Mark P. Henderson

52: loves – a new collection of stories and poems

My friend Yolanda Christian has devoted much time and effort to assembling a collection of pieces about “love” in all its many guises: one piece for each week of the year. If you’re looking for a Valentine’s Day gift for someone special, go to Amazon, put in the title of the collection, and download. The price is low and – especially for a multiauthor work – the quality is high. (Well, I would say that, wouldn’t I? Yolanda has kindly included one of my short stories, plus a couple of my Peak District folktales as stopgaps!)

Here’s her press release:

52:loves – an international collection of short stories & poems [illustrated]

One for each Week of the year. No matter which country, or what genre, we’re united in our creativity and write to you about Love.

We are from Austria, Australia, China, France, Germany, [Guyana], India, Ireland, Spain, the UK, the USA, and Zimbabwe. Most of us are published writers. We are led by a handful of Guest Writers.

Don’t wait 52 Weeks to tell us which one is your favourite story or poem. You might check out Week 52 right now: Katy’s ‘Everything I Know About Magnificence’ – boy meets girl inside a cave.

In between stories and extracts of novels, you’ll encounter exquisite poetry: verses about Malaysia, Ndaba’s ‘Tiger Cub Love’; Charlotte’s ‘Boo’,

Cherry Smyth captures summer: In someone else’s kitchen that hot July, I went to touch you… At Week 25, you’ll find Sandra A. Agard’s poem about her mother. At Week 40, you’ll find Nalini of The Punjab: The interplay of orange and indigo…

Read ‘The Revolt of Grass’, literary fiction by David T. K. Wong, or science fiction by the quirky Thomas, and Hope, and discover the outrageous ‘Meet Roderick’– a story guaranteed to make the ladies cross! There’s the flipside too – the nervous love of two women, the green grass that makes three in more wonderful poetry. There’s the guitar-playing coffee-junkie, the loyal dog, a couple wed under a tree, a man wises up. You’ll find alcoholics, a man in the bath, a wild musician, ag reat aunt, a faithful amah in south China, a warrior, ‘Another Closed Door’ by prolific Guest Writer Gerard Guix, a bewildered unborn baby, nostalgia, and much much more… There is sex among the 52 Weeks, but we’re not going to tell you where to find it.

Many congratulations to Yolanda on succeeding with the huge task of drawing so many authors together, and many thanks to her for producing a collection of such sustained high quality! Enjoy it, everyone!