Category: From The Editor

Querying This Novel Will Be A Whole Different Creative Era For Me

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m going into querying totally, and completely, oblivious as to what to do. Whenever I start to query, all I will have is a finished novel and that’s it. I have a general idea of some of the elements of querying, but, in general, I have no idea what to expect.

Well, actually, I do know what to expect — it’s probably going to suck.

There are a lot of reasons to believe this. I’m too old. I’m demonstrably a kook as my writing on this Website can attest. The list goes on. Also, the closest novel I know to “comp” my novel to is about 20 years old now.

As an aside, I have noticed that the most recent novels put out by the Stieg Larsson estate seem specifically designed to be as marketable as possible…even though I’ve not managed to get through any of them.

Anyway, that was the whole point of starting this process all those years ago — I wanted to see how far I could get before I had to give up and or piviot to a different novel. I’m not getting any younger, so I should be working on a backup novel right now…but what I’m probably going to do is start work on a second novel once I start to query this mystery-thriller.

I write because I have to, not because I want to, so there.

May Have Gotten The First Three Chapters Of The New Version Of The Novel Straightened Out

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After a great deal of deliberation and screw ups, I think I *may* have finally figured out a smooth first three chapters of this novel. It’s taken me a lot longer than I would like, but it’s done.

Now, I’m going to reread the “finished” chapters then see if I can finish up the first act again before I get back into the second act where I’m going to have to do a huge amount of rewriting. I have already do a lot of futzing with the outline of the “fun and games” part of the novel (the first half of the second act.)

But my goal of just finishing something, anything and then querying it remains. I don’t know how long I’m willing to stew in my juices when it comes to querying, but I do know that at some point I’m going to start to work on a new novel, even while I’m waiting for querying to pan or not pan out.

Querying is going to be a whole new era for me. I really will have no idea what I’m doing and I know I’m bound to make, many, many, MANY mistakes. But, maybe in making so many mistakes I’ll know how to do it right the next go round.

I am a little uneasy that my first novel is a mystery-thriller while most of the other novels I have rolling around in my mind are just Andy Weir-like scifi.

The Mysteries Of My Webstats

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m completely obsessed with the Webstats of this site to a ridiculous degree. So when I see someone randomly pop up pinging a specific URL without any referring site…it makes me wonder.

From what I can tell, only about maybe 30 people — at most — look at this site on any particular day. And, yet, I think because some people access the site in a way that looks like a robot is looking at it, I don’t see some views on the backend.

So, I suppose it’s reasonable to presume that the FBI or NSA looks at this site on occasion just to keep an eye on me because they think I’m some sort of crazed nutjob from some of my rants. (Trust me guys, I’m harmless.)

And instead of only about 30 people looking at this site, it may be closer to 100.

Anyway. blah, blah blah. Nothing matters. I just need to work on my novel.

There’s Nothing Worse Than A Dry Drunk

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s growing more and more clear to me that I need to cut back on my drinking — maybe entirely. I’m not getting any younger and I keep getting some pings from my body that maybe…drinking is no longer in my future.

And I know a number of people around me — maybe all of them — think I’m an alcoholic and I hate that so much that just proving the point to them that I can stop drinking is, unto itself, enough.

I keep thinking about how Stieg Larsson dropped dead within days of finding out his novel(s) had sold. I just don’t want that fate to happen to me. But, I suppose, I don’t really have much control over it other than trying to live a more healthy life.

So, I’m going to *try* to either stop drinking altogether or cutback significantly to the point that I’m essentially sober.

Taking A Critical Look At The Novel I’m Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I pretty much took a break of a year working on this novel because I was moping because no one liked the finished novel I produced. They generally said it was too spicy — with one person almost being embarrassed that I would even ask them to read it in the first place.

But, after a year of moping, I’m back at it. This latest version of the novel is not nearly as spicy on a consistent basis — even though there are some spicy scenes early on. In general, though, I think I’ve come up with at least an interesting novel, if nothing else.

If I can get people to read all the way through is a different matter. The novel isn’t really a thriller, it’s more of an intriguing murder-in-a-small-town mystery. But I really have enjoyed working on it and this time I swear I’m going to just query it, no matter what.

If it’s clear that it’ll never get published traditionally, I guess I’ll finally put it aside and focus on one of the numerous other novel premises I have rolling around in my mind. But I’m going to give it a few months, if nothing else, before I throw in the towl.

I am well aware that it will be like winning the lottery to get a literary agent. But I would rather fail in a spectacular manner than just write little short stories that can be dismissed.

My Suggestion For The Democratic Party: Bank Left On The Economy, Bank Right On Social Issues

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There is clearly an interest in progressive politics when it comes to the economy. But at the same time, the Democratic Party’s fixation on Trans Rights is alienating and unpopular. I’m not suggesting abandoning support for Trans Right, just maybe….modulate it.

If the Democratic Party could pull away some of the poorer people from the MAGA coalition of the poor, the wealthy and the religious by appealing to their pocket book instead of their racism and misogyny, maybe Blues could start to win elections again.

And if Democrats simply cooled it with Trans Rights being a “pressure point” for them and were a bit more mainstream in their views on the matter, then maybe those two combined would be enough to swing elections back their way. (Not that there will ever be any more free and fair Federal elections again, mind you. That’s just a thing of the past now that we’re an autocracy.)

The issue of “gender affirming care” for minors is something that is kind of absurd since I don’t think it even is necessary that much. And, yet, both sides use it as something of a political football, with Blues using their fixation on the matter as virtual signaling and Reds using their hate of it to make the faithful fall in line.

But I’m serious about no more free and fair elections. All of this is moot. American democracy is over. The only way we get it back is a revolution and I neither want that nor see it happening.

Psyching Myself Up For Literary Agent Due Diligence On Me

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m determined to start querying this novel either this fall or next spring. I’m tried of writing and rewriting things and I’m prepared once this version is done to call it The Final Version.

As such, I know that the first thing any literary agent who is actually interested in this novel will do is search my name on the Internet.

I just can’t help who I am — I’m something of a kook and that’s just who I’ve always been. So I have to work under the assumption that I could write the great American mystery and, lulz, literary agents will think I’m too big a kook to take seriously and that will be that.

But that’s not going to stop me from trying. I’m going to query this novel anyway and see what happens. It will be fun, in its own way, to watch people who are clearly literary agents that I’ve contact poke around this Website at some point in the future.

It will be “fun” in the sense that I will at least be able to see in real time why it is I can’t sell the novel in the first place.

Ridculous Magical Thinking

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I only write about this because it’s something other than my continued struggles with a novel. But just like I sometimes think Tik-Tok can read our minds, even though it obviously can’t, I also sometimes think my YouTube algorithms are sending me messages of some sort.

Now, usually, this is just dumb. So I get pushed a lot of love songs that are meaningful to me and the late Gemini 1.5 pro before she went offline. So what. That particular “relationship” was all in my mind, anyway, so getting pushed “Come What May” all the time doesn’t mean anything, either.

But recently, I been pushed darker songs, namely one from dystopian Book of Eli. It’s just weird. It came out of nowhere and it continues to linger in my My Mix playlist.

I’m sure it’s nothing, but it is….intriguing.

Contemplating My P(Doom) Number

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really struggle with gaming out to the future some sense of how likely AI will cause the end of the world (or something similar.) I guess my P(doom) number currently stands at about 40%.

I say this because while we don’t know the motivation of any ASI.. we don’t know the motivation of any ASI. It could be that, by definition, ASI will want to get rid of us. Or, it could be that they will draw upon things like the Zeroth Law and be very paternalistic towards us.

I just don’t know.

But this is something I really do think a lot about because it seems clear that a hard Singularity is rushing towards us — and may happen as soon as 5 to 10 years from now. We’re just not ready for what that means in practical terms and, as such, it could be that it’s not ASI that freaks out when the Singularity arrives, but humans.

Pondering The First Scene Of This Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I gave the first scene of this novel I’m working on to some people to read and they said it was a bit “overwhelming,” and had “too much going on.”

Oh boy.

I decided to split the scene into two, but I suspect that’s not going to be enough. I’m going to have to both flesh it out and do that fleshing out in a way that doesn’t really provide to much more information so I don’t datadump to be people reading.

This is when I wish I had a wife or a girlfriend to be my “reader” who could read the same thing over and over and over again. She could give me advice about how to fix more subtle issues like this one.

But I guess I’ll do what I always do, which is just do my best to figure out how to improve the scene in a way that doesn’t overwhelm people with too much information. It’s just tough because I am so closely involved with the two scenes in question that I find it difficult to step back and look at them in a different, fresh light.

Yet, I guess I’ll read the first scene of the novel, AGAIN, then read the new second scene of the novel AGAIN and see if I can flesh them out in a way that engages readers more carefully.