Hello, friends.
My parents would’ve celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary this past week. It’s crazy to me that Mom’s been gone for seven years now. Dad is still recuperating from having a pacemaker installed. He’s been at a rehab place and I’m guessing will be released soon. He was full of piss and vinegar yesterday, which made me smile. Aside from that, we’re just truckin’ along.
How are you?
Welcome to the 176th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and random musings. 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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I have been so tired lately from the Day Job. Almost every day has had me coming home and crashing, and there’s been tears a few times, once this week after a particularly heavy day dealing with asshole adults (if your response to a mother working three jobs and missing an email from the school is to go, “Waaah!” in a mocking way, then not only are you a sucky teacher but you’re a shit human being).
Anyway, as I talked about last week, I’m still feeling that slide into new stories. I can feel the stories percolating and growing in my mind, in the subconscious. It’s fuckin’ rad. I know when I can finally get myself to work, the stories will be there.
There’s other work to do, too. Revisions, submissions, I would like to do another chapbook for Patreon. So there’s plenty of work to do.
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Writing an essay every week is hard. Not like digging ditches or picking fruit under a hot sun for thankless, faceless corporations that prefer exploiting you than paying you hard but hard. I’ve hit a spot where I’m afraid I’m beginning to repeat myself because I don’t remember whether I’ve written about a specific topic. As such, I do enjoy doing “essays” that are basically a mishmash of musings that strike me at any given time. I began thinking about maybe doing one of these kinds of essays a month—possibly less if inspiration strikes particularly hard some months—because I have fun with them. I hope you have fun reading them, too.
I’m somewhat excited about Masters of the Universe in movie theaters now. I watched He-Man and the Masters of the Universe after school every day when I was around seven years old. I had the toys and have believed that the world has been a nearly-untapped source of possibility for a while. Various comic book companies have played with it and Netflix most recently did, too. And now, the live action movie that seven-year-old Billy would’ve loved. It looks mindless and maybe even a little stupid but fun, which is something 48-year-old Bill needs right now. I hope to get to see it soon.
The family did go to see Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu during its opening weekend. We enjoyed the hell out of it. G loved it, but I knew she would. Between Grogu and the Anzellan aliens, she was delighted. I didn’t love the movie as much as I’d hoped but I was solidly entertained and forgot about the 2026 world for a little while as I visited a universe from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
Pamela and I are watching The Boroughs on Netflix. I think we just started the fifth episode. Really good. But it seems every knows that according to my social media feeds. As a family we just finished Ted Lasso and began The Good Place. G loved Ted Lasso as much as me and Pamela did. We’re very much excited for the fourth season. As far as The Good Place, I’d heard a lot of good about it and am impressed by how bugfuck the show gets in season 2.
I’ve been reading Monsters in the Archive: My Year of Fear with Stephen King by Caroline Bicks and have been loving it as much as other writers of dark fiction seem to love it. If I have anyone complaint about the book is that I want more. Fingers crossed for a sequel? Either way, I’m on the last chapter, which is about King’s first novel, Carrie. The book is a look at King’s writing looking at the stories behind the stories and the differences between drafts. Bicks talks about King’s word choices and asks the man himself about how he approached certain elements of the books and stories. It’s a fascinating look at the craftsperson that King is and has been. While he definitely talks about his craftsmanship in On Writing (as well as the little-known Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing, which was a Book-of-the-Month Club exclusive that came out when On Writing did), Bicks’s book somehow gets into it even deeper, showing the changes between drafts and highlighting word choices, character changes, and the thought process of the writer.
My life hasn’t only been about consuming media. I’m thinking a lot about these things because I feel like everything else is just too much these days. The Day Job has been particularly hard this year and I fear will be getting worse. Ethics don’t always seem to be a thing anymore and even though I’m always hearing about doing what’s right by kids, I don’t see it. Or at least for only certain kids. I don’t like having my abilities or integrity tested, and I feel like there’s too much of that. There’ve been subtle changes in behaviors that I’ve noted and I’m uneasy. Uneasier.
I finished listening to Frank Muller’s reading of The Talisman and am now listening to Black House, both novels by Stephen King and Peter Straub. As is often the case with audiobooks, I’m rereading the books this way. After spending all last year rereading The Dark Tower, I guess Mid-World, aka the Territories, still beckons. Is that surprising? I’m very much enjoying the book. I remember really loving Black House when it came out and I’m digging it again. The Talisman ha moments of genius in it but is a little too episodic. Honestly, I think audio served it better than print.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band featuring Tom Morello finished their short Land of Hopes and Dreams North American Tour a few weeks back. This is one of the first time that Springsteen kept a near-identical setlist for every stop with no call-outs. It was a tour that was put together to inspire hope, call to arms, and allow everyone frightened by what’s going on in the United States to see they are not alone. The setlist was tight and weighed in at just under 3 hours at every stop. I wish I could’ve gone. As it is, I may subscribe to Nugs.net in order to listen to some of the shows and past concerts. Springsteen stepped up in a big way and I’m proud to be a fan.
We’re in the time of year when everything outside is coated with Kraft Macaroni and Cheese powder and it’s no fun. I want to go out on the patio to read but that would entail going out there and cleaning the patio furniture first, just to have the blasted mac ‘n cheese powder all over it again in a few hours time. Stupid pollen. Stupid summer.
All right, I’ve spewed about 1,000 words of nonsense. I hope it was at least a little entertaining. See you next week when I write about something Bigger and More Important. Or maybe not. I won’t know until I sit at the keyboard and begin tippity-tapping. I’m gonna peace out!
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Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
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