For the rest of September, A Proper Charlie is less than half price–
only 99 cents!
She’s (yes, the book has a gender!) my first chick lit book, and for me is what the genre is all about: fun, ‘finding yourself’ and relationships. I wrote it after falling in love with Sophie Kinsella and Melissa Nathan’s (who died much too young) work.
The world is full of funny and amazing people, which I like to incorporate into my books and certainly, A Proper Charlie. But who is Charlie? She’s a not-too-bright ordinary girl from London who just wants to be loved.
Brought up in a children’s home she was denied the experience of real love, and is searching for it in A Proper Charlie. She finds it with the most unexpected person and under the most surprising way.
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Married, with four children, LOUISE WISE lives in England. She is a pharmacist technician by day and a writer by night. She was educated in an ordinary state school and left without achieving much in the way of qualifications; you could say she was the result of a crap state-funded school. Hungry for knowledge she enrolled in an Adult Education center and studied English, maths and creative writing. Whereas other young girls asked for makeup and clothes for their birthdays, she asked for encyclopaedias!
During her early twenties and thirties she wrote many novels and to this day is grateful that the Internet WASN’T around else she’d have published them and subjected poor readers to unconstructed and badly edited stories.
‘I feel sorry for some of the writers today who haven’t been FORCED to allow their writing to mature.’
Wise’s books include: Eden, A Proper Charlie and The Fall of the Misanthrope: I bitch, therefore I am. They are all romance with the underlying message of loneliness, which she never realised until someone pointed it out to her!
‘Maybe I’m a closet loner?’ she laughs.
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About A PROPER CHARLIE:
Charlie Wallis has everything a girl could wish for. A loving boyfriend, a nice flat and a fantastic job as a journalist for London Core. Trouble is, Charlie’s boyfriend isn’t at all ‘loving’, her job title really reads ‘office assistant’ and her flat, at the top of a high-rise, isn’t that nice either.
Her new boss, Ben, is a huge bear of a man. A gentle giant, with chocolate brown eyes that hold a secret.
While London Core investigates the disappearances of local prostitutes, Charlie wants in on the action, deciding that dressing as a hooker and walking the streets is good research.
Bumping into Ben was the last thing she expected.
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Start Reading A Proper Charlie Now (available in all electronic formats)
‘What the bloody hell have you done, Charlie?’ Mr Fanton stood behind her, his hands, somewhere beneath his large middle, were on his hips. He came forward and slapped down a wad of printouts on a nearby table. ‘I’ve just being ringing up the stationers to see if there’s been some kind of mistake, but apparently not.’ He jabbed at the printouts with a finger. ‘The quantities are all in triple figures! What were you thinking?’
Charlie felt terrible. ‘I’m so sorry Mr Fanton, I think the order must’ve gone through twice, somehow.’ She remembered how Faye had caused her computer to go blank while looking for her pen and Charlie had resubmitted the order.
‘Twice? Look!’ he shrieked picking up the printouts of her order and thrusting them into her hands. ‘That isn’t twice! What am I supposed to do with that lot?’
Charlie looked through the pages. It was her scroll on the bottom of the order. Oh God, she must have submitted it for the third time by mistake! ‘I’m sorry,’ she repeated in a small voice, realising that people in the canteen were taking great delight in witnessing her dressing-down. ‘I’ll sort it, Mr Fanton,’ she added.
‘Sort it?’ He glowered, spittle gathered at the corners of his mouth, and his jowls wobbled as he shook his head. ‘Are you going to pay for it, too? Are you going to work wage-free while you sort out the mess? Well, are you?’
Charlie felt close to tears. She was deeply troubled over her personal involvement over Sally, and felt that any moment now she’d collapse in a heap of convulsing sobs. She restrained herself.
‘For God’s sake girl, you are a hindrance to the company.’
Charlie bit her lip. This is it, you’re going to be fired, she thought.
‘What’s going on?’ said a deep voice.
‘Ah, Ben,’ Mr Fanton turn away from Charlie. ‘Nothing I can’t handle. There’s been a mistake in the stationery order.’ He turned as if to try and shield Ben from the stacks of boxes, not because he wanted to protect Charlie from further wrath, but because he wanted to be the one to dish it out. Ben side-stepped him and looked at the piles of packages and boxes.
Charlie had been looking at her feet, feeling fully chastened. She glanced up at Ben, with her bottom lip clenched between her teeth, and expected to see shock followed by anger on his face. Instead, he pulled his lips inside his mouth as if he were trying to stop himself from laughing.
Mr Fanton held the printouts of Charlie’s stationery order towards him. ‘Charlie can’t seem to understand the difference between single and double figures,’ he declared pompously.
Taking them, Ben glanced up and his gaze met with Charlie’s. He didn’t look at all angry or annoyed, and Charlie felt stupidly grateful. She had to stop herself from throwing her arms around his ankles and kissing his shoes.
‘Hmm, someone’s been a bit over-enthusiastic,’ Ben said, his mouth turning up at the corners as he read through them.
‘As I was saying to Charlie,’ Mr Fanton began, ‘she’s a hindrance to the company. It’s been one mistake after another.’
‘Really?’ Ben asked. ‘What other mistakes has she made?’
‘Well, nothing major like this, but she just causes disruption. She chats when she should be working—’
‘Excellent qualities in a reporter,’ Ben said. ‘It helps to break the ice, and encourages the interviewee to talk.’
‘She isn’t a reporter,’ Mr Fanton pointed out. ‘After this I doubt she’ll ever get a newspaper to hire her again! Charlie, I’ll have your P45 drawn up this afternoon. Don’t worry Ben, I’ll have this mess sorted in no time.’
Ben was taking off his jacket and unbuttoning his cuff buttons on his shirt. He rolled up his sleeves. He winked at Charlie, who stood miserably between both men. ‘I’ll not hear of Charlie being dismissed over a slight error.’
Charlie looked up, open-mouthed.
‘A slight error?’ Mr Fanton gave a small humourless laugh.
‘That’s right,’ Ben said. ‘Arrange a dispatcher would you? Er, you’d better make that several.’
Mr Fanton looked from Charlie and then to Ben. When his shocked gaze fell back on Charlie she controlled herself from sticking out her tongue, and instead permitted a smug smile to tease the corners of her mouth – well, if a girl can’t be smug in situations like this, when can she be?
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Find Louise online:
Blog: http://www.louisewise.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/louise_wise
FB: https://www.facebook.com/WiseWordsBookBlogger
Pintererst: http://pinterest.com/BookJunkies/
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B003FW6RKM
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