Gauthic Times: The Bill Gauthier Newsletter #157, or Snow Business Like Snowbusiness

Hello, friends.

Are you still with me? How are you? As I write this on Saturday, word of another ICE member murdering another American citizen has spread. We are in troubled times.

This past week was busy and went by quickly. The impending giant snowstorm coming to where I live tomorrow is certainly on my mind, as you’ll see in today’s essay. We’re one month away from the release of The Monster in the Closet and I’m excited for you to get your hands on it. There may be at least one bookstore visit, which I’ll let you know more about once I know more.

Welcome to the 157^th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and snowy winter goodness in stories that are on my mind. 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.

Thank you.

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I worked on Four Moons this week, adding about 1,600 words to the book. The climax is moving along. Sometimes it flows easily, sometimes it’s more of a struggle.

Several installments of Four Moons went to Patreon this week. There have been ten installments posted, about eleven chapters, with another one scheduled for this afternoon. If you’re interested, Patrons at the $5 tier and above have access but there is also a way to buy into the whole book for $13.99. You’ll be notified when new installments are posted and you don’t have to be a long-term Patron.

Unfortunately, no work on Project: Amusement Park this week. Too many other things happening, unfortunately.

I also got to play with my dip pens last weekend, learning how to use them. Below you see a combination of multiliner pens, pen brushes, dip pens, and a brush. Also a message from G.

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That punny title hurts me a little. Making my teeth ache. But that’s what you’re getting so enjoy it. There’s an impending major storm coming in that’ll hit Massachusetts and, well, about half of the United States (I propose a name change to the American States since there’s very little unification these days, but that’s an essay for another time) so I’ve got snow on my mind. Let’s talk about some stories I love that have snow as a major element. These will be in no particular order and the snow factor may be minimal, but they send shivers down the spine anyway.

Note: Some of the links below may be Amazon affiliate links. I’m honestly never sure if it works.

The Shining by Stephen King

This was the first adult novel I read. I bought the paperback from the local Waldenbooks on my 13^th birthday in August 1990. Sitting in the summer heat and reading about the snow coming to the Overlook Hotel near Sidewinder, Colorado, helped lessen the heat. King’s classic showed me that writers could write in a way that sounds close to the way people talk and it gripped me from the first line. Reading The Shining at 13 was magical because I was too young to realize just how difficult it was to sound natural in writing. I felt like I could do it, too. So the next day I set up a Royal Quiet De Luxe manual typewriter on some milk crates and began writing. Snowstorms still make me think of being stuck in the hotel with the ghosts that are slowly eating away at the people within.

Snowblind by Christopher Golden

I read this novel several years ago now and loved it. A scary tale of the supernatural as a snowstorm descends on the people of a town. The chills come from the frights as much as from the weather. Golden’s work is some of my favorite and he’s written about snow and cold a few times, including on–

Road of Bones by Christopher Golden

This is a more recent novel that takes place in Russia in frigid temperatures. The characters face a supernatural threat and the story takes some brutal turns. There were a few scenes that made me quite tense and one night as I read while Pamela and G were asleep, a shirt that what hung to dry fell during a scene and I nearly jumped out of my skin. I can be jumpy but this was all Chris’s fault. 100%.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Did you really think that I wouldn’t mention this? I mean, you know me, right? The opening scenes in The Empire Strikes Back were brilliant because they took the space movie into the snow, during the day, and gave us a battle. But not only that! They gave us monsters, lightsabers, lizard horses, and ghosts, too! How often did I play in the snow with my Luke Skywalker (Hoth Gear) and Han Solo (Hoth Gear) when I was a kid? How often did I pretend that I was on Hoth from 1982 on? Hundreds of time? Thousands? Who knows? The thing it that because of the snow scenes in this movie, the characters felt a little more believable. Maybe if I was from a place with a desert, the first movie wouldn’t done that, too. I mean, I had sand from beaches, but there inhospitable cold and snow was something I could understand.

Stephen King’s Storm of the Century

This miniseries is one of the best Stephen King stories caught on film. It’s an original story King wrote specifically for a miniseries. The accompanying book is the script. It’s a brutal story that shows that horror could be done on prime time and hold no prisoners.

Pack Animals by Greg F. Gifune

I just finished reading this novel and enjoyed it. Greg has written novels, novellas, and stories that take place in the snow before. I think that if you’re from New England, snow will eventually make its way into your work. So will the heat of summer. In Pack Animals, Gifune takes on the werewolf in a story of survival during a terrible storm. It’s got some pretty tense scenes and the character interaction is gentle at times as the six friends who are the main characters of the novel deal with the unlikely horror they’re facing.

Because I’m using the highly unscientific method of using my memory to come up with titles and stories, I’ve hit my bottom. There are many, many stories that take place in the snow that are as good as or better than the ones I wrote about here, but these are stories I’ve enjoyed or have had an impact on me. You have your own, I’m sure. And I know that there are many that I’ve read or seen and that are currently blocked to me from my tired mind.

My forthcoming novel, The Monster in the Closet, takes place during February 2019 and features snow. There’s also my story “Snow Day” from my book Catalysts, a very short, chilling story, that acts as half of a prelude to my novel Echoes on the Pond. As I wrote about snow in these stories, some of the stories I mentioned had a role to play. The newest of them, Greg F. Gifune’s Pack Animals is here because I enjoyed it and just finished it a few days ago as I write this. My current first draft that I’ve been posting to Patreon, Four Moons, is a werewolf story that takes place in the winter and snow. A happy coincidence. Two very different books indeed.

Stay safe this weekend, whether from the snow or ICE or whatever is out there that poses a threat. Curl up with a good story and stay safe.

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That’s this week’s newsletter. Thank you so much for subscribing, reading, and for your support. Be safe out there, friends.

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