Josh Kilmer-Purcell, author of the 2006 memoir I Am Not Myself These Days, has switched genres with his sophomore effort, Candy Everybody Wants. In the novel, the author writes about the adolescence he wishes his closeted, virginal, small-town Midwestern self could have experienced. The book tells the story of 15 year-old Jayson Blocher (the "y" has been added for extra flair), who tapes a homemade pilot for a nighttime soap named Dallasty! in his backyard. Jayson is confident that if he wraps up filming by the end of summer vacation, he can mail his tape to Hollywood execs, sign the required paperwork, and star in a mid-season replacement instead of spending his junior year in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

After the success of his memoir, Kilmer-Purcell decided to write a second one about the young Josh. Upon realizing that his "37-year table of contents" only had chapters entitled "Josh Has First Panic Attack Over Cub Scout Pine Wood Derby" and "Our Hero Hides His Homosexuality Under a Cloak of Virginal High-School Nerdiness," he decided to write his autobiography as he wished it had happened, and Candy Everybody Wants was born.

Kilmer-Purcell was a self-described "shy, anxious, faggy little kid" who dreamed of being on television. He planned to catch a break in the studio audience of the Milwaukee television show Bowling for Dollars and was convinced that if his mom would just drive him to Milwaukee, something would happen. Like the protagonist of Candy Everybody Wants, Kilmer-Purcell regularly filmed his own backyard television pilots, running off camera between takes to switch outfits. He never played in drag, however, because his secret would have gotten out.

Unlike the protagonist of his novel, Kilmer-Purcell was only able to imagine the glamour and sparkle of New York City in the early 1980's from a distance.

"I was obsessed with celebrity," the author reveals. "That was the beginning of Entertainment Tonight. I knew celebrities from watching television shows, but that was the first meta-celebrity. Real celebrity reality. You can see where this has gotten us today."

Kilmer-Purcell himself is a proud product of this self-styled celebrity mania, and he attributes his first memoir's large youth readership to his MySpace blog. However, Candy Everybody Wants is entirely inspired by the earlier "unreal reality trend" of the 1980's.

"It started with [Ronald] Reagan. Reagan was 99% image and America bought it. Reagan was the first American Idol winner. It just blossomed with the nighttime soaps," said Kilmer-Purcell. "Maybe it was well-intentioned, but now it seems like everybody has to be a celebrity. YouTube, blogging…and I'm wrapped up in all of that!"

Kilmer-Purcell denies that being an author is his real job, nor was it ever his ambition; in fact, his ultimate plan was to host his own variety show. Kilmer-Purcell spent his early career as an advertising art director by day and an outrageous alcoholic drag queen at night. Putting on the drag queen outfit of Aquadisiac (a blonde bombshell with live fish swimming in her specially made clear breasts) allowed Kilmer-Purcell to be the celebrity he desired. He found an instant audience when he transformed into his alter-ego.

Drag queen Aqua is now retired but celebrated and cherished in the pages of I Am Not Myself These Days, which started as a collection of funny stories from Kilmer-Purcell's NYC drag circuit days. As he wrote vignettes about life as a star in the club circuit, he realized his love for Jack, a crack-addicted male escort, was the key to that entire period of his life. At the same time, he was developing a friendship with A Million Little Pieces author James Frey, who helped Kilmer-Purcell find a publisher for the memoir.

In addition to his current job as a partner at an ad agency, Kilmer-Purcell also manages to publish a column for Out, regularly interview modern celebrities, sell chemical-free goat milk soap made on the farm he shares with his partner Brent in upstate New York, befriend religious zealots who preach that God hates fags, and film a reality television show pilot. His next book is going to be about life on the farm, which he and Brent originally bought as an escape from their hectic city life. City life, unfortunately, just followed them to the farm.

"It's a book about how if you try to run away, you end up running in circles," he states. "You shouldn't run away, because you can't escape who you are."

Kilmer-Purcell has employed this high-energy approach to life since childhood, and he knew his book's title would have to incorporate candy.

"[As a child,] I was constantly on a sugar high all the time. I used to buy every new candy bar that came out. I was pop culture obsessed."

As a journalist, however, Kilmer-Purcell rarely feels a rush of celebrity high when he interviews modern stars. He's not interested in the A-listers or those struggling to get the spotlight. Instead, he'd be thrilled to mingle with actors such as Gary Coleman, Bea Arthur, or Charlene Tilton. The latter even stars alongside Kilmer-Purcell's MySpace friends in a performance of Dallasty! , which was released by MySpaceTV recently.

"There's a certain kind of celebrity that fascinates me," he said, "The D-list and the Love Boat shows."

Characters inspired by these D-listers of yesteryear even appear in Candy Everybody Wants. For instance, Kilmer-Purcell refers to a "third Chrissy" from Three's Company in the book. He also writes of Helen Lawson (inspired by the character of the same name in Valley of the Dolls), a boozy, outrageously untamable D-list television dame who gives the fictional Jayson Blocher his first break in the industry.

"I started to think what someone like that would have gone on to do in the 1970's and I just continued that."

Kilmer-Purcell feared that all the cultural references of Candy Everybody Wants would limit his potential audience because, as he says, the target audience for the novel is "a tiny cross-section of 38-year old gay men who grew up in small towns." However, his perceived target audience didn't stop younger readers from enjoying his previous book. In fact, some of Kilmer-Purcell's biggest joys have come from interacting with readers of his memoir, including Andrew, the San Francisco high school senior who asked for tips on dressing as Aqua at school for Halloween. The day went swimmingly with the exception of one square calculus teacher.

Kilmer-Purcell concluded, "If Aqua had to sit through a boring calculus class led by an uncomfortable teacher [in order to] to make a favorable impression, then she's finally accomplished something truly productive."

Josh Kilmer-Purcell was also flattered by a shy female reader who acted out parts of the outrageous memoir for a classroom assignment. She didn't prepare her teacher or classmates for the character of Aqua, but the performance was a huge hit. She wrote a letter to Josh thanking him "for letting me be sparkly, if only for a few minutes."

The sparkle continues in Kilmer-Purcell's latest book, as protagonist Jayson Blocher experiences the ultimate gay celebrity dream. Perhaps with the release of Candy Everybody Wants, this will be the year of high school students dressing as characters from Dallasty!

(June, 2008)