writing life – Page 9 – Andrew Careaga

Inspired by the music of Warren Zevon

Announcing my crime fiction debut in ‘Bad Intentions,’ coming this summer

Warren Zevon image — Warren Zevon. Image via Jesse’s Cafe Americain blog.

Strike up the band, Johnny! Now it can be told: one of my short stories will be included in an anthology of crime fiction inspired by the works of the legendary singer and songwriter Warren Zevon (1947-2003).

Am I an excitable boy? Hell yeah.

I am one of 15 writers to be included in this collection, called Bad Intentions. It’ll be published in July by the good folks at Literary Garage, a Philadelphia-based lit mag that defines itself as a place “for writing that’s a little off the beaten path.”

Friday Five: Some thoughts on ‘Writers on Writing’

What some of the best in the craft say about voice and rhythm, getting started, similes and metaphors, and the need for writers to “admit that nothing in this world makes sense.”

It was a cool winter’s day and I was on a minor dusting spree when I discovered tucked away in a far corner of my bookcase a paperback called Writers on Writing: A Bread Loaf Anthology. Published in 1991 by Middlebury College Press and edited by a couple of Middlebury English professors, Robert Pack and Jay Parini (neither of whom I’d heard of), the list of authors displayed on the cover piqued my interest. There, presented on a slant, a graphic treatment no doubt trendy in the late ’80s and early ’90s, was an all-star cast of writers I recognized–Stanley Elkin, Richard Ford, John Irvin, Erica Jong, Joyce Carol Oates, Tim O’Brien–along with many names I didn’t. Holding the book in my non-dusting hand, I studied the cover and concluded I must have purchased it at some long ago library book sale, then tucked it away for safekeeping. (I’m always a sucker for books about the writing craft, and buy any I find, especially if they’re cheap.)

I set aside the dust rag and began reading. Dusting would have to wait.

Three months in

A status report on writing during the first quarter of 2026

From a writing standpoint, 2026 has been a good year so far. As of today (March 31), I’ve had seven pieces published in seven different places. The latest pieces, published Monday and today, are “Scenes from a Chinese Restaurant,” a bit of flash fiction published in luckycreature‘s #MuckyMondays, and “How to Fish,” a short story in Cowboy Jamboree‘s latest issue, a tribute to the late great grit lit writer Lucia Berlin.

Looking ahead, I have acceptances for six more pieces, most of which will be published in April.

So far this year, I’ve submitted to 50 journals. I’ve received rejections from 30 of them, putting me on track to again this year join the 100-rejection club.

Here is everything I’ve had published during the first three months of 2026:

“Liars,” creative nonfiction in Frazzled Lit, January 2026.
“Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott?” a short story in The Orange Rose Literary Magazine, January 2026.
“Livin’ la Vida Pocha,” creative nonfiction in In Short, January 2026.
“Devin Found a Flash Drive,” micro fiction in MythicPicnic, March 2026.
“Eden in the Ozarks,” a poem in The Argyle Literary Magazine, March 2026.
“Scenes from a Chinese Restaurant,” flash fiction in luckycreature‘s #MuckyMondays, March 2026.
“How to Fish,” a short story in Cowboy Jamboree, March 2026.

New poem: ‘Eden in the Ozarks’

Plus some other terrific writing from the latest issue of The Argyle Literary Magazine

Earlier this month, The Argyle Literary Magazine included my poem, “Eden in the Ozarks,” as part of its “bucolia” theme.

Image from “Eden in the Ozarks,” published in *The Argyle Literary Magazine*

What the heck is bucolia, you ask? It stems from the adjective bucolic, which is from the Greek word boukolos, meaning “cowherd.”

Friday Five: Cowboy Jamboree’s Adam Van Winkle, author of ‘Count the Dust’

‘The idea became intriguing for me: write a play to be read.’

Radio plays have been around for a century or more, practically since the advent of radio. They thrived during the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s–an era sometimes called the Golden Age of Radio. In his latest novel, Count the Dust (LEFTOVER Books, December 2025), writer and literary magazine editor Adam Van Winkle taps into that approach to create a distinctive story designed for radio but equally enjoyable as a good read.

Count the Dust is set in a nameless small town in southern Oklahoma or north Texas. It’s modeled after the place where Adam grew up, Texoma, but, as he writes, it could be any of the “many small Oklahoma and Texas towns I’ve been in and through that center around a filling station on a state highway.” It’s a murder mystery, told over two time periods–1967, the year of the murder, and 1997–as well as a story of “the persistence of offspring in unideal circumstances.”

“These places, like places I grew up in and around, with little money, little resources, drugs, guns, violence, strained marriages and poisonous relationships, they still find a way to produce progeny. People still meet through the circumstance of life, new people still get born.”