Bret Easton Ellis says his new book is a return to his most successful work

Novelist Bret Easton Ellis, author of the critically acclaimed novel "Less than Zero," revisits the same characters some 25 years later in the new sequel "Imperial Bedrooms."

Where are the characters from "Less Than Zero" now was the question that stuck with Ellis for years. So that's why he wrote "Imperial Bedrooms."

Ellis claims his own pondering about what happened to Clay, the main character of "Less Than Zero," sparked a picture in his mind which eventually developed into his new novel.

"I was haunted by the question where is Clay?" Ellis told KPCC's Patt Morrison. "I wanted to know where that 19-year-old boy was in his 40s. I started asking those questions and out of the answers a novel comes about. First you get a message, then you get a plan that reveals itself, and suddenly you're working on a book."

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Ellis said that his fictional character talked to him, asking, "'Where am I?' 'What am I doing?' 'Do you want to go there?' 'Do you want to hang out for a while?' Are we going to write another book together?'"

In "Less than Zero," Clay was just a student at Camden College in New Hampshire trying to find himself during a trip to Los Angeles over Christmas break. Today, in "Imperial Bedrooms," Clay is a successful Hollywood screenwriter.

But much of the old Clay comes out as the story progresses, Ellis says.

Ellis wanted the novel to be set in Hollywood because he felt it was the ideal scene to show both how much Clay had matured, but also how young he was at heart. Ellis insists his book is centered on sexual exploitation, and it's about the power of the casting couch in Hollywood.

"I think all of the books I’ve written have been critique of a kind of male behavior," said Ellis. "There is a sense of getting what I want, when I want it that is not only endemic to Hollywood but also to a way of American life. I thought 'Imperial Bedrooms' could be set anywhere but Clay was Hollywood-based as a kid and he never left."

To embellish the authenticity of the character's stories, and keep a connection with his novel of 25 years ago, Ellis said he decided to keep an Elvis Costello theme in the title. "Imperial Bedrooms" shares its name with a Costello album and song of the same name from 1982.

"I always wanted to have a connection between the two books and the connection would be the title," said Ellis. And once it was clear what 'Imperial Bedrooms' was going to be about it became clear what Elvis Costello title it would be."

Ellis claims the sequel was much easier to write and keep accurate because he identifies much more with his characters, saying as he has grown and matured just like them.

"Clay would have nothing to do with me," Ellis said jokingly. "Clay is a very very successful screenwriter with his own appetites and his own hungers. Yet he actually did share some of the traits that I had when [I] was working on the novel. I identified with him, I tuned into loneliness, his isolation, the narcissist hitting the wall and having to let go of certain things."

Ellis was tight-lipped about the plot of the novel, but did perhaps hint to the future saying he wouldn't rule out revisiting other characters from his other novels.