Newsday's Aileen Jacobson looks at the unusual trajectory of Gabe Rotter and Lesley Arfin's friendship. Best friends when they were younger and growing up in Long Island, 29-year-old Rotter and 28-year-old Arfin eventually lost touch and only reconnected a year ago. Soon after they found each other again on the Internet about a year ago, they discovered they were both working on their first book, each quirky in its own way. And that their books - Arfin's DEAR DIARY and Rotter's DUCK DUCK WALLY - were to be published within months of each other.

Rotter remembers sending an e-mail to Arfin first, and Arfin recalls finding Rotter's MySpace page about a year ago and sending him a message - but however it started, they reconnected fast and were soon instant-messaging each other daily. (Their relationship was never romantic, both say, and still isn't. Rotter is married, and Arfin has a boyfriend.) "When he said he was writing a book, I couldn't believe it," Arfin says. "It was a crazy coincidence."

Another badge of connection? Each is a fan of Long Island, or at least of having grown up on Long Island. "I would never move back there, but it holds a special place in my heart," Arfin says. "Anytime I write fiction, it always takes place on Long Island.... There's no place like it, as far as I'm concerned." Rotter doesn't rule moving back sometime in the future: "I love Long Island," he says. "Long Island did so much for me. It informed my personality. . It's a badge I wear proudly in Los Angeles."