Hello, friends.
I’m still here, so far. A trying week, for sure, but work got done. Nothing like escaping into make believe to make a person feel better. So that’s what I’ve done. Working on the book, drawing, reading, watching stuff, and other assorted things have been the way to get through. And helping where and when I can.
How are you doing?
I hope you’re well. Or as well as you can be.
Anyway, let’s get into things.
Welcome to the 106th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and writing these updates.
Know what would make 2025 great? 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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I’m on page 530 in Project: Amusement Park. I think I’ve gone through two chapters this week, both on the shorter side. The one I’m in now is a longer chapter, I think, and encompasses almost all of the characters. I believe it’s the chapter that sort of pushes everyone into the last part of the book. I mean, I know this is the last chapter of the current part and part five or six (or seven?) starts next chapter, but I think it’s also the chapter that directly leads into the end of the novel. It should, since there’s about 152 pages left to edit.
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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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One of the cool things that happened this week is that a former student and burgeoning wordslinger Allie has going through my newsletter* on Substack and liking some of the posts and even commenting on them. Some of the posts go back to 2023, early on. This led me to go back and reread some of them because I’m one of those people who’ll write something, have a general memory of what I wrote but now how I wrote it, and then will go back and be surprised by how good (or bad) something is. In this case, I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
The way I approach these updates usually takes some work and it’s probably more convoluted than it needs to be, but it works. I usually work on Saturday afternoons. I’ll open the files for the previous week’s updates and resave them with new dates. I have a file for “Patreon Weekly Update for Patrons” and “Newsletter Weekly Update.” So this file I’m writing in is called “01-26-25 Patreon Weekly Update for Patrons.” Then I go into each section and highlight last week’s writing to replace it with this week’s.
Patrons get to see the titles of the works-in-progress as well as exclusive art that I’m playing with that week. So, writing update, art update, and then onto this week’s topic, whatever that may be. Having fallen in love with Harlan Ellison’s nonfiction and columns, I sometimes evoke his spirit and write pointed pieces about the world through my lenses. For everything that I write that’s opinionated, there’s probably a bunch that I don’t touch because of the day job. Public school teachers aren’t really allowed to have much of a life or controversy. I skirt the line, I think, but I’ve been writing longer than I’ve been teaching, and I think what I say has merit.
A controversial topic that I keep thinking about is AI in education, which is being thrown in my face on a daily basis and that I’m convinced will be the end of education as we know it. And other foolish ideas that technology is trying to sell to schools, like screen-sharing instead of using projectors. What our students need now is more time looking at computer screens. See? I can’t help myself. But I will. I’m not going to write about that asinine idea. For now. Eventually I may get pissed off enough to say, “Fukkit!” and write it.
Once the paid-Patron’s post is finished, I quickly go through it, fix some stuff, and then turn my attention to the newsletter, Gauthic Times. I will copy-and-paste sections from the Patron-post to the file for the newsletter. Works-in-progress will get changed to their codenames. I don’t know that I need to do this, but it’s fun for me. Once pasted and the formatting is fixed, it’s time to ready the publications.
First I go to Patreon. My paid-Patrons get updates first. I’ll copy-and-paste the update from MS Word to the Patreon site, fix formatting, etc. Then I have to add the tags, collections, etc. Once that’s done, I set up who gets to see it, what the post for the update will say, and I schedule it, usually for Sundays at 6 am.
Next I do the same thing with Gauthic Times on Patreon for free subscribers. The big difference is that theirs is scheduled for Sunday at 8 am. Then I copy-and-paste the update into Substack, get it set, and schedule it. Finally, I do the same on my website.
It takes me anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours to do this. Sometimes posts get broken up throughout the day because I’m tired. As a result, I tend to forget what I’ve written, or at least how it’s written.
Which is why seeing Allie go through these updates and liking them has been good. I’ve been able to go back. Sometimes I remember writing the update, other times I’m as surprised as you are reading this for the first time.
The thing that’s really been surprising for me is that I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read. Yeah, I’ll find typos and mistakes; it’s the nature of this particular beast. Overall, I’m entertained.
And that’s what I hope you feel reading these updates.
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* Available through Substack, my website, and free subscription through Patreon.
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That’s all I’ve got for you today. Thank you so much for subscribing, reading, and for your support!
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!
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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.
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Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
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