Story: New Beginnings

What follows is an analysis of a Woman's World story with suggestions/observations for people who want to sell stories to WW, peppered with some personal opinion, too. :)

Story: "New Beginnings" by Linda S. Reilly from the June 12, 2007 issue.

Tagline: All the signs pointed to success and happiness ahead for Dawn...

The moment I saw this was by Linda S. Reilly, I expected good things. She's a writer who produces consistently good stories.

In "Act 1," we see Dawn is a hair stylist cutting her son's friends' hair for free. In comes the very shy Tim. He grabs my heart at once with his vulnerability.

"Act 2" establishes the backstory/history of Dawn - that she's divorced with a deadbeat ex, who's struggling to start her new home salon.

In "Act 3," we meet the hero, Nate. I really like that little appetizer of a line, "Barker. Why did that name sound familiar?" That piques my curiosity. Another line I liked was "My heart swelled with pride for my son." And close on the heels of that was, "He nodded sympathetically, his green-eyed gaze awakening something inside me." Ah, there's the romance building in a very small increment, the only way you can do it in a Woman's World story.

Then, Reilly smacks me with a twist I didn't see coming. Tim's dad is Dawn's sign maker. Nicely done! That's a connection between a hero and heroine that I haven't seen before in WW. Next, Nate asks Dawn to come to dinner very casually, without angst. This gives the story a realistic quality, like it might really happen to someone like this. And finally, Reilly wraps it all up with the Aunt's witty quip which neatly ties in to the title of the story.

Best Part: The whole story was solidly good as a whole.

In My Humble Opinion: "I'm sorry I alarmed you." Err, I can't hear someone actually saying that. "Sorry I scared you" would have sounded more natural.

Grade: A