*Blog Tour* Country Mouse by Amy Lane & Aleksandr Voinov *Riptide Publishing*

Authors:
Amy Lane
Aleksandr Voinov
Country Mouse by Amy Lane and Aleksandr Voinov

Owen may be a bit of a country mouse, but he’s loving his vacation in London. After a long day playing tourist, he’s on the hunt for some cheap beer and a good burger. Instead he finds a man hunting him, an arrogant prick with only one thing on the brain: the kind of meat that doesn’t come on a bun.

Eighty-hour weeks at a trading desk don’t leave Malcolm Kavanagh much time for meaningful relationships. Besides, in his world, everything’s a competition—even sex. When his newest one-night-sub fails to show, Malcolm sets his sights on the pretty young Yank on the bar stool beside him.

Owen’s all for an adventure with a native, but he’s not the pushover Malcolm thinks he is, and Malcolm’s not as shallow as he tries to be. They both soon learn that nothing's too intimate to share with a stranger, and the strangest things happen when two people share the most important pieces of their hearts.

I obtained the above information from Riptide Publishing website.

Now, I am pleased to welcome Amy Lane and Aleksandr Voinov to the lair to talk about their book!


While Amy and I did share the characters and so it’s not completely clear-cut who wrote which character, I guess I can’t deny that Malcolm in Country Mouse is more “my” character.

For a long time, I’ve had a fascination with City boys. I was a financial journalist for about four years and have encountered a number of pretty colourful people. The banker who invited me to his private club for an interview and just waved at the bartender to put our drinks on his tab (the place had a huge flatscreen running sports at half past eight in the morning, wood panelling and antique furniture); the corporate lawyer who spoke of sleeping under his desk the night before the deal was finalized and shaving on the office toilet; the financial investor who, without a hint of irony, called himself a “master of the universe” (this was pre-2008/9, when all his deals exploded).

There’s something about that ego and brashness that I find fascinating. Many of these people are charming and draw you in. For a while, you believe you are inhabiting their world – then they casually drop a mention of their yacht or jet or owning a place on the Maledives, and you realize in their world you’re just a peon.

So, big egos, big numbers, big paycheques and generally a totally different world. As a journalist I resolved two things: one – I can only get their life if I accept it has very little to do with my life, and two – in order to achieve their positions, they have to be a certain type. Extremely smart, extremely hard-working, and they sacrificed a great deal to get where they were when I interviewed them. Family life. Hobbies. Hell, even sleeping in. There’s this saying in investment banking – and I borrowed it for Malcolm – that there’s an unspoken deal: You give the bank the ten best years of your life, and in return, you walk away with a few million in the pocket.

Obviously, with the crisis and all, nothing is quite as casual and clear-cut as it was. For one, bankers (or “banksters”, as the media used to call them) are now almost as dirty as serial killers. They did sink the economy, after all. And I bet the guys I talked to – if they still have jobs, because many don’t, some retired, others changed careers, like the senior banker I met in Germany one evening, who is now helping his father run his transportation company – I bet they are genuinely hurt by the bad press. Also, their bonuses have been cut. Some made very little money (by their standards – normal mortals can’t dream of six-figure bonuses – but if you’re used to seven figures and were “banking” on it, I bet that grates).

What I’m saying is – all the brash and ego I encountered can’t disguise that I really liked some of those
 people. It also doesn’t disguise that they made a deal with the devil. Ten years of your life for a few millions and financial security. Since none of us really knows how many years we have to spend, I always figured it’s a risky proposition at best, and if the devil gave me the same choice, I likely wouldn’t take that offer. (It would mean ten years of not writing and sacrificing everything else, too). Now, there’s an idea for a story – the Devil and the Banker.

But yeah, that’s at the heart of Malcolm. Here’s a financial guy who suddenly realized that, hey, stop, his life’s on autopilot and there are Other Things out there he could do. Have a relationship, hobbies, a personal life – what an outrageous idea.

And remember... Always keep it Dirty, Smutty & Hussy!