S is for Sharlie

Sharlie is the heroine of Debra's This Time for Always.

Just as I have a soft spot in my heart for my first hero, Sharlie will always mean a lot to me too. Sometimes I agonize over what to name my characters, but this one was there from the beginning. The name might have even been there before the story.

I always thought I made the name up, but if you Google it, you get some interesting results.

Think Baby Names gives us this information:

What does Sharlie mean?

Sharlie /shar-lie/ [2 sylls.] as a girls' name is of Old German derivation, and the name Sharlie means "free man". Sharlie is a version of Charlie (Old German): pet variant of Charlene and Charlotte. Sharlow is a conventional surname.

In my story, Sharlie's full name is Sharlina. Again, a name I pretty much just made up at the time.

The meaning is a bit interesting to me, as part of Sharlie's story arc is that she moved out of her wealthy father's house, thus freeing herself from his influence and control.

A wiki shares this about the name:

Sharlie (Slimy Slim, The Twilight Dragon of Payette Lake) is the name given to a reptile-like sea serpent much like the Loch Ness Monster that is believed by some to live in the deep alpine waters of Payette Lake near McCall, Idaho. The first reference to the sea serpent may be the belief of Native Americans, predating western settlement of the area, that an evil spirit dwelled in the lake. The first documented sighting by western settlers occurred in 1920 when workers cutting ties at the upper end of the lake thought they saw a log in the lake. The “log” began to move.

Hmn? My Sharlie is tall and blonde with no resemblance to a monster of any kind. So this one just made me laugh.

Then I found a blog called Sharlie's Angels about a woman with Cystic Fibrosis who received organ transplants that saved her life. And while my Sharlie isn't an organ recipient or an organ donor, she does give a baby up for adoption, thus preserving the life of an innocent child and giving a deserving couple the chance to have the family they always dreamed of.

So, no...I guess I didn't make Sharlie up all on my own. But, in some ways, the name will always be mine.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

P.S. This has NOTHING to do with this post, but I just learned this week that One Great Night came in first place in the 2015 International Digital Awards contest in the short contemporary category. Yay!!