by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I suppose it’s possible that I’ll never get to enter the Promised Land because I’ll drop dead for some reason before I see this novel published — just like what happened to Stieg Larsson.
But there is a greater-than-zero possibility that not only will I enter the promise land, I will do so with such gusto that something really, really surreal will happen: people will actually give a shit about me. Or, more specifically, they will care what I have to say.
I have gone many years of my life not only living in oblivion but being so ill-considered by Very Serious People that I pretty much could say anything and no one would pay any attention. If I manage to write a novel that really is an old brown shoe for Stieg Larsson fans then…people might actually care about all the kooky things I’ve said over the years.
And, what’s more, they are probably going to poke around my past and they’ll soon realize that not only am I bonkers and something of a drunk crank, some pretty astonishing things happened to me in Seoul as a part of ROKon Magazine.
But I can’t really complain, now can I. That’s kind of the whole point of all of this hard work, right — to be A Somebody, again?
It’s very possible that, lulz, all my drunk behavior in Asia will come to bite me in the ass and I’ll be “canceled” for some drunk thing I did 20 years ago. I can’t change that, you know. I’m no innocent and I’m stuck with what I’ve done over the years, one way or another.
And, besides, it’s better to have loved and lost than never loved at all.
In other news, I’m well on my way to beating my July 4th goal for the Beta Reader process. But it’s going to be a shit ton of work, nonetheless. And, I may have positioned myself to get “advice” from a local author in my hometown. If that pans out — which it may still not — then that will really help things a great deal.
I have very low expectations on the Beta Reader process at the moment. It’s going to be a very different dynamic when I have to get people to read a novel that could be over 100,000 words. I can barely get people to do ANYTHING for me, period. I’m just not a very persuasive guy.
