When writing my short story “More” for the “Bound for Love” anthology edited by the talented Sascha Illyvich, I focused on elements of the real world in my tale. That included using friends of mine as characters within the sexy story of past lives, slam poets and pink duct tape. Fox, for instance, is a real guy. And a great guy, whose poetry continues to shape the landscape of creative prose. When I asked him if I could use him as a character in “More,” he was more than open to the idea.
The art of characters that exist in the real world is nearly as old as writing itself. It's done all the time. Kerouac, for instance, made his living off it in my opinion. Like him, many authors choose to model their characters on those who have influenced them in the real world, though not all use their actual names or variants of their names, but everything else is true to the real life source.
Would I want to be a character in a story full of lust and orgasms? Hell yeah. Who wouldn't? As this is an election year and the news is full of conservative white men hoping to drive their moving truck up to the White House, there probably are a few that would stamp their feet and raise their hands, proclaiming “not me!” But I don't buy it. If anything, they wouldn't want the world to know about it.
As is so often the case, the story of sex is something everyone likes to look sideways at and hope no one sees them while they do it. But they all look. And again, being an election year, the news is ripe with allegations of those who are seen and those who are caught looking. Everyone likes a good scandal. Especially if there's hot sex involved.
To me, using real people in a sex story adds a spicy, racy dynamic that might have been missing from my story were they not in it. Are names changed? Sometimes. Are their acts fictionalized? Yes. Is it awesome to be memorialized in print? Hell yeah.
PM White's story "More" is one of ten featured tales in Bound for Love, a BDSM Romance anthology out now from Sizzler Editions
How absolutely brilliant! I would love to be a character in one of PM White's sex stories. Some ideas please -- and I have a few of my own!
ReplyDeleteGood post. When I was a kid, a local mystery author ran a contest. Buy his book, send a copy of the receipt and by a draw, he would pick a winner and write you into the next book.
ReplyDeleteWonder if such a contest could work for an erotica writer? :D
A.H.