Every day for the past five months, no matter what the weather, Gordon C. Todoschuk has been selling his books on the streets near Union Station.

The 41-year-old writes under the pen name S.E. Tomas and is a proud, self-described carny and former squeegee kid.

He has self-published two books, Squeegee Kid and Crackilton, based on his own struggles with drug addiction and time living on the streets. A collection of stories about his life as a carny is set for release this year.

The books have helped him pay for housing, he says. Crackilton has sold more than 1,000 copies, he says, and Squeegee Kid just under 200, which Todoschuk suspects is connected to a lingering disdain for squeegee kids.

He says he has been approached by publishing companies, but doesn’t have a deal in the works. The only way he would sign, he says, is if he didn’t have to change a word. If he ever makes it big, he insists he will still sell his books on the street.

For our readers, what exactly is a carny?

A carny, well it’s almost like a gypsy. Like me, I lived on the road at one point for 12 months a year with a carnival. It is just someone who travels with the show and loves it and I have been doing it for a long time.

If somebody just joined a carnival this year and called themselves a carny, well they are not a carny.

Why did you decide to become an author?

I didn’t want to, actually, I had no intention. It was my girlfriend. She said you should write about this. She bugged me for a long time, actually. We are a team, like totally, she is my editor, but I consider her more the talent for the actual writing. I mean, I write it down and give it to her and when she gets it she picks my brain for more explicit details.

How did you come up with your pen name?

Her first two initials and a spinoff of my last name.

What authors or people inspire you or inform your work?

Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski and there is one person who is not famous, Crad Kilodney, he was Toronto’s original street author. He stood out with a tiny sign and a book in his hand.

What impact has your decision to self-publish your story had on your life?

Well, in the beginning I just wanted money. I am not going to lie, I just wanted the money, but when people actually started coming back to me with Crackilton and thanking me. It was like whoa, it just made me feel really good that I was helping people. If my negative turns into a positive I thought, well, that is pretty cool.

What do you think people who walk by you on the street could learn by reading your books?

What we actually go through on a daily basis, the struggles we go through, all kinds of different crazy stuff. The streets are a crazy place, especially in Toronto. There are a lot of homeless people. Certain shelters you need to sleep on your shoes so they don’t get stolen off your feet in the middle of the night. It is not a fun place to be.

You say you suspect that Toronto’s pretty open resentment of squeegee kids slowed down sales of that book. Did you feel like you were hated?

Back then, honestly, no. I had a different act than the squeegee kids. I am a carny deep down, so I sold people on what I was doing. I would make them smile. I never dressed like a punk, I dressed like a person.

They (drivers) would see I had new shoes or new pants or something and they’d say ‘I can’t afford new pants’ and I’d say, I can’t afford a $50,000 car, but I am out here all the time, I got to make sure I got decent stuff. They respected that.

How do you keep from getting discouraged?

I’m a carny for 25 years in the game department and there’s a lot of bad days. I did that forever, so I guess that gives me my drive.

What advice would you give to people with a unique story to tell?

I would say write about it, but it is a hard thing to do, right. So many people want to write and they start something and never get it done. Only way you can do it, really, if you are not talented by yourself is hire somebody to write it for you, right, but in that situation you ain’t got the money to do that.

I just happened to have a wealth of knowledge with me, right.

And your editor…

Yeah, we do everything 100 per cent ourselves. Nobody does anything for our stuff.

When does your next book come out?

Four months, max. It is carny short stories, and that one is going to have numerous volumes.

You are a salesman. Sell me on your book.

That is actually going to be a very easy sell. Because you know what, everybody goes to the carnival, everybody loves the carnival.

Everybody wonders what those guys are doing at nighttime, when they are not at work.

Squeegee Kid and Crackilton can be purchased for $20 cash, usually near Bay and Front Sts., outside Union Station, or online, including Amazon. To learn more about Gordon C. Todoschuk go to https://sites.google.com/view/setomas