Peter Mangiaracina

Author

← Rabid Scribe

Short Fiction

All Publications

Selected published work.

Illustration of a plastic-surgery consultation room with sculptural ears for The Drastic Surgeon
Published November 2, 2025

The Drastic Surgeon

Venal plastic surgeon Dr. Silas Carver will entertain any request—until a young woman asks for two more ears.

Sulfur Surrealist Jungle

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Illustration of a glowing toaster and a slice of burned toast for Burn Patterns
Published July 7, 2025

Burn Patterns

In increasingly erratic journal entries, a man’s suspicion that a kitchen appliance is misbehaving becomes a darkly comic crisis of burnt toast, vanishing flies, and object permanence.

Patterns Anthology · Bag of Bones Press

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A spectral ferryman in a rowboat emerging from mist near a mausoleum island for Psychopomp
Published April 2025

Psychopomp

After a night of ghost stories beside a cemetery, Angela hears her name carried from Charon’s forbidden island.

Flash Phantoms

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A crumpled blue page pinned to the wall of a shadowy room for Not for Me the Grinding
Published March 18, 2025

Not for Me the Grinding

Jonathan wakes from a nightmare haunted by fragments of childhood—an off-key dirge, a crumpled blue page, and a memory that refuses to stay buried.

Stygian Lepus

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Illustration of orchids and gardener's tools in a greenhouse for The Alchemy of Attraction
Published February 10, 2025

The Alchemy of Attraction

Beneath the guise of a grizzled gardener, Bert Tumnus enters the lush world of Calathea Pomona, a botanist whose visible and invisible scars reflect his own.

Bewildering Stories

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A worried man with divorce papers outside a Victorian house at dawn for Facing the Music
Published January 31, 2025

Facing the Music

A philandering husband returns to his Victorian home before dawn with divorce papers in hand, rehearsing his plea for forgiveness.

3 Panels Press

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A clown seated in a shadowy room with wooden marionettes for Pull the Strings
Published November 2024

Pull the Strings

A man arrives for a session with a clown therapist, only to find himself surrounded by puppets, strange questions, and a growing sense that someone else may be directing the scene.

The Morgue Magazine · Issue 1

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Cover of An Unorthodox Sage: A Novella of Ancient Rome
Published July 25, 2014

An Unorthodox Sage

Julius Claudius, recently back from a philosophy education in Greece and full of self-importance, must solve the murder of Rome’s most notorious eroticist after his uncle, the emperor Claudius, accuses him of the crime.

Kindle Edition · Peter Mangiaracina

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A woman browsing poetry in a bookstore near a small wild boar for Getting Rid of Marly
Published October 2001

Getting Rid of Marly

A bookstore employee pursues the elusive Marly while struggling to make sense of the unruly impulses in his own seemingly civilized life.

Futures Magazine · Volume 3, Issue 25

Five colorful sewing spools aligned beside a ruler for Shadow of Perfection
Published August 2001

Shadow of Perfection

Albert turns the world into measurements and patterns, but an unsettling friendship between his wife and her English teacher keeps upsetting the count.

Futures Magazine · Volume 3, Issue 24