Hello, friends.
I was really, really sad about the end of the mid-winter/February vacation last week. And then the Blizzard of ’26 came. It shut down things for another week. Two weeks off to work on writing and all the rest.
It. Was. Glorious.
I know when I go back on Monday, I’ll be asked how my “extra-long vacation” was and my instinct will be to answer, “Too short,” because it’s the go-to answer. It’s also a completely honest answer.
If you got stuck in the blizzard, I hope you fared well. We were very fortunate in that we didn’t lose power for more and a few moments overnight during the height of the storm.
Welcome to the 162nd installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and unfriendliness in the area I live. 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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The big news this week was the release of The Monster in the Closet! Author Mason James Cole posted about it:
Several friends began showing me photos of the book arriving at their place. I still don’t have my copies yet but am looking forward to holding my baby for the first time.
Now that the book is out, I’ll begin to really try to get some events lined up at bookstores and such in the hopes of getting into as many hands as possible.
I went through over 100 pages of Project: Amusement Park this week, cutting nearly 300 words, tightening things, adding clarification. I have about 40 pages left to revise/edit for the third draft and then I’ll start putting together the submissions package for agents, etc. I may have another few people read the third draft, too, but the next big thing for the book is to try to find an agent and a home for it.
Then I’ll have to start the revisions of Four Moons. But that’s in the future still.
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“[…] I was at the store today and walking down an aisle. A woman and I made eye contact and I smiled and nodded, a simple gesture. She sneered at me and gave me a look like I’d just wiggled my tongue at her and made a lewd statement.”
Amy was taking a sip of water when he said that and spit it back into the glass, laughing.
“I realized that this sort of thing happened all the time around here,” Richie said. “I’ll say hi to a stranger and they’ll ignore me or act like friendliness is an imposition. There’s a weird vibe here. Lily noticed it right away. I didn’t quite, probably because I’m from around here, but I’ve started noticing it.”
“Could be that old New England way of being,” Amy said. “Take care of our own and all that.”
“Maybe….”
The above is an excerpt from my current work in progress, the novel I’ve been calling Project: Amusement Park in these newsletters for the last few years. I’ve spent a lot of time in this world with the multitude of characters that are part of the story but this excerpt right here happens on page 510 of the third draft manuscript. I read it as I worked on revisions last week and it hit home particularly hard because it was a conversation my wife and I have had a lot lately. It’s also one of the most autobiographical things in the whole 650-ish-page novel. The area I live in can be very, very unfriendly.
Now I know that things have gotten progressively nastier since 2016 when T—p first stole the presidency and even more so since 2024 since he stole his second one but that’s not only what I’m talking about. For some reason, the area I come from in Massachusetts seems relatively unfriendly. I’d never noticed it until around 2008 or 2009, when I was in my early-30s.
I moved to Boston in October 2007, the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain. I’d been dating Pamela for 10 months at that point and already knew I’d be asking her to marry me (and was pretty sure she’d say yes, silly lady she is). One of the strangest parts about moving into a major city from a small city was just how much I felt at home there. I felt more at home in Boston than I did in the Greater New Bedford area from which I came. It’s taken me a long time to realize that’s because many of the people down here are just not friendly.
Before I go any further, I need to address the Not Everyones, because we know they exist. I’m assuming that if you’re reading this that you are an erudite person who does not need me to explain that I do not mean around 150,000 people who live in New Bedford, Fairhaven, and Dartmouth are all unfriendly. There are, of course, some extremely friendly, caring, and Good people who reside here. I know many of them personally. One could argue I may even be one of them (it would be an utter lie). However, there’s an ugliness that seems to permeate the area.
My wife noticed it almost immediately. She’s originally from Western Massachusetts and then lived for almost 20 years in Boston. Moving down here was a result of the 2009 recession and neither of us really wanted to come, but my job was down here, as was my family, and the rents were better. Almost immediately, though, she’d notice that if she gave a friendly smile to someone in a grocery story, let’s say, they’d sneer at her or ignore her, seemingly unable or unwilling to return the gesture. I began to really take note of it, too.
It really began to be noticeable when G was born and started school. Her daycare/preschool situation was great but elementary school got weird. For every friendly person we met during parent pickup, there were many, many more who were rude. In the town we live in, it seems there’s a uniform for the moms. Gray, white, or black hoodie sweatshirt, black down vest, black leggings, and Ugg boots or sandal slipper things. Usually socks coming up over the leggings. Little-to-no makeup and hair straight down or back in a ponytail, usually held there by a clip or a scrunchy.
My wife doesn’t dress like that. Her relaxed clothes are jeans, a sweater or shirt, hair down and curled (or down and under a funky cap we got at a hat shop in Jamaica Plain called Salmagundi), and makeup. She’s put together. In winter, she wears a nice wool blend coat that goes well with my peacoat. Pamela never wears sneakers unless she’s working out. She hates sneakers and also has never worn a baseball cap despite how cute she looks in them (I have photographic proof but cannot show you as I’d prefer to stay married to this angel of mine).
She has volunteered for school-related functions to be largely ignored by the other parents. Yes, she’s been friendly with a few (see that paragraph that not everyone here are unfriendly people) but she has left feeling like an outsider. It’s frustrating.
I’m naturally a person who likes their alone time so it doesn’t bother me as much but I’ve noted it, too. It reminds me of an observation that the characters of Stephen King’s It makes about Derry, and which my characters are discussing about the fictional city of Harden and its surrounding towns, Fairview and Clifford. A friend of mine from junior high school lives in Florida and when we got together last year, we talked about it. Both of us coming from here didn’t realize it until we left.
In the case of Derry, Maine, in It and Harden/Clifford/Fairview in Project: Amusement Park (and also Echoes on the Pond and The Monster in the Closet as well as some stories and novellas and Four Moons), the attitude seems to come from a supernatural reason. I don’t believe that’s the case for my real world situation, but it is frustrating.
In a time when friendliness is the cheapest commodity, and possibly the most needed, why is it so hard to come by?
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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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Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
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