Category: From The Editor

Update On My Scifi Dramedy Novel For October 21st, 2025

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m currently cruising towards the end of the first act for my latest attempt to write this scifi dramedy novel. My biggest irritation at the moment is I really want to show the first few scenes to some people, and yet, no.

It’s kind of bad luck to show people what you’re working on before it’s beta-draft ready. I say this in the context of in the past whenever I’ve shown any of my work to people either I don’t really like what they have to say one way or another or the whole thing collapses after they’ve looked at it so their advice is moot.

Ugh.

But my goal at the current moment is to just finish the first act. Usually, the most problematic issues with filling out an outline comes with the transitions between acts. For some reason that’s when I’m most likely to realize I’ve made some horrible structural mistake and I have to start all over again.

Anyway.

I really need to stop drifting towards my goal. I really need to focus and see working on this novel as something akin to my job. Until, that is, I have to get a real job.

Which is a very real possibility because of fucking Trump.

But I still have a few months — I think — before my life will change so dramatically that that becomes a necessity. As such, I really need to put up or shut up. I need to shup and and write, as they say.

Any Second American Revolution or Civil War Would Probably Make Our Lives Like The Movie ‘Threads’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I just don’t think the human mind can comprehend how horrific a Second American Civil War or Revolution might be. If things got as bad as I fear, we would be living in a real world ‘Threads’ movie.

Society would collapse, there would be Killing Fields, camps, extensive use of WMD by both sides. It would just be horrible. And, yet, here we are, with some on both sides chomping at the bit to have at it.

I just hope we muddle through. I really do. Even though I write all the time about civil war or revolution, I don’t actually want such a thing to happen. I’m just trying to make my abstract fears concrete.

Anyway. I have my doubts about us making it through 2026 or 2028. In both instances, I fear Trump will severely fuck with the Federal elections to the point that the country collapses in on itself.

Ugh.

We Need Something To Unite Us

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It would be so nice if there was some sort of Big Thing that could help unite humanity. Like, it would be cool if it seemed like a big asteroid was headed towards us and we spend a few years stewing about it but ultimately we discovered we were safe.

Something like that. Something where we would all be on the same page for once.

As it stands, the only thing that might cause something like that to happen is a revolution or civil war in the United States. That certainly would focus our collective minds, huh.

Anyway. I hope that doesn’t happen. That would suck.

I’m Not A Narc, But…

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I continue to be shocked at how much porn there is on Twitter. If you know what you’re doing, you can find high-quality (ha) extremely explicit porn on Twitter in a few seconds.

It’s pretty wild.

I keep double checking — for research purposes only, of course — and sure enough, within a few seconds I’m seeing graphic hard core porn. It’s really wild that no one else has notice this or make it an issue.

Surreal, even.

The Return (?) Of Hyper Femininity

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The rise of musical acts like Addison Rae has me wondering maybe hyper femininity is making a comeback. Rae has a really specific type of cutie-patootie persona that I find endearing.

It certainly would be nice — and a bit relaxing — if there were a few public figure women floating around like her. I’m not saying all women should adopt her hyper femininity, but just having that around as an option in the public space would be nice.

And I’m sure it’s all just an act. It always is. No one can be that girlie naturally. Anyway, no one listens to me. Carry on.

The Big Red Button Problem Really Bugs Me

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The issue of the Big Red Button Problem when it comes to “AI Alignment” really bothers me. The point of the BRBB seems to be to stop any form of AI development.

I say this because I really don’t know how to solve the BRBB. My only possible solution is to program values into the AGI or ASI — to give AI morals. And the best way to do that to hard code into the minds of AI a religious or ideological doctrine. I was thinking maybe you could have a swarm of mental “modules” that create a wholistic mental experience for the AI.

But what do I know. No one listens to me.

Yet, I love a good thought experiment and I find myself really struggling over and over again with the BRBB. It’s just so irritating that the “AI doomers” believe that if you can’t solve the BRBB, then, lulz, it’s unethical for us to do any more research into AI at all.

Fucking doomers. Ugh.

I Can’t Keep Drifting Towards My Goal With This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My goal is to query this scifi dramedy novel by late spring 2026. But I really need to buckle down and actually do the work, otherwise I’m going to just keep drifting towards my goal.

That’s what happened with my homage to Stieg Larsson. I drifted for years and years, only to finish a novel that wasn’t any good. It was so bad I did not feel comfortable querying it.

So. I’m going to try — try — to focus more. I’m going to try to actually get this novel done at a quickened pace instead of just daydreaming.

One issue, of course, is how moody I am when it comes to my writing. I just sometimes just don’t feel like writing. Usually, this happens when I bump up against some portion of the novel that just isn’t very inspiring.

But hopefully this go round I can push past such moodiness. I feel kind of sheepish about how long I’ve been an aspiring novelist with little to nothing to show for it. And, yet, I know this go round I really believe in what I’m writing and as long as we don’t have a civil war or revolution or the Singularity doesn’t happen, I should be pretty safe.

All I need to do is actually do the work.

I Really Need To Buckle Down & Finish This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really need to change my mindset when it comes to this scifi dramedy novel I’ve been working on. I have got to stop just drifting towards my goal. I have to buckle down and see this as my job for the time being.

Until circumstances change and I have to, at last, grow up (again.)

I continue to try to wrap this novel up and begin querying it by late spring 2026. But that might be something of a struggle. It could be closer to autumn 2026, which would suck.

I hate how old I am.

But, really, all I really want with this novel is to finish it and have someone, anyone read it and enjoy it — preferably someone not related to me. If someone actually finished the entire thing and gave me even a lukewarm review that would be astonishing, all things considered.

AI has helped a lot, but it has also made things more difficult in some way. I keep feeling like I’m spinning me wheels because my vision for this novel and AIs vision for this novel sometimes are dramatically different and I have to go in and force things back to where I want them.

Anyway. I really, really need to change my mindset about working on this novel. This unique, weird, surreal moment in my life is not going to last forever. And I’d prefer to finish a really good novel before I’m 80 years old.

I Got ‘Fire In A Bottle’ With This Scifi Dramedy Novel, I Swear — FR, FR

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For all half a dozen of you weirdly playing the obsessive home game with me and this blog, you will know I’ve been working on a novel of one type or another for a long, long time now.

And it’s taken so long, I’ve come to believe, because I had a missing ingredient — a collaborator. Someone to bounce ideas off of. And, most especially someone to tell me “No,” or look at their watch and tell me maybe I need to hurry up.

But I’m really pleased with the premise of this scifi dramedy. It’s really good. At last. Now, I just have to go through the outline I’ve come up with through some collaboration with AI and actually finish the damn thing.

I still have a huge amount of work to do. And given how obvious the premise is, someone might steal a creative march on me if I keep daydreaming and now working on this novel.

As such, I think I’m going to buckle down and try — try — to change my mindset about working on this novel. I need to see this novel as my job (for the time being) until events change and I’m forced to…gulp…get an actual job simply because everything in my life collapses and this weird, surreal moment in my life finally, at last, changes.

Someone Do Something Fun-Interesting

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are kind of meh right now. I wish someone would do something fun-interesting. It would be amusing if, say, I caught the attention of some minor celebrity. Or maybe someone with a really interesting URL pinged this blog.

As it stands, I’m just a rando living in the middle of nowhere with a tad more “potential” (as the late Annie Shapiro might say) than I otherwise should have. If I had the money, I would make my own fun-interesting and go to NYC.

Though, if I had enough money on me, I might say screw it and take a jaunt to LA instead. I think I probably would excel in LA given my extroverted personality. And, yet, I’m old(er) now.

So, maybe not.

Maybe that moment in time when I might get invited randomly to a cool party with a bunch of Hollywood stars and producers through sheer force of personality is long, long gone.

I’m just old now and I have to manage my expectations.