fiction – Page 2 – Andrew Careaga

Friday Five: author and ‘Mucky Mondays’ maestro Shawn Scott Smith

‘Community has always been a thing for me, and I saw a chance to give back to some of the writers I admired.’

Ever had a case of the Mondays? Of course you have. But thanks to Shawn Scott Smith, a writer, editor, and pinball aficionado from North Carolina, you can get your week off to a better start by reading a poem or flash fiction piece selected and curated by Shawn via his online literary presence, Mucky Mondays.

Shawn launched the project earlier this year, and it didn’t take long for him to fill his calendar for 2026. (I’m one of the lucky mucks to be included in Scott’s publication this year. Check out “Scenes from a Chinese Restaurant,” which Scott kindly nominated for a Best of the Net award.) He will solicit submissions for the 2027 lineup beginning in November.

An accomplished writer in his own right, Shawn’s first collection of poetry and short stories, Telemetry: Poems and Shorts 2014-2017, was published in 2018. His newest book, Atomic Number, contains 117 poems, each one titled after an element of the periodic table. (Check out a couple of poems from the collection.) He’s also been published in a bunch of literary magazines, including Alien Buddha, BULL, Burial Magazine, Dodo Eraser, and Hawkeye.

Read on to learn more about Shawn’s writing journey, the origin of Mucky Mondays, his pinball obsession, and more.

New in ‘Burial Magazine’: ‘Señor Newton’

‘He stacks nine or ten of the cookies pyramid style on his plate, then turns, the tugboat reversing course, and steers toward his table…’

I’m hyped to have a short story out today in the legendary online literary publication Burial Magazine. Please give “Senõr Newton” a read!

Here’s what Burial editor Z.H. Gill (who previously was featured in a Friday Five on this site) has to say about the story:

new in burial: @andrewcareaga has been writing these vignettes about restaurants…they make me feel some kind of way. i’ve spent about a quarter of my life in buffets, so i felt this one was a natural fit in the mag. so come meet ‘señor newton’—you won’t soon forget him. read 👇!
— Z.H. (Burial Magazine – SUBMISSIONS CLOSED) (@BurialMagazine) July 13, 2026

Z.H. is wise. Listen to Z.H. Read the story.

Thank you.

Image via Pexels.

Friday Five: ‘Saints of the Asphalt’ author and ‘Bad Intentions’ editor Michael Downing

‘I’m interested in what happens when people find themselves at a crossroads and have to make difficult choices’

BREAKING: Bad Intentions is now available for pre-order. Be the first on your block to purchase it! A portion of proceeds will support Philadelphia-based nonprofit Philabundance.

***

When I found out last December that Literary Garage was looking for crime stories for an anthology of crime stories inspired by the legendary musical master Warren Zevon, my heart sank like a stone. Because, even though I’m a longtime Zevon fan, I assumed poor, poor pitiful me would have no chance in landing a spot in that book, since I hadn’t written any sort of crime/noir fiction since a Perry Mason story I wrote, probably on a Big Chief tablet, in third grade. Even so, I gave it a shot, and now, as I’ve mentioned here before, my Zevon-inspired crime story is one of fifteen to make it into this anthology.

Through this process, I’ve gotten to know more about the guy put in charge of selecting the stories for this anthology (called Bad Intentions), Michael Downing. Originally from New Jersey (land of Springsteen, as Michael will proudly tell you) and now living in Georgia, Michael is an accomplished writer himself. His latest book, Saints of the Asphalt, published last year, is available online and at select bookstores. (Here’s an excerpt.) Over the past twenty years Michael has written plays, published several books, and has had short stories published in numerous literary publications. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times, and his fiction appears in several anthologies, including Under the Thumb: Stories of Police Oppression (ed. S.A. Cosby), On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Anthology (ed. Curtis Ippolito), and Six Sentences Volumes II & III (ed. Rob McEvily).

A literacy advocate, Michael also is the founder and former creative director of StoryTellers, a community-based literacy organization in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and Rome, Georgia, dedicated to helping underserved teens and young adults develop confidence through creative writing and self-expression.

He now lives northeast of Atlanta with his wife Helen, but remains unmistakably New Jersey—attitude, edginess, and Springsteen songs (just not Bon Jovi). Read on to learn about his writing, his work with Bad Intentions, his literary advocacy, and his thoughts about the music of Warren Zevon.

BREAKING: ‘Bad Intentions’ now available for pre-order

Proceeds from this Warren Zevon-inspired collection of crime stories will support Philadelphia-based nonprofit Philabundance.

Apologies to readers tired of my flogging this short story collection Bad Intentions: A Crime Fiction Anthology Based on the Music of Warren Zevon, but I’ve got breaking news to share. This collection is now available for pre-order on Kindle for a mere $2.99. That’s less than 20 cents per story in this gem. (There are 15 stories in all, including one by yours truly.) You need to get in on this deal right away. For those who prefer reading an actual physical book, a link for the paperback version should be available soon. I’ll update this post once that goes live.

The book will be available July 7.

From the publisher:

Bad decisions have a way of sticking around.

Fifteen stories of crime, consequence, and everything that comes after.

Inspired by the music and darkly human worldview of Warren Zevon, Bad Intentions is a crime fiction anthology about bad choices, worse outcomes, and the people left to live with the wreckage.

These aren’t stories about perfect plans or clever escapes.
They’re about what happens after.

When the lie collapses.

When the body turns up.

When redemption comes too late.

When someone convinces themselves they had no other choice.

From back roads to barrooms, motels to city streets, Bad Intentions brings together fifteen distinct voices in crime fiction—stories filled with desperation, violence, dark humor, regret, and the kind of consequence that lingers long after the final page.

No heroes. No perfect crimes. No easy endings.

A portion/all proceeds from the anthology benefit Philabundance, supporting hunger relief efforts throughout the Delaware Valley.

So go pre-order Bad Intentions and return here tomorrow for my Friday Five interview with the anthology editor, Michael Downing, to learn more about this story collection and Michael’s own writing.

Friday Five: ‘Scumbag Summer’ author Jillian Luft

‘One of my goals, when writing, is to bring music to the page.’

Here we are, on the verge of official summer, which begins with Sunday’s solstice. If you’re still scrambling to put together a summer reading list, I recommend you consider adding Florida writer Jillian Luft‘s debut novel Scumbag Summer to your list.

Published in 2024 by House of Vlad Press, the novel is set in 2003 Orlando. The protagonist, a recent liberal arts graduate from a public college in Florida, heads to “O-Town” to secure an entry-level clerical job. She soon falls for her flirtatious, painkiller-addicted boss and slides into a summertime affair that is complicated by all kinds of family issues on both sides. Rather than attempt to summarize this novel myself and inadvertently publish spoilers, I refer you to Jennifer Ostopovich’s excellent review from last August and offer this blurb from the Bookshop.org book description:

From bowling alleys to barrooms, malls to matinees, through the dull refuse of suburbia with new and unforgettable meaning, this book is a love letter to a fleeting season of illicit love, rampant addiction, buried grief and inevitable heartbreak-a whiskey-soaked, deep-fried, classic rock-scored mega-chain ode to Florida, youth, and the swan song of the human heart.

Jillian’s other writing includes short fiction and nonfiction in literary magazines like Hobart, Booth, X-R-A-Y, The Forge Literary Magazine, and many others. She writes in raw but beautiful language about illness and death, mothers and daughters, pop culture and Florida, bodies and desire–topics that “typically arise from deep-seated obsessions or something that’s piqued my curiosity.” (For a sample of her recent work, I recommend “Dottie After Dark,” an exquisite nonfiction piece that reads like a short story.) She is also the founder of Sweet Trash Press, a publishing imprint of House of Vlad, and is working on a memoir about caregiving for her terminally ill mother as a preteen. Read on to learn about her debut novel, her other writing, and her definition of scumbag.