My main characters and setting
I'm writing from the train on my way home from Ottawa. We move in two days!!
Description of characters
Seth is a white queer woman in her late 20’s. It is 1925 and she lives in a boarding house on Greenwood Ave in Toronto, with a few friends. These friends include Laura, Scrap, and the owner of the house, Miss Pettigrew.
Seth has hair that is a little longer than that of many women of the period. It is a little bit curly, and a light brown, almost blonde sometimes. She hates her curly hair so often irons it straight. She has a fringe in front and it sometimes keeps a little bit of a curl in the back.
Seth favors tweed suits that sometimes make her look mannish. When absolutely necessary, she includes a long tweed skirt and sturdy walking boots, but usually prefers pants. She loves white belts and sometimes has to dye them herself because they are not currently fashionable. At some point in the story, she will be forced to enter a faux queen pageant… perhaps paired with, or competing against, or taking the place of, her long-lost brother Fernando.
She has lived in the house on Greenwood for a couple of years, and that’s where she met Laura, her current best friend. Seth has some type of office work, I think. Maybe she works at the train station, at the information booth, directing travelers wherever they need to go. Or maybe she’s a librarian. She might work at one of the nightclubs that her friends frequent… or maybe that would be Scrap.
Laura is a black femme woman who is much more busty than the fashion ideal of the era. She doesn’t care because she loves her body and loves other feminine women. She writes an advice column for the papers, but most people don’t know that it is her because her column persona is a kindly old white lady – modeled after Miss Pettigrew.
Scrap is flamboyant and hard to pin down. She has a mysterious job at Jackie’s Place, the underground queer speakeasy where the faux queen pageant will take place. Scrap is always wearing some crazy costume, multi-gendered, from different historical periods. Lots of sequins and glitter are involved. Seth is a little bit fascinated by Scrap, but also a little intimidated. Scrap keeps strange hours because of her job and so is rarely seen in Miss Pettigrew’s house.
Fernando is Seth’s brother. They find each other one day when they both reach for the same white belt in a fashionable clothing store on Yonge St. They notice they have a very similar ring - it’s in a unique style and neither of them has ever met someone with a ring like it. Fernando is a tall, white-belted football player with light brown-blonde hair, a charming smile, and a huge crush on Seth’s next-door-neighbor, Olga Vennegoor of Hesselink. (Is that her name? Can’t remember.) I guess Seth and Fernando have to figure out why they have been raised separately all this time.
Miss Pettigrew is dowdy, shy, and reserved. She tries to look after the young women who live in her house, but is often confused and dismayed by their very different social lives and values. She is fond of them all, but is never quite sure if she should disapprove of their antics. She lost her lover in WWI and hasn’t yet recovered – her lover was a nurse with the Canadian Army and died of dysentery. She may get dragged along to Jackie’s Place at some point, and part of the story might involve her gradually healing from her grief and having a more active life outside her boarding house.
The historical period
It is during the Prohibition in Canada and the U.S. It’s the Jazz Age when music is getting crazier, skirts and hair are gradually getting shorter, and moral values are getting wilder. Jazz Babies dance all night and drink champagne, shocking the older generation with their antics. It is post-WWI and the older generation are much more serious, with the war still on their minds. Miss Pettigrew is an example of someone who lived through that era and didn’t really understand all of the changes.
I am not really sure how closely I’ll stick to the politics of the period. I guess I’ll just make that part up as I go along – whatever politics and current events are required by the plot, I’ll put in. Whatever doesn’t fit, will be tossed.
Description of characters
Seth is a white queer woman in her late 20’s. It is 1925 and she lives in a boarding house on Greenwood Ave in Toronto, with a few friends. These friends include Laura, Scrap, and the owner of the house, Miss Pettigrew.
Seth has hair that is a little longer than that of many women of the period. It is a little bit curly, and a light brown, almost blonde sometimes. She hates her curly hair so often irons it straight. She has a fringe in front and it sometimes keeps a little bit of a curl in the back.
Seth favors tweed suits that sometimes make her look mannish. When absolutely necessary, she includes a long tweed skirt and sturdy walking boots, but usually prefers pants. She loves white belts and sometimes has to dye them herself because they are not currently fashionable. At some point in the story, she will be forced to enter a faux queen pageant… perhaps paired with, or competing against, or taking the place of, her long-lost brother Fernando.
She has lived in the house on Greenwood for a couple of years, and that’s where she met Laura, her current best friend. Seth has some type of office work, I think. Maybe she works at the train station, at the information booth, directing travelers wherever they need to go. Or maybe she’s a librarian. She might work at one of the nightclubs that her friends frequent… or maybe that would be Scrap.
Laura is a black femme woman who is much more busty than the fashion ideal of the era. She doesn’t care because she loves her body and loves other feminine women. She writes an advice column for the papers, but most people don’t know that it is her because her column persona is a kindly old white lady – modeled after Miss Pettigrew.
Scrap is flamboyant and hard to pin down. She has a mysterious job at Jackie’s Place, the underground queer speakeasy where the faux queen pageant will take place. Scrap is always wearing some crazy costume, multi-gendered, from different historical periods. Lots of sequins and glitter are involved. Seth is a little bit fascinated by Scrap, but also a little intimidated. Scrap keeps strange hours because of her job and so is rarely seen in Miss Pettigrew’s house.
Fernando is Seth’s brother. They find each other one day when they both reach for the same white belt in a fashionable clothing store on Yonge St. They notice they have a very similar ring - it’s in a unique style and neither of them has ever met someone with a ring like it. Fernando is a tall, white-belted football player with light brown-blonde hair, a charming smile, and a huge crush on Seth’s next-door-neighbor, Olga Vennegoor of Hesselink. (Is that her name? Can’t remember.) I guess Seth and Fernando have to figure out why they have been raised separately all this time.
Miss Pettigrew is dowdy, shy, and reserved. She tries to look after the young women who live in her house, but is often confused and dismayed by their very different social lives and values. She is fond of them all, but is never quite sure if she should disapprove of their antics. She lost her lover in WWI and hasn’t yet recovered – her lover was a nurse with the Canadian Army and died of dysentery. She may get dragged along to Jackie’s Place at some point, and part of the story might involve her gradually healing from her grief and having a more active life outside her boarding house.
The historical period
It is during the Prohibition in Canada and the U.S. It’s the Jazz Age when music is getting crazier, skirts and hair are gradually getting shorter, and moral values are getting wilder. Jazz Babies dance all night and drink champagne, shocking the older generation with their antics. It is post-WWI and the older generation are much more serious, with the war still on their minds. Miss Pettigrew is an example of someone who lived through that era and didn’t really understand all of the changes.
I am not really sure how closely I’ll stick to the politics of the period. I guess I’ll just make that part up as I go along – whatever politics and current events are required by the plot, I’ll put in. Whatever doesn’t fit, will be tossed.
Yayyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!! I am grinning like a fool! Hurray for the inclusion of the Olgando love! And yes, it is Olga Vennegoor of Hesselink.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds great! I like how you included the Miss Pettigrew character. I'm excited!
Glad you liked it! I was on the train for so long yesterday, with nothing to do, that I was dying to actually start writing. I probably could have got 5,000 words done because, seriously, nothing. to. do.
ReplyDeleteBut, I waited because it just wouldn't be the same to do it without you.