Mundie Moms

Friday, March 2, 2018

THE TOMBS by Deborah Schaumberg / Blog Tour: Excerpt & Giveaway #TheTombs



Welcome to Day #10 of The Tombs Blog Tour! We're thrilled to be the last stop in the tour, and help celebrate the recent release of The Tombs by Deborah Schaumberg. Released on February 20th, a number of blogs are sharing exclusive content from Deborah Schaumberg as well as hosting giveaways! There are 10 different chances to win. 

Below, you'll find information about the book, be able to read an deleted scene from the book, and enter for your chance to win a signed book as well as a bookmark. First, here's a little bit about the book.


ABOUT THE BOOK


By: Deborah Schaumberg
Published by: Harper Teen 
Released on: February 20th, 2018
Purchase from:  Amazon | Indiebound
Add it to Goodreads


New York, 1882. A dark, forbidding city, and no place for a girl with unexplainable powers.

Sixteen-year-old Avery Kohl pines for the life she had before her mother was taken. She fears the mysterious men in crow masks who locked her mother in the Tombs asylum for being able to see what others couldn't. Avery denies the signs in herself, focusing instead on her shifts at the ironworks factory and keeping her inventor father out of trouble. Other than secondhand tales of adventure from her best friend, Khan, an ex-slave, and caring for her falcon, Seraphine, Avery spends her days struggling to survive.

Like her mother's, Avery's powers refuse to be contained. When she causes a bizarre explosion at the factory, she has no choice but to run from her lies, straight into the darkest corners of the city. Avery must embrace her abilities and learn to wield their power--or join her mother in the cavernous horrors of the Tombs. And the Tombs has secrets of its own:  strange experiments are being performed on 'patients'...and no one knows why.

Deborah Schaumberg's gripping debut melds history and fantasy, taking readers on a breathless trip across a teeming turn-of-the-century New York, and asks the question: Where can you hide in a city that wants you buried?


READ A DELETED SCENE FROM THE TOMBS 

To put this in context, Tony and Avery discover a room full of automatons in the ironworks factory. Their boss is planning on using them to replace human workers. My editor nixed the whole idea as being just a little too steampunky for the story. In hindsight, she was absolutely right!

Tony scowled. "If it were up to him, he'd replace every one of us with one of those automatons. I saw Scarface bringing in a crate this morning. I hid in the storeroom and watched. At first, I thought they had a dead body in there, but it was definitely an automaton. Looked like a regular bloke except he was made of metal."

"Scarface is dreaming," I said, placing my helmet and gloves on the workbench. "An automaton will never work. A machine can't do the work of a man." 

Then I thought of my father. He'd be fascinated by this new invention. "Still," I added, "you have to show me." 

Luckily the factory was clearing out for lunch break. Tony and I ran to the storeroom and ducked inside. 

"It's over there." Tony pointed to a long crate against the wall.

There were nails on the floor around it. We lifted the wooden lid. Atop a bed of straw, a face stared up at me. I sucked in my breath, and a tingle flushed through my body. It was marvelous. The eyes were made of clear glass and the smooth face had a strangely peaceful expression. I reached out and touched its cold metal skin, almost expecting it to blink. 

Who could've made such a thing? Pushing aside the straw, I studied the torso-it had arms, hands, and perfectly jointed fingers, all clad in what looked like tinplate. But that was where the anthropomorphic attributes ended. Where its legs should have been was an intricate assemblage of rods and gears attached to three cast iron wheels. A spiked rod protruded from the center of the wheels. Suddenly the automaton didn't look so friendly. I imagined it moving about the factory and shivered.

"Come on." Tony glanced at the door. "We'll get canned if Scarface catches us."

 "Wait. What's in there?" I pointed to a door with a glass window next to the crate.

"I don't know, but we need to go, now, Avery." Tony said, and started toward the exit.

"Just one second." I stood on tiptoe and peeked through the glass. In the room beyond, I saw at least ten similar crates. 

Tony grabbed my arm. I spun around and we slipped out unnoticed into the factory. What are they planning to use them for? I wondered.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR




Deborah Schaumberg was born in Brooklyn, not far from where her novel The Tombs takes place. She grew up renovating dilapidated old houses with her family. She and her father would walk the rooms, floor by floor, making up stories about the inhabitants that were filled with dark secrets, monsters, and, of course, ghosts. Deborah is a writer and an artist whose work always has an element of fantasy to it, and since she also studied architecture, settings are equally important. It was on a trek to the Annapurna Sanctuary in Nepal that she imagined a girl with the ability to see energy, and the seed of The Tombs was planted. She collects old bottles, and her favorite holiday is, you guessed it, Halloween. Deborah lives with her family and two dogs in Maryland, just outside DC. Visit her at deborahschaumberg.com.  

Follow Deborah: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram


ENTER TO WIN

  • One (1) winner will receive a SIGNED finished copy of The Tombs and a custom bookmark handmade by Deborah Schaumberg
  • US only
a Rafflecopter giveaway

FOLLOW THE BLOG TOUR

February 19th — BookhoundsYA
February 20th — Good Choice Reading
February 21st — Book Briefs
February 22nd — Crossroad Reviews
February 23rd — Novel Novice

February 26th — A Dream Within A Dream
February 27th — Positively Book Crazy
February 28th —Reading Teen
March 1st — Page Turners
March 2nd — Mundie Moms

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