Saturday, January 6, 2024

Black Friday Tussle


by Melinda Cherry from the November 27, 2023 issue

Tagline: A heartbroken Dana found herself injured amid Black Friday chaos, but she was in for a surprise when she later stumbled upon true love.

Observations: I clearly need a better organizational system. I keep finding my Woman's Worlds out of order! My apologies for this Black Friday story analysis coming so late.

I can't recall ever reading a Black Friday Woman's World story before, so that's refreshingly new. I was surprised to see the extent of the heroine's injuries and that she went to the ER. I think in the past, Woman's World shied away from too much drama or danger, but the new editors are more open to expanding the magazine's range a tad.

This story hit a lot of emotional buttons. Obviously, there was a sense of wistfulness about missing her beloved late husband. We were warmed by how her family rallied around her in her time of need. I had some personal experience with that myself right before Christmas. I went into the hospital with a big kidney stone problem along with a bacterial infection that spread to my blood. During my six-day stay, my family were there, bringing me things from home, including yummy things to eat, keeping me company, and in the case of my sister, giving me a full body massage. I'm a very lucky woman, as is Dana, the heroine of the story.

The last emotion this story highlighted was hope. The security guard proves that he would fit right into Dana's family as a caring and thoughtful man.

Well done, Ms. Cherry!

Photo by browniesfordinner via the Flickr Creative Commons License

5 comments:

Nanci said...

Gosh Kate, what an ordeal you went through!
I noticed the sway from the norm in this story and was surprised, too.
There are new editors now?

Sandy Smith said...

Kate, I was hoping you would review this story because I also wanted to comment. I was surprised that they would publish this story because I have had a couple stories in the past rejected for being too scary. They were much tamer than this! I saw on FB about your experience in the hospital. I am glad you had such a good support system and hope you are better now.

shaffer40 said...

Six days in the hospital says this was most serious, and kidney stones are notoriously painful. I am glad to hear you're better now. I'm pleased that a story centered on illness/drama was published. Such conditions/siutuations can often lead to a beautiful meet-up.

Kate Willoughby said...

Nanci, I saw that Alexandra Pollack has resigned due to medical issues, so it's just Maggie Dillard now calling the shots. But this happened recently, I think, so this story from Nov would have been approved back in October or even earlier.
Sandi, maybe you should resubmit those stories. If you submitted them to Johnene or Patricia, you could certainly submit them to Maggie, who hasn't seen them.
Shaffer40, I would have to see another similar story before I'm convinced they're in the market for this kind of thing.

shaffer40 said...

You're probably right, Kate. There must have been something in this story that allowed overriding the negative situation.