Hello, friends.
This past week’s vacation was productive in terms of writing. More on that later, though, along with some thoughts about it. It was nice to be able to focus on things here as everything else seemed pretty crazy or tense.
Anyway, let’s get into it.
Welcome to the 110th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and motivating myself into the future.
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I finished the edits on Project: Amusement Park this week and began revising the manuscript on the computer. So far I’ve pared down about 1,800 words. Because of vacation, it wasn’t unheard of for me to work three or four hours on the book and doing some other work as well.
Some of that other work included updating the tiers on Patreon and beginning the Daily Progress posts on Patreon. These posts will go into a little more detail about the work done that day than my weekly progress here, but that’s all right. I’ve had fun with them. The above picture was taken for one of them.
I also did a short video for Patreon that showed my kitchen table work setup with a little more commentary. It was really a way for me to try out a short video to see whether I’d like the format.
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This past week was our February vacation. In parts of Massachusetts, this week has been vacation for as long as I can remember. Its timing is perfect for students and even more so for teachers. At least I feel like every teacher I know also needed the break. I think one of the things that comes up for me during these breaks is that I get the taste of What Could Be.
What Could Be if I could write/create full-time. Hours passed unnoticed as I worked on revisions for the current novel, making posts on social media that I had fun doing, taking care of things on Patreon that needed taking care of. None of the stuff I wanted to do around the apartment got done, unfortunately, but the current novel’s revisions are going swimmingly. Oh! And I even made a short video for Patrons!
Reading this terrific essay by Amie McNee hit the right spot. I’ve been meaning to read it awhile now and finally got to. She says exactly what I feel. I know I’m not even close to the only one. The drudgery of working someone else’s schedule, under someone else’s rules, kills the creative impulse. I’m lucky in that I teach in a program that’s creative (or supposed to be; some of my colleagues sometimes say that but don’t seem to practice it) so I have a bit of an outlet but it’s getting more and more difficult to do. So much bullshit paperwork and training and this and that…and for what? Just to have everything questioned and disregarded from the top right to the bottom.
I think of all the things I could do in that day that would serve this calling and it’s heartbreaking. I’ve done what I was told to do. Went to school, got a good education, became a member of society, and for what? The country I live in is sliding into fascism. And before that, I couldn’t even buy a house. I make more than my parents ever made together and I can’t afford to buy a fuckin’ house.
The game is rigged and I really feel like I need to find a new game. I’ve got some thinking to do. Long, hard thinking. This can’t maintain. I can’t maintain.
Others can do it. Why can’t I?
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This week I finished reading Chuck Wendig’s The Staircase in the Woods, which continues his streak of really good novels. While not as meaty as a few of his previous novels, Staircase is as complex. The titular staircase is present and used as a cool device to get the characters (and the reader) into the novel and then again toward the climax. Make no mistakes, though, this is a haunted house story. And a damn intense one.
A mark of a good writer is that they can take familiar stories and subgenres and make them their own. With this in mind, Wendig once again proves that he’s a master storyteller of the modern horror story. He takes the ideas that are ingrained in the genre and shifts them like a Rubik’s Cube into his own thing, and it works.
At points scary, heartbreaking, inspiring, and, yes, funny, The Staircase in the Woods once again cements Wendig’s place as a new master of the horror genre, and of terrific storytelling.
Thanks to NetGalley for hooking me up with a digital proof. Chuck Wendig’s The Staircase in the Woods comes out April 29th, 2025.
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Well, that’s it for this week’s newsletter. Thank you so much for subscribing, reading, and for your support!
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Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
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