When you write a novel you have to know your characters. The more developed the characters, the more believable and empathetic they are.
For this novel there are a number of characters and each one has their own back story, personality, likes, dislikes, and attitudes. Charlie is one of these characters.
Demographics
Name: Charlene (Charlie) Reed-Reynolds
Age: 46 years old
Status: Divorced
Occupation: Lawyer
Children: One 12 year old boy
Body Type: Overweight but not obese
Personality
Charlie is a strong minded, intelligent woman whose brain gets the best of her. She sees deception and ulterior motives with every man. She is the devil’s advocate, the realist, the nay sayer, and the argumentative one. All of which make her good at her job, but terrible as a single woman.
She is a perfectionist and is overweight, but not obese. She is very self conscious about it and thinks that everyone else sees her as fat. She is always complaining that she is too busy to get to a gym, as she eats the last doughnut in the coffee room. She has very little will power where food is concerned as she uses comfort food to feel better during highly emotional times.
Marriage
Charlie was married to David for 10 years. Their relationship was more of a business arrangement than a romantic love match. Charlie had deduced that David was a good match, they wanted the same things out of life and would work well together. This resulted in David becoming increasingly unhappy and blaming Charlie for all their problems. In the end David had an affair that lasted 2 years before Charlie discovered it, at which point she promptly left and took him to the cleaners.
Family
Charlie’s parents are elderly and need extra care. Charlie has put them into an assisted living complex where she visits regularly and complains that her sisters don’t do enough to help out. Her mother is set in her ways and her father is over bearing and opinionated about everything. A good old fashioned middle American Grumpy old man.
Charlie has two younger sisters. One lives in New York and is an executive at a large bank. The youngest, Rose lives in suburbia with her husband, Gus and four children
Likes and Dislikes
Charlie enjoys the arts, mainly because she isn’t artistic and is amazed at the talent some people have. She is a bit of a geek and enjoys super hero movies, sci fi, fantasy and action films. She hates romantic girly movies as she believes Hollywood’s idea of love is fake, unrealistic, and the basis of all failed marriages, including hers.
She hates green vegetables and sweat exerting exercise. She likes to walk and shop in the many stores the city has to offer. She is very much a city girl and hates the idea of roughing it. To her anything below 4 stars is roughing it.
Ideal Man
Charlie wants a man who is perfect. About 5’10 – 5’11, smart, well educated, and enjoys the same things she does. A man who can fit into her professional social world of conservative suits. David was too blue collar, this time she wants a white collar man who looks good in a suit and won’t embarrass her at the office Christmas Party.
She’s been dating men for over 5 years now and has yet to find love.
Buy the novella – Sunday Dinner From Amazon.
Purpose of this Blog
This blog is a look at the characters in a new novel by Shannon Peel about being single as a 40+ year old in today’s online dating environment. The novel, like all literature, draws from real life but embellishes it, changes it, and merges it together with fantasy. You won’t find a 100% true story on the blog or in the novel. She welcomes any dating stories you would like to share for the book but understand the story will only be a jump off point as she isn’t about to publish anything exactly as it happened. Email her today. shannonpeel01[ at ]gmail [.com]
And yes…. Dating stories about women behaving badly are welcome too, as my characters are flawed and handicapped when it comes to dating.
Shannon Peel is the author of THIRTEEN a story about a boy, his single mom, her cop boyfriend, a missing dad, and an invading foreign army. She explores North American life in an occupied zone with no power, no communication, and no freedoms. For more information check out her website: www.shannonpeel.com
Shannon Peel 
14 thoughts on “Charlie – The Jaded One”