Scott C. Holstad Member Member since 2024

Where do you prefer to do your creative work?

For years, I did nearly all of my writing in coffee shops, cafes, bars, etc. -- even libraries of whatever town I was in (as I traveled and moved around a lot). Now, I'm "old," have mobility issues and live in a small town anyway, so it just makes the most sense for me to do so in front of my main computer (desktop). I don't seem to have the same success on mobile devices so I'll read on a tablet, but write at my desk.

Do you read literary journals and magazines regularly? If so, which are your favorites?

It's always been cyclical for me, in part because I'm always reading a tons of books simultaneously, leaving less time for journals, and in part because I have always had varied interests so I only recently started to cut down on subscriptions ranging from Physics Today to Foreign Affairs, as well as JED (Journal of Electromagnetic Defense), Nuclear News, Neurology Clinical Practice, The American Historical Review, Perspectives in History, Aerospace America, Stereophile, 2600, PS - Political Science & Politics, IEEE Spectrum, etc. Nerd stuff. But when it came to literary journals, I always preferred zines and alternative journals to straight mainstream litpubs, with a few exceptions. Many are also gone now, sadly, but some I've enjoyed over the years include (in no particular order) Caffeine, Pearl, Shockbox, Journal of Sister Moon, Cokefish, Wormwood Review, Chiron Review, Sivullinen, Clutch, Saturday Afternoon Journal, Asheville Poetry Review, ACM, The Sun, Flipside, Fringeware Review, Cyber-Psychos AOD, Wicked Mystic, ZYZZYVZ, Long Shot, The Kerouac Connection and more. Now, so many lit mags are digital and that's different but just to end this as current, some I enjoy reading when I get the time include Misfit, Five Fleas, smols, Horror Sleaze Trash, Alien Buddha Zine, Clockwise Cat, dadakuku, Fixator Press, Piker Press, The Beatnik Cowboy, Synchronized Chaos, The Argyle, Mad Swirl, miniMAG, Bristol Noir and Blood+Honey, among others. Oh, and I just discovered a new one about to debut called The Rang Yan Review, which seems really interesting and I have high hopes for it. (Now, did anyone actually give a longer answer to this question than me? I Like To Read!)

Who are your literary (or artistic) heroes?

First and always, Charles Bukowski. Everyone knows that. But followed closely by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Philip K Dick, William Burroughs, Camus, Kafka, Sartre, Lovecraft, Gerry Locklin and Edward Field, Marilyn Kallet, Kenneth Patchen, Christopher Hitchens, Terry Pratchett, Harlan Ellison, Simon Perchik, Lyn Lifshin, Antler, Alan Catlin, Ed Dorn, Leonard Cohen, Diane di Prima, and artists like Dali, Klee, Gris, Duchamp and Georges Braque, among others.

If you could only take one book on a ten-year voyage, what book would you choose?

That's a tough one. I guess perhaps Charles Bukowski's "Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit"

How much of a typical day (or week) are you able to dedicate to your creative work?

Most of my career, I wrote 360+ days per year, and in many cases, I was working 12-15 hours a day at least, but always spent 2-3 hours writing and 1+ hour submitting to new publications every single day. While I've published in many genres, my longtime primary emphasis was poetry and my early goal was to write 10+ poems per day and secondly to feel confident enough to submit at least a third of those to magazines.

Now I'm older and have been in very ill health for a long time and I have no real control over my body's schedule, or lack thereof. I still try to write daily but I've had surgery complications this year for instance that has made that impossible at times. I also don't have the strength and energy I took for granted my whole career, but somehow I have still been productive. Over the past 2.5 years, I've had over 320 poems, stories, essays, nonfiction pieces, and now even a play published, as well as two full length poetry books and as of today, inclusion in the 18th anthology of the past year and a half. (Yet no one knows me, eh? Hah!)

How do you celebrate your successes, such as acceptances? How do you handle rejections and other setbacks?

Matter of factly. Not too high or low. I've been a professional writer for over 40 years. I can still find national credits of mine online from as long ago as 1986! It's not that I don't get up or down -- just not as much as when I was younger. I appreciate it and move on.

What fictional character would you most like to be?

I don't know if this is the fictional character I would most like to be, but this is the fictional character I have identified with the most throughout my entire adulthood -- Meursault. Both. Both of them in both books. So much so that I have an identifying tattoo.

Are you an unreliable narrator?

That's an odd question. Am I an unreliable narrator? No. But do I CREATE unreliable narrators, as well as protagonists, characters, situations, environments, dialogues, monologues...everything? Well, hell yeah, I do! I don't want very many of any of my characters to be viewed as reliable, not that I want them all to experience the same degrees of unreliability because managing that is half the fun and most of the game, but no matter where, what, who, etc., my mantra is Trust No One, Trust Nothing, and that's what I'm engaging. Why should I or my readers trust anyone when the world teaches us not to, and when I don't like flat or single-dimensioned characters, and enjoy some personal challenges or perhaps games in trying to create layers in my characters and plots, some of which may never be fully realized by many, but ideally some will and one ought to be able to read many of my pieces on varying or multiple levels. That's not always what I do but I find myself doing that almost unconsciously more often than not and I want that to add to the reader's understanding of or engagement with characters, because people can be deceptively complex and I want many of my characters to mirror, or exceed, that.