by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’ve finally come up with a heroine who is, in her own way, just as interesting as Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander. But there’s a downside to her being so unique. Because of how dumb people can be, and how fixated on sex they can be, it’s very possible that the fact that my heroine is a part-time sex worker (stripper) may overshadow anything else I have to say with this novel.
The character has A LOT of agency — she owns the club she strips at, for what it’s worth — and I like how having the two elements of her life slam against each other leads to some interesting situations. This time of wild dichotomy was successful with Bill Hader’s TV show “Barry” and there’s no reason to believe I can’t find similar success with this novel.
But I AM a smelly “CIS white male,” and, as such, there will be a small, woke cancel culture mob element of the audience who will come at me from the left on this issue. The very element of the novel — validating sex work — that would cause a transgendered undocumented twentysomething woman to be heaped with praise will cause me to be pillared.
At least, that’s my fear.
But, I can’t help who I am or how old I am. I really like the character I’ve come up with. I will admit that my heroine doesn’t have nearly the fucked up youth that Lisbeth Salander had, but, surprise, I AM setting up the life of my real heroine — the novel is set in late 1994, early 1995.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see if I manage to query this novel successfully or if the entire world will collapse and I have to use a Ham radio to find out what’s going on with the broader world.
