Hello, friends.
This was a good week overall. It was a short week at work and I’ve done a lot of stuff for writing and getting ready for February’s release of The Monster in the Closet. Unfortunately, the cold still lingers in the house so it has dampened a little bit of Thanksgiving for us, but I still ate too much.
Welcome to the 150th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and using a new typewriter. 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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Project: Moons saw an addition of about 2,000 words this week. I missed writing it Thursday, but with it being Thanksgiving here in the U.S., I’m forgiving myself. Especially since I did other things that day. I had a computer issue on Monday, which had me stop after just over 100 words, and then I worked on the book on my iPad at G’s basketball practice, trying to ignore two cursing idiots who had to have been heard by at least one of the players on G’s team, who had to sit out some of the practice because of an injured leg. Anyway, I saw just over 300 words in the gym on uncomfortable bleachers.
Speaking of computer issues, don’t forget to pre-order The Monster in the Closet or become a Patron, because Daddy needs a better computer.
I also (finally) returned to Project: Amusement Park this week! I’d been so busy fixing The Monster in the Closet up for publication and working on Project: Moons after returning to teaching for the hellish 2025-2026 school year, that I hadn’t dragged myself back to Project: Amusement Park since September 1st! Well, yesterday I returned, working for over an hour and going through about 20 pages of the book. It was so good to be back. I missed those characters and that story a lot.
Thursday I designed new bookmarks for 2026. I may make a few changes to it but I’m pretty happy with how it looks. Thursday and Friday I also worked on some ads for my books. One was the cover of The Monster in the Closet with the back cover copy. The other had the book with a blurb about my writing from Greg F. Gifune. I already used two of the ads on social media yesterday so follow me on the various social media places to see them.
I also recorded and edited a video that is a response to a video that Kim did last week that mentions me.
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I’m writing this week’s essay on a typewriter that was given to me by my friend, the artist Kim Gatesman. She found it at a yard sale for some print museum in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and got It for me as a gift. It’s an Olympia, which is the kind of typewriter the late Harlan Ellison used to use. One of them. He only used Olympias. I’ve been wanting one of these for 25 or so years.
I love typewriters. I began writing on one when I was 13, an old Royal Quiet De Luxe that my mother had gotten from the office she worked at. When she was hired in 1986, they were still using manual typewriters, which was insane. They had a behemoth office model that she used until convincing them to upgrade to an electronic typewriter that was better suited for office life of the late-1980s. The portable Quiet De Luxe was given to her to “give to her kids.” Four years later I set it up on some milk crates and began writing. I haven’t stopped.
I currently also own an Olivetti Lettera 25 that I got from my ex-wife’s lates grandmother. I wrote the first draft of my first published story, “Icarus Falling,” on it one humid August day in 1998. The Royal needs to be refurbished. The Olivetti is still in good working order.
And now, this. An Olympia. Just like Harlan Ellison. I need to do a little more research into it to find out what kind of Olympia this is. Maybe find a user’s manual for it online. I also will need to find a home for it.
If I had a proper office, I could see myself using typewriters for first drafts. Learning my craft in my formative years on a typewriter was a good thing, I think. I didn’t get my first computer until October 1998. That means for eight years I wrote on either manual or electric (or electronic) typewriters. You want to learn the economy of the word?
Have to rewrite each draft one word at a time. And if you make a serious mistake on an outgoing manuscript? Rip out the page and start over. It doesn’t matter if it’s at the bottom of the page, friend!
Thank you, Kim, for this gift. The words may not always come on this machine, but they will continue to come. And who knows? Maybe I’ll write a story in public on it at one of your studio shindigs.
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What if the monster in your child’s closet is real?
Tim Beaulieu’s daughter, Cleo, says that the monster is also her invisible friend, whom she blames for innocuous trouble. The whole thing makes Tim uneasy as he tries to remember a part of his childhood that is missing. Surely nothing can be wrong. Can it?
When the boy in the apartment upstairs goes missing after hurting Cleo, horrific memories begin to resurface as Tim finds himself under suspicion for the unthinkable. His daughter and those around him are in danger.
Tim must face his past to save Cleo but can they survive the monster in the closet?
Coming February 24th, 2026, from Macabre Ink, an imprint of Crossroad Press.
Preorder the digital or print editions now!
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That’s 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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