a blog to record ideas and actual work on writing fiction: everything and anything that catches my fancy, this blog is my canvas-the actual work of writing, working book stored on my laptop, in journals and scrapbooks as I work on them

Sunday, January 17, 2010

The CSA: what if the south succeeded and won the civil war?


A woman lives in the United States, the southern states one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
She is a writer who publishes her work under a mans name. She lives an artist life, traveling from one country to another. She lives on land she secretly bought and built a hotel for blacks. Her sister runs the inn/ apartment building.
She visits his cafe.
His cafe is split. A front entrance for whites and a back for blacks.  The thing that fascinates the town and country is his ability to provide separate and equal and is a mascot for the way this country wants the world to understand them.
The kitchen is in the middle. He lives above the cafe.
This story is about her life and secret passion for a neighborhood chef and baker who is white.
the story is about his life, when he notices her, his devotion to business, fear and passion.
Things they have in common:
Travel to Japan
Live in France
Love of italian food
Style
Money

Different points of view:
What to do with money
hired help
family
passion
the way things are
living elsewhere
possibility/spirituality
children
love lived and expressed
time and urgency


Name ideas:
Her- Foster, Rachel, Amelia, Georgina, Victoria, August, Easter
Him- Maury, Cotton, Perry, Benjamin, Pleasant, Michel

book title ideas:

the ones I love

 The Crimson White and the Petal- I love the beginning of this book, the characters and the time period. The title gets me every time
the unbearable lightness of being

5 comments:

  1. The United States, quite different from The United Stated of America.
    The point is to make it real.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Central is what happened to blacks who owned slave, property and choose to live in the CSA.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The eleven states:

    1. South Carolina (December 20, 1860)[4][5]
    2. Mississippi (January 9, 1861)[6]
    3. Florida (January 10, 1861)[7]
    4. Alabama (January 11, 1861)[8]
    5. Georgia (January 19, 1861)[9]
    6. Louisiana (January 26, 1861)[10]
    7. Texas (February 1, 1861)[11]

    After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and Lincoln's subsequent call for troops on April 15, four more states declared their secession:[12]

    1. Virginia (April 17, 1861; ratified by voters May 23, 1861)[13]
    2. Arkansas (May 6, 1861)[14]
    3. Tennessee (May 7, 1861; ratified by voters June 8, 1861)[15][16]
    4. North Carolina (May 20, 1861)[17]

    Later Joined by:
    New Mexico
    Arizona,
    Southern California,
    Colorado,
    Utah
    1863-1865

    ReplyDelete
  4. His cafe is a converted slave trading building. In the background the back of her black-only apartment building is visible.

    ReplyDelete
  5. On money:
    she
    enjoys what it can buy, thinks it manifests from creativity
    he
    spends like a tightwad, thinks it's source is hard work, driving something with force

    ReplyDelete