The big questions...

Two questions have been asked numerous times:

1. Which character are you?

2. How much of the book really happened?

Let's start with number two, just to be difficult. Yes, some events in the book are 100 percent verbatim of what happened to me. Other parts I played witness. Some stories I have the scars to prove, and other people that were there will back up the story.

So, yes, a lot of it's true.

On the other hand, good portions -- even entire chapters and plot lines -- are completely fictitious. There's no way I could have all of that happen to me and still be alive (Chapter 2).

Which is which I'm not going to divulge for obvious reasons. One, it takes away a small bit of mystique of the story. Two, the statute of limitations hasn't passed and my friends and I didn't get caught then, so we'd like to keep it that way.

There's no 50-50 split on truth versus fiction, but those that were there for the real stories know where I embellished. Other parts I stole directly from my own life.

Now, onto the question that gets asked the most: Which character are you?

To that I say: I am as much of every character of my book as I am not. There is no single character or group that is entirely based on me. (C'mon, I'm pretentious, but not that bad.)

Any fiction writer will tell you a single character is not usually based on one single person, but rather a grouping of people. Creating fiction is sort of like Thanksgiving dinner -- you have a lot on your plate and if you want, you can just smash everything together and make paste of it.

I based my characters on different friends at different points in our lives. Some was me, but it was also my family, college friends, co-workers at the dozens of jobs I've had, people I've known from around and anywhere else I've ever run into a human being.

I'm not Chris nor am I Ethan, yet I am both in certain aspects. I know that doesn't make sense because it doesn't make sense to me.

There is no simple answer.