‘I’m sitting with Anton Slayne at Patrick O’Malleys Irish pub just off the Boston CBD. Anton’s recently landed a gig as the main character of a new series of books, beginning with A Subtle Agency and has agreed to give an interview for my Blog.’

‘So let’s begin Anton, how did you get the gig?’

‘Well, I saw an advertisement in the Boston Mercury for a main character for an upcoming novel, they said they were looking for someone who could play a star hockey player and Boston University freshman, so I brushed up my CV and sent it in.’

‘So what happened then?’

‘Well, there was a couple of rounds of interviews, and everything seemed to be going really good. I thought, solid, I’ve got it, my first major role - no more bit parts for me.’

‘Sounds like something unexpected happened.’

‘Yeah, they asked me if I wanted to be a vampire, and I can tell you, alarm bells started ringing straight away, and I thought to myself, well there’s a big red flag. I mean, what the hell - vampires? Really?’

‘Vampires?’

‘Yeah, what I thought too. Anyway, so the old geezer who’s running the show, he said he was toying with the idea that I might be better placed as one of the vampires.’

‘Shocking.’

‘Too right, so I said to him, that no way whatsoever, I was gonna play a damn vampire. And he ruminates on my response for minutes … so I’m waiting for the old fart to make up his mind, and then he comes out and says, it will all be okay, you don’t have to be a vampire.’

‘You would have been a relieved.’

‘Sure, but I’m going, what the hell in my mind, as I thought it was a sports story, and so what is all this talk about vampires. I just didn’t get it.’

‘So, did he do anything to clarify the situation?’

‘Well, he gave me an outline of the novel, and I read it. I’m still thinking this is a sports story, right, and I’m a freshman at Boston U, right. Yeah right, so I’m looking for a hockey tournament, with me as a star player. I’m looking for a championship game with me scoring the winning goal. I’m looking for hot cheerleaders and lots of them. I’m looking for drunken frat parties and pranks and laughs and fun. …’

‘But it wasn’t anything like that was it?’

‘No, nothing like it. It was a real downer, I was some guy who’s mother get’s murdered in our living room, and who’s father is abducted by really tough vampires. Not only that, I’ve been living in some weird witness protection and basically I’ve got enemies everywhere just looking to put me in an early grave. I nearly get killed half a dozen times in the first book, and then I see in the second book that I get shot, thrown off a cliff, and then hooded, gagged, bound and buried alive and that’s only in the first three chapters.’

‘That’s a tough gig.’

‘Even worse, my number one enemy, Chloe Armitage, who kills my mother and abducts my father, wants to use me in some plot of her own. And get this, her time on page is almost the same as mine. Hey, I thought I was gonna be the main character. What’s up with that?’

‘So what convinced you to take the job?’

‘Well, a guy has got to eat, and I was sick of playing bit parts in online computer games.’

‘It’s that simple?’

‘Yep, it’s that simple.’

‘Well, thank you Anton, its been wonderful to get some real insight into the inner workings of the job market for main characters.’

‘Sure, no problem.’

‘Thanks again.’

‘Cheers, hey, and thanks for the beer.’

‘It’s all good.’