by Chris Maday Schmidt from the November 6, 2023 issue
Tagline: When her friends set her up, Maggie didn't expect to meet with the handsome clerk from the farmers market...or for it to become true love.
Stream of Consciousness Observations:
"I tuck a chin-length silver lock behind my ear..." -- She's an older heroine. :) She's also a female. It's nice to have the gender of the main character identified right off the bat.
And she's getting set up for a blind date. Fun! I haven't read one of these for a while.
"I step off the covered deck where I'm surrounded by juniper, pines and oak tress adorned in autumn yellow beneath an evening sky streaked with orange." -- Oh, what a lovely description of the setting.
"The twinkle in his gray eyes calms my racing heart, but my pulse skips a beat when his fingers clasp my upper arms." -- Here is the physical attraction, nicely done.
"Surely he must think I'm experiencing a midlife moment in the center of of the cul-de-sac." -- LOLOLOLOL!
"He brushes that same silver lock from my cheek and my skin tingles at his touch." -- Schmidt is really pouring on the physical reactions. This is the sixth instance of some sort of reaction from Maggie and I seem to remember Woman's World liking a lot of that. which is why, for a while, every story had hearts leaping, soaring, dancing, twirling, etc.
"So what's say we skip the whole awkward blind date thing and catch dinner at the lodge down the road?" -- Oh, golly, this seems rude to me. The neighbors have prepared a meal for them. I see later in the story that Schmidt shows Maggie growing as a character when she asks him to share her casserole at her own home, so I understand why she chose to have them decline dinner at the neighbor's. Okay, wait a second. I just thought of something. Maybe, once the neighbors see that their "evil plan" has worked, they might not mind.
Cute story! And a great example of an evergreen story too. Evergreen stories are stories that can be slotted in at anytime during the year. Sure, there is a mention of pumpkin bread and autumn yellow, but those tiny details could be easily changed. Keep in mind that evergreen stories are valuable to the editors because of their flexibility.
Photo by Judy Dean via Flickr Creative Commons License
4 comments:
I also thought the description of the fall setting was beautiful. I did also wonder about them skipping the dinner, but figured maybe that was the whole point of it and the neighbors wouldn't mind. Still, I would have gone to dinner and maybe out for coffee or something after.
I loved the description, too. Gave me a cozy feeling. And I’ve wondered - can a writer use an actual state, city, or town name in a story? Don’t recall reading one but I may have missed them.
Lol. I just received and read the December 11th issue, and it answered my question. 😀
Sandy, yeah, their getting together was the whole point, but rule-follower that I am, I would not have cancelled. :)
Nanci, yes, you can name real cities and towns.
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