Gauthic Times #102 News & Other Stuff from Bill Gauthier, or 2024: The Year We F–ked Around

Hello, friends!

One week of vacation down and one week left. It’s rare to have a full two weeks off. I feel like that was the norm when I was a kid but that stopped happening at some point. This week has been relaxing and busy both. Pamela has been down for the count, first sick and then with her back issues. We had to reschedule some plans and things have been hard, but we’re all together, at least. G had a great Christmas, which isn’t hard for her because she’s just a grateful kid.

As I head into the last few days of 2024, my mind wanders. Things are trying to form in my head but I just don’t know exactly what they all are or how to accomplish them. I’ve felt very tied-up lately.

I hope your Christmas, Hannukah, or Kwanzaa was good and that you’re getting some rest. Let’s get into this week’s update.

Anyway, let me get into this week’s update.

Welcome to the 102nd installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and some thoughts on 2024.

Know what would make a great end to 2024? If you became a paid-Patron on my Patreon, where 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 go!

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This week I got to page 447 in Project: Amusement Park. The main characters have followed their circuitous routes to get together and learn what each other have gone through. Or they’re learning what they’ve gone through, and some research that two of the characters have done. With about 235 pages left of the book, things start to progress toward the climax.

From an editing standpoint, I’m finding I’m cutting more than I had been. Lots of times it’s a word here, a word there, but there’ve been sentences and paragraphs, too, this week. Or at least parts of paragraphs. It’s feeling good, though.

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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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As we enter the homestretch of 2024, I look back on this year with a lot of anger, disdain, and horror. I also look back on it with love, pride, and hope. It’s strange to have such opposing feelings reflected in a single 52-week period, but there it is. Mainly, though, I feel like 2024 was the year we fucked around.

Large portions of the population around the world have been more and more leaning toward authoritarianism and the United States voted in that direction in November. With a little more than half of the US population preferring a convicted criminal over a ray of sunshine and hope, and too many people swayed by foreign campaigns, we find the US entering 2025 in a new era. I’ve written about how scared I am and my feelings on this have been stated everywhere, so I won’t be going into it more, but it’s eye-opening that so many people are so debased that they’d rather back a terrible person than learn what it takes to truly make change. Well, it’s done. We’ll see what happens.

In my life, things have been up and down. At work, something happened that made me feel as though I’d failed people, though I’ve been assured that’s not the case. Still, a seismic change happened and it’s still playing out.

On the writing front, I learned that people actually care. I did five signings and they were all fairly successful. This was a much-needed boost to my confidence. I still haven’t heard from some of the agents that I’ve queried but I’m trying.

There were other things that were really good, too, but I’m keeping them to myself because they involve family and friends.

So it was a good year in many ways and a terrible year in many others.

Next week, I’ll write about my thoughts going into 2025.

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The year’s not done yet but I fell short of my reading goal of 20 books this year. I only finished 17. The first of them I’d begun in 2023.

1. Holly by Stephen King
2. Becoming the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar
3. City in Ruins by Don Winslow (Thanks, NetGalley!)
4. The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden
5. Smoke, In Crimson by Greg F. Gifune
6. Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong by Brian Buccellato, Christian Duce, Tom Derenick, Luis Guerrero, Richard Starkings, Jimmy Betancourt, and Tyler Smith
7. Captain America #1-6 by J. Michael Straczynski, Jesus Saiz, Lan Medina, Belardino Brabo, Matt Hollingsworth, Espen Grundetjern, and Joe Caramagna
8. The Rocketeer by Dave Stevens
9. We Called Them Giants by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hands, and Clayton Cowles (Thanks, NetGalley!)
10. End of the Road by Brian Keene (Started a few years ago)
11. You Like It Darker by Stephen King
12. The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
13. Pay the Piper by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus (Thanks, NetGalley!)
14. Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
15. House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias
16. When You Leave I Disappear by David Niall Wilson
17. Dick Tracy Vol 1 by Alex Segura, Michael Moreci, Geraldo Borges, and Mark Englert (Thanks, NetGalley!)

I’m currently reading Memorials by Richard Chizmar and Batman: Resurrection by John Jackson Miller, which is a sequel to the 1989 Batman. I should be done with Memorials very soon.

I also read a bunch of comics through the Marvel Unlimited and DC Infinite apps.

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I think it’s time to go now, for the last time in 2024. Thank you so much for subscribing, reading, and for your support! Happy New Year.

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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!

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