by Marla Zarrow from the March 7, 2022 issue
Tagline: After losing his wife, Matt doesn't know if he's ready to get back into dating...until a beautiful waitress shows him that the time is just right.
Stream of Consciousness Observations:
For those of you new to the blog, stream of consciousness observations are just my thoughts, as they occur to me while reading the story.
- Right off the bat I see we're about to get a matchmaker story. Nice! I love those.
- Oh, a widower too. I think we all have soft spots for a man, adrift because he's lost his partner in life. I immediately want to take care of him, maybe cook him some good food.
- Aha, another tried and true Woman's World trope--moving to a new town--with one of the best reasons--to be closer to family.
- There is a great couple of paragraphs where I really get the feeling I'm in a small town. Here's why...Zarrow mentions the town center. Once you get past a certain size, there's no real town center. There's just a sprawl. The diner (a small town requirement) is called Sandra's Breakfast Spot. This is not a hipster place where you're going to find quinoa or kale. This is just a no-frills place where you can get a good breakfast. Lastly, The people in line shifted good-naturedly as Matt 'pardoned' his way through. Where I live, he'd probably have gotten dirty looks.
- His daughter had found a good one. This shows Matt has a gratitude attitude, which I think is admirable. It's always a good idea to make your characters likeable.
- Kinda weird that they ordered before Matt even got there.
- "Why don't I surprise you?" You already have, Matt thought. -- We want to show the reader the main character's thoughts and feelings so they can live vicariously through the story, however, we also want the story narrative to flow. I'm getting to the point where I feel the flow is being interrupted too much, especially when we've already firmly established Matt's interest in Sandy.
- I love Charlie. He's hilariously precocious.
- On the whole, cute story.
Photo by jenn b. via Flickr Creative Commons License
3 comments:
Hi Kate,
My issues have been arriving late so I just finished reading this story.
Not only did I love it but I was amazed at how much character, backstory, and setting was packed into the word count.
I agree, though about the confused toward the end. I actually had to go back and read a few paragraphs to make sure who was speaking in a couple of places.
All-in-all a great story.
Pat, I want you to know how much I value your constant presence here. You're appreciated.
I love reading your reviews since you point out things I don't usually see. I've learned a lot over the years of you posting here as well as taking your classes.
I'm hoping your new book brings a well of ideas. I haven't been write in the last couple of years. I hope to get back to at least writing short stories again.
So thank you for taking the time to post here.
Post a Comment