Story: Something Old, Something New

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: "Something Old, Something New" by Krista Weidner from the September 4, 2007 issue.

Tagline: When Amy met Jesse, she knew she was ready to move on...

In a nutshell: Amy is divorced. When she and her friend go antique shopping, she buys an old church pew. The antique shop owner's son delivers it.

Talking Point 1: As I like to point out in my Woman's World online class, even though WW is an upbeat, positive magazine, there is so much death and divorce in their romantic fiction! This story has both.

Talking Point 2: The friend, Jill, is there to establish Jill's divorced state and provide a bit of "suspense" when they both want to buy the church pew. You'd expect Jill to act as matchmaker, but she doesn't. The hero, Jesse, doesn't even make an appearance in the story until halfway through the story, which is fine.

Best Part: It was really nice to have something in that empty space. This (last) line refers to the space in her house that she was trying to find furniture for, and, of course, poignantly, the empty space in her life/heart. Nice.

In My Humble Opinion: I'm not sure about all the J names--Jill, Jesse, Jim (Jill's hubby)

Grade: B-