When I first wrote Alexandra I quite naturally showed it to my friends and family to ask their option. I received a whole range of feedback from the “Oh, it’s nice”s to some serious and constrictive criticism. (Plus a whole bunch of “Oh my god! You can’t write stuff like that!”.)
But the reaction that most surprised me was the question “Is it real?”
It is a question I have since found many erotic writers are asked.
It is a question that says more about the questioners than it does the author who gets asked it.
If you write a story about a bank robbery, people don’t ask if you rob banks.
If you write a story about a murder, people don’t assume that you have committed murdered.
If you write a story about sex, people want to know who you did it with.
It doesn’t matter what sex acts that you portray your characters performing, from the most plain vanilla to the most outrageous BDSM, people always want it to be real. They want all the juicy details of who you really did it with.
You can repeatedly tell them that it is fiction, and they will smile and say, “No, really. You can tell me. Was it [insert random name]?” as they give you a conspiratorial wink.
I suppose this attitude could be explained by the fact that not everybody robs banks, there are very few murderers amongst us, and has anyone ever met an international playboy spy? But everybody has sex, or at the very least wants to have sex:-).
What amused me most was that half the people I first showed Alexandra to assumed that it was based on my relationship with a particular girl, let’s call her A. But the other half, who knew me when I had another girlfriend, let’s call her B, assumed that it was her that I was writing about. The two girls were as alike as chalk and cheese!
I must repeat that neither the Alexandra or Jasmine characters are based on past girlfriends of mine.
But this is a bit like telling people that you are not gay. The more often one says “I am not gay.” The more people think you are. At least that is what happens to me 
.
So I must repeat neither Alexandra or any other story I publish is real.