Father's Day Shenanigans

 by Pamela Moran from the June 21, 2021 issue

Tagline: When Beth Abbott finds herself caught in a matchmaking scheme with the handsome Grant Davis, she never expects it'll lead her to love.

Observations: I wanted to point out that, although there is the traditional three-act structure here, the first act is almost half the story! I haven't collected any hard data, but usually the second act is the longest. However, there was a lot to establish in this story. We meet the precocious Katie (matchmaker #1). We see that Beth is strongly attracted to Grant and vice versa. We discover that Beth's father is complicit. And just at the end of act one, we get the info about the Father's Day brunch the next day.

Act two is the shortest. In it, all four characters meet and agree to have brunch together. (By coincidence? It's unclear. Maybe Katie and Beth's dad were more diabolical than they appeared.)

The third act just cements Beth and Grant's connection as Grant asks Beth out to dinner. There's a marvelous exchange--the whole story is, really--where we see the characters' amusement over the matchmaker's shenanigans, emphasizing the story's title.

Favorite line: Me, out in the wild at the hardware store was certainly not my finest look.

Raindrops and Butterflies

 by Pamela Moran from the May 10, 2021 issue

Tagline: When her childhood crush and neighbor, Todd, comes over to help Abby plant flowers for Mother's Day, love is in full bloom.

Observations: This is another example of how you can rely on oft used Woman's World tropes and still end up with a heartwarming story that the editors love. (And I did love this story, especially the dad and his satisfied smile.) A trope is defined as a common or overused theme or device. I embrace tropes and prefer to think of them as tried and true rather than cliche.

The tropes Moran used were 

• gardening 
• a quasi-matchmaker (Did her dad invite Todd over? The author left us guessing.)
• a helpful man (also known as man to the rescue)
• a late, beloved family member
• a post activity piece of pie

Honestly, sometimes I think about making some giant dice out of cardboard, writing tropes on them with sticky notes, then rolling them and challenging myself to write a story using those tropes.

In fact, here's printable pattern for a paper cube in case you think this is a good idea too. 

Photo by Stephanie via Flickr Creative Commons License