Gauthic Times: The Bill Gauthier Newsletter #126
Summer Musings
Hello, friends, and happy Father’s Day for those who celebrate!
This past week was a bitch. I’m kind of reeling from it still. As a result, I found myself not really ripping to write about any particular thing for today’s essay so I consider it some musings as I complete the 2024-2025 school year on Monday.
Welcome to the 126th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and my wish for the class of 2025.
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This week I wrote around 2,400 words on Project: Moons. I didn’t get to work on it Friday because I was beat. I accidentally fell asleep after my nightly call to Dad and woke up two hours later feeling discombobulated. It happens. I ended up on page 45 with a grand total of 10,800 words. The story feels like it needs to be pulled with strength at times but I’m having fun with it.
I also began playing around with a fantasy/science fiction idea. I wrote down some ideas and stuff that I guess is called worldbuilding now. I just consider it writing. The more I think about it, the more jazzed-up I get.
I also finished (I think) the digital inks of a Superman drawing.
I’m mostly happy with it. Now it’s time for coloring it.
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Summer Musings
I didn’t know what to write for today. I have a ton of possibilities but no desire. What desire I have to write today is leaning toward the fiction. As I’m writing this, protests are happening around the country for No Kings Day. I would be there with them locally but people close to me are too worried about the potential for violence. Considering last night, an assassination happened in Minnesota (and possibly two), I can’t say that I blame my loved one. This week has kicked my ass emotionally. Two coworkers that I care about are leaving and the timing is quite bad. I’m happy for them, sad for myself and a few other coworkers. I’ll be heading into the summer with a lot of questions and uncertainty about the next school year.
Sometimes it’s like this, though. There are days when you’re emotionally tapped and you want to write something meaningful, but the heart just isn’t there. For fiction, that’s not that big a deal for me. I can write a little bit and either the act of putting words down will spur me on or I’ll end with only a couple of hundred words and a sense of despair. But because the fiction tends to a cumulative, it’s easy to just put in a shorter day one day and make up for it when you’re cooking, because there’ll always be days when you’re cooking. But for an essay that’s meant to go into a newsletter the next day, you kinda gotta perform.
That’s what teaching has been for me the last few months. I’m going and I’m doing the best I can but emotionally I’m checked out. Summer vacation started back in April. I think that’s one of the reasons I felt so bad during April vacation. My mind (emotions? body?) really didn’t want to go back because I was spent. This summer has me worried, too.
I mean, not just the fact that the United States of America could become an Empire over the summer but this summer is going to be pretty stressful in its first month. After 37 years in one apartment, and more than 50 in one neighborhood, my father is moving. An apartment is opening in the complex my family lives in and we’ve got him in. The thing is, I’ll be doing almost everything. That means the first few weeks of summer vacation will be packing and cleaning his apartment.
That said, something I’m looking forward to doing this summer is continuing work on a novel (I think it’s a novel) that I started. I don’t see it as a Major Work and that’s freeing, but I am taking it seriously. I also started doing some preliminary work on a rather big idea for a possible science fiction/fantasy story. But the real deal for this summer is revising Project: Amusement Park for the third draft. I’ve had one friend finish reading it and am waiting on two (maybe three) more. I may ask one more person to read it to make sure I handled a couple of characters well.
I would like to work out submissions on some stuff, too. But who knows? Because the apartment needs to be gone through and things weeded out. A major purge.
So that’s where I am right now. I’m being distracted so I’m finishing this up. Thanks for reading. Be safe out there and may the Force be with you.
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