A warm welcome to new author Andi Lee joining us today to talk about her debut release “Mischief Maker”.
Welcome Andi 🙂
Hello! Thank you so much for having me, I’m so excited to be here! My name is Andi Lee and Mischief Maker is my debut novel. I’m sure you’ve guessed from the cover that I love animals, especially those that are small, fluffy and cute (though they don’t have to have fur for me to consider them cute–I used to own African Land snails, and they were very cute!)
Rats will always have a special place in my heart though, and I had so much fun putting my love of rats into Mischief Maker and creating characters who love rats as much as I do. I even used some of my own rats as inspiration for those that are in the book!
I wasn’t sure a book about two men falling in love at a pet rat show would be popular, rats are often seen as dirty and vicious—but I wanted to dispel these myths and show how cute and intelligent they are.
I was recently asked ‘why rats?’ my immediate response was ‘because they’re amazing pets!’ and they are, but it got me thinking. Why did I get pet rats as a teenager, and not hamsters? I’ve had hamsters as a child (I have one now, too!), they were readily available and what most kids had as pets. Why did I want rats and not hamsters?
Then I remembered a time my parents and I visited my older sister at university in Somerset. She was an art student there, and I loved going to visit her. We’d drive up in my parent’s camper that was painted bright blue and often got mistaken for an ice-cream van, and we’d stay a few nights at a local caravan park. Those were such fun times!
I was around nine years old on this one particular visit. We always explored the shops in town, mostly because I loved this one quaint little shop called Parrots that sold lots of Sylvanian Families furniture which I’d buy for my troll house (troll, not doll, me and my friends were obsessed with the bright coloured haired critters!)
On this particular visit there were a lot of people enjoying the sun and pottering about the town. On the way to Parrots I saw a man who was probably in his late teens or early twenties, wearing ripped tartan trousers, with a bright green Mohican. On his shoulder was the most adorable, huge, cream rat. The rat was so relaxed, spread out over this guy’s shoulder, not scared or worried at all. I couldn’t stop looking. Not because he was a punk with ripped clothes and bright hair, but because he had a rat on his shoulder, and the rat looked so tame, and seemed so sweet!
I think that was the moment I realised rats could be pets. From then on, I’d always look at them in pet shops, and borrow books from the library about them. The memory faded for a while, but my fascination with rats didn’t. Finally, at the age of fourteen I was allowed to have my very first pair!
I named them Lex and Zen. They were both girls, one was white with a cream hood, the other was white with a black hood—both completely different to the one I saw that day, but I must have unconsciously remembered the punk and his rat because I would take them everywhere on my shoulders with me, just like he did.
Maybe he’s the reason I like to dye my hair wacky colours too!
I wonder where he is now, and if he still has pet rats–It’s crazy to think that one small moment changed my life profoundly. I’m not sure if I would have thought about pet rats if I hadn’t walked past him in the street—which means I wouldn’t have written Mischief Maker, either!
An Animal Lark Novel
What to expect when your pet rat is expecting, or how to fall in love at a pet show.
Jamie Hewett rescues and breeds prize-winning fancy rats. While he’s surrounded by supportive, animal-loving friends, his ex-boyfriend has never been one of them. One embarrassing breakup later, he definitely isn’t looking for love again, but perhaps a rebound relationship might ease his broken heart.
Liam Donnelly’s quirky dating life is the subject of a popular vlog, and his viewers have interesting ideas on where he might find romance. When they suggest he take Mabel, his new rat, to a pet show, he’s up for the adventure.
Although they can’t deny their growing interest in each other, neither Jamie nor Liam believes in love at first sight. They’ve both had bad luck with men, and Jamie isn’t pleased that Liam makes a living as a serial dater. On top of that, others are conspiring to keep them apart, and Jamie is left holding the baby—or twenty-plus babies—when their fur children have no trouble making a connection. Will a YouTube ukulele serenade convince Liam that Jamie’s love for him—and their unborn rat children—is for real?
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Andi Lee lives in the UK, close enough to Birmingham city to be considered a ‘Brummie’, but far enough away to enjoy the Staffordshire countryside. She enjoys writing in many different genres as long as they contain a large dose of cute guys falling in love. She’s a sucker for a happy ending.
When she’s not writing, she enjoys making junk journals, and also jewellery out of polymer clay and resin. She has kept pet rats on and off for twenty years and fell in love with her first ferret when she found him on her way to work one day. She’s kept them ever since.
(And she apparently has an obsession with Vans—the shoes not the vehicles!)
Website: http://www.andileewrites.com
I loved this book!