by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I may have written about this before, but let me recapitulate how I got myself into a situation where I see this is a five book project. It all started several years ago when I was full of a white of rage over Trumplandia. A number of different things were going on at the same time.
I first wanted to write a huge scifi novel series. It was going to be epic. All my anger about Trumplandia would be shown in subtext of this sprawling scifi epic. And then I hit a wall — realized I just did not know enough about geopolitics to properly do what I wanted to do.
So I scrapped the concept.
But I still wanted to rant via subtext about much I fucking hated the rise of Trumplandia, so I turned to the work of Stieg Larsson. Not only was he older when he got published, but there was one specific book of his — The Girl Who Played With Fire — that I loved so much that I could read over and over again with no problem.
So, I decided to write a novel about a strange little Southern town that would, in its political geography, allow me to explore an allegory about how much I fucking hate Trumplandia. Everything was going great until I realize the story was too big — I split the novel into two, with the first novel ending in a cliffhanger.
Again, everything was going great. I was figuring out how to lay out this universe, thinking that Trump would, through hook or through crook brazenly steal the 2020 election and everyone who read it would be like, “Ahh, of course! This is about the modern dystopian hellscape that is autocratic America.”
And then Trump choked and prove himself too big a fucking lazy moron to do what I — and a lot of other people — assume he would do.
When Biden became POTUS, I realized I had a problem. I felt uncomfortable ranting about Trumplandia when Trumplandia didn’t exist. It then occurred to me that maybe I could root around in the backstory of how my strange little town came to be.
Over the course of an afternoon, I realize I had two solid concepts that would lay out exactly how things grew so strange in my small Southern town. And THEN, after much struggle, I realized that I needed to split the first book into two. This solved a problem — I hated having four, not five, novels — and it also allowed me to really concentrate on the particulars of the ur event that started the town’s drift towards being an allegory for Trumplandia in the first place.
So, now I have five novels to write. I’m a little concerned as to the logistics of doing such a thing, but I can learn. I’m very pleased with how things are working out.
Now I have a multigenerational saga about a baby that grows up to be a very Lisbeth Salander-type person. She’s the thing that everyone wants a piece of. And, at the same time, the overall story is greatly influenced by Mare of Easttown in the sense that an older woman is the the “heart” of the five novels. In my instance, of course, that “older woman” happens to look a lot like Olivia Munn.
Anyway. I’m writing novels not screenplays. So, lulz, it may turn out that all of this is a fool’s errand. But to date all I’ve done with my life is start a failed monthly magazine for expats in Seoul. I believe I can pull another rabbit out of my hat and top that in a big way by writing five engaging novels that are also a seering take down (via subtext) of the bonkers insanity that is Trumplandia.
I really fucking hate the MAGA New Right.
