Candace Bushnell: Literary Foreplay
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Now she's just released The Carrie Diaries (HarperCollins, 2010), a coming-of-age story that focuses on the high school senior year of a small-town girl named Carrie Bradshaw, who, as we all know, ends up as the main character from Sex and the City and Bushnell's alter-ego. SLJ caught up with Bushnell to talk about her latest YA book and how much of it comes from real life.
How much of The Carrie Diaries is autobiographical?
I learned a long time ago to take myself out of my books as much as possible to allow the characters to breathe. So there's nothing that happened to Carrie Bradshaw that happened to me. But I tried to keep the emotional truth of what it's like to be that age.
What were your high school days like growing up in Glastonbury, CT?
I had lots and lots of girlfriends. One or two boyfriends, briefly. I rode horses, played tennis, performed in school plays, and caused as much general mayhem as possible. I have a sister who is one year younger-when she turned 16, my father, worried about our driving skills, bought us a gianormous old Cadillac, which we promptly destroyed. It was as big as a boat. I was always crashing the front end into trees, while my sister kept ripping away guardrails every time she tried to get on the highway. Her nickname was "Mario Guardrailis."
What's your worst memory from those years?
When I had to tell my father that I'd crashed the front end of the Cadillac into two trees. I actually tried to hide the evidence by parking the car in the barn. I got caught pretty quickly, but, strangely, my father wasn't that upset. We kept the car until my youngest sister graduated from college, at which time my father had to sell the poor old Cadillac for scrap metal.
Do you think the teenage Carrie Bradshaw will end up being a role model for today's kids?
I only tried to make the character and the book authentic. I never go into a book with a calculated idea of what it's supposed to be about and what the characters should represent. The book unfolds as I'm writing it and often I don't know what will happen from one day to the next. If Carrie is a role model, that's fantastic, but it's most important that the character and her emotions and reactions feel real to the audience.
Carrie Bradshaw has become a brand. Do you see the younger Carrie following in those footsteps?
It's out of my sphere of influence, so I never think about it.
Many high school and YA librarians will be adding this book to their collections. I'm curious to know what books you enjoyed reading in high school?
I read all the Evelyn Waugh books. I wanted to be Evelyn Waugh. I remember being 12 or 14 and thinking if I could only become Evelyn Waugh, I'd be happy. I also had a thing for Kurt Vonnegut. I read all his books, too. Later, when I was in my early twenties, I went back and tried to read them again, but the experience wasn't the same as when I was 17.
Who would you like to see playing the teenage Carrie if it makes it to TV or the big screen?
There aren't any plans at the moment to make the Carrie Diaries into a movie or television show, so you'll just have to read the books to find out what happens to her!
So is there a Carrie picture book in the works?
Ha! Ironically, back when I was 19, the first piece of writing I sold was a picture book called Dress the Bear. It was supposed to be like Pat the Bunny (Random, 1940) but was never published-apparently, children wanted to pat a bunny but didn't want to dress a bear.
As the creator of Carrie Bradshaw, do you feel any pressure to uphold an image?
No. When I go out to special events, I don't mind dressing up-it's part of the social culture, just as when I competed in dressage I was expected to wear a particular kind of coat, hat, and riding glove. The rest of the time, I'm rotating a few pairs of jeans, special cotton T-shirts from Aspen, and beetling around in a pair of scratched, cat's-eye glasses that are so old, they're basically not even my prescription anymore. In other words, I look like a middle-aged version of my 12-year old self-except I could see a lot better back then.
Are you a big user of social media?
I have to admit, I can barely keep up with my emails! But a friend encouraged me to go on Facebook, so that's all I can manage for the moment.
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