Thursday, January 10, 2013

The Trip of a Lifetime

by Kay Layton Sisk from the January 14, 2013 issue

Tagline: Janine had doubts about the bus trip her grandmother had persuaded her to take--until she met the bus driver...

In a Nutshell: Janine's granny needs a substitute roomie on her trip to the Grand Canyon. Janine agrees, even though she finds out that she's probably going to be acting as a babysitter for the great-grandson of her granny's beau. Turns out the bus driver, a cutie, is said great-grandson. What a surprise. LOL

Observations: This is one of those stories that has a long lead up to the point where the hero and heroine meet. We're halfway into the story before she lays eyes on David.

It's funny how we readers can see the misunderstanding miles away. The minute we meet David the bus driver, we know he's the great-grandson, but we keep reading because we want to see how Janine reacts when she finds out. It's sort of like throwing a surprise party for someone. That's the main fun of this type of story. That, and the fact that it ends with the promise of "The trip of a lifetime!"

Photo by Grand Canyon NPS (cc)

10 comments:

Jody E. Lebel said...

I liked the story. I must have had a duh moment, because I didn't connect the bus driver with the great-grandson. I didn't think the 'boy' was so young she would have to babysit, but I didn't catch on until the end.

As a former travel agent I had to wonder about the 'the trip is paid for' element. Shouldn't gram or Janine have offered to refund gram's girlfriend who now can't make the trip? It just didn't seem right to me.

WW sure likes grandmas.

Kate Willoughby said...

I didn't think about the cost of the trip. But if I had, I'd have figured they worked that out themselves. *shrugs*

Don't know if two years of driving a bus would pay for dental school, though. That's got to be a lot of money... Even so, it didn't mess with my suspension of disbelief too much.

Anonymous said...

Kate,

This may be a silly question, but when you submit stories do you print on both sides of the paper, or recommend printing as only one-sided?

Also, when will you be offering another workshop? I was telling a friend of mine about your website and classes, and we're both interested.

Thanks,
Nicole

Mary Jo said...

Hi Nicole, I think you will find most of your questions about WW answered if you look at LINKS on the right side of your screen and click on Woman's World Fiction Guidelines. Kate put that up on her blog some weeks ago. I expect they will tell you one side only, or it may just be understood.

It seems that they are always looking for new writers, so good luck to you.

Kate, I have tried three times, at least, to get the "code" right.

Anonymous said...

Hi Mary Jo,

Thank you for the well wishes, I hope they will like the story.
However, I don't see any information regarding one-sided copy on the guidelines. At least from what I can tell :)

With full-length ms I know you're supposed to only do one-sided copies, but with the short stories not exactly sure.

Would love to get some opinions on this.

Thanks!

Mary Jo said...

Nicole, print on one side of the paper. I will be surprised if anyone tells you anything different.

Kate Willoughby said...

Nicole, I print on one side. I also don't know when I'll be teaching another course. Each class takes a whole month to teach. And in my opinion, you get the same thing if you just buy the course materials a la carte, as it were. I think I'll add your question as one of my FAQs and really explain it there.

Mary Jo, I'm sorry about the code problems. Usually there's a refresh button you can click that will give you a new code. I usually just hit that until it gives me something I can actually read. I have zero email and comment spam since I reinstated the code thing. So, I apologize for the hassle.

Mary Jo said...

Kate, yes, I have started using the refresh button to get a readable code. It does save time. I understand the need for the code after seeing some of the junk that turned up in your comments column.

Nicole, I bought the print out of Kate's first course and thought it was excellent. Unfortunately, when I got a new computer recently, my folders would not transfer from the old machine. We will have to try again.

Kate Willoughby said...

Mary Jo, if you need me to resend the class materials, I'd be happy to do that.

Mary Jo said...

Kate, thank you so much for the offer. I will see if we can get the folder contents off a back up CD from the old computer. I may have to get back to you on this, though.