Arts & Entertainment

Burlington Author to Hold Book Signing at True North Coffee

Burlington Author Jodi Blase will be presenting her new book "Damaged Goods" at True North Coffee this Thursday.

A Burlington author will present her new book in a book signing event this week in one of Burlington's most popular coffee shops.

Author Jodi Blase is holding a book signing for her new work "Damaged Goods" at True North Coffee this Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m.

Blase is a local author, blogger former weekly columnist for Burlington Patch. She has recently finished her newest book, "Damaged Goods" and is excited to share it with the community.

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Damaged Goods, according to Blase, is a story of a single mom who commits herself to vigilante revenge after her daughter is murdered.

Synopsis:

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Karen Sherburne is a hardworking single mom and social worker. Hoping to make more time for her daughter, Meg, she commits to cutting back on her fifty-hour workweek. Not long after this decision, Meg is murdered—and no suspect can be found. In her grief, Karen becomes obsessed with one goal: find the killer; kill the killer.

When she returns to work, Karen is assigned a new case: fifteen-year-old Frankie Ortiz, an abuse victim. Through adoption, Karen hopes to save Frankie as she could not save her own daughter.

Meanwhile, Kendra Bruno uses witchcraft in an attempt to discover the parents who abandoned her. Instead of finding her parents, a figure appears in Kendra's bedroom mirror: a figure belonging to the ghost of Karen's daughter, Meg.

As the lives of Karen, Frankie, and Kendra intersect, secrets are revealed from an unforeseen source. Meg has a message—not only for her mother—but for Kendra, too—and Karen might be the only person who can save Frankie from a horrific fate. When Karen finally discovers her daughter's killer, will she be able to stick to her vow of vengeance, or will her new-found relationships shake her resolve?

More information on the work, including a background story on the characters, can be found on Blase's blog by clicking here.  

The following is an excerpt from the book on the protagonist's decision to take the law into her own hands:

Karen Sherburne sat on her worn out leather couch, mindlessly swirling a glass of scotch. She had been waiting for this moment since September 12th, 1980. For the past sixteen years, she had lived in a depersonalized state, divorced from reality. On particularly challenging days, the world around her sounded as if it was under water. Voices echoed Charlie Brown’s gurgly teacher, Wah wah wah wah wah, and she struggled to translate the garbled language. Had it not been for the sound of her heartbeat, she could easily have thought herself dead.

When Karen first lost Meg, she had hoped that she would be fortunate enough to die from heartache. And when it didn’t happen, the rage came, and Karen willingly let it course through her. Over the years it died down, residing just below the surface of her skin. Anna the psychic had been right about Karen having been around the killer for a long time, but she was wrong about Karen’s rage.

Rage was good. It was a two-handed death grip necessity.

If it weren’t for her pent up rage, she’d have lived in a constant state of grief, which was too much to bear. Now, with the discovery of Meg’s killer, the dormant rage bubbled to the surface and Karen welcomed it like an old friend. It encouraged her to act quickly, before she could change her mind, before a coherent thought could interrupt and make her question her motives. Karen was right to stay toxic because if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be able to do what she was about to do.

She was about to plot a murder.

Fun fact on cover art:

The cover art attached, Blase informed us, was actually photographed at Burlington's Simonds Park by photographer EJ Landry, of Burlington. The picture feature's Blase's daughter and was taken in the midst of a baseball game. Credit to the photographer for masterfully framing the picture.

 


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