Category: Media

The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good: ‘AI Speak’ Edition

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am just about to wrap up the first act of this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on and, as such, I’ve looked over some of the beginning scenes. And I’m pleased but for one thing — they definitely are a bit…too…polished.

They suffer from “AI speak” a little bit too much for my liking. I just hate the idea of people rolling their eyes and saying the only reason why my writing is any good is I used AI. (This, despite me still thinking that the way I use AI is simpler to how I might have used spell check a few decades earlier.)

Regardless, everyone and everything is horrible so to prevent me from having to endure the slings and arrows of people accusing me of producing AI slop, I’m probably going to go in and simply rewrite scenes as necessary completely in my own hand.

That way, even if the end product is “worse” at least it will be my writing and not AI.

‘Accidently On Purpose’ — Could Trump Actually Help The People Of Iran Liberate Themselves

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Trump is so nuts I could totally see him accidently on purpose doing the “right thing” and actually helping the people of Iran overthrow their tyrannical government.

If he was successful in doing so, I would be stunned. He would have actually done what needed to be done — help the people of Iran free themselves from bondage. Only a crazy, deranged person like Trump would, with total disregard for the international order, do something so crazy.

And it gets even more crazy in the context of what Trump did with the president of Venezuela. For him to do two crazy things on the world stage back-to-back. Oh boy. And that doesn’t even begin to address the idea that Trump might slide into the DMs, as it were, of Greenland by sending American “Little Green Men” to gradually snatch that huge rocky island.

Anyway, if Trump succeeds in freeing the people of Iran, I will give him proper credit, in an unironic manner.

If The USA Takes Over Greenland, We’ll Use The ‘Little Green Men’ Method The Russians Used With Ukraine’s Crimea

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Given the situation on the ground, rather than come in all bombastic with Greenland, I think American “little green men” would slowly creep into Greenland and slowly take it over.

That way, there would not be any big confrontation, but at the end of the day, the USA would effectively own Greenland. (We already do, but lulz, Trump’s bonkers and wants a big win like taking Greenland by force.)

Anyway, as I keep saying, no one listens to me and I could get this right and no one would notice or care.

Evaluating Comments On The First Scene of The Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Over the holidays, I showed the first scene of the novel I’m working on to some relatives. They gave me generally positive comments and we’re generous and supportive, but here are the comments that caught my attention.

‘Funny’ names
One relative said my names were too weird and that took them out of reading the novel. I validate that, but one man’s “funny names” are another person’s “interesting names.”

“Nuk”
I use “Nuk” as the nickname for a character and one reader didn’t like that because it reminded them of a baby’s nuk. I don’t quit know what to do about that one. I don’t think it’s bad to use “Nuk” per se, but…I may have to think about that some. No one else has mentioned that as a problem

Terminology
I have a very specific — and mildly humorous — term for my androids or synths that I use an one reader wanted the origin of that terminology expressed spell out. I think in the context of marketing that that won’t be a problem, but just to be sure, I stuck a sentence in that explained the nomenclature.

The ‘Pivot To Video’ Is Finally Really Here: In 2026, Podcasts and TV Talk Shows Will Fuse Into One

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This is already happening, but I do think that the difference between podcasts and talk shows will be pretty much moot by the end of 2026. This, especially since if we can’t get Stephen Colbert to run for office, he will probably go into podcasting bigtime.

So all the talk about a “pivot to video” that has happened over the years is finally going to happen now.

If I Was In Seoul Now, I Would Totally Start An Expat Podcast

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, about 20 years ago now, I started ROKon Magazine. It is the greatest story never told, in my opinion. Anyway, if I was an expat in Seoul now, I would start a podcast.

What I would do is, we would have a regular podcast — maybe once a week — and then as part of that podcast, we would have a regularly updated Website that would have content that would otherwise be in a magazine.

There would be a symbiotic relationship between the podcast and the Website.

Too bad the only way I’m ever going back to Korea it looks like at this point is if North Korea collapses and there’s a dire need for English teachers there. Otherwise, I will be 80 years old before I can return (unless I somehow finish and sell this novel I’m working on.)

Just About To Wrap Up The First Act of This Scifi Dramedy…AGAIN

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I got well into the second act of this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on when I needed to hard reset my context windows with the AIs I was using and they both said when I showed them the outline again that my hero was “too passive.”

So, I hard reset the novel. Everything collapsed and I started essentially from scratch.

Now, after several weeks of hard work, I’m back to just about wrapping up the first act. I fear the “fun and games” part of the novel — the first half of the second act — might need to be re-imagined a little bit more than I would prefer.

But I don’t quite know yet. It might be that I just have to mess with the first few scenes and otherwise everything will snap back into place. If that’s the case, then this thing will speed up really fast.

I will be able to just hotsync all these scenes I’ve already written into the text of the novel and I’ll be back into the “bad guys closing in” part of the novel a lot sooner than expected.

Oh My God, Trump Kidnapped The President Of Venezuela

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am not shocked by Trump very often these days, but Trump kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela actually managed to stun me. I am well aware of what a thug Maduro is, but just kidnapping him out of the blue is a real dick move on Trump’s part.

President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela

And, yet, here we are, with people hand waving what Trump has done and praising him for getting rid of a Latin American tyrant. Ok, I get it, but, man, it still makes me queasy.

I guess, if nothing else, I would prefer if there had been some sort of public debate about us abducting the leader of another country — an act of war. Something about how this has been handled is not cool.

And, yet, I guess we’re all going to be so happy that we got rid of a thug that we will just sweep the bad precedent this establishes under the table. What’s next, Trump kidnapping the prime minster of Canada?

This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On Is Shaping Up To Be Really Good

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This novel I’m working on is really good. So good that I keep expecting a movie or Black Mirror episode to come out that so steals a creative march on me that I have to piviot to some other story idea.

I will have lost valuable time, but, lulz.

I’m not getting any younger, you know.

And, yet, just because the premise is obvious to me, doesn’t mean it’s as obvious to other people as I think. But I’m definitely putting my stick where the puck will be. The premise of the novel is sort of like, “what would it be like, in real terms, for Pris from Blade Runner living her every day life?”

Pris from Blade Runner

That’s pretty much the general gist of the novel’s premise, even though that’s not exact.

Anyway, I still am on track to wrap this novel up around April-May 2026. Then I have to do some last minute editing before I give it to whatever beta readers I can scrounge up. Then I’ll probably have to go therapy because everyone will praise my writing and I’ll feel all this angst about how my writing was “enhanced” by being AI first, even though I did, in fact, write as much as possible of the novel with my own hand.

But because everyone and everything is horrible, people will just assume AI wrote everything and probably dismiss the novel as just more “AI slop.” Ugh.

I Have Three Books Related To Querying, Now To Force Myself To Read Them

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This time, I tell myself, will be different. Instead of just drifting — again — towards my goal of writing a novel that is query-worthy, I’m actually going to buckle down and focus.

With that in mind, I have not one, but three books devoted to the querying process to at least glance over. Two of the books are about querying, while the third is a big book of literary agents.

I really don’t want to think about the querying process because, lulz, I know there’s a decent change I’m going to fail in a monumental way. Like epically. I think this in large part because I’m a big old kook and “serious” “normal” that woke-liberal-white-woman-literary-agent who does due diligence on me is probably going to be aghast.

I’m just a loudmouth crank and always have been.

But, this is definitely the up-up or shut up moment of my life when it comes to writing a novel I plan on querying. If I don’t do something different immediately, I’m going to wake up at 60 and STILL not have queried a novel.

I just want to see how far I get through the process. I feel so old at this point. Even though I’m not, like, elderly, I am still older than Stieg Larsson was when he was trying to get his novel(s) sold. That doesn’t make me feel very good.

But this novel is really good. The premise is rock solid, if a little dark and pulpy. But, if nothing else, it’s “accessible.” I keep thinking of how I want to “comp” my novel to the works of Andy Weir who’s novels The Martian and Project Hail Mary are really, really accessible.

Anyway, no one listens to me and no one takes me seriously, so, lulz.