novels – Andrew Careaga

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.

Friday Five: summer reads edition

Years ago, when this website/blog was mainly dedicated to higher ed marketing/PR/branding/etc. and I read mainly non-fiction books, I would occasionally post, around Memorial Day, a Friday Five about some of the books I planned to read over the summer. Now that I’m attempting to carve out a “career” (*cough, cough*) of sorts in the creative writing arena, I thought it would make sense to share some of the books I plan to read this summer. Note that not all of my selections are current or even new-ish, as I am a notoriously slow reader and always am behind on my reading of the latest trendy or anti-trendy thing, so if you’re looking for recommendations on the latest summer reads, I suggest you look at LitHub’s “19 Novels You Need to Read This Summer” or The New York Times’ hyperbolically headlined list of “The Novels Everyone Will Be Reading This Summer” (gift link).

Friday Five: the year in books

My annual list of favorites.

I’ve consumed (read and/or listened to) a lot of books (for me) this year, and I’m still reading some newer releases, but I think I’ve read enough to come up with my at-the-moment year-end list. So, here goes.

Disclaimer: this is not a “best-of” list. I’m not smart enough to declare what is best for anyone but myself. So here you’ll see favorites and least favorites.

Library book sale haul

Eleven books for twelve dollars. Money well spent.

Last month, I went to the Rolla (Missouri) Public Library’s fall book sale and came home with a nice haul of reading materials. It was $12 well spent, and the money went to support our local library.

Here’s what I got, and what I hope to read over the holidays and beyond:

Friday Five: writer and Major 7th editor Kirsti MacKenzie

‘Innovating within structure is the great genius pop artists have in common.’

Content warning: interview contains language some readers may find offensive.

“There’s a specific kind of masochism in picking an industry built on rejection,” says Viv, one of the main characters in Kirsti MacKenzie‘s debut novel Better to Beg (Sweet Trash Press, November 2025). It sounds like something a writer might say as they hope against hope that their works will be picked up by literary magazines or agents in their quest for a bit of fame, if not fortune.

Kirsti MacKenzie

Viv and her partner in music, the British expat Hux, are also on a quest for fame. The two form the fictional indie band The Deserters, and they are riding the crest of underground popularity, thanks to music bloggers and file-sharing services. They embark on a cross-country rock’n’roll/road trip fueled by enough dope to make Hunter S. Thompson consider rehab. Learn more about the novel and Kirsti in this excellent interview on X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine.

A writer from northern Ontario, Kirsti also creates superb short fiction (see this page for four years’ worth of stories) and is the founder and editor of Major 7th Magazine, a literary mixtape composed of short pieces related to specific songs. Read on for more about that litmag, Kirsti’s debut novel, and her thoughts on writing.