December 1, 2009 -- 4:42 p.m.
Real life friend of author sues her for libeling her in her fictional book and wins.
I haven't red the "Red Hat Club" book, but apparently one of the characters in it was based on a real-life person, but twisted to become an alcoholic, promiscuous person. And the person who it was based upon took offense. She recognized the incidents in her life and sued, claiming defamation.
I'm a little surprised she won, but she did, which is a reminder to all writers that--whether you like this verdict or not--it's important to disguise your characters really well. If you borrow from a friend's life, change the incident enough and mix in enough different character traits that nobody will ever know.
Obviously there's something going on behind the scenes between the plaintiff and the defendant that made it so the plaintiff couldn't just laugh it off, so I think there must be more to the story in this case. I covered the court beat as a reporter for 1.5 years, and I would have enjoyed covering this one.
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