Hello, friends.
If you’re a faithful subscriber to Gauthic Times, you may have noticed this is late. If you’re like me and only have a tenuous grasp on time, then you may not have noticed that this newsletter is a day late, in which case this whole opening is a waste of time. But here we are.
This past week was very busy. My twelve-year-old, G, had her first school play and their drama club is no joke. She was at school rehearsing 12-4 on Sundays for the last few weeks, and then this past week was at school until 5:30 from Monday to Thursday. Friday night and Saturday afternoon were the performances.
Our town takes the arts seriously, which is refreshing. The middle school play was top-notch. I mean, damn! They put in a lot of work and it showed. My 27-year-old went to the Saturday show with us and then we went out for a celebratory meal afterward. I also had to take a day off from school this week to take my father somewhere but then go to school at night for a bi-annual nighttime meeting. Basically, a really busy week being Dad, husband, and Mr. Gauthier without much time for being Bill Gauthier.
So, here I am on Sunday afternoon. The little one and the missus just left for a friend’s birthday party and grocery shopping, it’s raining out, and while I should be doing the dishes or vacuuming, I’m sitting here writing to you, my faithful readers.
Friends, your time is very much appreciated.
Welcome to the 117th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and musical silliness.
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Anyway, let’s go!
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Because this week was spent mainly being Dad, Honey, Billy, and Mr. Gauthier instead of being Bill Gauthier, nothing physical really got done. No real words were slung. However, now that the play is done, I’m hoping that this coming week will see me returning to form. Next week is a weeklong vacation, so I can do more then, too.
I intend to go through and maybe work on some short stories, revising and rewriting some and submitting them and others.
As far as big projects, I’m not entirely sure what to do, but here’s what’s on the possible list with the likeliest projects toward the top of the list:
- Project: Candy. This is a complete rewrite of a novella I wrote more than a decade ago that was very much in the realm of Jack Ketchum’s seminal The Girl Next Door. This new version is decidedly not, and much more in the realm of where I’ve gone with things in recent novels that haven’t yet been published.
- Project: Werewolf. I started a werewolf novel a few months ago. I’m thinking of releasing it in installments on Patreon but haven’t gotten more than a few pages into it. I feel like the story is there and just needs to be unearthed. I’m not sure if this is a novel or a novella, but I think it’ll be a novel. A short novel compared to Project: Amusement Park. Maybe closer in line with Project: Monster, which is still being shopped around.
- Project: Nightmare. This started off as a what-if sequel to the Nightmare on Elm Street films that I jokingly came up with back around 2011. The more I think about it, the more I think I can write it as a Bill Gauthier novel without any copyright infringement because it’s decidedly not about Freddy Krueger, though he plays a role in the idea. I can replace him with my own creature that is totally original and tell the story without any real overlap with what we know from the movies, though I might refer to them in very loose ways that wouldn’t actually refer to them. Does that make sense? As Han Solo would say, “Trust me.”
- Project: Gauthic Fantasy. I’ve had a basic premise for a fantasy story for a long time. I wrote a short story about 25 years ago that was completed but never sold because it sucked. But I still like the idea. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. My heart keeps going toward it.
- Project: Shakespeare Space Opera. This is another concept I’ve had a long time, just over 20 years. I’d like to write some science fiction/space opera novels that use some of Shakespeare’s work as a frame in the way Dan Simmons used The Canterbury Tales and Romantic poetry in his superb Hyperion series.
I also need to make some decisions about Project: Monster since I’ve had it at a number of agents starting back in 2023 and haven’t heard anything. I’m thinking of pulling it and seeing if I can get an independent press to publish it.
I’m also working on my own comic book stuff in my spare time, which is very rare.
As a result of the crazy week, I didn’t do any Daily Progress updates on Patreon. I hope to resume them this week.
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True story: I like to sing. Also true story: I’m not good at singing. I’m told my mouth is where music goes to die. Okay, no one ever told me that but they sure as shit have implied it. But I constantly sing, mostly quietly to myself but occasionally loudly in order to scare off the demons, monsters, and MAGA shitheads. Actually, scratch that last one. Based on their love of Ted Nugent and Kid Rock, maybe my singing wouldn’t scare them.
Hm.
Anyway, now that I’ve alienated readers, let’s bring it back to my singing abilities (or inabilities, as the case is). I sing in the shower, I sing when I’m making tea (or coffee), I sing throughout the day. One of things I do for my own amusement is come up with setlists. But it goes a little beyond that. I’m an imaginative person. I can’t help that.
In my mind, I have a Bruce Springsteen tribute band. If I had musical abilities, I would probably try to put one together IRL but, well, you know. So in my head, I like to put together these setlists for shows I’d perform. They’re fun for me to imagine and they can help guide me in the songs that I’m singing as I go about my life.
Anyway, today I’m inviting to my secret world where there’s a Bruce Springsteen tribute band called Radio Nowhere. I’m responding to the world around me, where we find ourselves, using music, but I’m also having fun.
Oh, and if any of this at all sounds familiar, well, let’s just say that my story, “The Growth of Alan Ashley,” is more autobiographical than I’d like it to be. Not the supernatural part. But I would say that, wouldn’t I?
*
Good evening! And tonight we welcome Bill Gauthier and Radio Nowhere!
The drummer comes to the stage, waves, and sits as the keyboardist/organist comes out. The piano and keyboard player comes out, followed by the bass player. Here’s the acoustic guitar/violin player. One guitarist comes out and then the saxophone player. Another guitarist comes out (a buddy who’s a musician in the real world, if I had my druthers). Finally, I come out with a guitar. (Full stop: I can’t play. But this is fantasy, my friend. Anything can happen in fantasy.
I nod to the drummer. Click. Click. Click. Click.
2. Lonesome Day
3. Ghosts
4. Prove it All Night or Night
5. Rainmaker
11. Last to Die
12. Roulette
13. How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times & Live
(Allow me to break in here. Bruce Springsteen took this folk song from Blind Alfred Reed and rewrote his own version in 2005. His version seems to also be based somewhat on Ry Cooder’s version. Springsteen performed it at the New Orleans Jazz Festival with his Seeger Sessions Band in the first Jazz Festival after Hurricane Katrina. His lyrics heavily represent the hurricane. I love the sound and some of his lyrics, but when I looked back at Bling Alfred Reed’s original lyrics, I found them so pertinent to modern times. A song written and recorded during the depression still hits hard.
So this version, in my imaginary world, is mashing of the two. Reed’s lyrics and Springsteen’s lyrics combined along with Springsteen’s/Cooder’s arrangement. Here are the lyrics I would sing:
Well the doctor comes ‘round here with his face so bright
And he says “in a little while you’ll be alright”
But all he gives is a humbug pill, a dose of dope and a great big bill
Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live?
He said “me and my old school pals had some mighty high times down here
And what happened to you poor black folks, well it just ain’t fair”
He took a look around, gave a little pep talk, said “I’m with you” then he took a little walk
Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live?
There was once a time when everything was cheap
But now them prices almost makes a grown man weep
When we pay our grocery bill, we just feel like making our last will
Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live?
Most of our preachers preach for gold and not for souls
That’s what keeps a poor man always in a hole
We can hardly get our breath, taxed and schooled and preached to death
Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live?
Cops out here go and kill without a cause
Then they’ll complain ‘bout followin’ funny laws
Gonna be a judgment that’s a fact, a righteous train rolling down this track
How can a poor man stand such times and live?
Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live?
Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live?)
14. Magic
17. My Love Will Not Let You Down
19. Backstreets
20. Darkness on the Edge of Town
21. Long Walk Home
23. Radio Nowhere
24. The Rising
25. Badlands
26. Thunder Road
Encore:
27. Born in the USA
28. Born to Run
30. American Land
31. Rosalita
32. No Surrender
33. This Land is Your Land (acoustic)
I sing this in a bluesy way that can’t be mistaken for rah-rah Amurica! I point out before the song that Woody Guthrie wrote this in response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” a song that’s always made me roll my eyes and now makes me feel sick.
34. (Land of Hope & Dreams [acoustic])–This is a 2nd encore and may or may not happen.
*
I hope this one wasn’t too self-indulgent (says the guy who write his own newsletter thinking anyone would care!). I’m not as musically savvy as some but it suits me. I like what I like. Maybe at some point I’ll make a playlist like this on Spotify or Amazon Music.
***
What I’m Reading
I just finished Christopher Golden’s new novel The Night Birds and it’s terrific. After several rejected attempts to get ARCs of Golden’s novels through NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press finally okayed me and, man, am I happy. Look, I’m an easy sell. On a personal level, Golden has been very nice toward me. We did a book signing together back in 2007 and he showed this young writer how to be gracious and helped sell my book better than I could. I will always respect him for that. Alas, this isn’t about the person but the work, so let’s have at it.
I began The Night Birds without knowing anything about it. I do that with a lot of books, especially those by writers I read on release (as I do with Golden) or with books that come recommended by writers I admire or friends. I wasn’t prepared for what would happen in the novel, and I’m glad for it.
The characters are interesting and endearing. I grew to love several of the characters, even the side characters, which made the horror of the novel more effective. The book takes place on a grounded ship that has a mangrove forest growing in and from it. An excellent vessel for a scary story. But it doesn’t go the way you might think, not at all.
Golden’s writing always flows and easily captures the reader. He takes chances with this novel that are bold and that, ultimately, work very well. There are heartbreaking, scary, and funny moments throughout delivering what every good writer hopes for: an entertaining-as-hell story.
I’m glad NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press hooked me up with The Night Birds and I recommend it to you without hesitation.
***
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