The stars must be aligning for me this week, as I’ve had four pieces published.
It began with Tuesday’s publication of a short nonfiction piece called “Killing Machine” in The Itch Lit. This piece was inspired by a sign outside my town’s lone pawn shop and some of the shop’s stock in trade. A reader on Threads wrote, “That first paragraph was a masterclass of clever misdirection, hooked me from the first line.”
Then came three short stories today:
- “The Sixth Pallbearer,” a dark story published by a place that specializes in the darker stuff, DarkWinter Literary Magazine.
- “Driving Grandma to Bingo,” one of several micro-fiction pieces published today by the Twitter lit mag Mythic Picnic. Each author in this issue is also a contributor to the forthcoming anthology of Warren Zevon-inspired crime stories, Bad Intentions. “Driving Grandma to Bingo” is the fifth story in this issue. To find it, scroll down this post. But be sure to read some other great stories posted there while you’re at it.
- “An Earthquake in China,” a short story I started some 20 years ago or more that I’ve been tweaking and revising over the past couple of years. This was published by The Leafline Magazine. Leafline‘s editors called it “a powerful, quiet story about what happens when a leader loses touch with his people. Through simple conversations and the memorable story of the ‘“’feed box,’”’ the author shows how easily a good person can let an obsession ruin a community. It is a relatable look at how fear can drive people apart rather than bring them together.”
I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoyed writing them.
Photo by Abbas Zaidi on Pexels.com.
Andrew Careaga 