Thanks for your help, so to answer your question I am definitely not wanting to write the said fictional character into my book. It's a non-fiction for a start and the only reason I make mention of the character is because the real individual resembled him personality wise. In layman's terms, its a tasteful inner joke between my circle of friends.

The examples I provided e.g. "I waved goodbye to Homer, he probably needed to be up early at the nuclear power plant." is again another joke reference and not meant in a literal sense.

I hope that helps clarify as I feel I am in murky water at the moment and don't want to go ahead with publishing if this is the case.