I have a new story titled “Acquiring Experience, Making Friends” featured on the Bristol Noir: Curiously Dark Fiction website. It’s a little different than many of my stories published over the past year in that it’s a longer work, at 1,500+ words. However, I’ve been writing a lot more 1,500-3,000 word pieces lately than the smaller flash fiction stories I’ve focused on over the past year or two so there will hopefully be more traditionally-sized fiction pieces from me this year. It also has a bit of a different tone, darker but simultaneously so over the top that my goal was to shift attention away from extreme violence and language issues to more of a focus on dark humor, sarcasm and just overall situation zaniness.

I feel pretty good about Bristol Noir publishing it because they have a good, slick professional publication that puts out consistently high quality material with the types of tone and attitude I like. The fact that they’re Bukowski fans is a huge plus for me too. There are a lot of lit mags out there these days and many of them seem like replicas of many others, so when I’m lucky enough to run into something more unique that I like, I feel pretty pretty good about it and like to stay with that publication, regardless of whether I were to submit anything to there or not. So I added Bristol Noir to my Literary Links, Resources & Defunct Legends page last year and recommend the magazine to any who like dark humor, quirkiness, and a good noir feel, etc. Consistent quality too, which I never take for granted and always appreciate.

That’s all for now. I have some other things I plan to write about soon, but it’s hard to find the time to do so these days and my health problems have also really slowed me down but I do hope to post more frequently this year than last year so thanks for being with me these years or for finding me more recently and sticking around. Additionally, anyone is welcome to contact me for whatever if they’d wish to. I have a contact form at the bottom of my Mint, Signed Books page, so feel free! Otherwise, have a good weekend and I’ll catch you next time.

— Scott Holstad