Month: January 2023

People In Oklahoma Really Have An Impending Second American Civil War On The Brain

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I vacillate wildly from day to day about the idea of the United States having a something akin to a Second Civil War, probably starting in late 2024 – early 2025. At the moment, I just don’t know if we’ll have a civil war, turn into an autocracy or simply somehow manage to punt our existential problems down the road one more election cycle.

But if my Webstats are any indication, one specific set of people are obsessed with the possibility of an impending Second American Civil War: Oklahomans. The last few months have seen a noticeable uptick in my Webstats of people from Red States — especially Oklahoma — looking all my dystopian scenarios gaming out exactly how a Second Civil War might happen.

I suppose it comes from how fucking conservative Oklahoma is. They really take the idea of a second civil war seriously and the idea of being able to kill libtards under the rules of war so they don’t go to jail is probably icing on the dystopian hellscape cake.

I still don’t know what’s going to happen on the potential Second American Civil War front. I have a pretty specific scenario gamed out….and yet….I’m always wrong. And it definitely seems as though while 2024 – 2025 is going to be very turbulent the way that Trump has faded politically indicates that maybe DeSantis is going to be the 2024 nominee and, as such, we’re just going to turn into some form of autocracy rather than descend into political violence.

Should America Ban Tik-Tok?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I really enjoy Tik-Tok, I am an Old and as such I lean towards supporting a ban of the service in the States. Some of the abuses I’ve heard on the part of the service, like tracking the individual locations of Forbes reporters of all things, only confirm my worst fears about Tik-Tok.

The only thing I don’t like about the idea of banning Tik-Tok is it sets a dangerous precedent in regards to the regulation of social media. Given that the United States is likely on the cusp of a final slide into autocracy I’m not thrilled will establishing the legal basis for our new autocrat President Ron DeSantis to fuck with social media just when we’re going to need it the most.

But I do have some real national security concerns about Tik-Tok. It’s spooky ability to figure out my internal monologue has been enough to get me thinking paranoid thoughts of maybe some sort of “digital telepathy” might be involved. That’s just bonkers, though. And probably the less I talk about that fear, the better.

I’ve mentioned my fear about Tik-Tok being able to read my mind while drunk at a bar and it did not go well.

I would just prefer someone as potent within America’s youth culture to be owned and operated by a company that was under the auspices of American law and ethnics. I don’t like the idea that the Chinese government is able to monitor — and influence — on an intimate basis the domestic social media activity of its chief geopolitical rival.

Only time will tell, I suppose.

‘Ignition’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that it is January 1st, 2023, I have two immediate goals ahead of me — begin writing the second draft of my first novel in earnest and to start to make a dent in the small library of unread books I have around the house.

In just the last day or so, it has really begun to hit home how passive my proganoist has been in different version of this novel to date. Rather driving the plot forward, she had been pretty much just drifting through the story reacting to things that happened to her.

Now that I realize the error of my ways, I am revamping the story to make it clear that the story is progressing specifically because of the drive and desires of my heroine. This has required some serious fancy footwork in some respects but it’s worth it. I just have to accept that I am going to have to re-imagine the story in some unexpected ways.

But this is making for a far, far better story overall. It’s just passive nature of my heroine was right there in front of my face all along and because I don’t have a Reader I didn’t realize it existed. I definitely find myself being a little insecure about my writing these days because of all of this.

Another major problem with the novel remains word count. I just have too many scenes, if each scene is, on average, expected to be 1,000 words. But, in real terms, I continue to be relatively early in the process because I still have the beta reader (and potentially editor) part of things to get through.

And, yet, overall, I’ve definitely fallen in love with these characters — especially my heroine. She’s real bad ass. She’s got a lot of drive now. One thing I have to be careful about it giving her enough slack to grow as a character so she doesn’t come across as some sort of “Mary Sue.” I need her to be imperfect enough to be relatable from the get-go and have potential wiggle room to change and grow as the story unfolds.