Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com

Hello, friends.

The humidity of summer in New England has returned this week. Blech. Give me autumn for a prolonged time and I’ll be happier. This week was a strange one because our sleep schedules were somewhat off due to G’s post-surgery recovery. She’s doing very well, though, and sleep is getting back on schedule. Mostly. For G and Pamela.

My sleep schedule is all fucked up. I’m naturally the kind of person who would rather sleep in short spurts over the course of the day then have a full-night’s sleep. I like to go to bed late, wake up early, and sleep midday. Until I can achieve this in my life, I’ll be stuck with being a square peg in a round hole. Such is my life as a man and as a creative.

Welcome to the 185^th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and musings on a creative revolution. 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.

Supporting creators is so important right now. As such, I would love if you became a paid-Patron on my Patreon.

Support the arts and this writing journey…

Paid-Patrons get exclusive daily check-ins about works-in-progress including the actual names of my works-in-progress and not just codenames. I also show art that I do.

You can also buy me a coffee through Ko-Fi. 

The Monster in the Closet is out now! Order it here!

You can also grab my novel Echoes on the Pond, my collection Catalysts, or my novellas Alice on the Shelf and Shadowed if you haven’t already. And if you’ve read them, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads, and wherever else books are sold and reviewed.

You could also read the first draft of Four Moons on Patreon. It’s a werewolf story and I think it’s fun. It is a first draft, though. 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 don’t have to be a long-term Patron for that second option.

***

I didn’t edit Four Moons for about a week because of G’s surgery but leapt back into it halfway through this week. Some important scenes were worked on. One really important scene will be the next thing I edit. I may make a video of it for Patreon like I did with the start of editing.

Project: Memoir saw the addition of around another 5,000 words and bringing the total to 29,100 words. Childhood insomnia, late-night pay TV viewing, toys that got away, and A Nightmare on Elm Street were all part of it this week. I’ll be working on the Nightmare on Elm Street part for at least a few days more.

I feel like there are several things brewing in my head. I’m not sure what it means but I feel like I’ll find out as time passes.

***

***

We’ve arrived at my least favorite part of the summer, the knowledge that the break will end and I’ll be returning to the Day Job of teaching soon enough. If you’ve followed along for any length of time, you know that I have greatly fallen out of love with teaching but am stuck without any true alternatives. The only real job that I want, that would make me feel as though I’m truly utilizing my skills, would be creating. Writing, drawing, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, many people don’t see this as work and the machine of society likes it that way. This needs to end. There has to be a creativity revolution.

The first step, I think, would be to convince others that the creative fields are admirable vocations. I teach in a vocational technical program that is creative (despite some of my uncreative colleagues [yeah, that was needlessly snarky but I’m feeling snarky today]), where art, imagination, and communication all combine. We often get good students but potentially great students haven’t chosen us because parents were worried. They thought the art and creativity we did weren’t serious enough, weren’t “real” jobs.

This makes me laugh considering you literally can’t look anywhere without seeing designs by creative people. These parents (and their kids) spend money on movies, TV shows, video games, and the like that creative people make. The two biggest movies this summer, The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, both come from pre-existing source material that have inspired countless adaptations over time. They are now making people very rich. But these people still believe that what we do with creativity and art is not “real work.”

We know that people don’t see the value in art by how pissed off they always are to have to pay for it. They’d rather steal books, movies, music, and art than have to pay for it. And when they do pay for it, they bitch about the cost. Paying for the art and media you’re consuming allows more of it to be made. Unfortunately, living in a capitalist society that is growing evermore rigged against the common person, makes “nonessentials” difficult to allow. Why buy the latest book, album, or movie ticket when there’s just so much money to go around and the essentials are going up astronomically in price?

It’s difficult to make people understand that media and art are every bit as essential as food, clothing, and shelter. Being able to feel, to imagine, to think is as important as the physical needs one must have. It’s never been terribly easy to get people to feel that the arts are important but it seems much less so now even though so many people partake in so much of it.

A lot of this is because the Powers That Be want you to believe these things are nonessential. Art and media forces people to think and to learn. Even in entertainment, a good story will allow a person to relate to those who are not like them. The fact that so many people seem antagonistic to characters who care about others shows the importance of this kind of emotional learning. But it won’t get better anytime soon. There are people in power who can only stay in power by having a stupid populace who will allow them to remain in power. If the arts point out these kinds of inequities, people may actually change and demand better.

Social media has helped the decay of art possibly more than anything else. By allowing anyone to share their thoughts in any way possible, it makes creation look easy. Why study filmmaking when you can just use your phone to capture anything you want? Why study writing when the only things you read or write are short bursts of conversation or “ideas” that you can shortcut with little smiley faces and images? 🤷🏻‍♂️

And now, of course, there’s generative AI—genAI—that can do it for you. Why learn to write/draw/paint/make music/make movies when you can put in a misspelled prompt and the computer can “make” it for you? The big move from tech companies is to get corporations and education in on genAI because “it can make things easier.” Since when did the people who run things want what’s easier for the masses? Not only is it making the act of creation seem easy, it’s making it almost seem elitist. And if creativity is a little elitist, what of it? Not everyone can—or should—create art any more than not everyone should have the skill or ability to do pretty much anything. Specialists exist for a reason. Harlan Ellison used to say, “When my toilet is backed up, I don’t want Dostoyevsky to arrive to fix it.”

Once people accept creative work as a vocation, once we get them to understand its importance, then the next shift will have to be the overall way the capitalist world works. A world in which trillion- and billionaires exist is not a world where creativity can thrive as a vocation. Those few who have achieved those statuses do not seem ready, willing, or able to level the playing field. It’s up to the people to do that.

And the thing that will likely move people will be creative. It’ll be the stories and ideas that come from a Creative to inspire others.

I’ve spent 900 words pontificating on this and I’m not sure any of it is good or worthwhile. I’m alright with that. I feel something brewing in my mind, in my heart, in my soul and I think these kinds of essays are the way that something is trying to get out. I’m there for it. Let’s see where it goes. One cannot take part in a societal revolution until one undergoes a personal revolution. Of that, I’ve become convinced.

***

I’ve been invited to take part in the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival on October 17^th, 2026, at the Lawrence Public Library in Lawrence, Massachusetts. I’m excited because so many authors, editors, and people I admire will be there, as well as a few friends. Find out more here!

***

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

If you’d like to be a part of making my dream of creating full-time a reality, become a Patron on my Patreon, which has a lot more information about my works-in-progress and the books I’ll be querying, including titles and some simple, non-spoiler details.

Don’t forget to share this newsletter with others and consider a paid subscription.

You can also tip/donate on Ko-Fi.

Get my novels The Monster in the Closet and Echoes on the Pond, my collection Catalysts, and my novellas Alice on the Shelf and Shadowed!

If you haven’t left a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or anyplace else for the books, particularly The Monster in the Closet and Echoes on the Pond, please consider doing so. This greatly helps.

Thank you for subscribing!