Tag: FBI

Should I Be Worried?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m extremely harmless. I sometimes get drunk and worked up about MAGA and write some…provocative things…but I always calm down and move on to the next thing. I have a novel to finish.

And, yet, I occasionally get pings to this Website from people who are from the base of the ATF in West Virginia and that makes me EXTREMELY NERVOUS. I don’t mean any harm to anyone, I just have some very strong opinions. I understand why the AFT or FBI might be interested in me because I do rant a lot, but if they read this blog on a regular basis, it would also be clear that it’s just me letting off steam.

I hate violence. I hate guns — I really, really hate guns.

I just get worked up because I want to live in a traditional liberal democracy and it definitely seems at times that that thing — my American birthright — is at risk at the moment and I just don’t know what to do about it.

Anyway, please FBI and AFT, believe me when I say I’m a harmless nobody. No one listens to me and usually when they do they get mad. But I will note that when people DO listen to me — cool shit happens.

‘The Company’ & My Wild Days In Seoul



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This is an instance of me either being extremely delusional (which is very possible) or sensing something that is true. Way back when, when I was living in Seoul, I was a man on fire. I was EXTREMELY CONSPICUOUS. So much so, that it’s probably reasonably likely that…uhhh…some spooks…in Seoul probably at least were aware of me.

I say this only because given where it is, it seems reasonable to assume that Seoul is crawling with spooks. Like a whole lot. And when I was there, there was a huge fucking military base in the middle of the city. And I was frequenting places like Haebangchon that probably had some military intelligence people living there. (At least in my fevered imagination about a decade later.)

Anyway, the only reason I bring his somewhat (ok, maybe a lot) bonkers idea up is I keep getting the occasional ping in my Webstats from people looking at this Website from Seoul. It makes no sense. None. I haven’t been in Seoul for about a decade now and, so, what? Why? I have been talking to the FBI for the novel and I even went so far as to mention “The Company” to the FBI PR guy.

I dunno. Just seems logical that some long-term spooky people in Seoul might have gotten wind of what I’m up to and thought they would take a look at my Website to see what was up.

I don’t think you can fully appreciate how insanely conspicuous I was in Seoul at my “height.” I was so balls out nuts someone even put me in a book about crazy expats.

All I can say is, I’m a changed man. I’ve learned humility.

Outline Struggles #AmWriting



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy.

It’s taken about two years, but I finally come up with method of development that works for me — I have an outline that I obsessively update as my July 4th weekend deadline approaches.

The main thing is balance character, plot and, like, uhhh, an investigation? If I can have those three things in equal measure, I’m going to be ok. I have no idea what I’m doing with the police procedural aspect of the story, but I can learn. I can, read, after all.

I talked to an FBI PR guy recently and he helped a huge amount. I’m probably going to give him a shoutout in the Author’s Note. He didn’t like it much when I asked about The Company, though. But that’s a crucial (in a sense) aspect of the story I’m developing. I like flipping the script and it seems it would be fun if, in a James Bond kind of way, The Company and its affiliate spooky eyes were “the Good Guys,” given how much fucking Trump rants about them.

Anyway.

I can feel myself itching to get back to writing. But I have some slack still in my development timeline, so I can hopefully with a rather clear head go through the outline and get myself where I need to be before my deadline.