About MJ Charles

MJ Charles is an award-winning author, who grew up in Garden City, New York. Her summers were spent with her family in the hamlet of Quogue on Long Island’s East End. During the growing years,she wrote poems and short stories, based on the characters, adventures and hurricanes she encountered over 23 years. Her “NY flavor” shows through in her writing style – up front and sometimes humorous, but is spot on when it comes to knowing about final papers.

MJ Charles tackled the enormity of settling her late husband’s death without a will by writing a book about it! Armed with a background in human resources and bookkeeping, she drew heavily on her abilities to organize and “get to the meat of the matter” by keeping detailed notes on yellow pads. These notes were then categorized, digitized and printed. They became her “documents”. Housed in a binder of their own, she created a historical record of what went on, in case anyone had any questions. In reality, they became her story.

“Surviving the Business of Dying, A Guide to Why Final Papers Matter” was published in May 2017. Simply written with well-thought-out explanations, This first venture into the publishing world was awarded “Finalist” in its genre by The International Book Fest in March 2018.

Since then, MJ Charles has often been asked “Where do I begin?”More to the point, how does anyone start this conversation with a loved one without shock or doubt of intention? The answers are many, but the process is simple. To this end,the”Surviving the Business of Dying” Companion Workbook was created.

“The devil is in the details” sums up its purpose. Once completed, this companion workbook becomes the bedrock upon which estate matters are decided and a will can be written. But wait, there’s more! The handwritten answers will stand on their own later on, as the primary source for details not appearing in the will. It will be filled with the type of details that the author had to ferret out in order to make things happen. This newly penned Companion Workbook has space for “all the things that don’t matter”…until you need them.

In her original book, MJ Charles shows herself to be at once honest and insightful, as she turned one her life’s trials into an easy-to-read, understandable guide for anyone who has yet to compile, organize and sign their final papers. And now she has a workbook to help you get there.

MJ Charles currently lives in New Bern, North Carolina.