Blog Tour: Flicker & Burn by T.M. Goeglin Excerpt & Giveaway

 I'm excited to host a stop on the tour for Flicker & Burn by T.M. Goeglein.  This tour is hosted by Book Nerd Tours and you can find the tour page with all tour information HERE.

I haven't read this series yet, but I'm hoping I can do so soon!

Sara Jane Rispoli is still searching for her missing family, but instead of fighting off a turncoat uncle and crooked cops, this time she finds herself on the run from creepy beings with red, pulsing eyes and pale white skin chasing her through the streets in ice cream trucks; they can only be described as Ice Cream Creatures. They're terrifying and hell bent on killing her, but they're also a link to her family, a clue to where they might be and who has them.

While she battles these new pursuers, she's also discovering more about her own cold fury and more about the Chicago Outfit, how the past misdeeds--old murders and vendettas--might just be connected to her present and the disappearance of her family. But connecting the dots is tough and time-consuming and may finally be the undoing of her relationship with the handsome Max--who's now her boyfriend. But for his own safety, Sara Jane may have to end this relationship before it even really starts.

Her pursuers who've shown her her mother's amputated finger and the head of the Chicago Outfit who's just whistled her in for a sit-down make a romance unthinkable. The only thing that matters is finding her family and keeping everyone she loves alive.

EXCERPT:

Prelude

            My name is Sara Jane Rispoli.

            It’s not my birthday and I haven’t eaten cake since I turned sixteen, but I’m plagued by ice cream.

            If anyone offers me a cone, I’ll break his nose.

            I’ve been chased for the past month by a creepy black truck that sells frozen treats and just when I’ve shaken it, the little nightmare comes tinkling around the corner again.

            I have a movie-obsessed sidekick with a rollercoaster weight problem, and an ill-tempered Italian greyhound that’s not really my dog but I love him anyway, sort of.

            I have a classic 1965 Lincoln Continental convertible in dire need of body work and a badass 2000 Ferrari 360 Spider that’s like driving a fuel-injected comet.

            I have a boyfriend who’s finally, actually, my boyfriend and who accommodates this decidely non-petite nose and these braces, but has no idea who he’s really dating.

I also have an ancient, worn leather notebook that chronicles a century of Chicago’s most valuable criminal secrets, but which refuses to yield the secret I desire most – ultimate power – holding it mute and indecipherable within its last chapter, Volta.  The whole thing is held together by rubber bands and masking tape, while my last measure of sanity is held together by an unyielding determination to track down my missing parents and little brother.  Every breath I take is fueled by a cold flame of fury that burns in my gut with a need for vengeance and revenge.

            I’m alive because I have the notebook.

What I don’t have is a real clue where my family is. 

            They’re not dead, but there are ways of being alive that are worse than death.

            I hold no mercy for my enemies because mercy is for suckers.

            I don’t have any plans for the future other than to continue breathing.

            I throw a hundred hard combination punches at a heavy bag every day and it never feels like enough. 

            When I’m not being chased, I chase back. And when I’m not studying the notebook, I roam the streets of Chicago where one day soon I’ll either catch the people who have my family or be caught by them – either way I’m ready to fight to the death.

            As long as I have the notebook, I have a weapon.

            As long as the possibility exists that my family’s alive, I’ll keep looking.

Every violent, unspeakable step I take to save them makes me into someone else.  I remember the other Sara Jane, but it’s no longer completely me, and that’s okay.

She would’ve only slowed me down.

BIO:

T.M. Goeglein began his career as a writer of print and television ads for a host of advertising and media companies. As a screenwriter, he created both original scripts and worked as a script doctor for several production companies in Los Angeles. He was an original contributor to the Huffington Post 'Living' section, and continues to write for both the national edition and Huffington Post Chicago. Read T.M. Goeglein's stories on the Huffington Post.


His debut young adult novel, COLD FURY, will be published by Penguin/Putnam in 2012 and is the first in a trilogy; he’s currently working on the second book. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Laura, and two young children.

    

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