Tom Gauthier Blog

Lots of New Stuff Going On

10/19/2024

My new Historical Novels have been well received by people who share similar ancestry. CHARLOTTE La Beaute et la Tragedie tells the life story of Charlotte Roussel from her fateful decision in Normandy to accept the invitation of King Louis XVI to make the perilous voyage to Quebec in 1668 - a "fil du Roi" - and finding her new husband Pierre Gautier dit Saguingoara, building a new life, a family - and a tragic ending recorded in French Canadian history. The book, written as historical fiction so that I could add words, conversations, emotions, and all the things that bring history to life, tells the story of Charlotte, Pierre, and the Iroquois people who impacted and were impacted by the French ... to shared tragic end.
Still in Canada - A WILL TO SURVIVE is the story of the family Bastarache dit le Basque from immigration from Bayonne, France to Acadian New France, from the late 1500s to the 1755 brutal attack of the British and the expulsion of an entire people from their homes. The heroism of Michel Bastarache dit le Basque and his family is brough to life on the pages and revealed for all its amazing elements of persistence, dedication to family, resistance and finally vindication - history brough to life.
These two books are a very special project for me as they are the lives of MY OWN ANCESTORS writ large for my descendants to read and know where they come from.
Currently I am writing the story of my Scottish ancestors in KINGS and A SAINT. Will be published in 2025.
I would love to hear your feelings and stories about historical "fiction" of real people - especially when they are YOUR people.

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A Stranger Who Became an Instant Friend.

11/17/2018

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In truth many people who I have met of late have become friends quickly. Funny how common interest and purpose can peel away any awkwardness of jumping into a new situation. Commonality is powerful.
But my comment “a stranger who became a friend” goes much deeper.
My first venture out to Reno/Stead Airport after joining the CAF and the High Sierra Squadron was an invitation to join a small group of Colonels for breakfast before going to the hangar for a morning of work. The Hometown Café is archetypal country with the waitress tossing barbs through a wide smile and the cook tossing fresh delicious potatoes and eggs and the coffee pouring freely. Here I was introduced to Mr. C. who offered his hand and his iconic smile in greeting and welcome. Breakfast conversation varied as expected between squadron business and banter about experiences and backgrounds. Mr. C., always low key, always on point, was easy to talk with. Like an old and trusted friend. I figured him for a few years older than me, with both of us senior to the rest of the group.
Let me interject here that I’m using “Mr. C.” and leaving out much of his involvement in the Squadron on purpose. All that is not the point. The point is the man’s impact on me that’s driven a real change in my attack on the last chapters of life. A rare impact indeed.
Over the next few months and sessions in the hanger for work and social events at out Commander’s home, my conversations with Mr. C. grew more detailed. But his stories were always about the work we do with the Scouts and other kids. And about those who have gone on to be great adults. One who is now an Air Force pilot, another a US Navy jet engine mechanic, both mentored by him as young boys. Mr. C. moved a little slowly but was always at events from hanger cleanups to the glider training given the youngsters, encouraging, teaching, sharing. He did the same for me as the newbie Colonel.
I gave a lot of thought about his immediate impact on me. Also had conversations with our leader, and friend, Rick, about him. Discovered early that what I saw was Mr. C.
My career was built on understanding Cognitive Behavior, teaching and counseling on same. Our Mr. C. was a package of trust, genuine openness, integrity, generosity, and calmness that enveloped anyone in reach. Me included. I began to understand his focus and personal mission of spreading the good works done by the Commemorative Air Force and our small extension, the High Sierra Squadron. The “gospel” of honoring the service of Military Aviation and aviators, of teaching the history of same to the younger generations, of instilling in them the sense of service, honor, dedication and self-reliance that was ever present with them. Our WWII aircraft were the textbooks and classrooms for this mission. The youngsters were never told “don’t touch”, but rather encouraged to jump into that historic seat and listen to the story about who sat there before you and what they did for the cause of freedom.
Watching and listening to Mr. C., and the others of our group, and I caught the fever. Then I found out the Mr. C. was ill, fighting a long-time lung ailment. The others had watched over time. One day the Squadron was scheduled to bring an aircraft to the Susanville, CA Airport Days. As usual with military-type operations it takes a line of logistics to make it happen. The Commander’s wife drove the pickup load of signage, tents, and miscellaneous equipment. The check pilot and Commander flew up in the U.S. Marine Corps L-19 “Bird Dog”. Mr. C. and I flew up in his Cessna 206 with a few items. This was my first “roadshow” and it lived up to the promise of sharing our world – and words – with lots of eager folks. Also special for me because of my long history with that airport and a steady stream of old friends to greet. Then toward the end of the day, Mr. C. asked if I was ready for the return flight home. As he pre-flighted the 206 I noted that a couple of our folks asked him if he was okay. Of course, they got that smile and quiet reassurance. Then I was quietly asked to keep an eye out and help where needed. No need to answer that—that’s what a co-pilot does!
We took off into haze of the California fire’s smoke and headed south down the Honey Lake valley. Having lived there for twenty years the terrain was familiar—even the mountains on both sides concealed in heavy smoke. As we reached altitude and began to set headings, I noted that Mr. C. was concentrating on flying and making small but critical errors in navigation. Errors he quickly corrected as I asked small questions designed to give him that awareness. No way was I going to “correct” this man, master pilot and friend. Just play the role of copilot. Well aware of his growing hypoxia—not to a critical state—we worked through two more errors and greased a beautiful landing at home base Reno/Stead. Climbing out of the airplane, Mr. C went directly to a seat in the hanger and sat down, working his way back to higher o2 levels. He was familiar with the routine and I knew now how ill he was. I moved the airplane into the hanger and secured her.
A couple of weeks later we said goodbye to our friend, mentor and benefactor as he succumbed to the illness. A giant hole in the hearts of many, many folks. Mine included.
Only later at a memorial we held for Mr. C. did I learn of his many life accomplishments around the world. This unassuming man who only was concerned about others could have chosen any life style he wished for … the mansion on the hill if desired. He chose what we saw, and we were blessed. Can’t add to that.
Godspeed, Mr. C. I’ll treasure my role as your second-to-last copilot. Happy to give up my seat to God, who greased your final landing as you rested a well-deserved rest.

Footnote: Mr. C was ten years younger that I am. I’ve traveled to the Dallas TX headquarters of the CAF and found that Mr. C’s influence extended all across the country. That day he received a unique Award of Excellence from the CAF, not originally intended to be posthumously. It was accepted by our Squadron Commander and his extended family.
During my stay the candle that Mr. C. lit in my soul became a blowtorch of dedication to the mission he held, and I now humbly hold as a gift from a stranger, now a missed friend.

Future blogs and musings will expand on the CAF and the historic home of the High Sierra Squadron, and much more.

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Launching My Remaining Years with Passion

11/9/2018

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My life is changing.
Belay that!
I’m changing my life.

At a time in life when the end is clearly evident on the distant horizon and the beginnings are in the mist of a distant past, it is rare to be able to find a focus for life force so satisfying and exciting that one is moved to commit, to enlist, to engage with all the vigor left in the old legs.
Eureka! I have found it.

It began with a question … What things in my life have I loved and reveled in at every opportunity? Maybe even developed some skill and expertise in them? There are a few and I list them in no particular order: Teaching, Counseling, Writing. History, Research, Travel. Problem Solving, Sharing, Serving, Learning … and Flying.
The Mission I’ve enlisted for has produced all these things in one exciting basket of heart-warming opportunity and climb-a-high-mountain, swim-a-wide-river challenge.

Two people opened this door for me. My precious wife and a stranger who became a friend. My wife recognized symptoms of staleness creeping into my life as we entered our “second retirement.” The first one of eighteen years was filled with whirlwinds of committees, chairmanships, boards, wine-clubs and many, many friends. Then illness/age leaped into the path and crushed forward progress. I’d begun to write my novels abut the time the illness forced retreat and continue to write today. But somehow, even though folks like the stories, I began to find it more work than creative pleasure. Eagerly writing two or three thousand words at a setting before morphed into writing in my head and finding excuses not to drive the keyboard. I felt it, but truly didn’t see it. She did. And acted.
Eschewing all the details, our dissolving of the dream life we’d created in retirement 1.0 and moving to Reno, Nevada, to create retirement 2.0 introduced us to some new friends. Friends with unique commonalities. My wife saw the opportunity and told new friend, “Get him involved … ”
And God said, “Let there be involvement.” And it was good.
Today I am a Colonel in the Commemorative Air Force, active in the preservation of historic warbirds and passionate about the Mission of inspiring youth, educating them on our American heritage and honoring the heroes who flew the birds in the fight for freedom. The planes are our textbooks and classrooms. But this is just a teaser.
In future blogs I will fill in the fascinating details.
And will tell you all about the “stranger cum friend” that set me on a new path for life.

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New Novel in Amos Mead Adventure Series Available on Amazon & Kindle

4/5/2018

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April 2018 Amos and Brigit Mead take on the bad guys in a new novel in the series.

BLIND To EVIL
Amos Mead is on special assignment for the CIA in Columbia, South America.
He is accompanied by his wife, Doctor Brigit Mead,
on a simple mission to establish if Arabs are being smuggled into the Americas by drug cartels.
They discover that unseen forces are at work.
Good forces or evil forces?
Suspicions, hunches, feelings?
Need to know and soon.
The President of the United States is under the influence of people who flatter him and color his thinking to their world view.
He is enamored with the idea of befriending bad actors in the world to influence them to be good citizens. The terror group PLO is in his favor.
But another group lurks with even more evil aims. He is so naïve that he is blind to them—until they strike.
People die. Americans. A battle is fought.
The government is frozen in its beliefs.
Someone must step up and face reality.
To defend the country. Someone does.

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Two Novels in the Pipeline

2/8/2018

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Finally, progress on getting the Amos Mead Adventures up to date.
DIE LISTE: Revenge on the Black Sun is in its second edition, now published by ToMar Associates, Publishing, Reno, NV. It is in proof and will be out on Amazon and Kindle by the end of the month.

And the new title--Number 5 in the list of Amos Mead Adventure Novels--will be out by end of month also. Blind to Evil will see the Mead team, plus a few new members, entering into a new level of global war on the bad guys. A new organization, The Victrix Forum, will launch Amos and Brigit into dangerous assignments facing off with the worlds worst villains. Can promise you a fun ride ... because that's what the characters have told me. So I listen, keystroke it on the page, and marvel at how creative they can be. Stay with us!

The two novels are over 330 pages and should retail for $12.95 on Amazon.

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AWOL: Absent Without Leave

1/15/2018

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It has been over a year since I "blogged" on my website. There have been relocations, major illness, blessed recovery, and a new life (second retirement) in Reno, Nevada. We are travelling extensively, established o publishing operation to handle new books, and returned to active writing again. Whew! At my age just trying to stay alive is a challenge--much less restarting a life. But, that's the plan.
Instead of droning on about me I want to share a chapter of the book I'm just completing now, 2018. It's the fifth novel in the series of Amos Mead Adventures which began with Code Name: ORION'S EYE, then MEAD'S TREK, Die Liste (Revenge on the Black Sun), and FORCE THREE RISING. In between we published a history of the US Army Air Corps unit featured in the first book: The Saga of the 1st Fighter Control Squadron.

Each story has moved Amos Mead and his team up in time and history. The new novel, BLIND TO EVIL brings us, not surprisingly, into the beginnings of the war on terror.

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Craziness IS my world today …

6/17/2015

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Mea Culpa for the long silence on this blog. May I explain?

We finally decided to turn the page of life so we can maybe read a few more chapters in comfort—and even find out how it ends. So … we have our home on the market and are “moving to town”—to Reno, NV—to be closer to the things dictated by advancing age and infirmaries.

We dreamed, designed, and planned our log home for ten years before retiring in 2000—and then actually built it on 16 acres of beautiful High Sierra forest in Lassen County, California. The past 15 years have met all expectations for what we wanted to accomplish. Now it’s time to pass it on to a younger dreamer who can nurture it for another couple of decades. If you ever dreamed of mountains, log homes and peace--the place is for sale: Here's a tour (you may have to paste it to your search site)
http://tours.focustahoe.com/341088

Packing, garage sales, piles of donations to good-will, distribution of treasures to family and friends, all provide a wild ride of transitions … our crazy world!

My novel writing, audio book production, and our new publishing venture will continue when we finally settle into a “permanent” existence again. There will be a time of “limbo” for some months before one end closes and the other opens. But we spent our life together as “corporate nomads” so move, changes, new friends, keeping old friends close, are very familiar endeavors.

The beauty of the internet (among all its warts) is this ability to maintain one’s identity and close contacts wherever the physical world may be. So keep in touch—we’re “here” until the last chapter goes to press.

http://tours.focustahoe.com/341088

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WE’VE BEEN AWAY -------

4/10/2015

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But we’re back and working hard on new ventures.

The “away” was a trip to San Diego to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.

We basked in the company of fifty—count ‘em—fifty siblings, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and assorted spouses! Youngest son, Tom, and his beautiful and creative bride, Becky, hosted one fantastic weekend. We met for the first time five of the great-grandchildren—and learned of the imminent addition of two more, for a total of seventeen. WOW!

New ventures? We’ve established a new publishing company to augment the work of my regular publisher, Patriot Media, Inc., Florida.
Marlene and I founded the ToMar Associates in 2002 as a consulting, counseling and teaching activity. Now the ToMar Associates, Publishing is a natural outgrowth—and we have three projects working already. In addition we have established an Audio Book Recording Studio and are working on the second production (the first, MEAD’S TREK, is out on Audible, Amazon.com and iTunes).

The first publication projects are quite a variety of works: FORCE THREE RISES is the fourth book in the Amos Mead Adventure Series. It is being rolled out Saturday, April 11, locally at a signing event at Margie’s Book Nook, the premier book source in Susanville, CA. We did the morning show with Chris Montgomery on KSUE/KJDX this morning, and Susanville Stuff.com has a featured article today. We can’t thank our local supporters enough for helping us to roll out our new offerings.

There’s more coming: We have worked with David Teeter at Margie’s Book Nook to publish a children’s book of short stories and verse for the holidays. Titled Pumpkins to Holly, it features stories by Tom Gauthier, children’s author Connie Faust, and poet Cora May Preble, plus a lot of that guy “anonymous,” gleaned from old English folk tales.

Do you know where the name “Jack O’Lantern” originated? The kids will when they read this book.

The third project is close to my heart. If you read the first story in the Amos Mead Adventure Series, Code Name: ORION’S EYE, you’ll remember the WWII US Army Air Corps unit, the 1st Fighter Control Squadron. Real soldiers were woven into the fictional story based on historic events.

Now we have written a book to honor these departed heroes in a history/memoir to tell their story from inception in 1942, through the harrowing experiences of a sinking at sea, and on to their island beachhead landings in New Guinea and the Philippines. As we get closer to publication we’ll share the sources of the personal memories of these men, obtained through the generous cooperation of their families. It is scheduled to be published in May.

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MUSINGS FROM AN AGING BRAIN

3/15/2015

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This week has been very productive in the writing department. Trying to test the hypothesis that an active brain is a healthy brain—for really old folks—my week had me burning up the keyboard on three, count ‘em, three, projects. And to make it interesting, the three writing projects are as different as global warming and the New England spring.

My fifth novel of the Amos Mead Adventures, working title: The President’s Deadly Friend, is charging headlong toward an exciting conclusion (And as soon as I find out what it is I’ll tell you—or not).

For my diehard fans, remember the very first story--Code Name: ORION’S EYE? And the dramatic sinking of the troopship SS Cape San Juan with over a thousand souls aboard? Well, I’ve chosen to pluck out one of the Army Air Corps units that experienced the Japanese torpedo induced sinking and gather what can be found of their history, war-time exploits, and personal memories, and put them into one book for posterity. The “official” history of the concept and formation of the secret mission of the 1st Fighter Control Squadron rests in six thousand fathoms of Pacific Ocean off Fiji. But with the help of the tenacious work of one veteran, Chester Driest, in the 1990’s to seek out the people he served with that day, 11 November 1943, and gather them and their memories in one tattered box—and now the help of his daughter, Edie Driest, the son of the units commanding officer, Dr. Michael Dake, the family of the leader of the Pacific landings after the sinking, Captain Edward Bonfoey, and the most dedicated historian I know, Eric Stone, who has filled in the blanks on the ship and the event, I have what I need to honor and remember their deeds.

(Do you believe the length of that sentence?)

So there is an action/adventure novel, and a unit history/memoir in play. The third project? A children’s book of stories and verse focused on Halloween and Christmas.

My challenge then is to be sure that you, my fine and valued readers, from reading about Amos Mead storming a New Guinea beach in 1944 humming Christmas carols while yelling, Trick or Treat!

The exercise will strengthen my ¾ century old brain—or dive me to drink. Hmmm.

Okay, one reminder: The fourth story in the Amos Mead Adventure Series is out on Amazon and points north, south, east and west! FORCE THREE RISES is 230 pages of action! Listed at $12.95 it’s your entertainment deal of the week. The Kindle version is $3.99—and free if you get it with a hard copy. And please write a review after you’ve perused the “inside the book” reading feature.

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PREVIEW on AMAZON of my new AMOS MEAD ADVENTURE: FORCE THREE RISES

3/9/2015

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https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1166088

Follow the link to Createspace on Amazon and leave your comments. This is the fourth book in the Amos Mead Adventures--and we're told they're only getting better. But we want to hear what you think.

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Author

Retired Business Exec who made a career in organizational development and personal improvement counseling and teaching around the world. Now, for the past ten years, I write novels. I've had great teachers and role models and I want to share what I've learned with you.

Lots of New Stuff Going On

A Stranger Who Became an Instant Friend.

Launching My Remaining Years with Passion

New Novel in Amos Mead Adventure Series Available on Amazon & Kindle

Two Novels in the Pipeline

AWOL: Absent Without Leave

Craziness IS my world today …

WE’VE BEEN AWAY -------

MUSINGS FROM AN AGING BRAIN

PREVIEW on AMAZON of my new AMOS MEAD ADVENTURE: FORCE THREE RISES

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