"Sex and the City" back to the beginning - again

The author responsible for "Sex and the City" is at it again. Candace Bushnell has written the second prequel book to her well-known series. Her first book, "Carrie Diaries" introduced Carrie in high school.

Her next book starts off where the last book left off: after high school graduation. "Summer in the City," a young adult book, follows Carrie to her first jaunt to New York city for the summer.

But the book, perhaps most importantly, tells the story of how Carrie met her longtime pals, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte.

On "The Early Show" co-anchor Chris Wragge called prolific Bushnell the George Lucas of books.

He added, "It's hard to believe that it's been so long since 'Sex and the City' debuted on HBO in 1998."

Bushnell said, "The crazy thing is I started writing it in 1994."

But Bushnell says she loves the strong female characters.

"I had such a great time revisiting the characters in this new iteration and incarnation because they're young. Carrie is 17, turning 18. Miranda is about 18 and Samantha, who was always eight years older, of course, is 25 years old, and they're all thrown together."

Bushnell continued, "Samantha is the one who, she's kind of telling Carrie about the city and the way it is and the way men are, and meanwhile, Miranda is a hardcore feminist. Carrie meets her in front of Saks Fifth Avenue and Miranda is protesting against pornography, which was a real thing in the early '80s. It was a time when there was so much feminism in the air, and a lot of, actually a lot of anger, because you know, equality between the sexes it was not the way it is today. And there was a lot of sexual harassment, which is hinted at in Samantha's story. So Carrie ends up getting sort of the two sides of, you know, this budding freedom of sexuality, and at the same time this sort of feminist anger that things with men aren't the way they should be."

Bushnell said the experience shapes Carrie to be the woman readers meet in the book, "Sex and the City."

Wragge asked Bushnell what the big takeaway is about her beloved characters today.

Bushnell explained, "For young women is really is about finding yourself and being an individual, and in fact all three of the characters, Carrie and Miranda and Samantha, although there are different sides of their personalities, they're all on that journey to define who they are outside of society's expectations for women."

Wragge remarked, "Interesting it kind of defined a generation, too. It is something that took on a life of its own and now there's just so many things that are synonymous with Carrie with 'Sex and the City,' with New York City, so many identifiable things with the show that kind of comes back to your idea way back when."

"Exactly," Bushnell said.