American Notes ROMANCE

As the readers of more than 25 million copies well know, Gone With the Wind ends with Scarlett O'Hara dreaming of Tara, vowing to win back the affections of Rhett Butler. What happened next? For those who give a damn, Novelist Alexandra Braid Ripley of Charleston, S.C., will soon provide an answer.

GWTW Author Margaret Mitchell, who died in 1949, always refused to extend her story. But Mitchell's heirs were concerned because the book's copyright was due to expire in 2011, leaving the story unprotected. Thus they reluctantly agreed to let Ripley, whose own "big, fat, serious historicals" (Charleston, New Orleans Legacy) have fared well on the moonlight-and- magnolia circuit, write a sequel. Last week, with two chapters of the new GWTW written, major publishers kicked off a brisk bidding war. The hardcover rights could fetch as much as $6 million.