Gilge family legacy now on Havre bookshelves

First-time author Tim Gilge has published a series of short stories from his family life growing up in the Havre area titled "Snakecicles: Homeschooling, Hunting, Trapping, and Fishing. A series of short stories about an atypical Montana Family".

The 104-page paperback was self-published and released through Amazon Dec. 4. The collection tells Gilge's family tales about homeschooling as well as "trapping skunks, napalm incidents, animal resurrection, and much, much more." The book is also available in ebook form and an audio book narrated by his father, Kent Gilge, is currently in production.

Tim Gilge works at the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch in Billings on the maintenance team along with his wife Juletta, the head therapist at the ranch. The ranch is a non-profit, fully accredited, multi-service organization providing mental health treatment and support to children, youth and their families.

Gilge said the book was a labor of love to preserve his family history. His wife was a contributor to the book, while his father wrote the foreward as well as narrating the audiobook.

"We were meeting for my sister's wedding, my sister Katie. We were all sitting around the fire telling stories, the whole family, which is kind of nice, I think we can all understand as we grow older, but we're all laughing. I mean, just rolling on the ground to the point. I started thinking 'Man, these, you know, are great stories,'" Gilge said.

Gilge said Katie died from pneumonia October 20, and that motivated him to complete work on the book.

The pandemic gave him more time to finish the work last year, and his wife encouraged him to take time off to get it done.

He said he didn't want his family to lose the memories.

"We were already losing bits and pieces of the stories. There'd be a moment like, 'Oh, yeah, who was in the truck with you when that happened, or, you know, who did that pheasant hit in the face when it flew in the window? I don't remember their name.' It kind of made me sad that within one generation, we were already starting to lose our family stories," he added.

Gilge said the process of creating the book was challenging, taking him roughly four years to create. He also said the book's artwork was custom-made.

"I spent about four years just doing short stories. As adults, we have busy lives, you know, you sit down and you write for 30 minutes and it might take you a month to do a story and then another month to edit it. I mean, it was a very long process in that regard," Gilge said.

He said that, at the beginning of his writing process, he sought the advice of a childhood friend, Ken Overcast of Chinook. Gilge said Overcast has written many books and referred to him as 'The Last Poet Cowboy'.

"He said, 'Get yourself a good editor. What I mean by that, is you want someone that doesn't even like you, you want someone that's not afraid to tell you, you know, if something's wrong, and they'll say it to your face.' ... So I asked him, 'Who is your editor, maybe I can reach out to them and see if they're interested.' He said, 'Oh, my wife edited all my books.' Someone who doesn't even like you like your wife," Gilge said laughing.

Gilge then connected with his editor, Will Tyler of Illinois, and the self-publishing process was underway. 

He said he decided to publish through Amazon due to lesser up-front costs. He added that by working with Amazon, the company takes care of printing and some selling while Gilge can also sell books himself and he still holds the publishing rights. 

Aside from purchasing the book through Amazon, copies are available at Big Sky Images and Collectibles in the Holiday Village Mall in Havre. 

Gilge said he has enjoyed getting to work with his family throughout this process, especially with his father writing the foreward and narrating the audiobook. 

"It's fantastic. He's been involved kind of from the very beginning. I mean, he was the person that I'd bounce stories off of, or ask clarifying questions. It's kind of an honor, you know, to have the man who read stories to us, now I get to write stories with him," Gilge said.

Gilge said his father has his own style, and the two clash sometimes but his father is a great storyteller. Again, the motivation to have his father involved in the project concerns future generations of the Gilge family.

"The main reason I want to do it is for the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren. Not many people can hear their grandpa's voice, you know, after he's passed on, or their great-grandpa's, or, you know, have a story read to them by that person," Gilge said. 

"I know he'll put that same love and that same warmth in his voice that he gave us growing up that he'll put it in the book for his grandchildren, but also anyone else who wants to read along," Gilge added.

At this time the audiobook is in development and does not have a set release date. 

Gilge said he has no immediate plans to release other books but finishing this work was an emotionally rewarding experience.

"I'm not a big man for emotions, but it was quite a few emotions at the same time. The other hard part is you're never quite sure it's done. Because, I mean, even after, you know, reading it a thousand times, my wife reading it a thousand times, the editor going over it a thousand times, you still find mistakes. At some point you have to say this is good enough, because if you don't, if you say this has to be perfect, you'll never do it," Gilge said.

"You also have apprehension and fear. Are people going to like it? It's one thing to have a bunch of people, you know, friends and family, say it but it's another thing to say OK, now you're releasing it out into the wild and how are our people going to take it from there. So it's an incredible range of emotions," he added.