You really don't want to know my real name, do you? It's pretty boring and mundane. What people ask me about is "How did you get the name, Alfie?" (That's after we've established that it isn't 'short' for something else, like Alfreda, or something.)
It is one of my favorite stories. My husband named me. He has a tendency to nick name everyone, and for some reason, he's good enough at it, his nick names stick.
Since I'm six inches shorter than he is, when we first started dating in college, he'd call me elf. Just randomly. Not all the time. Mostly, he used my given name. (I suspect with his knack for nicknaming, he knew it wasn't right yet.) Elf gradually became Alf--and he used that more. Then one day it was Alfie and that he used almost always instead of my name. But he was the only one who called me that.
Until we'd been married about five years and we'd just moved for the 3rd time. He'd accepted his first job in management at the phone company and--though up until then, I'd always had a job, I didn't get one when we got to Osage City, KS. I was about 7 months pregnant at the time so it seemed pretty pointless.
When we'd been in Osage about a week, his staff at the phone company had a pot luck dinner to 'welcome' us to town. They invited all of the employees as well as various business men and city boosters and dignitaries and for the most part, it was very informal, with an hour or so of mingling and happy hour prior to the actual dinner. It was approaching time for the actual dinner and the minor formalities to begin and I was feeling very strange and sort of isolated. Dan was doing his thing, moving about, talking to people, making friends and influencing people. I was kind of standing at the side of the room, watching and letting people come to me.
One of his office group approached me with her hand out and a huge smile and I could tell this was someone I was going to like. She gave me her name as she gave me her hand and I returned the favor, saying, "Nice to meet you. I'm Vivian." (Ok, I'm giving you that much. See why I wasn't really anxious?)
The smile disappeared immediately. The look on the poor woman's face was nothing short of shocked and appalled--with maybe a little awe thrown in for good measure. And I was instantly confused and hesitant. And THEN Dan joined us and said, "Alfie, I want you to..." whatever it was he wanted me to do.
The woman's face suddenly looked like a light bulb went off and I suddenly had a light bulb of my very own over my head. Obviously, Dan had been talking affectionately about "Alfie" at work and when he finally showed up with a wife, it was an very pregnant woman named "Vivian." I quickly re-introduced myself as Alfie and everyone was smiling after that.
I officially gave up trying to be Vivian after that. Life sure got easier and I've gradually grown into the name that everyone believes fits. (Except my family and friends who knew me 'when.' Sometimes addressing Christmas cards and remembering which person should sign them gets tricky.) See, I told you he was good at nicknaming people.
My biggest disappointment was when Harlequin wouldn't let me use it as my pen name when I was signing my first contract with them and they were requiring everyone to take pen names. Since the line I was writing for had a huge following in Great Britain, they worried that everyone there would think I was male since Alfie is a male name there.
It is one of my favorite stories. My husband named me. He has a tendency to nick name everyone, and for some reason, he's good enough at it, his nick names stick.
Since I'm six inches shorter than he is, when we first started dating in college, he'd call me elf. Just randomly. Not all the time. Mostly, he used my given name. (I suspect with his knack for nicknaming, he knew it wasn't right yet.) Elf gradually became Alf--and he used that more. Then one day it was Alfie and that he used almost always instead of my name. But he was the only one who called me that.
Until we'd been married about five years and we'd just moved for the 3rd time. He'd accepted his first job in management at the phone company and--though up until then, I'd always had a job, I didn't get one when we got to Osage City, KS. I was about 7 months pregnant at the time so it seemed pretty pointless.
When we'd been in Osage about a week, his staff at the phone company had a pot luck dinner to 'welcome' us to town. They invited all of the employees as well as various business men and city boosters and dignitaries and for the most part, it was very informal, with an hour or so of mingling and happy hour prior to the actual dinner. It was approaching time for the actual dinner and the minor formalities to begin and I was feeling very strange and sort of isolated. Dan was doing his thing, moving about, talking to people, making friends and influencing people. I was kind of standing at the side of the room, watching and letting people come to me.
One of his office group approached me with her hand out and a huge smile and I could tell this was someone I was going to like. She gave me her name as she gave me her hand and I returned the favor, saying, "Nice to meet you. I'm Vivian." (Ok, I'm giving you that much. See why I wasn't really anxious?)
The smile disappeared immediately. The look on the poor woman's face was nothing short of shocked and appalled--with maybe a little awe thrown in for good measure. And I was instantly confused and hesitant. And THEN Dan joined us and said, "Alfie, I want you to..." whatever it was he wanted me to do.
The woman's face suddenly looked like a light bulb went off and I suddenly had a light bulb of my very own over my head. Obviously, Dan had been talking affectionately about "Alfie" at work and when he finally showed up with a wife, it was an very pregnant woman named "Vivian." I quickly re-introduced myself as Alfie and everyone was smiling after that.
I officially gave up trying to be Vivian after that. Life sure got easier and I've gradually grown into the name that everyone believes fits. (Except my family and friends who knew me 'when.' Sometimes addressing Christmas cards and remembering which person should sign them gets tricky.) See, I told you he was good at nicknaming people.
My biggest disappointment was when Harlequin wouldn't let me use it as my pen name when I was signing my first contract with them and they were requiring everyone to take pen names. Since the line I was writing for had a huge following in Great Britain, they worried that everyone there would think I was male since Alfie is a male name there.
