1. Great chunks of Charlotte Dent were
written while I was working as a legal assistant at an insurance
company in 2006. I had to cover the switchboard for an hour each day;
the computer at the reception desk didn’t have Microsoft Word installed
on it, so I’d open up a blank email, type my first draft directly into
the body of the email while answering phones, then send the email to
myself at the end of my shift.
2. Two agents from two well-established agencies simultaneously offered to represent Charlotte.
I considered, then made my decision. My chosen agent and I chatted
happily back and forth via email about the book for a week or two,
discussing changes and strategy. He was awesome and fun! We were on the
same wavelength! Then he abruptly broke off communication. Wouldn’t
answer emails, wouldn’t return my calls. I waited for far too long, but I
never heard from him again. I have no idea what happened; he’s still at
the agency, and his reputation, as far as I can tell online, is
spotless. I felt too ashamed and foolish to go back to the first agent
and ask if her offer was still good, so after that promising start, I
never did find an agent for Charlotte. In retrospect, this seems exactly like the kind of thing that would happen to Charlotte herself.
3. Charlotte Dent was
a semi-finalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) in 2008,
which was the competition’s inaugural year. Four years later, my novel Bias Cut would also become an ABNA semi-finalist. I have warm and fuzzy feelings towards ABNA.
4. As part of judging for ABNA, Publishers Weekly reviewed the then-unpublished manuscript of Charlotte Dent,
very kindly calling it “a crisp, fun treatment of Hollywood life.” They
also described it as “perky” and “chick lit”, which surprised me a
little; I’d thought I’d written a melancholy, introspective book about
fame and identity. As it turns out, I was wrong.
5. I eventually published the book myself in 2013 with my own publishing company, Luft Books.
6. The book’s theme may be found in the title: “Charlotte Dent” is a near-homophone for “charlatan.”
7. Though it deals extensively with celebrities and the film industry, Charlotte Dent is
not a roman à clef: None of the characters are based on real-life
individuals. Charlotte’s sometimes-boyfriend Simon probably looks a lot
like Ioan Gruffudd, though.
8.
Like Charlotte, I was once cast in a play that got canceled right
before performances started. It was for the best; I was pretty awful in
it. I had to do a fake English accent, and trust me, nobody needs to
hear that.
9. Like Charlotte, I lived in Los Angeles without a car. Unlike Charlotte, I lived in Los Angeles without a car for twenty years. Los Angeles is surprisingly easy to navigate on foot.
10.
Like Charlotte, I was once stopped by a famous director while I was out
walking in Los Angeles. He asked if I was an actress and gave me his
phone number. This is a true story! I’m not special, nor am I especially
cute; this sort of thing happens in L.A. a lot. Nothing ever came of
it—I think he realized pretty quickly that I would be a mediocre
actress—but it made for a fun anecdote.
When
struggling actress Charlotte Dent is cast as a leggy killer robot in a
big, brainless summer blockbuster, the subsequent hiccup of fame sends a
shock wave through her life. The perks of entry-level celebrity are
balanced by the drawbacks: destructive filmmakers, online ridicule,
entitled costars, and an awkward, unsatisfying relationship with the
film’s fragile leading man. Self-aware to a fault, Charlotte fights to
carve out a unique identity in an industry determined to categorize her
as just another starlet, disposable and replaceable. But unless she can
find a way to turn her small burst of good fortune into a durable
career, she’s destined to sink back into obscurity.
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Genre - General Fiction, Chick Lit
Rating - PG
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