The man from Maine fled across the bookshelves, and thousands of others followed.
Hello, friends.
As I write this on Saturday, September 21st, it’s Stephen King’s birthday. When this gets posted on Sunday, September 22nd, it’ll be the day before Bruce Springsteen’s birthday. I’ll be writing a bit about this further on.
This week has been interesting. It was my first full week of work-school since the first week and what an eventful week it was. Nothing I should or can talk about, and nothing bad, but just eventful and weird.
But that’s not why you’re here. Let’s get into the update.
Welcome to the 88th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and my love the works of Stephen King and Bruce Springsteen.
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.
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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!
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I got about 82 pages into Project: Amusement Park this week. I had to take a night off because I still can’t shake the Covid cough and I was really tired. Yesterday I got to page 82 and that means I have about 600 pages left to edit.
The book is divided into several parts, three of which are flashbacks to earlier in the three main character’s lives. I’m now into Part II, which takes place in 1985 and follows 12-year-old Bobby. In 2024, where the bulk of the novel takes place, he’s in his fifties and is a correctional officer with some issues. Bobby as an adult is not someone I particularly like. But that’s how it goes sometimes.
I definitely feel like I’m coasting with the edits, though I’ve done some intense work in spots. Generally when I’m editing the first draft, I try to make sure nearly every page has significant amounts of blue ink. If I get to the bottom of a page and there aren’t many (or there are no) edits, I go back to the top and work my way through the page again.
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Paid-subscribers on Patreon get an art/comic book update here. Become a Patron and see what’s in the works!
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With Stephen King’s birthday on September 21st, I think it’s okay for me to reflect that, like so many other writers, I wouldn’t be writing if it wasn’t for his work. At least, I don’t think I would be. Not in the way that I do, anyway.
Growing up in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in a lower-middle-class (emphasis on lower) neighborhood, being a writer was never really something many people aspired to be. As it was, I was destined for creativity because I loved to draw and loved to make up stories. By the time I was 11, I thought I would grow up to write and draw comic books. Discovering Stephen King through my love of horror movies, and buying The Shining on my 13th birthday, tipped the scales toward writing.
Within a day of coming home with the book, I set up a Royal Quiet De Luxe on two or three milk crates and because pecking away, one finger finding the letters needed. It wasn’t long before that one finger flashed over the keyboard. Inspired by King’s words and storytelling, I kept at it.
Even now, at 47, King’s work hits me. I find it like putting on comfy slippers (maybe with teeth) and am in constant awe about how he manages to keep his game to pure. Many say they prefer early King to modern King and I understand that. Early King (let’s say, Carrie to It) has a hunger that’s undeniable. Modern King is the better writer and storyteller, though. His sentences sing and are as tight as they’ve ever been. His recent collection You Like it Darker is filled with stories and novellas that are as good as anything he’s ever written but has the experience that a long life gives.
So, happy birthday to the King. Thank you for all the terrific reading and being such a huge influence on my writing.
My top 5 Stephen King books:
- The Shining
- It (sometimes this one beats out The Shining)
- The Stand
- The Dark Tower (the whole series, though if push came to shove, either The Waste Lands or The Wizard and Glass would be favorites)
- The Dark Half
This list is by no means set in stone. Lisey’s Story and Bag of Bones could easily be on this list some days. And others.
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Monday, September 23rd is Bruce Springsteen’s birthday. Like King, Springsteen hit me at an age when his words mattered most. I was in my mid-twenties, recently divorced, and feeling alone and like a loser. I was already a minor fan of his but reading about the story behind 1975’s Born to Run pushed me to want to listen to the whole album. And it changed everything. Eight tracks that are a perfect novel. Or collection. Or perfect rock album.
Many like early Springsteen more than modern Springsteen, and I suspect that, like King, it’s the hunger people respond to. That need that Springsteen felt that permeated his music and spoke to people. He is a better musician now, with a far better voice, and some of his songs are as tight at the strings on his guitar.
I think the thing that I love most about Springsteen’s work is that it’s far reaching. There’s something for nearly every mood. He is a master at writing pop songs like “The Ties That Bind,” “Dancing in the Dark,” or “Radio Nowhere.” He is a master of writing “serious” rock like “The Rising,” “American Skin (41 Shots),” or “Born in the USA.” He creates worlds within his songs that tell stories like every song on Born to Run, “Spirit in the Night,” or “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight).” He can do protest songs like “The Ghost of Tom Joad” or “Youngstown.” Hard electric? Check. Thoughtful acoustic? Yep. Folk music? Absolutely. Soul music? Uh huh. Hell, gospel (“My City of Ruins”) and rap (“Rocky Ground”) has found their way into some songs.
And his concerts are even better than the records! I know some have complained about three-hour shows but Springsteen has been doing it for 50 years. He’s even gone over four hours a few times since he turned 60 back in 2009.
So, happy birthday, Bruce Springsteen! Thank you for providing a soundtrack to my life and for making me think and feel and, yes, sometimes dance.
My top 5 favorite Bruce Springsteen songs are:
- “The Rising”
- “Born to Run”
- “Thunder Road”
- “Ghosts”
- “Jungleland”
Again, this is by no means definitive. I could easily swap out “Badlands” or “Racing in the Street” with any one of those, and near-missed include “Independence Day,” “Queen of the Supermarket,” and “Lonesome Day.”
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Paid-subscribers on Patreon got an exclusive paragraph about an idea for a nonfiction book I’ve been thinking about a lot time. Become a Patron and see what’s in the works!
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I mentioned my appearances next month and they are official!
On October 5th, I’ll be doing a signing at Barnes & Noble in Smithfield, Rhode Island. I believe this will be similar to my signing in July in Wareham.
October 26th is going to be really cool! I’ll be appearing at Barnes & Noble in Wareham, Massachusetts, again, as part of a Halloween event that will feature Paul Tremblay, Greg F. Gifune, Maureen Boyle, Kathleen Brunelle, Christa Carmen, and Derek Mola.
I mentioned in last week’s newsletter that I’d give you more info when I found out. Well, imagine my surprise when I found those images on Instagram and Facebook later that afternoon. Anyway, I’m really excited. As I mentioned before, I love Greg’s work and he and I go way back, and I’m a huge fame of Paul Tremblay’s work. Maureen Boyle wrote a terrific book about unsolved murders along a stretch of 195 in New Bedford. And while I’m not familiar with the others’ works, I’m looking forward to checking their books out.
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A few weeks back I posted a short story called “The Death Museum” for paid-Patrons as a thank you. This week Patreon began allowing creators the chance to sell individual posts or collections of posts through our shops. As a result, I’m selling “The Death Museum” to anyone who wants to read it.
The price through the Patreon website is $3. The price through the Patreon Apple App is $4.50. Because of recent changes that Apple has made with its commerce stuff, subscribing and buying through the app actually costs more because Apple is charging Patreon (and its creators) more. I will see the same amount of money no matter how you pay for it.
This is a story that I really like so I’m hoping people will read it.
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This feels like a long one today. Thanks for reading!
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Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
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