Achlys published in Carmina Magazine on September 22, 2026

Andrea’s flash fiction, Achlys, was published in Carmina Magazine on September 22nd in their September 2026 issue.

Photo by Mike Oug on Unsplash

Andrea: I love Carmina Magazine and look forward to consuming the entire awesome issue. I am so thrilled to have another piece accepted by them. (Circling the Void about Hercules was the first.)

Carmina asked for an author note about my inspiration which is included at the end of my story. I have always loved folklore and mythology. I find these oft told tales (and some stories more obscure) provide a unique prism to see today’s world through. It also helps me as a fly by my seat of my pants writer to add structure to my house of cards stories.

I submitted this to only one other publication, The Molotov Cocktail (another fav publication of mine) for their elemental flash contest back in 2021. Their elemental flash contest inspired me to write it. Contests are great to spark a piece you may have never written otherwise. (Also, a new piece created from nothing takes the sting out of rejection.)

I revised Achlys a bunch over the ensuing years and submitted it to Carmina. And voila it found a home. Most of my pieces travel much more circuitous routes.

Please check out Clarabelle Miray Fields’s writing (she’s the founder and editor-in-chief of Carmina. Her poem Penelope, the truth is a stunner.

Keep being inspired and write!

Archived PDF 😊

Andrea’s poem – Rape Kits – was published in Timeless Tales Magazine’s Pandora Box Issue 8/15/19

Andrea is honored that her poem Rape Kits was published in the 3rd edition of Pandora’s Box in Timeless Tales Magazine.

What Andrea has to say about this poem --

This poem was inspired by the HBO documentary - I am evidence and the appalling reality of the rape kit backlog remaining untested in the hundreds of thousands. I was horrified by the idea of these boxes in a warehouse where birds were actually making nests of the evidence, of these women’s bodies and pain, evidence that could put the rapists behind bars. And who better to open the boxes than Pandora?

Pandora opening the box is frequently seen as cataclysmic but in this case, she’s a warrior, doing what is necessary for justice. All the emotions from the collective violations released giving the victims hope.

A word about the moths – in some versions of the myth, the “bad” things released are described as moths and I thought what if these moths were avenging goddesses and in my internet sleuthing came across Theodore D. Sargent’s invaluable Working Paper of Attributes - Goddesses – Moths. I have always thought that moths were underrated.

Downloadable PDF

About Timeless Tales Magazine

Timeless Tales is a digital magazine exclusively publishing retellings of fairy tales and classic myths since 2013. Please be sure follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Andrea’s other writing published by Timeless Tales - Home is Where the Bone is and The World is Inside