Tagline: Laura's grandmother had always thought that Laura and John belonged together. Years later, it seemed Grandma had been right all along!
In A Nutshell: After her grandma's death, Laura is cleaning out grandma's attic and finds the business card of her high school boyfriend, now a real estate agent, clipped to their prom picture. She dithers about calling him, but her mom nudges her, claiming they are interested in listing the house for sale. After reconnecting, they make a date to go out to dinner.
Observations: This story was structurally different and had a different feel. It's first person, which is nothing new, but the tone is girlfriend to girlfriend, like Laura is telling you her story directly. Laura is chummy with you.The ending was different than the norm as well. It ends, not with an active scene, but with Laura summarizing where things stand now. We don't witness him asking her to dinner, but get it from Laura who sort of skips over the asking part.
Other than that, it was a classic meeting of old flames, but with a "twist" of granny perhaps arranging the match, or at least smiling down on the couple.
My Favorite Part: "Are you kidding? What would I say? 'Hi, John. This is Laura. Do you remember me? We haven't seen each other in years, but I wanted to know if you're married."
Photo by Aoife city womanchile (cc)
17 comments:
I swear, synchronicity got me again. My story had a letter in the attic that the girl attempted to deliver many years after her aunt (now deceased) wrote it, and it brought her to the nephew of the addressee. The editors didn't like my story better, obviously. One more to add to my collection for a little e-book.
Call your book "The Synchronicity Collection". That is frustrating, I know.
Well, looking back, I see that my story "Delia's Letter" was returned to me in February, so it is more likely Johnene didn't like it. I haven't checked, but I expect her note said, "This just didn't work for me."
Good title, Tamara. I imagine any number of us could use it.
Sorry, I couldn't vote on Ms. Savage's story because I am prejudiced. I do like my story better. I am glad she got hers published, though.
Kate, you need a fifth category: "Not as good as mine."
Sorry about the bad luck, Mary Jo. :(
Tamara, LOL, but I think I'll stick with the four choices.
Kate, what was the publication date for "Love is in the Air"? because I don't remember ever seeing it. Some people have rated it, so it must be in a WW magazine.
November 19 issue.
Oh, I did read it a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes memory fails me. Thank you, Kate, for the reminder.
It seems that the editors at WW get a fondness for a setting and we see it repeated several times before they go on to something else. The last story I submitted had a lakeside setting. How many of those do you suppose are on the WW desk now?
It seems the editors have a fondness for certain titles, too. I see that the most recent story is called "Recipe for Love." I know Mary Ann had one with that title, so I searched the blog and found hers, plus one called "A Recipe for Love."
My opinion? I think when you boil it all down, there are really no focused "tricks" we can use. All we can do is write the best story we can and hope.
Kate, I KNOW I can't come up with anything "new" for this genre, so I don't worry about it all that much. In fact, sometimes I take a break from reading the magazine for several weeks, because a couple times I gave up on an idea when I thought it might be too similar to something they just published. But by the time my story lands on her desk, it won't matter -- and besides, it will be MY story, and hopefully unique in some way.
Exactly.
Kate,
With all the storms (both hurricane and winter storm) do you think it might be best to hold off on submissions? Or would you go ahead, and send? Has anyone heard how they fared the storm? Hopefully everyone including the offices are alright. My heart goes out to everyone up there.
Thanks,
Nicole
Nicole, I just mailed a story this week. If they're behind, at least mine will be in the "pile."
I just got the Nov 12th issue in the mail today. I am hoping the subscription catches up. Not sure if it is the fault of the magazine or the USPS. I live in "Sandy" area so it could be either of both.
As far as stories rejected, all my submissions but two were rejected when other stories appeared later with the same topic, or characters, or setting, etc. I have to admit that in all cases, but one, I did like Johnene and Stephanie's choice better. I still loved me story though. In the one story of mine I though was better, the hero had a spained ankel in thiers it was the heroine and her ankle was broken.
Oh, well. All I can do is submit my polished story and hope for the best. I still have one there since August so I guess I need to write another one as soon as I complete my NaNo project.
And as for titles, I've been reading WW since 1989 and they used them over and over, fairly often.
Good luck Betsi with your story! I hope they pick it :)
Nicole
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