Of names and Google

Ever since I started this blog, I've googled myself, I admit. I choose to ignore the fact that no one knows my name enough that they'd actually want to google me though eventually, like when I start querying, someone might actually look me up. I've read, I think on Miss Snark's blog, people talking about their concerns over what comes up when their name is googled. I'm not concerned; I figure agents are smart enough to realize that the Web is full of all sorts of wild and crazy things -- and, y'know, people.

I'm not concerned; I'm just amused.

If I google my name, in quotes, this blog is the 7th result and my user profile on blogger is the 8th. The amusing part is the 10th result, which is apparently a porn story. It would seem that some writer managed to give my exact first and last name to a character in a porn story they wrote. Heh. Like I said, amusing.

But that brings me to another, only slightly related topic. When I name characters I go to great lengths to avoid using names of people I know. Or, if I use the first names of people I know (I mean, come on, there are some names that it's just damn hard to avoid using), then I try to make them minor characters. Does anyone else ever wonder if they've given their characters names of real people?

I should google some of my characters, see what pops up.

Y'know, if I ever googled myself and came up with a book that had my name for a character, I might read it. So long as it wasn't porn. That would freak me out.