Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Kicking Off Forever

by Marti Attoun from the January 3, 2022 issue


Tagline
: After a devastating breakup, Bev is in no mood to celebrate New Year's Eve, until rugged Sam steps in to ring in the holiday with a bang.

Observations: There were a lot of things I loved about this story. First, how about that picture of the cowboy boots in the magazine? I found it refreshingly different from their usual picture and maybe even a little sexy!

I adored the idea of the New Year's Eve Boot Drop. So very original! I also loved that they had an Ugly Boot Contest and that Attoun described several of the entries...

  • shiny orange go-go boots with "Bye 2021" and "Farewell" on them.
  • gaudy striped booties
  • cowboy boots festooned with rhinestones
  • hip waders covered with stickers of champagne bottles and noisemakers
I loved this simile, "A handsome single guy at the Red Oak Grill is as scarce as caviar." In my Writing and Selling Romance to Woman's World Magazine class, I suggest one of the ways to make your story stand out from the crowd is to add one really prime simile. This is a very good example. I like how there's a contrast between the rural town down-to-earthiness described and ritzy caviar.

I also loved the little detail of the vintage Dr. Pepper clock in the cafe and how charming the town seemed. 

This was another excellent story from a seasoned WW pro.

P.S. Don't miss the announcement post below!

Photo by Jeremy Jenum via Flickr Creative Commons License

5 comments:

Pat said...

Wonderful and cute story to start off the New Year. I liked it for all the reason you mentioned, Kate, including the cowboy boot photo.

Mary Ann Joyce said...

I really loved this story, too! It was a fresh idea, and the characters were both fleshed-out for such a short story,. Loved all the details, too! Great story!

Kate Willoughby said...

Thanks for the comments, ladies!

Sandy Smith said...

This was a cute story. I liked the originality of it.

Alison B. said...

Really fun, original story!