If you mixed Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls with The New York Post‘s Page Six, threw in a little Jackie Collins and a sprinkle of Candace Bushnell, you might get something close to former celeb PR agent and gossip chronicler Rob Shuter’s debut novel, It Started With a Whisper: A Novel Based on a Thousand Stories.

The book centers on four gossip columnists — one male, James, and three women — drawn from Shuter’s years in the trade, including his stint as a host on VH1’s The Gossip Table. Is James based on Shuter himself? “Sure,” he laughs. “He’s me … on a really good day, braver, sharper, slightly more reckless. I’m far more cautious in real life — but the foundation’s true. A working-class kid from Birmingham, somehow ending up on American television? That part still feels surreal.”

But while his novel may be fiction, the characters in it clearly had some real-life role models. Below, Shuter dishes on some of them.

Sean Combs: “Working with him was like being charmed by a magician who never shows you the trick. He’d lean in, make you feel like the most fascinating person in the room — quietly controlling every moving piece around you: a little P.T. Barnum, a little Donald Trump.”

Jennifer Lopez: “A machine — in the best possible way. Being J.Lo isn’t a role. It’s a full-time discipline. No off days. No slipping. Just relentless focus. I’ve watched people roll their eyes at her backstage, dismiss her, underestimate her … she sees it all. She works harder. And then she wins. Every time.”

Naomi Campbell: “Exactly as advertised. Glamorous, commanding, fully aware of her power, expecting you to be aware of it too. With Naomi, you either show up correctly … or you don’t show up.”

Kate Spade: “Kate was elegance with a secret. Polished, gracious — with a shadow just beneath the surface. She’d sneak cigarettes and devour gossip like it was dessert: Vogue in one hand, The National Enquirer tucked discreetly inside.”

Tyra Banks: “Completely, unapologetically Tyra. On a charity shoot, she realized she was the only one not getting paid — and corrected it immediately. No hesitation. No apology. Honestly? Respect.”

Two more books are on the way, and TV interest is already building on this first one. “Things are happening. Conversations are underway,” Shuter says. “The most surreal part? I don’t have an agent. Or a manager. Or a publicist. People are just … finding me. Sliding into my DMs.” Nancy Grace has already weighed in on the book: “If Jackie Collins and Truman Capote had a child,” she says, this would be it.