And their characters are anything but fictional ... The events of Nic's first year in college in real life and Beautiful Boy ...

but nothing is wholesale," the Great Big Beautiful Life author tells PEOPLE for a story in this week's print issue. "And so there's not characters who are just straight-up characters from my real ...

The only type of “love” I feel is when I see an attractive fictional ... people and fictional characters, but they don’t compare with what exists in real life. I think you need real life ...