STIFF HEARTS

DRAMA MYSTERY HISTORICAL FICTION ROMANCE OTHER
1940s & '50s
Jo Déniau (Pseudonym)
Logline
Other refugees in 1949 Greenwich Village open the heart of a repressed Missouri girl, who hopes she's escaped her mother's toxic grip.
Genre
Drama,Mystery,Historical Fiction,Romance,Other
Short Summary
PART 1 – [Flash forward] November 1949: in Harry’s Bar, Gillian’s Latvian lover, Jānis, shares his traumatic wartime history. Jānis details the ritual of drinking absinthe. [Flashback] May 1949: In the bar, Gillian meets the handsome Latvian, and her friend Dolores seems to be jealous.
In the Missouri Ozarks, Hannah’s shocking claim provokes Gillian to shatter her mother’s image in the mirror, ending Hannah's violent legacy. Gillian returns to New York, where she receives her dead lover's sword and enjoys a wacky celebration with her friends in Harry's Bar.
Setting
Greenwich Village, New York; Poplar Bluff, Missouri
Based on a True Story
Yes
Plot - Premise
Overcoming Monster/Villain,Internal Journey/Rebirth,Voyage and Return,Other
Plot - Other Elements
Happy Ending,Meaningful Message,Other
Mature Audience Themes
Information not completed
Main Character Details
Name: GILLIAN RYSERT
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Role: Protagonist
Key Traits: Aspiring,Complex,Empathetic,Engaging,Insecure,Sexy,Romantic,Secretive
Additional Character Details
Name: Jānis Dieviņš
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Role: Emotional
Key Traits: Adventurous,Aspiring,Charming,Complex,Confident,Decisive,Heroic,Educated,Honorable,Leader,Masculine,Sexy,Patriotic,Skillful,Visionary,Secretive,Seductive,Sophisticated,Unapologetic
Additional Character Details
Name: Dolores Valencia
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Role: sidekick
Key Traits: Confident,Engaging,Sexy,Outspoken,Funny,Sophisticated
Additional Character Details
Name: Hannah Rysert
Age: 48
Gender: Female
Role: antagonist
Key Traits: Aggressive,Villainous,Narcisstic,Uneducated,Religious,Blunt,Power Hungry,Sarcastic,Manipulative,Unapologetic
Development Pitch
It’s Greenwich Village, New York, in 1949. Twenty-year-old bar maid Gillian Rysert believes she’s escaped her hillbilly mother’s legacy: some extreme physical code or language of survival transmitted by the blow of a fist on someone’s jaw or the boom of a gun firing far away in the woods. So far, Gillian’s reserve has shielded her—from anyone who is not her late father. But now Gillian’s surrounded by other Village incomers suffering the aftermath of two World Wars, and they embolden her stiff heart to open. Among them: a Latvian freedom fighter, a Latina sophisticate, and a Polish Jew. Authentic relationship with these characters packs some risks though. Gillian could become collateral damage to her lover’s anti-Communist mission, destroy herself before she can stand fully in her power, and perish in the trap her mother sets for her back in Missouri. STIFF HEARTS is a cross-genre book, complete at 83,000 words. This novel was inspired by my mother’s exploits and mishaps in early 1950s Greenwich Village.