Thrilled to welcome Lainey Cameron to the blog today. Her Silicon Valley-set debut, The Exit Strategy, launches tomorrow!
Author Name: Lainey Cameron
Book Title: The Exit Strategy
Book Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction
Release Date: July 8, 2020
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
How would you describe The Exit Strategy?
Silicon Valley, sexism, and the power of female friendship. My main character, Ryn, is an investor who has bet everything on the deal of her career. What she didn’t imagine is facing her husband’s mistress across the negotiating table.
The story revolves around how these two career women, when placed in an impossible situation, deal with being forced to work together.
What sparked the idea for the story?
I’m a recovering tech industry executive; meaning I worked for twenty years in Silicon Valley, before stepping away to write this novel. This book was inspired by my personal experience of not-so-subtle sexism and often being the only woman in the boardroom.
I combined that with something that bothers me about portrayals of women in books and movies, especially in a cheating husband scenario. The stereotypes paint us as angry at the other woman instead of the man (almost irrationally so), and incapable of working together. The story almost always ends up circling around the husband (a revenge plot, for example).
But the women I know and love are better and smarter than that, so I wanted to write a book that broke with those stereotypes and went in a different direction, one where the women involved work to rise above the situation they were dumped into.
For someone who hasn’t read your writing before, why should they want to read The Exit Strategy?
There are two comments that are giving me special joy when I read the early reviews. One is readers are describing the book as a page-turner. Some are saying they read it over a weekend or even in one sitting, which amazes me, especially when it took me four whole years to write and perfect!
The other delight comments and emails I’ve received from women saying they relate to the sexism in the book, and that they loved how the ending, and the evolving relationship between the two women, gave them hope.
I had to fight to bring this book to the world (I was told over a hundred times that there was no readership for a book set in the workplace about women and friendship and sexism). So, when I see that the book can inspire hope, that makes me want to pump my fist and shout, “See told you! Women are bigger and smarter than the boxes people want to put us in!”
So true! Outside of writing and reading, what are your interests?
The biggest is travel and experiencing new cultures. Since I became a writer, my hubby and I have turned into digital nomads, meaning we pick locations to live for up to six months at a time. Few things give me more joy than making a connection across cultures and learning something that opens my eyes to different ways of living.
As a result, I wrote this book in France, Mexico, the UK, Cartagena in Colombia, and many other locations. We recently started living part-time in San Miguel de Allende, in Mexico. I’m especially grateful for this now, when we cannot travel because of the pandemic. But I hope to soon return to our regular lifestyle of experiencing new cultures by living (and working) in locations for an extended period.
Are you working on anything new?
Yes, it’s in its infancy, but my new project draws inspiration from my life since becoming a writer. It’s about a digital nomad Instagrammer living under a new name to hide her dark past. Given her new-found fame, she fears being exposed and forced to face an identity and history she’s fought to escape.
Sounds fascinating! Where can readers find you?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lainey_cameron
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laineycameronauthor
Follow Lainey on BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lainey-cameron
Website: https://www.laineycameron.com
Thank you, Lainey! The Exit Strategy is available July 8!
The Exit Strategy
Silicon Valley, sexism and the power of female friendship
Silicon Valley investor Ryn Brennan is on the verge of achieving everything she’d dreamed. She’s proven herself in the male-dominated venture capital world, benefits from the support of her successful husband, and is about to close the deal of her career.
Everything is going exactly as planned, until she meets Carly, her husband’s mistress, across the negotiating table.
Carly clawed her way back from being a teenage runaway to become an accomplished scientist, loving single mom, and co-founder of her startup. Once she marries her perfect fiancé, she’ll secure that ‘normal’ life she craves. But she’s blindsided to discover her not so perfect fiancé is already married—to Ryn, her company’s biggest investor.
In an industry full of not-so-subtle sexism, can the two women rise above, and work together to overcome heartbreak and ensure their success?
Author bio:
Lainey Cameron is a digital nomad and author of women’s fiction. A recovering tech industry executive, her award-winning novel, The Exit Strategy, was inspired by a decade of being the only woman in the corporate boardroom. It’s been called a “rallying call for women to believe in themselves and join together” and tells the story of a Silicon Valley investor who first meets her husband’s mistress across the negotiating table.