New Adult Book Club discussion

So, this is set in the (near) past rather than being strictly contemporary?

Comparisons to _Sex and the City_ seem almost inevitable. How do your Gotham Girls compare to Bushnell's characters? Will fans of S&C find themselves at home here?

Delancey, Men and Martinis sounds great! The concept reminds me of Sex & the City (love) but for the NA crowd. How would you say M&M stands out from S&tC, making it a unique experience for us adults who enjoy reading NA too?

Where did you get the inspiration or motivation to write about a group of women at this point in time? And why in this industry?

Vicki wrote: "So, this is set in the (near) past rather than being strictly contemporary?"

HI Vicki! Yes, Men and Martinis (and the whole Girlfriends of Gotham series) is set in the late 1990s, during the dotcom boom in Manhattan. While Silicon Valley was big out west, Silicon Alley was the Internet center of NYC!

Stephanie wrote: "Comparisons to _Sex and the City_ seem almost inevitable. How do your Gotham Girls compare to Bushnell's characters? Will fans of S&C find themselves at home here?"

I hope that SitC fans will embrace the Girlfriends. Though my characters are younger and far more naive, they're dealing with lots of the same issues... and they have Carrie and the girls to look to for inspiration -- Sex in the City was HUGE during the time that the books are set. And while comparisons might be made now, the Girlfriends themselves were undoubtedly comparing themselves to Samantha and Charlotte and the others while the series was on.

Melissa wrote: "Delancey, Men and Martinis sounds great! The concept reminds me of Sex & the City (love) but for the NA crowd. How would you say M&M stands out from S&tC, making it a unique experience for us adult..."

Hi Melissa: I think M&M stands apart from SitC. The characters are younger and less experienced - a true NA crowd since they're dealing with first jobs and first loves. I feel like the SitC characters dealt with a lot of cynicism - they'd been looking for love and so much of that series was about the search. GofG covers that too, but I think more of this series focuses on the finding of love and growth that occurs when a woman realizes that the love she's found is (or isn't!) right for her life.

Susan wrote: "Where did you get the inspiration or motivation to write about a group of women at this point in time? And why in this industry?"

I think this was a series I was destined to write someday. I lived in NYC and worked in the Internet industry in the late 90s. I knew at the time that what I was living was something special, and that one day I'd try to write about it. I just hope I can do justice to what was an extraordinary 20-something experience.

Though I lived there and did have 5 best girlfriends (who are still best friends almost 20 years later, thanks to what we shared), the series isn't autobiographical. Much of it is based on our experiences, but the Girlfriends are unique unto themselves!