Hello, friends.
This week will be the last week of the 2023-2024 school year and, if my math is correct (which it rarely is), my eighteenth last week of school. I began my journey in education as a teaching assistant during the 2006-2007 school year and began teaching the following year. I can’t wait for this year to end. It’s had its ups and downs and sideways and everything else. As recently as this past Friday morning, I was dealing with bullshit. I will have to go in throughout this summer to write new curriculum for the new program next year, but that’s all right. It’ll mean extra money in my pocket.
But that’s that, let’s go into updates and thoughts and all the rest.
Welcome to the 73rd installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and using why too much technology is bad.
Becoming a paid Patron on my Patreon would help me continue writing and 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.
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!
***
Editing Project: Monster continues. There were a few skipped days because G had a concert one night this week and I had graduation I needed to attend as Mr. Gauthier, but work continued the rest of the week. I’m nearly a third of the way through the book now. I’m about to go into the head of a character I’m not very fond of but he’s an important character, so into his head I will. Trying to find empathy for a person like this is difficult but I do my best.
***
Over on Patreon, I talk about a graphic novel idea and some art I’m working on. Become a Patron to find out more.
***
With summer vacation beginning on Friday for me, I’m thinking a little about how I want this summer to look. I spend the first few weeks of most summers in a strange fugue state and not really accomplishing much and I want to avoid that. I feel a giant clock ticking for me and I feel like I really need to get my shit together and push myself to accomplish things.
Writing is, of course, at the top of the list. I not only want to finish my edits on Project: Monster but continue shopping it around. I also want to shop Project: MG Space Adventure around to agents, too. I’d like to write and submit more short stories. There’s also Project: Amusement Park, which needs editing and revising for a second draft.
An offshoot of writing and into some of my other creative endeavors includes finishing the outline for Project: Graphic Novel and maybe begin scripting and drawing thumbnails. I’d like to do more art in general.
Of course, there are things around the apartment that need doing. I need to do some major organizing and cleaning and rethink some things. I feel like our living space isn’t being utilized as well as it could be and I need to figure some of that out.
There’s also spending time with the family. I mean, we get one shot at this, right? And I need to finally finish helping my father square away his apartment and get rid of things.
Finally, I want to work on my own health. I’m overweight, have high blood pressure, am pre-diabetic, and will be 47 by the end of the summer. I hope that’s not the giant clock I hear constantly! But I absolutely need to do something.
***
I think that’s about it for today. I’d thought about writing something from an educator’s perspective on an issue that I think negatively impacts education, but I need to think about it more because it could be controversial.
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.
Thank you for subscribing!
Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
Leave a comment