Charlie wanted to be a famous writer until he became the most famous person on Earth and learned what is really important.

SYNOPSIS:

Charlie Rosen is the poster boy for a wannabe writer. For years, he has tried writing everything from movie scripts to books to short stories and lyrics and everything in between. He has gotten close too many times to remember them all.

As a way to kill time and interact with people, he has been participating in message boards, social media and chatrooms for as long as the internet has had these options. It is on one of them he meets Sandi, a successful art gallery owner.

After months of internet banter and late phone calls, Charlie goes to D.C. to meet Sandi and they fall hopelessly in love. She completely believes in his talent, but her successful girlfriends are worried about him using her for his unrealistic dreams. Sandi’s only ally in this is her Irish-as-can-be Aunt Cassie.

Much to the concerns of her friends, Sandi marries Charlie. He still can’t get published and continues to visit the boards and chat rooms. Sandi is behind him 100%.

Unbeknownst to Charlie, he has a devoted following, who love and live by his musings about life. Two of them create a website that others can post Charlie’s most recent tidbits.

A print shop owner dreams of being a publisher and comes across the site that features Charlie and contacts the fans who started it. They reach out to Charlie and a deal is struck to publish a book of his thoughts on life like those that have been collated.

Not knowing how many people are reading the website, the publisher sets up a book signing at a cousin’s suburban book store hoping to sell 25-50 books. Luckily, the printer brought all two thousand volumes he printed as a mob of thousands of people were waiting to meet their hero- Charlie.

The full run of books was gone as quickly as Charlie could autograph them. Upon hearing about this, on of Washington’s largest bookstores begged Charlie to come to their venue. Charlie-mania was beginning. All of downtown D.C. was closed due the throngs who wanted to meet him.

This became international news. People were camping out around Charlie and Sandi’s home hoping to get a glimpse of him. They went through their trash. Some would come to the door with the mailman. It was overwhelming.

In a reverse Beatles, Charlie, Sandi and their two best friends flew to London to do a talk show interview. Heathrow Airport was a madhouse. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the route from the airport to their hotel. There were Bobbies at every entrance to keep people out.

Charlie, Sandi and their friends had carefully planned a bit of a ruse. The friends dressed like Charlie and Sandi while the stars put on costumes. The group got into a limo. To get out of the hotel a group of six limos left and went in different directions.

All Charlie and Sandi wanted was a few hours of peace or maybe a picnic. Being famous was a lot more than they had dreamed about months before. The limo stopped. The costumed couple got out and walked to the train station.

They got on a train that took them to the northwestern coast of England planning to be back the next afternoon. When they arrived, they walked around like they had before their world’s changed. Something caught Charlie’s eyes. There was a small office offering helicopter rides to see the Irish coast. Knowing how much Sandi loved her family’s homeland, he booked a short tour for them not knowing this would be the second time their world would be changing.

It was a beautiful flight. Sandi loved it. The pilot asked if they would mind him setting down in Ireland so he could drop something off. Charlie saw how happy Sandi was and saw a car in the parking lot. He asked the pilot if that was his car and could they rent it. Sandi was worried, but the pilot said he’d pick them up in the morning and get them to the train.

Off the ebullient couple went. They were so happy to see Sandi’s ancestral home and to be regular people for a few hours. All of a sudden, the raggedy old car stopped. Neither of them could fix it. They were so tired that they fell asleep in the car.

The next morning, they walked into a tiny rustic village to see if there was a mechanic and to call the pilot. There was a mechanic and the pilot apologized about the car. Charlie and Sandi were walking from the garage to the bakery to get something to eat when an old man, Seamus, and an old woman stopped them to say hello.

The old woman looked like she had seen a ghost and almost fainted. When she came to, she grabbed Sandi’s hand and dragged them to a small farmhouse. The old woman was crying as she opened the door. There was a 60-something woman sitting on a chair. She was Sandi’s doppelganger if Sandi was that age. It was Sandi’s aunt. This was the village Sandi’s mom had left from with Aunt Cassie forty years ago.

The group headed back to town to the pub to share the news of a long-lost niece coming home. There hugs and tears and laughter. Within five minutes, Charlie and Sandi were part of the town.

Then, an emergency news story appeared on the TV. The world was going mad. Charlie had blown off the interview. No one knew where he was. People were freaking out. A teenager, Little Sam, looked at the picture of Sandi on the TV and looked at the stranger and recognized her.

Charlie told them who he was and why they had left London. Seamus was outraged that people had taken their lives away from them. He said the village would hide them and let Charlie and Sandi have a real life. Sandi hugged Seamus that wasn’t possible and they should leave.

Little Sam smiled. “If you want to stay, you can stay. By the time I get through with the media, the world will think you are in Bora Bora, Prague and Rio all at the same time.”

Everyone laughed and nodded. It seemed Little Sam was an internet expert prankster and all the people said they would protect their new family members.

Well, Little Sam was right. Over the next week or two, he sent detectives, journalists and everyone else on one wild goose chase after another. It became a game for the villagers to run the world to protect their family. Charlie has Sam drop notes to ease the pain of the fans.

A tabloid writer figures out Sandi and Charlie must be in Ireland. Little Sam has tagged this guy and is following him. They send him all over the island until, Charlie realizes it’s only a matter of time until they are found.

So, they have the writer picked up by a tiny town’s constable for being in the country illegally. Charlie visits him in jail and makes him an offer. He’ll give the writer the scoop of a lifetime, his next book, if he leaves Ireland saying he never saw Charlie. The writer agrees.

Charlie’s next book is about seeing the beauty in every day life, family and themselves. Charlie’s popularity soared as he and Sandi stayed in Ireland to grow their family.

Charlie had looked for fame and fortune. He found a home.

THE END