Gauthic Times #94 News & Other Stuff from Bill Gauthier

Life & Writing

Hello, friends.

Every week I open with how busy the previous week has been, often inserting that there was a lot of bullshit and perhaps a tinge of disdain for the mediocrity and foolishness of some of those around me and the way the world has become a satire of itself.

I have no plans of changing course this week.

That’s my world. I wake up at a stupid hour, go to work where I feel appreciated by those I wish and unappreciated by mostly everyone else, I attempt to teach young people who may or may not wish to learn what I’m supposed to teach all while navigating colleagues with egos that are larger than the continent but have no outlet outside of the school, all the while thinking about how my energy could be spent working on stories, books, and other pursuits that feed my soul if not my back account, coming home and being a husband and father, sometimes good and sometimes okay, occasionally excellent or horrible, work a little bit at night, read or watch something, and then go to bed.

In other words, my world/life is just like everyone else’s. This coming week, we have a PD day where most of the professional development is about AI in education, with mandatory lesson plans done with it, because why not move along the extinction of teachers?

Oh, and there’s an election this week that will decide the fate of the United States. We’ll either wake up on Wednesday with the plan to continue democracy or with the knowledge that we’re about to go full authoritarianism. Either way, there’ll be violence, lies, and we’ll be one step away from our expiration date.

Anyway, let’s get into the real stuff we want: the updates.

Welcome to the 94th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and feeling like an imposter.

Becoming a paid-Patron on my Patreon would help me write even more. On Patreon, I write about things in more detail than I do in the newsletter or on my website and include the actual names of my works-in-progress and not just codenames. The lowest tier for Patreon is $1 but at $5/month, we’re looking at some serious help.

If every subscriber or reader of this newsletter, or every social media follower I have became a Patron at even just the $1 tier, I could write more and pay my bills better. The same would happen if they bought copies of my books.

You can also buy me a coffee through Ko-Fi. 

Grab Echoes on the Pond if you haven’t already. If you have bought it already, books make great gifts! And if you’ve read Echoes on the Pond, please consider reviewing on Amazon or Goodreads, and wherever else books are sold and reviewed.

You can also get my collection Catalysts or my novellas Alice on the Shelf and Shadowed.

Anyway, let’s do this!

***

Project: Amusement Park got to page 242 in my edits. I have 440 pages left to go. It makes me laugh because--as I know I’ve mentioned before--this novel is the longest novel I’ve written. Here’s the breakdown:

The first draft of Echoes on the Pond, which was written between April 25, 2008, and February 19, 2010, came out to 591 pages and about 158,400 words. The first draft of Project: Monster was written between December 27th, 2018, and June 30th, 2019, and came out to 430 pages, 120,400 words. As I’ve mention ad nauseum in this space Project: Amusement Park, written between February 20th, 2023, and March 7th, 2024, weighed in at 682 pages and 188,300 words.

But is it good? Well, so far, I’m really digging the book! I almost feel strange saying that because creators are supposed to hate their work, right? That’s stupid, though. I know it’s not perfect--far from it--but it’s surprisingly good.

When I finished going through the first draft of Echoes on the Pond, I felt relief that it wasn’t terrible and that there was plenty to like about it. I just needed to do major surgery (repeatedly) to get there. Project: Monster was actually the third attempt to write this story and was written after finishing the years-long edits on Echoes and working on several other projects, novellas, and some things I’m still shopping around. The first draft went quicker as a result and I was happy with it. But, again, the idea for Project: Monster had been with me since I was sixteen or seventeen. Project: Amusement Park was something totally new and I was nervous going into it, but also excited.

So I’m happy that as I’m reading the novel, I’m happy with it.

***

In other writing news, I’ve sent out a query for Project: Monster to another agent while also following-up with an agent I sent it to awhile back. I need to do more research and begin submitting more.

Which I’m also planning on doing with short stories. I’m doing a polish on a story that’s a tough story that was inspired by a walk around a local park and a part of the walk that was walking on a sidewalk near a very busy road in the city. Pamela didn’t like that part of the walk because it was dangerous so, being who I am, wrote a story about it. It’s a tough one and I think I found a market for it.

***

Paid-subscribers on Patreon get an art/comic book update here. Become a Patron and see what’s in the works!

***

I finished Paul Tremblay’s Horror Movie about two weeks ago. I couldn’t put the damn thing down. He pulls something in the screenplay portion of the novel that is bold and terrific. I really enjoyed it and recommend it.

Right now I’m reading Gabino Iglesias’s House of Bone and Rain and it’s so moving that I’m having trouble putting it down. I hope this novel propels him to the next realm.

***

Well, I think that’s all I have in me. Thank you for reading and for your support! I’m hoping that next week we won’t be barreling towards tyranny and authoritarianism. We’ll see. Go out and vote blue.

If you’d like to see what I could do if I wrote full-time, share this newsletter with others and consider a paid subscription.

You can also tip/donate on Ko-Fi.

Of course, you could also become a Patron on my Patreon, which has a lot more information about my works-in-progress and the books I’ll be querying, including titles and some simple, non-spoiler details.

Get my collection Catalysts, my novellas Alice on the Shelf and Shadowed, and definitely order Echoes on the Pond, out now!

If you haven’t left a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or anyplace else for Echoes on the Pond, please consider doing so. This greatly helps sell copies.

And maybe call your local brick-and-mortar bookstore and demand they carry it! I’ll even sign copies! Well, if they’re local to me. That means Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and maybe some of the other New England states.

Thank you for subscribing!