The March/April 2015 issue of THUGLIT (available for Kindle and in paperback) includes stories by Eric Beetner, Rob Hart, Ed Kurtz, Bracken MacLeod, Mark Rapacz, Devon Robbins, and Scott Loring Sanders.
That’s what insiders call a great lineup.
The same issue features my short story “It Bothers Me.”
Though entirely fictional, “It Bothers Me” is set in the very real town of Wilmot, South Dakota. (Wilmot, not far from the South Dakota-Minnesota border, is so small that — as of the date of this post — Google Street View doesn’t even cover Main Street, just the two state roads that essentially serve as the town’s eastern and northern boundaries.)
My paternal great-grandparents lived in Wilmot, and I visited the town with my wife and parents a few years back. We didn’t get to stay as long as we would have liked, but every person we met in Wilmot was kind and had a warm smile.
Those people are not in my story.
Here’s the opening of “It Bothers Me”:
Returning home wasn’t in my plans when I left Los Angeles. But the next morning, after filling my beat-up F-150 at a Flying J near Albuquerque, I plugged my old address into the GPS. Didn’t decide to do it, just did it. And followed the coolheaded British voice all 1,150 miles to Wilmot, South Dakota.
First thing I did there was visit Seth’s grave.
Pick up the March/April 2015 issue of THUGLIT to read the rest. (It’s currently available only for the Kindle, but should be available in paperback soon.) I hope you enjoy it!
By the way, as with many of my stories, I stole the title for “It Bothers Me” from a song by The Throes.
Erik Arneson 