St Valentine’s Day: Searching for Love

An anthology of love poetry published on Saint Valentine’s Day.

Love is only a word, until we decide to let it possess us with all its force. — Paulo Coelho, Manuscript Found in Accra

Searching for Love, an anthology of love poetry by Steph Bradley https://leanpub.com/searchingforlove

Steph Bradley has officially published her anthology of love poetry, Searching for Love, on St Valentine’s Day.

Available as an e-book, she has wisely chosen to publish on leanpub, not Amazon, not iTunes.

Had she published on Amazon, they would have taken a 60% cut leaving her with only 40% royalty. On leanpub, 90% royalty, less a flat fee of 50 cents.

She has set a minimum price of $4-99, a recommended price of $9-99. A slider lets readers set what price they wish to pay and they are able to see what goes direct to Steph Bradley. They can pay more if they wish. It is also possible to gift to a friend.

By publishing on leanpub, Steph Bradley also learnt a set of new skills, how to format an e-book.

Amor es sólo una palabra, hasta el momento en que decidimos dejar que nos posea con toda su fuerza. — Paulo Coelho, El manscrito encontrado en Accra

Leanpub uses epub for its e-books, an open source format, unlike Amazon who use a propriety format for their e-books. The reader can also choose to download in mobi and pdf.

If you love someone, you must be prepared to set them free. — Paulo Coelho, The Winner Stands Alone http://www.heureka.clara.net/books/the-winner-stands-alone.htm

If you lack an e-reader, even if you have one, download and install Calibre. A software package for managing e-books, with a built in e-reader, that lets you convert between formats. Thus if you wish to read on a Kindle, you can convert to their propriety format, if you download Searching for Love in e-pub format.

If you lack an e-reader and wish to obtain one, for those in the UK, one of the best current deals is Kobo Touch from WHSmith at £29-99. It is a better buy than the equivalent Kindle Touch, and unlike the Kindle Touch, epub, not a propriety format for e-books.

The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us out. And to save us. — Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept http://www.heureka.clara.net/books/by-the-river-piedra.htm

Often, the back story, how what we are reading came to be written, is as interesting as what we are are reading, but we are rarely told.

Steph Bradley tells the back story, in Searching for Love, an article published on Medium. She also includes a poem, Love, Lover, Beloved, from Searching for Love.

Happiness does not breed in captivity nor does it diminish when it is given away. On the contrary, merely by sowing happiness, we increase our quota. — Paulo Coelho,The Supreme Gift http://keithpp.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/the-supreme-gift/

If you are at a loss what to give as a present on St Valentine’s Day you will not go far wrong with Searching for Love.

Apart from the words, Searching for Love is worth it for the beautiful illustrations.

Love cannot be held prisoner because it is a river and will overflow its banks. — Paulo Coelho, Like the Flowing River http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7668021

Steph Bradley is a writer, story teller and poet. Her publications include Searching for Love and Tales of Our Times. Her forthcoming book Flip Flop is scheduled for late spring.

The history of Valentine’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is obscure, and further clouded by various myths and legends. The roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on 15 February. Pope Gelasius I recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring 14 February to be St Valentine’s Day.

Which St Valentine this early pope intended to honour is unclear as according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by that name. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop in Terni, and of a third St Valentine almost nothing is known except that he met his end in Africa. All three St Valentines were martyred on 14 February.

Most scholars believe that the St Valentine was a priest who attracted the disfavour of Roman emperor Claudius II around 270. According to one legend, Claudius II had prohibited marriage for young men, claiming that bachelors made better soldiers. Valentine continued to secretly perform marriage ceremonies but was eventually apprehended by the Romans and put to death. Another legend has it that Valentine, imprisoned by Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer. Before he was executed, he allegedly sent her a letter signed “from your Valentine.” Probably the most plausible story surrounding St. Valentine is one not focused on Eros (passionate love) but on agape (Christian love): he was martyred for refusing to renounce his religion.

In 1969, the Catholic Church revised its liturgical calendar, removing the feast days of saints whose historical origins were questionable. St Valentine was one of those to go.

It was not until the 14th century that this Christian feast day became definitively associated with love. According to UCLA medieval scholar Henry Ansgar Kelly, author of Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine, it was Chaucer who first linked St Valentine’s Day with romance.

In 1381, Chaucer composed a poem in honour of the engagement between Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia. As was the poetic tradition, Chaucer associated the occasion with a feast day. In “The Parliament of Fowls”, the royal engagement, the mating season of birds, and St Valentine’s Day are linked:

For this was on St Valentine’s Day,
When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.

Love

Love
My friend
Is there
Without effort

Love
Exists
In the space
Between us

When I think of you
Love
Is
When I think of you

Effortless
Caring full
Easy
And simple

Lovely
Quiet still
Deep
Presence

Nothing to do
Nowhere to go
Just Be
My friend

Be happy
Be well
Be loved
This year more than ever