Gauthic Times #80 News & Other Stuff from Bill Gauthier, or Last Gasps or There’s Still So Much to Do!

Hello, friends.

The subtitle of this post seems so drastic, so dramatic, so scary! I can read your mind thinking, Is he all right? Is he sick?! Have his hemorrhoids finally won?!? Sorry about that last one. No I’m not. But the title refers not to me but rather to summer vacation. This will be posted on July 28th, which means I will be halfway through my first week back in school in one month.

I did some of the things I wanted to do but still have so much more that needs to be done. But that’s how it works, right? I have to say, though, that I’m mostly happy with what I have done.

So, let’s get into it.

Welcome to the 80th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and my love of nerd stuff.

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!

***

I’ve got just over 100 pages left to edit on Project: Monster. I’ve found that some of the pages I read through this week didn’t need lots of work. I’m not terribly surprised. Many times as I get into more intense scenes they need less work at this stage. Since I’m editing a third draft, most of the heavy lifting in these areas have been done. The goal at the beginning was to excise about 50-100 pages so we’ll see how I’ve done once I get to the computer.

***

So this is San Diego Comic Con weekend, Nerd Christmas, and I’m into it. When I started this week’s update on Friday, SDCC was just beginning. Now here I am on Sunday afternoon and there have been some big announcements including Robert Downey, Jr., returning to the MCU. This is also the weekend where people flex that they don’t care about it, or how it’s all garbage now, or whatever.

I get it. After more than a decade of superhero movies being The Big Thing, the time has come to tear them down. It happens with every popular genre. In my lifetime, I’ve seen the rise and fall of:

• The horror movie (1980s)
• The action movie (1980s)
• The teen movie (1980s)
• The romantic comedy (late-1980s-early-1990s)
• The psychological thriller (1990s)
• The independent film (1990s)

And that’s just a few. I didn’t mention the ones I was alive but a baby for (the trailer truck movies, disco movies) or many others, these are the big ones that I remember. Each genre’s popularity was roughly 10 years, though some saw more and some saw less. None of these genres were necessarily new in their time periods and none of them have gone away. If anything, many of them work in cycles.

The superhero movie isn’t new but the advent of digital technology and the faith in the comic book stories that Kevin Feige had, as well as many people of my generation who grew up loving 1978’s Superman: The Movie and 1989’s Batman, watching the cartoons, and reading the comic books knew there were some badass stories that rivaled anything seen on TV or in movies.

I remember in 2008 as the MCU started, how excited many were. And now, 16 years later, some of those excited voices are the ones who are most vocal about the movies.

I don’t get it. Personally, I’ve been enjoying the hell out of The Multiverse Saga. Are the movies as exciting? Probably not. Are they as good? Maybe? But they are what they are, which are adaptations of cool stories.

Now, I’m into stories with time travel and parallel universes. I like the idea that Robert Downey, Jr, is Tony Stark and a big hero in one universe and is Victor von Doom in another. I like the idea that all these things are happening and, in many ways, we could see a reboot of things at the end and it’s still in continuity, in the way that Spider-Man: No Way Home basically said all the Marvel movies are related and The Flash did the same for DC movies.

I want to see Deadpool & Wolverine for the same reason.

I agree with the naysayers who say that people need to broaden their horizons and not only watch these kinds of movies and TV series. They are absolutely right. But I don’t agree with putting down the excitement for these movies or any kind of entertainment from what could be considered nerd culture.

I grew up being criticized for liking these things. I’m happy they’ve been taken seriously. Whether it’s DC Studios (I’m a DC Kid) or the MCU or Star Wars or even Harry Potter, which I believe has grown beyond the ugliness of its creator, or any other damn thing. Allow people to be excited and to enjoy it.

I won’t piss on your parade, don’t piss on mine.

***

Well, I think I’m done for today. My head feels like it’s full of cotton so I’m going to go.  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!