Emily Feagan - "The Marriage of Ruth and Isaac"

Emily Feagan's "The Marriage of Ruth and Isaac" is about a mother that is hesitant about her daughter's wedding and can't show completely happiness. She thinks they are getting married too young, too insecure, and without enough knowledge. She also seems to want to avoid having a case of empty-nest syndrome by clinging onto her little girl as long as possible.

I still really love your rustic imagery and nostalgic memories that anybody can seem to have fondness for despite the fact that the memories don't belong to them. I also love the use of floral descriptions and the importance of flowers in the story. However, I felt that you really could have done more with both the use of the pastel-colored flowers and the use of flowers as a device in the story. With them, you could have expanded the story further and fleshed out the characters some more.

I feel like the negative aspects of the mother are told to us and never really shown to us. Why is she the practical one? What makes her so much more practical than her daughter about this wedding? Is she even that much more practical, or is she just trying to be negative to hold onto Ruth longer? A couple added scenes of wedding prepartion can really get this aspect of the mother across well.

The story, as it stands now, has places where you can easily transition to those scenes without moving the story around easily. Really, all your story needs is some more expansion, and I know that with that expansion, the change at the end (the support for the daughter) will seem more powerful.