A Recipe for Love

by B.J. Heinlein from the June 7, 2010 issue (The first of three "long lost posts" that I'm dredging up from the queue. For some reason, I wrote these but never posted them.)

Tagline: Was it possible that Jenny's grandmother and Kirk's grandmother had dreamed of this meeting long ago?

In a Nutshell: Caterer Jenny Cross finds a copy of a cookbook her grandmother loved at a garage sale. Coincidentally, the man holding the sale has fond memories of his own granny involving that book. Inside the book she finds a recipe card for "Honeymoon Cake" and impulsively she bakes one that afternoon and brings it to share with the garage sale guy.

Observations: If you believe what you read in WW, garage sales are a great place to meet people. All you have to do is find something that has sentimental value for you and it will inevitably be special to the person holding the sale, or their relative. (In my own garage sales, I only sell the stuff I have NO sentimental attachment to. Go figure!)

Just make sure you don't inject any negativity in your garage sale story. Don't make it post-nasty-divorce. Don't make anyone cry over the item, unless it's happy tears.

A Fortunate Encounter

by B.J. Heinlein from the March 1, 2010 issue

In A Nutshell: Jenny is at a charity bazaar and visits the fortuneteller. She is told that the man of her dreams will show up soon, wearing a blue tie with green stripes and that she will soon land a big marketing account. The next day, a man wearing just such a tie brings her a new marketing account, but only because his grandmother was the fortuneteller, filling in for the real one.

Observations: When I saw the story was about a fortuneteller, I wondered if the heroine was going to believe in them or not. She didn't, and it was easy to identify with her. She was smart about pinpointing clues that the fortuneteller's talent wasn't real, so when she leaves the tent, we're confident the lady was a fake. However, when the guy shows up wearing that (must have been ugly) tie, we're surprised and read on to find out was the fortuneteller for real?

The fortuneteller was equally smart, getting Jenny's business card so she knew where to send her grandson.

Cute story.