October 2024 – Andrew Careaga

Works in progress

My venture into novel writing: ‘like driving a car at night’

When I rebooted this blog last January, along with my intent to get back into fiction writing, I had in the back of my mind the idea that I would work on a novel in November.

For many years now, I’ve had a couple of ideas for novels rolling around in my brain like loose marbles, and a few months ago I decided November would be the best time to start putting one of them down in writing. I’d written several short stories by then, had had a few published, and had gotten in the groove of thinking like a writer, so why not? Plus, November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and what better time to start than then, along with scores of other wannabe novelists who share my dreams and my pain?

Friday Five: Q&A with ‘Perestroika’ author João Cerqueira

‘Perestroika ended the Cold War and the threat of nuclear war. However, oddly enough, the topic was forgotten.’

Author João Cerqueira. Image via ReadersFavorite.com.

November 9 will mark the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall that once separated communist East Germany from democratic West Germany. While this event may sound like ancient history to some younger readers, I have vivid memories of watching in astonishment the TV news reports of the wall’s dismantling. Today, this act is seen as symbolic of the collapse of the Soviet Union’s style of communism, the collapse of that nation and its Eastern European satellites, a collapse hastened by the political reform movement in the Soviet Union known as “perestroika.”

The downfall of communism in the USSR and Eastern Europe is the subject of Portuguese writer João Cerqueira‘s latest novel, Perestroika: An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth. The novel tells the story of a fictitious Eastern Bloc nation, Slavia, that is caught in the social and political upheavals of that era.

Writing on Mondays: yea or nay?

Is it the worst day for writing or what?

In the introduction to Bird By Bird, Anne Lamott‘s classic book about the writing life, Lamott writes:

Mondays are not good writing days. One has had all the freedom over the weekend, all that authenticity, all those dreamy dreams, and then your angry mute Slavic Uncle Monday arrives, and it is time to sit down at your desk.

Friday Five: Q&A with crime fiction writer Casey Stegman

‘I’ve always been fascinated in the subject of conflict and power.’

Photo of writer Casey Stegman — *Casey Stegman*

If you’re into crime fiction with a dash of noir and grit lit, you ought to check out the writings of Casey Stegman. Not only does Casey write some of the genre’s most captivating short stories and flash fiction around, he also dives into the genre through a monthly column for MysteryTribune called Murder in the First. That’s where Casey introduces readers to “debuts within the genres of crime, mystery, grit-lit, and all things dark.”

Coming soon: you’ll find one of Casey’s short stories in At the Edge of Darkness, a special crime/horror anthology that comes out October 29, just in time for Halloween.

What literary magazines are open for submission? That Book Chikka has the answer

Stop spending hours researching #litmags that are open for submissions! Here's a list of 95 publications that want your work. Follow me to get this list every week and check out the blog here 👇🏻https://t.co/GLjVTkHPJa #writingcommunity #writerslift
— Jessica Kusisto (@ThatBookChikka) October 13, 2024

Like a lot of writers who seek to get their work published in literary magazines, I go to several sources for intel, including Duosuma, Poets & Writers‘ list, Submittable, and of course my own, ever-expanding compilation of literary magazines on X/Twitter, Litmags, etc. (now up to 314 different litmags and litmag-adjacent accounts).

But my go-to source lately has become Jessica Kusisto’s weekly compilation of literary magazines that are open for submission.