flash-fiction – Andrew Careaga

Friday Five: ‘Mythic Picnic’ editor Nathan Pettigrew

‘I’ve spent most of my life writing stories in memo pads, notebooks, and endless Word docs.’

There are a lot of reasons a lot of users have abandoned Twitter (aka X) over the past few years. But one reason for staying connected to that platform–hellscape that it is–is to read some great micro fiction published by a literary magazine you can only find there.

I’m talking about Mythic Picnic, the Twitter/X micro-fiction magazine created by Mark Finnemore and now managed by author and editor Nathan Pettigrew (@NathanBorn2010 on Twitter, which is his primary online address). For the Picnic, Nathan is looking for the brief stories (up to 350 words, including the title and writer’s bio) in a wide variety of fiction. MythicPicnic is also a paying market, which is a rare occurrence these days.

Natham Pettigrew with his beloved dog Brody, who recently passed.

A native of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, Nathan now calls Florida home and when he isn’t writing crime fiction or editing his literary magazine, he works in the healthcare sector. His stories have appeared in Rock and a Hard Place, Thuglit, Bristol Noir, and Switchblade, along with some anthologies, including the phenomenal Bad Intentions: Crime Fiction Inspired by Warren Zevon, which came out July 7 and which I’ve flogged mercilessly on this blog and elsewhere. This fall, his collection of short stories, Tales from Terrebonne, will be published by Rock and a Hard Place Press.

Read on to learn more about Nathan’s writing, his forthcoming story collection, Mythic Picnic, and more.

New holiday-themed flash fiction: ‘The Exchange’

I submitted the following flash fiction piece, “The Exchange,” to an online literary publication’s call for holiday-themed stories. Unfortunately, it didn’t make the cut due at least in part to some racial language that could be considered offensive. I understand and respect the editor’s concerns on that matter, but I thought the story was pretty good despite the potentially problematic language, so I’m sharing it here with the appropriate content warning.

Published in Painted Pebble Lit Mag

My micro fiction story “Spindled” is in the latest issue of Painted Pebble Lit Mag, a publication devoted to short-form writing. I would be honored if you took a few minutes of your day to read it. (You can also listen to me reading it if you prefer.)

Dad was a computer programmer. While other kids’ dads brought home stacks of clean white office paper for them to draw on, ours came home with stacks of manila-colored, rectangular cards with tiny rectangular holes punched through them. Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate, warned the fine print of the cards.

From “Spindled,” by Andrew Careaga

Friday Five: Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar

‘Modify your story, make it real, make it whole, but don’t give up if you believe in the tale you are trying to tell.’

Portrait photo of writer Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar — Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar

The author of two books and numerous flash fiction and micro fiction stories, Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar is an Indian American writer based in Columbus, Ohio. Her flash fiction and microfiction, including her debut collection Morsels of Purple, explore the nuances of womanhood across cultural and geographic boundaries. Her novel Skin Over Milk tells the story of three girls “who bear the weight of being unwanted daughters in 1990s India.” Sara’s writings have appeared in several print and online literary journals, including Ghost Parachute, SmokeLong Quarterly, Reflex Press, and Flash Fiction Online, and have earned nominations for Pushcart and Best of the Net awards. She also is a submissions editor at SmokeLong Quarterly.

In addition to her writing, Sara is a mother, wife, and IT leader who holds an electronics engineer degree and an MBA. Read on to learn how she balances the many facets of her life to consistently create wonderful stories.

Friday Five: poet and writer Chrissy Stegman

‘There’s something about the way stories were told around me growing up that shaped my voice’

Today’s featured Friday Five writer is Chrissy Stegman, a poet and writer from Baltimore, Maryland. Her work appears in Gooseberry Pie Lit, Jake, UCity Review, Okay Donkey, Gone Lawn, Gargoyle Magazine, Stone Circle Review, Fictive Dream, Inkfish, 5 Minutes Mag, and BULL. She is the author of the chapbook Somewhere, Someone Is Forgetting You (Alien Buddha Press), a two-time Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee, and 2025 Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Fellow.