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Longtime “Sex and the City” fans, with cocktails in hand, listened intently to author Candace Bushnell tell the story of the inception of her latest book, “Summer and the City” at Margarita Grill in Westhampton Beach on Saturday, August 6.
“Cocktails with Candace” was hosted by Books & Books Westhampton Beach president, Jack McKeown, who said during the event that having Ms. Bushnell visit was a privilege. And Ms. Bushnell responded by saying she felt just as privileged to be asked to come and speak.
“It’s great to support independent bookstores,” she said. “And writers are always really grateful for bookstores like Books & Books.”
The author explained that “Summer and the City” is the prequel story to “Sex and the City.” She said that a prequel wasn’t something she planned on doing when she was writing the original “Sex.”
“At the time, all I wanted to do was get a book published,” Ms. Bushnell said. “Time was a-wasting and I wasn’t getting any younger. Most of the women my age wanted to get married, and I wanted to get a book published.”
After all the success with the television series based on the book, it was hard to imagine that there was more to tell. But Ms. Bushnell said she felt like the audience may want to know about Carrie Bradshaw before she became a big-shot city girl.
“The late ’70s and early ’80s, New York was rougher, amazingly exciting and much more dangerous,” she said. “I wanted to write about how a girl from the suburbs can embrace her uniqueness and become a really interesting person, kind of like how I did. And who better to take on that journey than Carrie Bradshaw?”
The new title also tells the story of Carrie meeting her future best friends, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte.
“I had a fantastic time going back in time and revisiting the characters in this new iteration,” Ms. Bushnell said. “While writing the book, every morning I would get up and I’d be with Carrie, Samantha and Miranda, so I had a great time.”
After Ms. Bushnell spoke about the new book, fans had an opportunity to ask her some questions. Several jumped at the chance to learn more about their favorite “Sex and the City” characters.
One fan was anxious to know about the inspiration for Ms. Bradshaw’s on-again-off-again love, the mysterious, Mr. Big. The crowd gasped after learning that the character was based on a real man. “Mr. Big is a real person, an ex-boyfriend of mine,” Ms. Bushnell admitted. “And he’s called ‘Mr. Big’ because he was the big man on the campus of New York City. He had a reputation, and he loved it. After about a year and a half, he dumped me and married somebody else, just like what happened in the series, but all that other stuff that happened with Carrie and Mr. Big, the affair, that didn’t really happen. That’s all TV. The audience wanted Mr. Big back, so we had he and Carrie have an affair. But that’s the difference between real life and TV.”
Ms. Bushnell also shared that the “real” Mr. Big does know that the character is based on him, though she was reluctant to name actual names.
Another “Sex and the City” reader asked Ms. Bushnell which is her favorite character to write but the author had a hard time choosing just one.
“With each character you really have to put yourself into their shoes,” Ms. Bushnell said. “So, I really try to bring the character to life and I had fun doing that with each and every one of them.”
When one fan asked when Ms. Bushnell knew she had hit on something big with the characters, she said it was the day she and her editor decided to make the television series happen.
“I was getting approached by big companies and I remember it really felt like my big break,” she said. “I had been living in New York since 19 and suddenly I was 33. Part of the lure of New York City is when you are going to get your big break, and on that day, I think I knew.”
Heather Girgenti on Aug 8, 2011