Think what you like about the blond, often-photographed author Candace Bushnell. While her celluloid counterpart, an actress who is purportedly down to earth, once sniped in an interview, "Does [Bushnell] travel with her own lighting people now?" Bushnell is loathe to say anything bad about anyone, on or off the record. The actress has since debuted her own perfume. Bushnell has no new tricks, just a new novel.

Lipstick Jungle (Hyperion, $24.95) is in a lot of ways just what you would expect from Bushnell. It's sexy, features modern women in the most modern of predicaments, and features a hefty dose of gloss and style. But this novel moves at text-message speed, and deals with a topic perhaps yet unknown by her biggest fan base (i.e., young women): managing the monster that is a successful career.

The three female characters in Lipstick Jungle are at the top of their games and happy to have come out on the other side of their 40s on top — just like Bushnell. But the happy ending is… well, to hear Bushnell tell it, the happy ending is in continuing the day-to-day process that got you there in the first place, and in remembering where you've been.

"It's because part of success is perspective. I don't think one can continue to be successful without perspective. People lose it and become madmen. I think that one of the things that women would like to do is be successful and be better at it than men, and not make the same mistakes we see them making. I try to put the characters in a lot of the same situations men find themselves in, and see how do they deal with it."

Which seems to make Lipstick Jungle the postmodern Valley of the Dolls, in that it deals with topics slightly ahead of its time (and in that the character name Nico O'Neilly echoes Neely O'Hara). Bushnell says she thought up the name 10 years ago, and, "kind of, yeah, probably, this is my Valley of the Dolls. That book takes place over 20 years, but yeah. That book had so many modern elements in it. It had breast cancer, I don't think anybody had ever written about it before, pre-nups, too. It's the story of young women moving to the big city seeking fame and fortune. The Group is the same story; it has lousy men, crappy apartments, birth control, lesbian friends, and that was written in the 1950s."

Speaking of women in the city, Bushnell claims that New York is, now more than ever, a city for women.

"It sounds kind of cliched, but I really am inspired by the women I know. The characters in LJ are the kind of women I know in New York that are fantastic. [Sex and the City] was inspired by that, but then, we thought that finding a guy was the answer. The girls that were S and TC girls 10 years ago are now LJ women. I can sit down and call 20 women right now and say, 'I need your help,' and they will. It's great to be with a guy, and everyone wants love, but at the same time you know you can't really rely on men."

Just one of the pitfalls of being a successful modern woman. It doesn't mean you give up. Bushnell has some advice for her readers still trying to make it.

"It always comes down to the same thing. You gotta do the work. You gotta pay your dues. Success is about sacrifices, about passion and commitment."

And compromise?

"I don't think compromise is the right word. It's negative. In business, if you wanna get the deal done, there are times when you don't get everything you want. But you're still getting the deal done. It's simpler to have the larger goal in mind."

Candace Bushnell reads Thu., Sept. 22; 12:30 p.m., Penn Bookstore, 3601 Walnut St., 215-898-7595; 7 p.m., Borders, 1 S. Broad St., 215-568-7400.