Hello there.
I intended to write a great newsletter with lots of talk about Star Wars for May the 4th, even though the newsletter would’ve come out on Revenge of the 5th, but things got busy and weird and I just didn’t. Which, in terms of updates, is fine because I really didn’t have much to update last week. And, as far as Star Wars is concerned, I have so much I could say that I’m never really sure where to start. I did make a post to TikTok for the Fourth, so there’s that.
But today is the twelfth…well, actually, it’s the 11th as I write this but you’ll be reading on the twelfth…so I won’t be writing about Star Wars.
Let’s get into what I will be writing about!
Welcome to the 69th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and using new technology for old things.
I see you sitting there reading this with your morning coffee (nice bunny slippers, you, and no, you over there don’t have to put on anything decent, I’m cool) and understand that you’d like more of my writing. Well, becoming a paid Patron on my Patreon, where I write about things in more detail than I do in the newsletter or on my website, including 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.
I mean, 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.
Echoes on the Pond is out now! Grab a copy, if you haven’t already. If you have bought it already, books make great gifts! And if you’ve read Echoes on the Pond, I’d also really love (and appreciate) it if you’d leave a nice review on Amazon or Goodreads.
You can also get my collection Catalysts or my novellas Alice on the Shelf and Shadowed.
Anyway, let’s do this!
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Based on the feedback from my writer friend regarding Project: Monster, I decided to go back into that. He recommended that I cut 50-100 pages from the novel. I spent most of the week before thinking about what I could cut, and how to go about doing it.
In some ways, I’m pretty old-fashioned. I traditionally like to print out my work and edit with a pen. I feel like I do a better job that way. That said, printing a novel can be a bitch. It takes forever to print. Then you need a place to keep it. And then you need space to lay out the edited pages when you’re bringing the changes into the computer. With my setup, I don’t really have the space. I’d heard of a writer who will self-publish one copy of his books to edit, which sounds cool but also like a lot of work.
But then I thought about my iPad and Apple Pencil. I’d tried editing that way a few years back but I believe the technology has improved. So I decided to go through the PDF with my Apple Pencil and keep it in a shared folder so I can access it on my MacBook. I wasn’t sure if this would work so I tested it, and it works beautifully.
That led me to editing Project: Monster via my iPad Pro. I’m still dealing with the tactile handwriting on my manuscript in order to edit but it’s not taking up tons of space. I can also still go back and forth between pages because there’s a sidebar where I can see the pages and move between them. It also means that, in theory, I can take my editing anywhere with me.
That was all last week. This past week was me working on Project: Monster. I missed a few days because G had an art show one night and Friday night I was wrecked. I’ve been so tired lately. I could even work on the book last night.
So far the work has been a little here and a little there. Because I’m editing the third draft, a lot of the heavy lifting was already done. Also, this pass-through is meant to be as much about getting the feel of the book again in order to figure out where the 50-100 pages will come from. I know some of that will be taking a line here, a paragraph there, and the like. Yet I also feel like there’s a character who could probably be cut down a little, whose POV isn’t essential to the overall book. We’ll see when I get through.
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In this spot over on Patreon, I updated Patrons on some work on my graphic novel idea for this week. The only way to know about it is to become a Patron!
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Another short one but it’s what I have right now. Thank you for reading!
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.
Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
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