Eventual Beginnings: Stories Short and Longer is Joe DeRouen’s second short story collection and contains sixteen all-new tales of magic, mayhem, and mystery. In the novella Connections, we’ll explore the mystery of Justy Friedman’s unexplainable possession by a spirit, and Emmet Sapp’s attempt to save her. In Next Time is Now , we’ll encounter Peter and Marnie and witness their attempts to circumvent a centuries-old curse, while in Beautiful Monster, we’ll see why sometimes looks can be deceiving. In Alternate Life, a young man is given the chance to right a wrong that hasn’t happened yet, and in Forks we’ll learn why it’s often best to leave the past in the past and move on. These are just a few of the stories that await you in Eventual Beginnings: Stories Short and Longer.
Connections, the first story in Eventual Beginnings, takes place primarily in Rogers, Arkansas. In the story, we follow the adventure of Justy Friedman and Emmet Sapp as they try to find their missing friend Tildie Harper. Along the way, they enlist the help of Tildie’s sister Corrie and Tildie’s teachers. But is it already too late?
Downtown Rogers, Arkansas.
Alice loves her garden, but her garden seems to hate her.
Tomcat tells the story of an elderly widow named Alice Gardner who lives outside the tiny town of Hamilton, Illinois, her battle against an other worldly force that seeks her demise, and a lonely tom cat in search of a friend. Will Alice survive the night?
Do you believe in reincarnation? Peter and Marnie do, and in Next Time is Now, they’re willing to go to any length to insure that their cursed romance, which has spawned and died across many lifetimes, finally has the chance to fully bloom.
It was then, on that pirate ship, as the great boat was sinking, that they’d come up with the mantra they’d always say when one or both of them was about to die. “There’s always next time.”
Why is Veronica’s profile pic a portrait?
Desperate for love, Veronica downloads Matchstick, a new matchmaking app, on to her phone. That night, she meets James, and they chat into the wee hours of the morning. Is James the man she’s been looking for, or is her much more than she bargained for? Found out in A Match Made In…Somewhere.
George is Haunted by the memory of his dead father, who used to beat him with a belt. Is it possible for him to finally come to terms with his memories, or will the ghost of his father finally destroy him?
Can George find forgiveness for the man who beat him? And if he can’t, will the cost be his own life?
So many books, so little time.
Have you ever had a dream where you find a forgotten or perhaps an altogether previously unknown room in your house? In Hidden Rooms, Alanton Quincy’s hidden dream room is filled with books. His obsession with reading and remembering them just might be his undoing.
When she asked her husband to build a little free library in her yard in Rogers, never in her wildest dreams did Erica Mosley think she might find magic. But that’s exactly what she finds in The Magical Book. The book seems to know everywhere she does before she does it. Will that book lead to her destruction or her salvation?
You never know what you might find in a Little Free Library.
What’s inside the urn?
When Josh Drake, a high school teacher from Carthage, Illinois, starts having dreams about an urn, he decides to try to track down The Urn. He finds it at an auction in Joplin, Missouri, and what’s inside might just change everything…
Carthage, Illinois, 1985. Zachary Wright sat hunched over his Commodore 64 computer, staring at the screen on his television, playing Attack of the Killer Slugs. It was a stupid game, he decided, but it was something to do. Despite his best efforts, the slugs kept killing him, forcing him to start over. What he does next will change the world forever.
Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.
Sarah Patton was standing in line behind three other people inside a Value-Mart when it happened. She wasn’t in any great hurry but waiting for her turn to check out was so boring that she started to daydream. What if, she thought, that tiny old woman with the 50-pound bag of dog food dropped the bag and it split open, covering the floor in Purina kibble?
When armed criminals Brandon and Cassidy break into an Jack’s home, they think he’ll be a pushover. After all, he’s a frail, elderly man. They couldn’t have been more wrong. Find out what happens to them in Beautiful Monster.
Violence often begets violence.
“Hello, Dr. Wheeler. I’m Katie Flynn, from MSCNN News. If I volunteer, may I ask a question?”
When a fork appears in the road, how do you know which path to take? And when you finally do choose a direction, possibly at random, and another fork appears, how do you make that decision? How do you know which path leads to the most desirable result? Forks illustrates why sometimes the best of intentions lead to the worse of consequences.
John Donavon awoke in a small, windowless room, unable to see. It felt like it was morning, though there was no way he could be sure. Time didn’t have much meaning for him anymore. How did he get here, and how will he get out? Find out in Identity Crisis.
Is John having an Identity Crisis?
Gable Simmons carefully put on his brand new SecondChance bodysuit, preparing to interact with his wife Willow for the first time since her death. He always thought he’d be the one to go first, but at 71 he was still going strong while Willow, three years younger than him, had died a month earlier from pancreatic cancer. Is he chasing FORB1DD3N FRU1T?
In Disconnections, the final story in the collection, Keelin Clarke makes a poor decision that puts her in grave danger. She’d been through many tornado warnings growing up in Rogers, Arkansas and they’d never amounted to much of anything. She hadn’t expected this one to, either, but in hindsight she couldn’t have been more wrong.
Lake Atalanta survived the tornados, but will Keelin?
Eventual Beginnings: Stories Short and Longer is available in trade paperback and Kindle, and will soon be available in audio. You can find Eventual Beginnings on Amazon and can purchase an autographed copy directly from Joe via Shop.JoeDeRouen.com.
