Sex with my friends

A fellow writer is helping me out with a scene in my novel that I'm doing edits/revisions on. My antagonist in this book is named Frank and she commented how it reminded her of a fellow writer we both know named Frank Baron (this guy: http://www.frankbaron.com/index.htm ).

I not only agreed with her on that part but...I didn't mention that there USED to be a scene in this book where my character, Frank, has sex with the protagonist, Laura.

And I had to write ALL of that. Every time I saw the name Frank, it reminded me of our friend.

And, uh...I DO NOT think of Frank that way!! Seriously! I don't!

I wrote out that scene thinking, "It's only a story. Get it over with. It's only a story." Thankfully, that scene got axed. Whew!

But...it reminds me of just how hard it is to write fiction and KNOW other writers, both of fiction and, uh, semi-fiction.

Another friend, Ray Wong ( http://www.raymondwong.com/ ), wrote the novel The Pacific Between, a book I LOVED! There is one scene in there where...it's ALMOST sexual. But, not quite. All the same, I was covering my eyes and thinking, 'OK. This isn't Ray. This is..his character. Yeah! His CHARACTER! Not Ray. No, that's NOT Ray!!'

It's kinda funny but I actually struggle with those kinds of things. Maybe from now on I'll be sure to give my characters names of people I DON'T know!! (FYI: I named my character "Frank" long before I actually "met" Frank via the Internet. I just never changed the name. Stranger still: My protagonist's name is Laura. And! Drumroll, please: The writer helping me is ALSO named Laura. LOL She even joked, "Thanks for warning me about Frank." LOL!!!)

Well, I MAY have a character named Liam in my NaNo book....but, FORTUNATELY, there is NO SEX in this one. Not even physical intimacy. Not even HUGGING, fer crying out loud! Nothing AT ALL. Which is a good thing. I really don't want Liam Jackson's wife to start sending me hate mail. *ducks*
(Liam's site: http://liamjackson.com/index.html )