The

Westphalia Story

by

Lawrence Abby Gauthier

ace reporter

The Westphalia Periodic News

3/16/2022

“Our Story” has a long version and a short version.

Best to start with the short version and let the long version emerge over time.

Best to write it in the first person because it’s the expression of a morphogenic idea that first came to me in a doctor’s office getting a check-up after I retired when I was 71 years old in 2019. After spending the final 20 years of my working days as an over-the-road trucker, I was way overweight and the molecular tests were all bad.

The doctor asked me if I wanted to die.

That’s when I had the morphogenic idea to create Westphalia Publishing.

I started going to the gym, found my future wife on a dating site, pulled up my boots and got to work.

Westphalia Publishing was Incorporated as a Limited Liability Corporation in the State of Colorado on June18, 2021. During its first full year of operation – 2022 – the company had expenses of $4,627.62 for production, pre-press, author royalties, postage and supplies. It had an income of $2,142 in book sales Filling out my 2022 tax forms, I thought to myself: “Not bad for the first year.”

During our first year we published three book and have three more scheduled for 2023, including Culley Jane Carson’s "Star Talk" trilogy, which is going to press as I write these words.

I’ve really been enjoying myself creating our website over the past couple months. It’s like I finally have my own newspaper where I can finally do and say what I want to do and say without worrying about the lines you're not supposed to cross -- a place where I can say words like "Larouche" or "Trump" and not get assigned to the Society desk writing obituaries.

I think I’ll do a weekly column here called “Our Story.” Maybe come out with it every Thursday. A Thursday weekly column.

It feels like getting back on a bike after a long time away. It’s been thirty years since I wrote my last newspaper column.