Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Welcome to the Neighborhood!

by Peggy L. Ellis from the September 22, 2014 issue

Tagline
According to the grapevine, Sue's new neighbor was a real catch. She decided to find out for herself...

In a Nutshell
Sue meets the handsome guy moving in next door when his puppy wanders over. She boldly asks him to share her pizza later that evening.

Observations
No offense to Ms. Ellis, but this story sits in the average category for me. I thought the heroine was spunky. I liked how she matter-of-factly ordered the pizza and invited Ed over to share it with her. But other than that...I neither loved nor hated it.

The only thing that pulled me out of the story was the invitation to attend the Chamber of Commerce meeting. I was wondering if a bank employee at Sue's level (accountant) would have any need or desire to attend those meetings.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you Kate on this one. It took me a couple of tries to finish reading this story. Maybe a little ADD is to blame :) Still, I just couldn't get into the character's story.

Edeltraud said...

I don't think anyone ever wants to go to a Chamber meeting...but all sorts of folks from all walks of business are involved in local chambers, a bank employee wouldn't be out of place.
Still, such an event has all the romantic appeal of a can of cold beans.

Tamara said...

Am I imagining things, or have there been a large number of "just-moved-into-the-neighborhood-and-found-true-love-nearby" stories lately?

Betsi said...

Tamara, you're so right! I used that theme for "The Man in 2B" a year ago, so I've noticed all the ones that have come since.

We always comment on them, because when I wrote mine, my husband said "never date your neighbor, that's a disaster in the making." He's such a romantic . . .

Romance, She Wrote said...

I've yet to incorporate a puppy in any of the stories I've submitted to WW :)

Question to Kate's audience, for those subbing to UK magazines, how do you handle the international postage? I did a basic Internet search, but the information is a little confusing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Maria

Betsi said...

Maria, the only way to get international postage now is to know someone who can send it to you, or take a trip . . . seriously, and unfortunately! I send to a few places that will email a reply, and a few others that do everything via email. Although they only reply if you sell, and so far I've never gotten a reply from those markets.

I've made one sale, to The People's Friend in the UK. I'm starting to feel like subbing overseas is more trouble than it's worth (Chris Sutton, don't yell at me!) but that's me.

Chris said...

Betsi, I won't yell at you (well, only quietly) but there are mags that take email subs, as you know, so the overseas postage isn't always a problem.

Maria, I'm happy to send you some UK stamps and a couple of sample mags if you'd like to email me on csutton45athotmaildotcom (swap out the @ and .) and we'll sort something out.

Romance, She Wrote said...

Chris - Thank you so much. I'll email you shortly :))

Sandy Smith said...

This story did not have any conflict or black moment to speak of. I noticed many of the stories lately don't. I also have noticed a lot of new neighbor stories.

Tamara said...

I just read the new issue of WW (October 13), and the romance is about a move-in romance.

Kate Willoughby said...

Sandi, a lot of Woman's World stories don't have a black moment. It's not a necessary requirement. I like to include them, though.

Betsi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bettye griffin said...

I'm starting to yawn whenever I see the new neighbor storyline. I read a story in last week's (I think) issue that I thought was thoroughly charming (and sadly, similar to one I was going to submit) about a tow truck driver but with a wonderful twist. Can't wait to hear your opinion on that one.

Mary Jo said...

A tow truck driver? Good grief, how many of those have there been in WW? Is originality the kiss of death?

Chris said...

Re the subject of international postage, I checked at the PO yesterday and found that there has been a change in our UK postal rates. The £1.88 stamps that I've sent to various people over the past year or so are still usable but the 40g rate it applied to has been dropped. The scale now goes from 20g straight to 60g, for which the stamps cost £2.15, or $3.43 at current exchange rates. So if anyone is going to send a story here enclosing an SAE, be sure to ask the editor to use it only for their reply, not to send back the story. Otherwise you could find yourself having to pay extra to pick up their response.

Maria, please check your email for my message about this.

Betsi said...

Mary Jo, the story with the tow truck driver also had a psychic who predicted the encounter would happen -- that the heroine would meet a "knight in shining armor." The guy's name was Knight, and he drove a silver truck . . . I have to say that I wasn't as impressed by it as Bettye was. I suppose you could call it a twist, but I thought it was a combination of a lot of overused WW plot devices.

Mary Jo said...

Betsi, that story sounds so familiar. Maybe it wasn't actually overused...could it have been a reprint? Please, no! It is hard enough for most of us to sell something new there.