Wednesday 4 March 2015

Book Promo & Guest Post - Grift

Grift follows a crew of orphaned teenage con artists living in Las Vegas. Piper, the main character, masquerades as a prostitute to con rich men. Unlike the others, she must split her time between hustling and raising her younger sister Sophie. Disaster strikes when Sophie gets kidnapped by the Las Vegas mafia, and the crew must rally to piece together the ransom money before the clock runs out.
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Author Bio:
Jason Mosberg lives in Los Angeles where he works as a screenwriter. He has optioned several feature screenplays to independent financiers. He wrote his first novel Grift while staying in cheap hotel rooms in Las Vegas. When he’s not writing, Jason can be found playing soccer, walking, and over analyzing everything.
Having grown up in Delaware, Jason attended Wake Forest University before he lit out for the west coast. His top five TV shows of all time are The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Six Feet Under, and Twin Peaks.
His one vice is claw machines.

Guest Post from Jason Mosberg:
10 Things That Make Grift Stand Out As A YA Novel
  1. It is dark! Piper, the main character, is an orphan who masquerades as a high-class escort to con men. Just from that, you can get a sense that this isn’t your regular YA novel.
  2. As dark as it is, it’s also fun. Just check out the book’s tagline: A Neon Noir.
  3. The side characters are memorable. The other grifters include a tourist-hustling pool shark, a sleight of hand magician turned pickpocket, and card-counting genius. Because they’re all orphans and runaways, they’re suffering from various abandonment issues, which make for rich, deep characters.
  4. The antagonist is one scary dude. Charlie Moses is a desperate, powerful mafia kingpin who will do anything to make money.
  5. The setting is fantastic. While the characters will be relatable through their emotions, relationships, and conflicts, the setting really helps give the story a larger-than-life element. These young adults live the high life in this amazing penthouse in a city nicknamed “America’s Playground.” Relative to other young adults, they’re flush with cash. They get to experience the greatest shows on the planet: bands, comedians, plays, circuses, magicians, sporting events.They meet other teens in the young Vegas social scene (which mostly consists of UNLV students). They basically inhabit some 21st century teenage version of Neverland.
  6. There are a ton of twists and turns. Just when you think you’ve guessed what’s going to happen, guess again.
  7. The protagonist is morally ambiguous. Piper’s actions always seem to inhabit that fascinating middle ground that sits in between right and wrong.
  8. The story is very cinematic. Actually, I first came up with the idea of Grift as a movie. I wrote many screenplays before writing my first novel, and Grift definitely has a cinematic quality.
  9. It balances characters and thrills. I wanted Grift to be a book that has rich, complex characters with deep backstories, but also be a page-turner.
  10. Despite it being a dark book where various tragedies occur, don’t worry; it has a happy ending! Or maybe I’m just conning you…


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