Casting Call with Jason Letts, Author of Suspense

Time to play Casting Call with author of Suspense, Jason Letts!

Jason came up with this Author/Blogger picture game, and I really loved this idea. We chose characters, settings and objects from the book and found pictures of what we thought they would look like. Then we compared them side by side and added our thoughts on the pictures.

Jason's pics are on the left, My Tower of Books' on the right. Ready to play?

1. Spencer NyeJason: Spencer is a short, stringy blonde with an extra dose of angst. Finding someone who's exactly eighteen would be tough, and I'll admit I'm not that familiar with a lot of the younger stars these days. I almost went with Hayden Penettiere, but she was maybe a little too cute. So I went with Kirsten Dunst, and this picture in particular makes it hard to tell whether she's about to crack into a smile or a snarl.

My Tower of Books: "Somehow he understood the most basic element of what it meant to be me, that the default feeling in my heart was the urge to scream." Spencer tells us this early on in the book and it spoke volumes to me about her. The first thing that struck me about this picture was the girl's face. It is strangely accurate to how I viewed her, and even how she's described in the book, although obviously she's not animated :-)

2. Spencer's Claw-tipped gloves

Jason: Because Spencer isn't that strong, she wears claw-tipped gloves and shreds her enemies to pieces. Most of the clothing in the story is described as "tech" clothing, with a lot of synthetic fibers, but I think the actual claws protruding from the ends of her fingers would look like these. She's able to do a pretty decent amount of damage with them, and they seem to sink into skin very easily.

MToB: This isn't exactly how I pictured her gloves, but it's close. I thought of them as being more delicate, but no less deadly.

3. The Chateaux

Jason: For their protection, all of the ultra-famous Idols live in a place where mobs of fans can't get to them. This place is called The Chateaux, and it's located by the edge of a cliff on a secret island. It's a large complex of towers, courtyards, and gardens. My idea of it is something like this, though perhaps a bit bigger.

MToB: Again, not quite how I envisioned it. This is my take on The Chateaux. I see it as being a bit more open and sprawling.

4. Jetta Renoir

Jason: Spencer's best friend, Jetta, is a cyborg with a number of unique physical characteristics. She has replaced one of her blue eyes with an artificial green one that can give her better sight, her joints have metallic bands running through them to keep her limbs together, and she has implants under her skin for various other reasons. All this together is an attempt to overcome feelings of inadequacy about her body. After some exhaustive searching, I really don't think there's a picture out there that does her justice. I chose this one because it looks kind of cool, but Jetta isn't a robot that looks like a person. She's a person who has had a lot of modifications done to herself. I guess you'll just have to read the book to see what we're talking about!

MToB: This picture was as close as i could get with Jetta. If the black lines were a bit more angular instead of flowing, and also if they were silver based and gave off an electronic glow, then that would be more like my vision of her.

Check back tomorrow for my interview with Jason Letts!

Suspense, the first book in his new YA (16+) Dystopian trilogy can be found at Amazon, BN, itunes, and Smashwords!