2014 January Vol. 1

by Matt Potter, Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz (Contributor)

A year in stories ... one story a day for the entire year ... each writer taking the same day of the month to spin stories across the whole year ... and it all starts with January!

162 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2014

About the author

Matt Potter is a journalist, editor and broadcaster. He has reported for BBC Radio from Eastern Europe, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia, and co-presented Radio 1's award-winning global travel shows. As a journalist, his nose for the unusual has seen his writing appear in places as diverse as the Daily Telegraph, Golf Monthly, Esquire, Sunday Telegraph, Jack, Maxim, the Irish Examiner and Q, and his stories on cocaine trafficking in Latin America have been published in Russian, Spanish and English. As a journalist in Belgrade, he broke the story of the NATO 'spy' giving away secrets to Serb forces on the web. He speaks a handful of languages but attempts to speak at least twenty more. Matt is 39 and lives in London.

Reviews

[Guilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A booming start to an ambitious project--the 2014 A Year In Stories series by Pure Slush. Twelve months, twelve volumes, thirty-one writers, thirty-one stories that span the year. A hotshot tax attorney lands in a Caribbean tax haven and makes a mistake that will rule his year--and, possibly, his life. A woman fed up with her fist-happy husband seeks out a friend--and the link to an ex--with Mafia connections. The cap'n of the Gadabout is falling in love beyond his league, but his health might be the biggest obstacle. A man with bipolar disorder sweeps us into the vortex of a manic episode. Charles, "a celebrator of anniversaries, milestones, rites of passage", celebrates the one-month anniversary of a gory accident he witnessed. A woman in the second week of her new job gets sucked into a coworker's fifteen minutes of fame. A boy flies, and that's the least of the story. Another woman loses (temporarily) her roommate, and the fact this comes across as a conflict we actually care about is testament to the author's skill. A prostitute lets us in for a glimpse of a day in the life of, and our lives won't ever be the same again. A man watches a schoolyard from a safe distance--though, in this masterful narrator's tale, the question of what's safe and for whom begins to seem unanswerable. A priest puts on lipstick and longs for something so utterly unachievable it makes our soul ache. A friend drives an androgynous narrator to the tipping point. A boy with mad carjacking skills dreams a creepy dream about a place so far away he'll probably never see it--except asleep. In the middle of a snowstorm, a man tells his house goodbye and thinks he means it. A major-league baseball player tries to connect with the family that barely knows him. The Bird meets a French woman and tells a priest about the visits his dead mother, in wings and tail feathers, has been paying him at night. A man tells his coworker about his resolution for the new year and finds unlikely support. A writer's marriage is falling apart. A storm puts holes--literally--in a woman's plans to take the kids and leave her husband. Another writer throws a tantrum. A woman tries to reassure her mother that her favorite son hasn't forgotten about her. Ned's plans, which include a shotgun and too many bullets, get thwarted by black ice. Someone falls in love and rediscovers the world. A prickly woman goes on a date. Morgana floods a museum bathroom. A man moves out of his home, ponders the logic or lack thereof of love. A man wakes up to a mirror image of himself--but it's not a mirror. A dead woman looks on as husband, mother, and her own child, the one she died giving birth to, return home from putting her body in the ground. A thin, thin man, so thin he scares people on the street, tries to engage a fellow patient in a doctor's waiting room. A widow's daughters enroll her in an online dating site that's been specifically set up, by someone high up in the powers that be, for the purpose of engineering a meeting between her and a man--a man who's always watching, just out of sight. A woman in the suburbs, past her prime and bitter about it, begins a diary.

[Stephen Ramey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thirty-one authors tackle an auspicious challenge in this series of anthologies from Pure Slush books. I'm reading one story per day, and reviewing them at my

[Robin Cain · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a treasure chest! Thirty-one story starts, by as many talented authors, unfolding over the course of the next eleven volumes. Frustrating? Not at all. By giving the reader just enough to pique interest, but supplying satisfaction at the same time, these authors have done a stellar job tackling what has to be a difficult writing project. Each story is more beautiful than the last -- leaving this reader hard-pressed to pick a favorite. The Miracle of Small Things, Isa, Compassion, Cornfield, and Storm Lake stand out, but others, like Carpet Muncher, Carmine, and A New Ned, also intrigue. With so many stories to choose from, so much talent in one place, readers are guaranteed to find their own favorite gems. I, for one, can't wait to see how all these stories unfold. Kudos to the publisher for gathering such a great group of writers. I look forward to the next installments.