New micro fiction in ‘Mythic Picnic’

‘Devin Found a Flash Drive’ included in MICRO MAYHEM v5 (Sci-Fi and Horror)

I’m happy as a creature feature fanatic to have my warped little micro story, “Devin Found a Flash Drive,” in the latest edition of the X/Twitter-only literary magazine, Mythic Picnic: MICRO MAYHEM v5 (Sci-Fi and Horror edition).

Since Mythic Picnic exists only on X/Twitter, I can’t link directly to my story, but click on the link above and scroll for a bit and you’ll find it. It’s the third piece from the top. But don’t skip the other micros in this issue; they’re all bangers, as the kids say.

Here’s a teaser for my story:

DEVIN FOUND A FLASH DRIVE by Andrew Careaga @andrewcareaga

It was on the sidewalk at his bus stop. Devin grabbed it—maybe it’ll have some games on it, he thought, or better yet, porn—and when he got home, plugged it into his laptop.

But the only file he found was called “readme.txt.” He opened it and read.

“Dear stranger,” it began. “I need your help. Desperately.”

Devin read on.

Follow Mythic Picnic on X/Twitter at @MythicPicnic.

A week without news

What happened when I decided to heavily curtail my media consumption

I’d gotten sick and tired of the news — and even more weary of the distortions and reverberations of news and pseudo-news that skittered around the social media universe like ripples from a thousand stones thrown simultaneously into a sludgy pond. Stories and rumors of Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs, the backlash to Taylor Swift’s announced support for Kamala Harris, the hate and vitriol spewing forth on cable news and X, which Elon Musk, despite his supposed commitment to making the platform a space for free speech, has turned into a raging hate machine — all of it was taking its toll on my soul and psyche.

So I decided to heavily curtail my consumption of news and news-related information. I could go without news for a week, I thought to myself. It wouldn’t be easy for an info-junkie like me, but I would do my best.

Continue reading “A week without news”