Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com

Hello, friends.

What a week! Two PD days getting ready for the 2026-2027 school year (the topic of this week’s essay) and an unplanned hourlong drive to a hospital satellite because G’s surgical incision became infected. She’s on antibiotics and such so I’m hoping it’ll clear up before she starts school this week.

More writing happened, too, which is always important and the point of this whole newsletter thing.

Welcome to the 188^th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and musings on the upcoming school year. If you’re a reader who subscribes via Substack, my website, or Patreon, your encouragement helps motivate me. 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, so be kind if you choose to read it. 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 continued editing Four Moons this week, though very little got done due to the PD days and other stuff. I still managed to get through some, though, and I think it’s improving the book.

I added around 4,600 words to Project: Memoir it this week, bringing the word count up to 42,500 words. This week’s sessions involved my starts with depression, starting junior high school, and playing with action figures and roleplaying. I also got up to the point where I was about to discover the books of Stephen King. Lots of emotions, positive and negative. I don’t know if the book is good but it’s working in some manner.

I made a short video tour of my desk for Patreon Patrons. I would like to do more videos. I enjoy them and hope my Patrons do, too.

***

***

Here I am days away from embarking on my 20^th year in education. I was hired as a teaching assistant in 2006 and became a teacher the following year, all at the same school, all within the same program. I’ve written thousands (tens of thousands?) of words about it; so much so that some of you are probably sick of hearing/reading about it. But if I’m to write about what’s on my mind on any given week, well, teaching and education in the 21^st century is going to come up. Maybe I should rephrase that. Teaching and education in the 21^st century from my perspective is going to come up. I mean, who else’s perspective could I use? For this coming year, I’m worried. But it feels different.

Last school year was only the most recent of really crappy years. I’ve spent every year since the 2019-2020 school year thinking that it can’t be worse than the prior year and every year I’m proven wrong. This year, I hold no thoughts about whether it’ll be better or worse or the same. It just is. When I got out in June, I spent the following few weeks having nightly stress dreams and nightmares about the Day Job. Most of which centered around conflict. It’s no surprise. There has been so much conflict at the Day Job that of course it would spill into my dreams. Thinking about school at all caused my heartrate to quicken and my anxiety tremors to rattle through my right arm.

I eventually stopped saying anything because I was told to “Get over it” at one point, and I knew that was correct. I also knew that would be damn near impossible. I’m just not built like that.

As the summer vacation progressed, I tried working on myself mentally. There was a lot going on this summer (and still is) with G having surgery on her ankle at the end of July. We’re still dealing with that now as the wound has become infected. Another way G is taking after me? I’m allergic to a certain kind of suture and typically have infections after surgery. We don’t know, but it certainly adds to the overall tension of the summer.

This past week we had our two professional development days. I know that PD days are supposed to help support teachers and staff, but having hours of these sessions and very little time to set up classrooms and such becomes quite the soul- and mind-suck. And now we’re at the weekend before the students come.

I hope that in 2026-2027, the students are better. We had some incredibly sweet students last year but not many of them were in slightest prepared for high school. The bar was already pretty low so that’s saying something. They got through and some of them may have even matured, but the amount of reminding students to keep their hands to themselves is mind-numbing. There’s always been a few to didn’t understand boundaries but last year there were so many.

I also hope that this year some of my colleagues will leave their egos at the door as they enter the building. I know it can be difficult. I’m writing this for a newsletter about me, there’s certainly a (un?)healthy ego at play here, but when I’m in the school, I’m Mr. Gauthier. I’m there for the students. Of course I have opinions, wants, needs, and personal goals, but it’s really about the students in front of and around me. Last year was filled with dealing with egos and issues that just didn’t need to be there. The job is difficult enough without that.

I’m hoping that the outside world doesn’t affect the school so much, though I know that’s a fool’s dream. Our students are coming in with so much happening in the outside world to them, from death of parents to fear of deportations and all the rest. How can a student pay attention or care about how to use Photoshop to make this or that when they’re worried about whether Mom or Dad or another family member will get picked up by ICE. Never mind the students whose parents are sick, dying, abusive, not present, working three or more jobs to provide the little that can, or any (or all) combination of the above.

As summer vacation neared its end, I decided I would do my best to try not to let this school year get to me. I plan on focusing on what I can do and that’s it. I want to attempt to not let things get my emotions higher than they need to be. I want to do my job well but not get into all the bullshit. I want to remember that my real vocation, my true calling, is this. Writing. Creating. Above all, that’s what I am.

The Day Job is serious and I will treat it so, but it’s a job meant to provide a life for me and my family. That life means being more present for the people I love and the things I love, and there are no people I love more than my family and there is no thing I love more than creating.

***

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!

I will also be joining a panel about monsters and cosmic horror at Once Upon A Bookstore in Fall River, Massachusetts, about a week later! More info as we get closer.

***

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!