The Farmer's Daughter

A special, pre-release character introduction of Charly from my upcoming novel, Dervyshire Park!

A Girl Named Charly

Meet Charlotte Ann Montgomery, called "Charly" by her friends and family. She's a small-town girl who has grown up in the tiny farming community of Westcliffe, Colorado. As the main character of my upcoming romance novel, Dervyshire Park, I thought I would take the time to introduce her and talk about her as a character.

I'm notorious for drawing personalities and quirks from people I know and putting them into my characters. But every now and then, I stumble across a rare gem in my brain that stands completely on his or her own. Charly is just such a gem. She isn't based on anyone, but her personality is very evolved and reflects parts of my own past and views on the world. Having grown up in a small town myself, I know first hand how it feels to be surrounded by people who have known you all your life. In a town as small as Charly's, there are no secrets. This leaves her feeling smothered and caged, wondering what life would be like outside the valley where she's lived all her life. But she's confused about what she wants to do with her life. She doesn't see any great outstanding skills in herself like she does in her peers and feels almost directionless. She doesn't know it, but she's looking for a dream. She's searching for that thing that will inspire her and motivate her to grow and change. This is certainly something I can relate to and something I feel that most young women could probably sympathize with. There comes that moment in our lives when we must reflect on ourselves and decide what our goals are. We have to choose what will sit on our pedestal as our ultimate desire and what we feel is worth working towards. For some it is a career or the perfection of a skill or craft. For others, it's the desire to find love and acceptance in another person to start a family. That is where we find Charly at the beginning of Dervyshire Park, wondering what her future will hold and what she should do with herself. It's a vulnerable and uncomfortable state to be in.

Another large part of Charly's personality is her relationship with her family and her friends. She doesn't have a broad spectrum of friends, rather she keeps one person at a time close to her and doesn't invite many people into her inner circle of personal thoughts. Once upon a time, a boy named Sam Elrod was in that circle... but he's since found a way to fall out of her favor. Now Kimberly James is Charly's dearest friend and her confidant throughout the novel. Charly doesn't relate her feelings well to her parents and most young women probably can relate to that as well. While in the process of finding yourself, it's hard to have the confidence to be open with your parents about that uncertainty. We feel pressures from our parents to be a certain way, to perform well in life, to do a certain job or take on a certain about of responsibility. For some of us, and certainly for Charly, our sense of confusion about what our future should be is embarrassing and personal. Charly keeps this to herself and doesn't share it with either of her parents. She wants to appear certain and solid for them, afraid that any display of weakness would invite them to tell her how she should live her life.

I hope this has given you a little bit of insight into Charly's character and will interest you enough to read my novel, Dervyshire Park! Next I plan to do an introduction to Randolf, the male central character in the novel, and then possibly one for Sam as well. If you're a fan of complex romance, suspenseful situations, and the mysterious world of vampires and werewolves... then please give my book a read!

Author's Note

Charlotte Montgomery "Charly" is copyrighted to me and FIG publishing. Unauthorized use of her is punishable by law.

Reviews

[Pencrafter]

It's fun to create characters and worlds in which they live. By building a circle of friends and family and describing her attitudes, thinking and emotion, you help the reader accept her as a real person that they can relate to. If you include a detailed description of her appearance, in the upcoming book, this will help the readers to visualize her and enhance their experience. I wish I knew how to include a graphic image on the page the way you have. That certainly draws attention and aids in attracting readers.

[Starcaller]

Sounds very interesting and well thought out, can't wait :)

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good description of the character. Now I need a good story to go with the character. You create a interesting town and people. Small towns are always interesting. No secrets.
Coyote

[Nicole]

It pains my soul to put anything related to Twilight on the tags... but alas, it is in the same genre. lol