Is it just me or does the latest novel from Sex and the City writer Candace Bushnell strike you as an unlikely target for Guccifer, the hacker previously associated with infiltrating top figures in the US government and the Bush administration in particular, targeting the likes of George W Bush himself and Colin Powell. Most recently memos from Sidney Blumenthal, for former aide to Bill Clinton, distributing memos sent to Hilary Clinton but reformatted on pink backgrounds with Comic Sans font...
Candace Bushnell's latest novel, Killing Monica, was yet unpublished - that was until Guccifer hacked into Bushnell's accounts and started tweeting extracts from the first 50 pages to the author's Twitter feed.
Not only was the incident extremely concerning and embarrassing for Bushnell but while she was frantically trying to regain control of her account, Guccifer started posting screenshots of her terrified emails to her editor and agent: "Oh dear, this is terrible". Then, in a final moment of indulgence, Guccifer claims responsibility for the hacking and how does he do it? Oh just by sending an email from the AOL account of actor Rupert Everett.
Luckily the book world has decided to roll with the 'this is great publicity' slant on the whole incident, rather than scrap the book entirely. Jack Perry of Digital Book World said:
The pages are not edited nor approved for consumers. But her fans will know that and will be thrilled to get a 'sneak peak. This is great publicity for a book that isn't even written yet.
Of course Bushnell isn't the first author to fall victim to literary leaks; JK Rowling has had her fair share of scares, as did Spice Girl Mel B with her memoir and Twilight writer Stephanie Meyer, who felt forced to abandon her sequel to the series, Midnight Sun.
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