Tom Gauthier, Novelist

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WE GROW THROUGH EXPERIENCE

1/25/2015

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Who among us has had a growth opportunity thrust upon us through no fault or choice of our own? I can safely say—all of us.

A threat of getting fired? Given a task we don’t know how to do? Given a deadline we don’t see as possible? Getting the rejection slip from the publisher? You may add your own here.

The question is, how did you handle it? Did you CHOOSE to GROW?

You quit the job, faced an uncertain future, and began to assess possibilities you never thought of before. You heard the task, took a deep breath and began to break it down into bites you could figure out. You even asked some questions and elicited other’s opinions, then dug in and accomplished it. You looked at the deadline, then looked for the best sequence to follow to move the task toward it. You read the comments of the publisher, pulled out the positive elements and shrugged at the rejection—then sat down and started writing again, being more critical of yourself at every step than that @%&!! publisher could ever hope to be. The point is, you chose to rise to the experience and chose to learn from it and grow a bit more.

Growth can come to us, or we can come to it. But however we get to that point, what do we feel? It’s important to understand what we feel because feelings drive our life. Not facts. But how we feel about the facts is the magic. So this growth opportunity jumps up in front of us. Do we feel exhilaration? Fear? Anticipation? Joy? Uptight? Discomfort? The answer (you tell me) is yes to all of the above—at any given time, in any given shape.

The common denominator to experiences of growth is discomfort—aka Growing Pains. So now I’ve given you two growth themes--Choice and Discomfort. If we can get a handle on those two, we can rescue the idea of growth from the clutches of generalization and make it into something we can understand and use.

When you looked at my first question about your first reaction to an unwelcome growth choice how did you feel. The all-too-common initial reaction to a growth opportunity is the urge to say, “No.” Even, “Hell No!” And to run away to a place more comfortable and recognizable. But whenever we give in to our urges, we tend to deny our ability to choose. It’s as if we had no ability to choose. Self-imposed helplessness.

Okay, school is in. Here is your assignment: Sit down in front of a mirror, hands in your lap. Control your giggling. Now recite to yourself, out loud, a list of things you know you can’t do. Keep at it for about thirty seconds or more:

“I can’t get up early in the morning …”  “I can’t spell …”  “I can’t cook …”  “I can’t lose weight …”  “I can’t quit smoking …”  “I can’t save money …”  “I can’t—you fill it in …”

You may take a breath here. Long list? My question for you is, while you were doing this, was there a realization nagging at you with every? A realization that what I should be saying is not, “I can’t …” but rather, “I choose not to …”

“I choose not to get up early in the morning …”  “I choose not to learn to spell …”  “I choose not to learn to cook …”  “I choose not to lose weight …”  “I choose not to quit smoking …”  “I choose not to save money …”  “I choose not to —you fill it in …”

Obviously there is a lot more to learn about turning our experiences into growth. But for now, keep exploring how you feel each time you say “I can’t”—usually feeling the victim. And how you feel if you say, “I choose to”—usually feeling empowered and responsible for the next step to my personal growth.

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LIFE EXPERIENCES CAN FUEL YOUR STORIES—A RESOURCE FOR CREATING SCENES AND CHARACTERS

1/17/2015

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My books and stories are laced with mental images garnered from myriad real-life experiences. I am blessed to have had a career that took me to corners of the earth—close to home and half a world away—that placed me with people, circumstances, and scenery that are now a rich grist for my writing mill. Add the fact that I’m blessed (or cursed some would say) with an eidetic memory and a full spectrum of images awaits me. In this blog I will expand on the story and tell you which experiences ended up where or who in my stories.

First, a word about “eidetic” memory, sometimes erroneously referred to as “photographic” memory. Otherwise termed “visual” memory, it describes the relationship between perceptual processing and the encoding, storage and retrieval of the resulting neural representations, and is a form of memory which preserves some characteristics of our senses pertaining to visual experience. We are able to place in memory visual information which resembles objects, places, animals or people in a mental image.

Now to the stories. I’ll use two for this blog to keep it reasonable in length.

My award winning book, A Voyage Beyond Reason, was written in collaboration with the main character, “Coach” Ben Wade. We took his journals from his kayak trip and built a fictional story around them with the purpose of turning it into a page burner mystery (and readers tell us we succeeded). The “experience” connection comes from the descriptions of places. Ben’s views, delivered through the journal quotes, are mostly from the kayak and the sea. They are definitely his personal experiences and the core of the story. Most of the descriptions of shore, jungles, cities, and beaches are from my experience working in Mexico and Central America. It’s a simple as that. We simply merged the memories to flesh out the story.

The first novel of the Amos Mead Adventure Series, Code Name: ORION’S EYE, draws heavily from old friends and family. The scenes are a combination of my childhood memories, my own and those related to me by my parents. See, I’m literally the four year old in the book, set in 1943. As an example, the description of the ride on the Red Line streetcar to the San Pedro waterfront, boarding the ship Avalon and sailing to Catalina through the ant-submarine nets is my own memory. My father was 2d Mate on the ship, we lived on Catalina, and I made many voyages with him—even at four years old. So you can dig deep for material. The OSS safe house in LA is a description of the home of a current dear friend. I lived with him during a consulting assignment I was doing for one of his companies and the descriptions of “B.J.’s quarters” are mine. The main house, a Spanish revival, and the patios, always impressed me and were a natural for the scene. “B.J.” herself was a high school sweetheart of mine never forgotten. The “Donovan Gochais” and his family are mine. If you can pronounce French then you’ll recognize my name, Gauthier, as Gochais.

Next week I’ll dive in to MEAD’S TREK and DIE LISTE: Revenge on the Black Sun. both are rich in imagery from my troubled mind. Look for experiences like: Working in an 1865 Bavarian village—in Brazil. Working in El Salvador during the insurgency war. Working in a country under military junta rule. And being stopped at gun point by militia in the mountains of Guatemala late on a dark night. All grist for the stories I now can write.

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WELCOME 2015 AND A WORLD OF ABUNDANZA

1/2/2015

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You heard me right—a world of Abundance. My entire life I have been rightfully accused of being a positive, upbeat, see-everything-as-possible person. Guilty as charged. When I was a salesman (before salesperson was coined) I knew there were more prospects and potential sales than I could ever reach. Therefore I charged ahead never fearing I wouldn’t make all my goals. Likewise, there is more money out there than I could ever earn, so I knew I’d never run out of the opportunity to create more for me and my family. I’ve never understood how people will settle for minimum wage as a goal, even a right—except as a platform from which to launch a future. How do we get record numbers on food stamps and disability programs? Partly because so many have no vision of their own strengths—their own world of abundance.

As a writer of—I’m told and believe—good books, I hold the belief that all the ingredients necessary to succeed are out there waiting for us. I believe we don’t ever have to fear losing a struggle or an opportunity. And surely neither do we, because of fear, have to behave unprofessionally or unethically as we witness too often in the recent past.

Studies of successful people report that they approach life from a point of view that no matter what happens their sense of themselves—their self-image—is unharmed. They are invulnerable. And they come from Abundance—the idea that there are always more opportunities out there.

Okay, I hear you saying, “You’re telling me that these people never get rejected … never fall on hard times?” No! I’m telling you that when they got rejected, experienced pain, fell on hard times (and they did, as we all have) they did not take rejection personally. They did not decide they were bad or a failure just because people rejected them. They did not give up when things seemed scarce.

Way too many people today see themselves as vulnerable—“Oh woe is me…” So sorry, but I have no time for a “pity party” or to associate with those who are mired in them. When we make mistakes, fail, or get hit with disapproval quickly and forcefully remind ourselves that we as individuals are indeed invulnerable. That is to say that our value as people cannot be affected one way or the other by what others say about us or do to us.

As writers we have the corner on rejection—they even have a standard form to inform us with!

It is our attitude that makes the difference in how we feel—and ultimately how we perform. A sense of personal well-being and a sense of abundance are key to our growth and ultimate success. When we find ourselves in the hole we first drop the shovel, then climb the steep side to a point where we can begin to put our fears behind us and look for the opportunities again.

Opportunities are interim targets in our life goals. My advice is not to look at the opportunity—but to look through it to the possibilities it promises. So as we begin this New Year, look up and out at the world around you and see the abundance of opportunities it holds for those who will take responsibility for themselves, believe in their strengths and seek their goals. You will get wins. And remember that being a winner does not require someone else to lose. Reach out as you climb and bring others in to help you, and to be helped by you.

 

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    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. 

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