by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I still pretty safe in believing that I will have a beta version of this novel done by spring 2023 and that I can begin to query it as part of the fall 2023 querying season. That, at least, is the goal.
Sometimes, it feels like I’ve made every mistake possible as part of the process of working on this first novel in what is projected to be a six novel project. I suppose I should be grateful that I’ve at least gotten to the point.
Just in the last few days, I’ve figured out a really cool new element of this novel, something that is not at all what I expected for my heroine when I started this new version of the first draft. But it gives the story an edge that I think audiences will really enjoy.
To get this point, however, I’ve been forced to give really, really deep in to some of them more obscure things that happened to me way back when in Seoul. Say what you will about my adventures in South Korea, it was definitely a net plus given all the weird situations and experiences I was given in my creative toolkit.
So, in a sense, this six novel project is really me writing my extended autobiography in a very garbled way. I suppose that’s part of where the energy to write these six novels is coming from — I’m writing about ME. The other source of energy, of course, is my white hot rage against MAGA and Trumplandia.
One thing that is interesting is this first novel is going a lot smoother because I know, in general, how this six novel series ends. I was working on the last two novels in the project when dingus Trump lost the 2020 election and I realized it might be quaint for me to rant about Trumplandia if it didn’t exist anymore.
But Trump is lurking in the darkness, ready to pop out again and steal the 2024 election, so I feel pretty confident that if we manage not to have a civil war that i’m going have more than enough energy to finish the six novels that I hope will comprise this project.
