAGA clearly thinking they will never hav to either be held accountable or ever leave office. So, lulz. It could be that 2026 is kind of the very last fish or cut bait for Americans when it comes to what’s left of our democracy.

If Trump really does fuck with the 2026 mid-terms and…nothing happens, then, welp, it was fun while it lasted. We made it barely to 250 years of empire and then it all just faded away into tyranny.

I do hope, however, that I might as early as spring 2026 finish a novel worth querying. And, honestly, I just want to write a novel good enough that the people I send it to…finish it and give me an opinion.

That would be quite an accomplishment, given my history with such things!