Wednesday, December 11, 2024

A Sweet Side of Mix-up

by Mina Beckett from the November 18, 2024 issue

Tagline: After walking into the wrong house on Thanksgiving, Ryan was welcomed at the Collins table...and Claire quickly opened her heart to him.

Observations: What a classic misunderstanding story! I want you all to notice that while Claire has no idea that the guy who shows up isn't her cousin's boyfriend, the reader almost assuredly does.

The guy blinked, looking slightly confused for a second, but he recovered quickly.

It's nice to know that you don't have to craft this as a complete surprise to the reader. In fact, sometimes you want the reader to be in on the joke, as it were, so there's that extra little bit of amusement.

Honestly the only thing that surprised me was that Claire, a single woman, was hosting this sizeable Thanksgiving for her family. I did wonder if there weren't other family members better able to host the event. Is it old-fashioned of me to expect that a married couple would have volunteered to host?

Photo by Kevin Dooley via Flickr CC License

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