literary magazines – 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.

Behind the story with ‘Literary Garage’

In which I discuss my short story ‘The Doctor’s Version’ from the ‘Bad Intentions’ anthology

Many thanks to the good folks at Literary Garage for posting this behind-the-scenes nterview with me about my short story “The Doctor’s Version,” which is one of 15 stories in the crime fiction collection Bad Intentions: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon. The collection is now available online and from your favorite bookstore. (If they don’t have it in stock, they can order it for you.)

Here’s how Literary Garage describes the story:

Told with chilling wit and razor-sharp irony, ‘The Doctor’s Version’ explores power, manipulation, and the ease with which evil can disguise itself as professionalism. Careaga delivers a compelling crime story in which the most dangerous person in the room isn’t the addict—it’s the man utterly convinced he’s the hero.

More than a crime story, it’s a masterclass in unreliable moral perspective.

I hope you’ll hop on over to Substack to give it a read.

New story in a new lit mag

My flash fiction piece, “Pancho Villa’s Revenge,” is the first story to grace the new literary magazine ‘Sunday Morning’

Yesterday saw the launch of a new literary magazine, Sunday Morning, which is edited by Iryna Somkina. As Iryna explained in a recent Friday Five on this site, this publication is intended to publish short pieces of fiction or poetry every Sunday morning–some “slice-of-life, domestic prose” short enough to be enjoyed over coffee, tea, or your Sunday morning drink of choice. So I was extremely happy when she chose my flash fiction piece, “Pancho Villa’s Revenge,” as the story to launch this new project.

The story is a slice-of-life tale of two brothers discussing family lore over glasses of whiskey. There may be a slice of real life infused into this story, like a zesty lemon peel twisted into a drink. I hope you’ll give it a read–even though it’s Monday now–and also hope you’ll keep track of Sunday Morning. I expect great things from this project in the Sundays to come.

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.