Wildly Successful Authoress (Candace Bushnell, “Sex and the City”) entered the downtown Borders in white Prada heels and a good mood to match to match. Hours before, she learned that her new book “Trading Up” made The New York Times bestseller list and had a good review coming from the same paper later that week.
- J. Brady McCollough
- A woman who likes to talk about male genitalia?! <i>(GASP!)</i> (Courtesy of Hyperion)
Book Reporter Guy was in a good mood, too. He had an interview with one of today’s most popular writers, who arrived right on time.
“Trading Up,” the new book, continues the story of model Janey Wilcox, a character from Wildly Successful Authoress’ last book, “4 Blondes.” In “Trading Up” Wilcox “works” her way to social success, money, and a modeling contract with Victoria’s Secret – but won’t rest until, what else, she finds true love.
In person, Wildly Successful Authoress shies away from saying exactly how Wilcox got to the top, “When she’s with the rich guy, she sort of…whatever…she’s not being the most perfectly behaved person.”
Of course Wilcox slept with the rich guy for money, but Wildly Successful Authoress acted like she knew nothing about Janey Wilcox’s rise to the top, as if she hadn’t written the story.
“See? I’m very different from Janey,” said WSA. “I don’t approve of everything she does.”
While Wildly Successful Authoress separated herself from her characters (She just got married, you know), she said she understands the type of people readers want to spend their time with.
“Who doesn’t want to read about badly-behaved, rich, attractive people? They’re people who we secretly might want to be. If you’re going to college, you’re not going because you want to sit at home. A lot of people go to college because they want to be successful, and New York is one of the centers of success.”
But even success, Book Reporter Guy learned, won’t guarantee you a girl like Janey Wilcox.
“It’s sort of a universal fantasy, being with a supermodel, so then you read this book and find out it takes a lot more than money to get a girl like Janey Wilcox. Still, a lot of men love my writing because they think I’m honest.”
Book Reporter Guy remembered the honesty of the “Sex and the City” columns and the flashy titles given to them – “Meet the Guys Who Bed Models!” and “City in Heat! Sexual Panic Seizes Mr. Big.” He asked her for a good title to use with his piece.
“I could come up with something, but you probably wouldn?t want to use it. But it would be something like ‘Adorable Young College Guy Interviews Big City Author.'”
“Adorable?” Teddy bears and puppies are adorable, not college seniors, Book Reporter Guy thought. Then, he remembered “adorable” might be appropriate coming from someone more than twice his age. She sure doesn’t look it, though, he thought, before he realized he should be paying more attention to her words.
“Sometimes I think I could write about people in the Midwest. But I promise you they’d be just as awful as New Yorkers. I promise you there’s a lot of trading up going on at your university, right under your nose.”
Before her reading, Wildly Successful Authoress signed Book Reporter Guy’s copy of “Sex and the City,” “To the Real Mr. Big,” and Book Reporter Guy knew she didn’t write that on just any guy’s book. Right?