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Every contributor of $20.00 (Plus best shipping) or more will receive a signed copy of Book 1
of the trilogy "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality" (The Trilogy)

Sample Excerpt of "Dancing with Rejection"

After chatting this morning with my editor, I am reassured that the publication date of "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality" is drawing near. Many of my writer friends have cautioned me "not to rush" going to press. Thinking of their council, I am taking a deep breath as work continues to refine and polish the manuscript, as we speak.

Now, I've decided to start posting sample excerpts as a "teaser" that will also serve to count down the days remaining until we witness the completed, edited, formatted version go to press.

Please enjoy at your own risk. Cautionary note: this book is written with unflinching honesty and frankness. I have not held back any punches.

                                              ONE 

I was one of the few who managed to deflect the powerful 

influences that would sway me away from my artistic life while 

growing up. There were several times as a youngster that 

people close to me made very calculated efforts to dissuade 

me from my idealistic ambition to become an artist. The 

phrase “to become an artist” is not precisely accurate in my 

case. Strange as it may sound, I was already an artist when I 

was born. I was really left with no other option than to carry 

on with my work, as only time and experience would permit. 

Looking down at my infant hands, I felt a pang of anxiety, 

relieved only by a feeling of being suspended on a silvery 

filament, as a softly glowing pearl in a shining spiral of likewise 

glowing pearls, whirling out in all directions. I was two and a 

half years old when this sustained investigation of my palms 

began. Holding my hands palm up, elbows crooked, I

experienced a peculiar phenomenon...

Artist Working to Promote Kidney Health

In mid-May of 2014, I returned to dialysis treatments at St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon, after thriving for over 34 years, with a wildly successful kidney transplant. My brother Steven donated a kidney to me on October 17th, 1979. It was at Sunnybrooke Medical Center in Toronto, where I was living and working at the time, that I was originally diagnosed, at age 19, with End-Stage Renal Failure. Only a scant fifteen years prior to this, ESRF was pretty much an assured death sentence. At Sunnybrooke, there were highly trained kidney specialists who immediately recognized my symptoms. Thanks to this, I received an emergency operation that allowed the life-saving intervention of dialysis, the following day. Dialysis is a technological marvel that allows the kidney patient to have their blood cleansed by an artificial kidney machine. 

At age 19, I designed and painted the mural "Recovery 1", which I donated to Sunnybrooke Hospital in Toronto.

My first response, after I felt better, was to design and paint a mural called “Recovery 1”, that I donated to Sunnybrooke Hospital in Toronto. My brush with an early death greatly influenced my artistic direction. Thinking of my artistic heroes, who had painted monumental murals that earned them a certain sense of immortality, I decided early on that I would not leave this life without leaving my mark on the art world. It was with this in mind, that I decided early on to carve out a career as a mural-painter. With this focus, I have in the interim designed and painted well over sixty large murals from coast to coast in Canada, with an emphasis in the past couple of decades in Western Canada.

Working on the mural "March of Trinity" at Sacred Heart Chaldean Catholic Church in Saskatoon, SK.

I've lived and worked for about twenty years in the beautiful Resort Village of Manitou Beach, since I met the love of my life, fellow artist Sharon Gibson. Together, we have established the seasonal business “G-G's Gallery and Gifts”, that has enjoyed modest success over the past six years. I am also an easel painter, and G-G's has created high-quality, sustained exposure of our artwork to thousands of visitors since its inception. The great thing about G-G's is, it has generated many exciting commissions for “heirloom-quality” portraiture (another of my specialties) and other artistic projects, along with generating many sales of original artwork.

While my decision to pursue the career path of “monumental mural-painter” has been very fruitful, the question of precarious health lead me to reach out to the renal (kidney) community, to create a Facebook page called “Kidney Transplant Donors and Recipients”, where we welcome and embrace the renal community worldwide. We welcome anyone with a “kidney connection”, in all stages of their health journey. My wife Sharon originally came up with the idea to form this group, and she and I were the first members. After about two years, the group has grown to over ten-thousand strong! So, much as I hoped that my career as a muralist might assure a certain measure of immortality, the formation of KTDR has superseded this goal, as it is a living, thriving community. It has far exceeded my expectations, to say the least! And, it continues to expand its reach on a daily basis.

Since I re-started thrice-weekly, four hour dialysis treatments, I have fast-tracked a writing project that I've dabbled in for a few years. Thanks to this dedicated “me-time”, I am just about ready to release Book 1 of a trilogy called, “Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality”. Thanks in large part to my friend and mentor, the best-selling Saskatchewan author Wes Funk, I'm going ahead to self-publish. You might say, I don't really have the luxury of unlimited time to wade through “rejection” letters from the publishing houses. Don't you think it might be a bit ironic to stare down these notices for a project of this sort? 

With Canadian literary darling Wes Funk, host of "Lit Happens" on Shaw Cable TV.

To read more, and to follow the trajectory of the impending world-wide launch, please crank up your high-speed internet to visit www.mrgaudet.com.

Not a Broken Heart

My mom called me yesterday with an amazing...and frightening...story. She related to me that on November 23rd this year, she experienced a severe pain in her chest. She checked into the ER, suspecting that she might be having a heart attack! 

An ECG confirmed that no, she was very healthy and the cause of her pain was deemed a "mystery". After she settled down she thought about it, and realized with a shock, that the time of the onset of the pain corresponded precisely...to the minute...of my dad's death (of kidney failure) 51 years ago! 

She then asked me what I thought of this...and the best I could come up with was, "Maybe it was a case of anxiety memory?" She did not sound convinced, preferring to keep her thoughts on this to herself.

 She did not sound convinced, preferring to keep her thoughts on this to herself.

Have you ever had an experience like this? 

I told her that this story sent chills up and down my spine, and that it would most likely be included in "Book 3" of the "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality" trilogy. Man, what a zinger!

I told her that this story sent chills up and down my spine