Tagline
Gayle enjoyed romance novels. Now it appeared some real life romance might be coming her way...
In a Nutshell
Gayle's granddaughter "needs a book for school" and the library is out of copies, so they must go to a used book store. The proprietor is a nice guy and it turns out he has a granddaughter too, who may or may not have had a hand in arranging the serendipitous meeting.
Observations
I wanted to point out a few of the things I noticed about this story. First, there was a nice addition of backstory in the sixth paragraph. The backstory is all the stuff the reader might need to know about the characters in order to enjoy the story that's unfolding now. We find out that Gayle is recently widowed. We had already discovered she has a high-school-aged granddaughter earlier. And we don't really find out much more than that at this point because it's not necessary. With only 800 words to work with, don't tell more than you need to.
There was a bit of characterization that I wanted to point out...
Gayle ran a finger along a row of titles. "Well, I used to read a lot, but nowadays it's hard to find the time."
"You have to find time for the important things," he said.
I loved seeing that he thought reading was important. I thought, "Gayle, he's a keeper."
I also noticed a sign that they were attracted to each other--or at least Bill was attracted to Gayle...
"Nice to meet you, Gayle." He held her hand a fraction of a second longer than necessary.
Notice, it's really not much. Just one sentence. But it's important to show the characters are interested in one another. It helps the reader believe the romance has a chance. Because haven't we all read stories where after you're done, you wonder if they're going to end up breaking up eventually?
Finally, I thought that the tying in of the important stuff line was perfect. We see the granddaughter, Kayla, speaking up and showing her true colors as a "meddling" matchmaker. We see that Bill isn't the only one who says that you have to make time for important things. (A tenet I believe, as well.) And we get that feeling of circularity--almost like tying up a loose end at the end of a novel--except this isn't a loose end. It's just that feeling of everything coming full circle.
Photo Credit: Stewart Butterfield via Wikimedia Commons
4 comments:
I really thought this was a cute story. I also like that the characters in this story are older. When I first started trying to write for WW the guidelines wanted the characters to be under 40. I'm glad they don't have an age limit now.
As soon as I saw Emma Courtice's name, I knew I was in for a good read.
I loved this story. I liked the characters, the setting, and the setup.
I just had a story about a 70-year-old woman whose daughter sets her up on a senior dating site rejected by first editor without comment. I wondered whether the woman's age was violating some guideline. Maybe not, now that I see this one. Nice story.
Maybe she just had too many senior stories at this time, Tamara.
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