Sunday, July 17, 2022

A Second Chance at Romance


by Mary Ann and Rakel Joyce from the July 11, 2022 issue

Tagline: When her daughter invites her to a poetry reading, Ellie is shocked to find an old flame waiting for her...and a new chance at love.

Observations: Well, of course Mary Ann Joyce (along with Rakel Joyce) has given us a wonderful story. She is such a skilled writer. You can see it just in this one paragraph where she sees her first love again for the first time in 20+ years...

As Hannah stepped into the bookstore for a night of poetry days later, she stopped suddenly. There, sitting at a small table, was Ethan. His black hair had just the right amount of silver flecks. Suddenly, he looked Hannah's way, and behind his dark-rimmed glasses, she could see his expression change. His half-smile and the butterflies that immediately filled her stomach were exactly as she remembered them.

If you look carefully, you'll see a detailed description of our hero, along with a delicious moment of hope, nostalgia and anticipation as he recognizes Hannah. You've got to get your words to work double-duty because you have so few of them to work with. 

This is a perfect second chance story and I encourage you to keep this in a file somewhere for reference.

Photo by David Orban via Flickr Creative Commons License

4 comments:

Pat said...

Great story. Of course we've come to expect that from Mary Ann Joyce. Loved it.

Interesting that she has a co-writer. Sister, daughter?

Mary Ann said...

Thanks so much Pat! The co-writer is my daughter, Rakel. She and I had another story published together in Woman's World, but that was a while ago. She's working on her own projects and we are working on a longer project together too.

Sandy Smith said...

Great story, Mary Ann. They are always so good. Glad your daughter is writing, too.

Mary Ann Joyce said...

Thanks so much, Sandy! My daughter is a terrific writer--much better than me! We also have the same sense of humor, so it all works!