Kiss the Cook

by June Kolligian and Twyla Smith from the January 23, 2012 issue

Tagline: Cindy knocked at the door of a cozy cabin--and found what she hadn't even realized she was looking for...

In a Nutshell: Cindy is on her way to meet friends at their mountain cabin. The GPS tells her she's there, but it's not the right cabin. The resident turns out to be a guy Cindy's friends have wanted to set her up with. They hit it off and find out that those sneaky friends planned the whole thing by giving Cindy the wrong address on purpose.

Observations: I'm going to change things up and do a "stream of consciousness" critique today and jot down my thoughts as I read the story.

Using a GPS makes the story seem current.

I sympathize with Cindy because I am not comfortable driving in snow and now I'm worried about her getting into an accident.

The fact that Cindy's friend has been trying to set her up with Alex takes away the danger of trusting some strange man you've never met. Nicely done.

Ah, it's also a man to the rescue story. Love those.

When she hesitates to go inside Alex's house, I think about Christopher Vogler's book The Writer's Journey when he talks about the hero Resisting the Call to Adventure. It's always interesting to see "rules" that apply to longer fiction also apply to super short stuff.

Hmm. Cooking is my hobby too. I immediately wondered why he wasn't making something more adventurous than stew, roast chicken or wild rice.

Oh ho! A matchmaker story as well. And here I was thinking her GPS was messed up.

The ending was clever, tying in the apron saying and story title.