Hello, friends!
Another week in the history books or whatever passes for them in the year 2025, when lies are truth, truth is fake, and history is negotiable, not written by the winners so much as argued by anyone with an internet connection.
I have one real week left of summer vacation and even that will be spent at school a little, trying to pull together something for two weeks from now. The roller coaster of life is real, friends, and I’m not a roller coaster fan, so get me outta here!
The week was pretty busy by my true calling of creating so at least I had that. So, let’s get into it.
Welcome to the 134th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and creating for yourself. If you’re a reader who subscribes via Substack, my website, or Patreon, your encouragement helps motivate me. I’m not breaking any records but I’m thankful to have any audience.
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This week’s revising of Project: Amusement Park went well. I got through about 30 pages of the novel and pared it down by almost 300 words. It’s not just about deleting words, though, it’s polishing the sentences and making sure the ideas are there. Another friend finished reading the 2nd draft this week and gave me her thoughts.
At one point, she wrote, “As per usual you weaved a wonderful web of stories together. You’re really good at pacing the character arcs in that you tend to return to them just about as I’m thinking, Huh, haven’t heard from them in a while.”
That made feel good. There was some good critical feedback that I found helpful, too. So I’m 3 for 3 with that. That said, the shirtsleeves are rolled up because there’s still something like 595 pages to revise.
Project: Moons was also worked on. I added about 3,700 words to the book, which now weighs in at 31,500 words and 131 pages. The story is moving along pretty well since I finally found my footing. I think I’m around the halfway point of the book. That’s nice to write considering I would’ve still been in the beginning of Project: Amusement Park at 131 pages.
I finished pencils on another page of the Gabby Ray comic book I’m playing with, I set up the last two pages and started the pencils on one of them. These past two pages will probably take me a while to draw since they’re very people heavy and I want to do a good job with the modicum of skill that I have.
There may be some good news coming soon, too. I’m not saying anything else right now until the paperwork is taken care of, but I don’t mind teasing you a little bit.
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I went for a walk this morning with my friend Kim Gatesman. I’ve known Kim for about 21/22 years now. She’s a terrific artist and printmaker. He and I used to do studio days together when we were in our twenties. She’s paint (or whatever) and I’d write (or whatever). Sometimes we’d break and talk about whatever was going through out minds at the time, and then we’d get back to work. We don’t see each other as often as either of us would like because I suck at keeping up with people, but we’re still there for each other. Anyway, we went for a walk and talked about life, the universe, and everything else. Mostly, though, we spoke about creativity. Art. Where we find ourselves versus where we’d like to be. The topic of monetizing our creativity came up and we both admitted that we often fall into the trap of feeling like we’re wasting time on creative hobbies and have had to remind ourselves that the hustle doesn’t have to exist on everything.
I’ve written about rediscovering my love of drawing. I started drawing when I was too young to remember, pretty much from the first time I picked up a pencil or a pen. It helped that my mother loved to draw and definitely encouraged me. Dad bringing home comic books when I’d get home from work and stop for milk, bread, and cigarettes also helped. Seeing all that art at such an impressionable age and knowing that someone did that, was heady.
Around the age of ten or eleven, I decided that I wanted to draw and write comic books. Batman (1989) came out and threw the bat-signal on comic books and comic book shops. It because a thing that every Saturday morning, Dad took me to a local comic shop and I’d look around and usually spend my allowance. The drawing was something I loved, but the decision to write comics came from having so many ideas, that the thought of now doing my own ideas troubled me.
If you’d asked me at 12 what I would do with my life, I’d’ve told you I’d get through high school (that’s kinda what we all do, right? Get through high school) and go to art school, probably in New York City. There, I’d work on trying to get a job at DC Comics (or Marvel, I guess, though I was—and still am—a DC kid through and through), and from there…the world! It would a lot of work, I knew, but I loved telling stories and drawing, so that’s what I thought I’d do.
Until I bought and began reading The Shining at 13. Stephen King’s writing spoke to me in a way no other book had. The fact that he was from Maine—not New York or Los Angeles, but fuckin’ Maine—convinced me that I could do it right from where I was in the armpit of Massachusetts. And writing, unlike drawing, didn’t seem to be so hard. (As an adult, I’d love to climb into a DeLorean or TARDIS and go back and have a good talk with myself). So I began writing and never looked back.
Drawing was something that remained with me but not in any real way. Until a few years ago when I had students create comic books and I did one alongside them using my original character.
Suddenly, I rediscovered the love of drawing. I’ve been doing it more and even investing a bit in it. Nothing major, but buying pens and paper, etc. Digital art programs like Procreate and Clip Studio Paint. It’s been good. But…
Because I’ve spent more than 25 years hustling, trying to get my writing out there and published, trying to get books in the hands of readers, my mind is always attuned to “How can I make money from this?” If I do a free newsletter, does it help with the books? If I do a paid-Patreon, will anyone become a Patron and will it matter? I write because I love it, but I also want to make a career out of writing. The career can feed the hunger to create, to write.
When I began drawing again a few years ago, my mind immediately tried to figure out how I could turn it into a Thing. How could I make a comic book with my skills that’ll sell? That’s the key: with my skills. Because I chose to be a writer instead of a comic book writer/illustrator, I never went to art school. Hell, I never even took a drawing class! All that raw talent that I was developing as a kid remained just that, raw talent. And when I looked at the art of Jim Lee or Eddy Barrows or Nicola Scott or Ryan Benjamin, I feel inferior.
But I realized something. I do not have to be as good as them. Not even close. Because I do not need to make it a career.
You’re probably reading that and thinking how stupid could I be that it took me 800+ words to get to that conclusion. Imagine living it, friend! I still sit and draw and think, “How can I turn this into…?” but I try to stop myself. I have to remind myself I’m drawing for the same reason I’m writing: because I love it. However, unlike writing, I do not need to try to monetize it.
Don’t get me wrong, friends. If someone was willing to pay me to draw something, I’d accept it in a heartbeat. I’ll do commissions or whathaveyou if that’s what a person would like. I’m no fool. Speaking of which, the old saying “A fool and his money are soon parted” comes immediately to mind when I think about the idea of someone wanting me to draw something for them. But the imposter syndrome gives me the same feeling about my writing, so that’s a me thing.
Making money from the art is not the goal, though. I needed to remember (and need to be reminded) that the act of creating in itself is the goal. Getting paid for it is great and I’d love to do that, but it’s not the goal. Not yet anyway.
Hearing Kim feel that way about some of her other artistic pursuits, like music, made me feel good. It’s a real problem we Creatives have. I’ll hustle all I need to for the writing, but—for now—I’ll let the drawing speak for itself.
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Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
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