"The Arcanist" story collections (multiple)

The usual dislainer: Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.

The Arcanist is a magazine that prints flash-fiction (roughly 1,000 words, I believe). They publish one story a week, so you can imagine the competition for that one slot. The magazine also runs flash fiction contests, which the winner gets paid and gets published, along with the runners-up. Disclosure: I have submitted a few times, but I have not been published by them. My rejections have been generic and usually happen with 1-2 months. I have not submitted to any of their contests because they have an entry fee, a small one, but a fee nonetheless. I'd rather take my chances on the slush pile.

Recently, the magazine sent an email about the latest collection of stories it had for sale. It also had stories from previous years available for free.

Another disclosure: probably 5-10 or more years ago, I thought about the idea of self-publishing, since it was just catching on. The problem was that I had nothing in the way of novels to publish and no time to write and rewrite one. (I was "too good" for an editor, so I could save money. Ha!) I thought about the idea of putting out collections of flash fiction, until I thought, "No one is going to pay for a book with 7,000 words. That's a short story!" Turns out I was wrong, and it isn't just the Arcanist doing it.

End of digression.

Below are the books I've read, so far. I may amend this post if I read more this calendar year. Otherwise, I'll make a new post in 2023.



Welcome to Camp Arcanist (2021)

Stories about camping.

  • "The Monster of Lake Gregg" by Kara Pogos was cute, with an unexpected ending. Part monster, part ghost story. First place winner.
  • "Take Me Back to The Giants" by Connor Smith was the second place winner. I might've enjoyed it more if it hadn't reminded me of a better (longer, naturally) story from Analog in the late 80s/early 90s. The camping part is incidental, and it could've been replaced with a different theme alongside the other half (the twist) of the story.
  • "Special Order" by Aeryn Rudel was third.

Yeah ... this didn't work out. At some point, I'll go back and list the stories. But let's face it, I probably won't. Here's a list of the rest of the books I read, each about seven stories long, some better than others. I hope I got the years right. I got this from the email which didn't list the years, but I think they went in order.

Hunger Flash (2020)



Tales From the Weird Weird West (2019)



Monster Flash (2018)



Magic, Monsters, and Mayhem (2017)



The Arcanist Presents: Ghost Stories (2016)

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