Godoyscoffee’s Weblog

I am still working away on my manuscript, The Coffee Diary.   I’ve learned a lot through the process and have found that the more I look at it, the less finished and polished it seems.  Over the course of the past month I started a new rewrite.  I cut a lot of the coffee information as it seemed too technical and bogged down the plot.  I added new elements to the plot.  My new synopsis looks like this:

Synopsis of:  The Coffee Diary

            Raised in an privileged Guatemalan family with an American mother, Veronica returns to her home country after moving to the U.S. ten years earlier in teenage rebellion.  During the time that she is living in California her father is brutally murdered by extortionists.  She had tried to put her old life behind her while living in the U.S., but the years and distance were meaningless when she discovers that her father left the coffee estate entirely to her.  To make matters worse the corrupt mayor of Moyuta, where the farm is located, has been pressuring her to sell the farm to him for low budget housing projects.

            When she arrives at the abandoned family farm to decide whether to sell to the mayor or to re-establish it, she finds a diary that she had written when she was fourteen.  Her writings take her back to her teen years in the beautiful and intriguing country of Guatemala which, even at relative peace, is one of great contrast and violence.  Events that mark the violence in Guatemalan society that year include a break-in at the farm followed by justice Guatemalan style.  A family day trip to the Pacaya volcano ended when they were held up at gunpoint and her dad shoots at the bandit, warding off the attack.   A distant relative is murdered in a neighboring town and the family and community show up in support.  The next morning her father’s illegitimate nine year old son arrives at the family’s doorstep with no other place to go. 

            Outraged by the boy’s arrival and her husband’s infidelity, her mother takes Veronica with her for several months to live in California with grandparents.  When her mother falls into a depression, Veronica is left basically on her own.  She enters high school and learns to deal with prejudice as a girl from Latin America.  Making friends with a popular group, she loses her innocence as she gets involved with drinking, smoking and sex. 

            When her father comes to visit and is reconciled with his wife and daughter, Vero is relieved to go home.  But her taste of freedom in San Diego causes her to rebel against the rigid structure of Guatemalan society. 

            Back in Moyuta Veronica is confronted with a potentially dangerous enemy in the mayor who threatens her if she doesn’t sell him the farm.  During the course of her visit, she realizes the importance of family.  The coffee farm becomes not just the horrible place of her father’s murder, but the place that her father died to preserve. Although her family worries for her safety, she decides not to sell. 

            When she finally sets a date and time with the mayor to give him her decision he speeds to town to clinch the deal with two million in cash.  On the way to town the mayor’s bodyguard and accomplice is overcome by greed and murders him taking the money.  This leaves Veronica free to make her own choices without coercion or threats.