Maurstad

Justin Mayhaps is an advertising wiz turned web-based marketing guru, and Ellis Presley is a musician-video artist on the cusp of indie/internet fame. They are both stuck: Justin in his unresolved guilt, Ellis in her unresolved anger.

Cast against the immediate backdrop of South by Southwest, Austin’s annual multimedia Mardi Gras, and the larger context of a growing social-cultural protest, the eXit movement, a revolution prompted by the exploding gap between the haves and have-nots, Justin’s and Ellis’ stories are told simultaneously, narrative tracks bound to intersect, creating a portrait of imperfect symmetry.

＂I would like to applaud the timeliness and interest factor of the book’s central plot relating to the eXit generation. Topical, compelling, and provocative, the eXit plotline gives a certain kind of reader exactly what they need most in life - a way to think over our own contemporary issues. In that way, the book provides not just literary interest, but a social service.＂

＂The love story is a strong asset to the book. As understated and wry as its two protagonists, it sustains a satisfying tension to the very last page.＂

Thomas Maurstad lives in Dallas, TX. His collection of short stories, Flyover States, will be published in 2023. He is working on his next novel, tentatively titled Dreaming of Sleep.