Joe DeRouen's Blog

I’m on Substack now! You can read this for free.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-172703656

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 tales that await you in Eventual Beginnings: Stories Short and Longer.

https://amzn.to/3TmQ5FJ
https://shop.joederouen.com/

Praise for Eventual Beginnings:

“These stories trick you with mundane beginnings, then sweep you off on a swift journey into the magical, the mysterious, and the macabre. They ratchet up the tension before springing the trap of their darkly delightful and wholly unanticipated endings. This collection combines fun, fantasy, and frights in the best of ways.”

—Heather Daughrity, author of Knock Knock and Tales My Grandmother Told Me; editor of House of Haunts and Hospital of Haunts


“Eventual Beginnings is a terrific collection of unique and well-told stories. Whether we’re following acquaintances as they solve a mystery, save a friend and become a family, peeking in as a first date reveals an unexpected connection, or living the admonishment to be careful what you wish for, we enter worlds filled with humor, insight.”

—Brynne Chandler, Emmy-nominated writer and story editor for Gargoyles television animated series

Eventual Beginnings: Stories Short and Longer will release in ten days, on June 10th, 2025, in both trade paperback and for the Kindle! At 361 pages, Eventual Beginnings contains one novella and fifteen short stories, and I can’t wait for you to read them.

You can purchase on Amazon or get an autographed copy directly from me!

Here’s the cover reveal and book trailer!

I have a story in an amazing new anthology—House of Haunts!

In 1823, Josiah Hale built his family a grand home in the sultry heat and blinding glare of the Deep South.
It wasn’t long before the shadows crept in. Now, two hundred years later, this grand home stands forlorn, abandoned, blank windows reflecting only darkness.

Some houses carry lasting impressions of those who have lived and died there.
Some places still bear the scars of past tragedies.
Some buildings are heavy with the spirits of the dead.
Hale House outweighs them all.
But wait.
The front gate is creaking slowly open, welcoming, beckoning, luring you in…
You have been invited.

Come tour the most haunted location in the world.
Come visit our House of Haunts.
23 rooms. 23 ghosts. 23 stories.
Will you survive them all?


Featuring Stories From
Christy Aldridge * Brooklyn Ann * Simon Bleaken *Jay Bower
Clay McLeod Chapman * Heather Daughrity * Joe DeRouen
William J. Donahue * J-F. Dubeau * Joshua Loyd Fox * Jennifer Anne Gordon
Gage Greenwood * Justin Holley * Jo Kaplan * Ronald Kelly
Marie Lanza * Caitlin Marceau * D.E. McCluskey * Jeremy Megargee
Joe Scipione * Samantha Underhill * Mer Whinery * Mercedes M. Yardley
Foreword by Josh Malerman
Edited by Heather Daughrity

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The Small Things trilogy omnibus eBook is now available for pre-order on Amazon!

https://amzn.to/3AmelhC

The Small Things trilogy omnibus contains all three books in the Small Things trilogy (Small Things, Threads, A Pattern of Shadows,) a previously-published short story (Smoke), a brand new story (Dowd) and a never-before-published Small Things novella, Sundown Rising. The stories are presented in the order in which they are meant to be read. The Small Things trilogy omnibus totals 1,450 pages/370,000 words and includes all covers, artwork, and a few surprises as well!

Small Things: It’s a hot June morning in a small Midwestern town when fifteen-year-old Shawn Spencer arrives at the church for his best friend Tanner’s funeral. Though his drowning was officially ruled an accident, Tanner’s sister Jenny swears she saw something rise up from the Carthage Lake to pull the struggling teenager beneath the surface.

Shawn doesn’t believe in monsters… but he will…The real threat, however, lies in the man behind the monster, a mysterious old man who has vowed to settle an old grudge and regain something that was stolen from him decades earlier. To survive the dark days and nights ahead, Shawn must not only decipher what the man is after, he must move past his own grief, fears, and insecurities, and learn to trust in Jenny, the disgraced town sheriff, and, most importantly, in himself.

A small town horror, fantasy, paranormal, and coming of age romance. The Small Things trilogy spans forty years and three generations in a tale of murder, betrayal, corruption, sacrifice, love, redemption, faith and magic that culminates in a showdown that will pit the very forces of heaven and hell against Shawn and his family in a battle for the future of mankind and the world itself.

Sundown Rising: When Shawn and Jenny decide to visit a traveling carnival, will they find more than they bargained for?

Threads: History is changing around nineteen-year-old Ben Spencer, and he’s powerless to stop it. His sister has disappeared, his family thinks he’s schizophrenic, and, worse yet, the girl he’s madly in love with won’t give him the time of day. Enter the mysterious Michael, who, years earlier, helped Ben’s parents defeat a powerful sorcerer bent on destroying them and reclaiming a relic stolen from him years before. With Michael’s help, Ben will travel back in time, to 1977, and attempt to set the past straight. But will he undo himself and the woman he loves in the process?

Threads is a coming of age time travel adventure complete with murder and magic, and also a magical realism love story. The Small Things trilogy spans forty years and three generations in a tale of murder, betrayal, corruption, sacrifice, love, redemption, faith and magic that culminates in a showdown that will pit the very forces of heaven and hell against Ben and his family in a battle for the future of mankind and the world itself.

Smoke: Can humans and ghosts work together to figure out what’s behind deadly and destructive fires…when they can’t even communicate?

A Pattern of Shadows: Five years ago, the demon Azazel tricked Ben Spencer into giving him possession of his body. After countless frustrating and heartbreaking dead ends, Ben’s family and his girlfriend Katy Ruskin have finally located him. Will their daring rescue attempt work, and will they be able to free Ben from the demon? And with Ben free, is everything truly over…or is it only just beginning?

A Pattern of Shadows brings the Small Things trilogy to a stunning conclusion that pits Ben and Katy and their families against the very forces of heaven and hell itself in a battle that will decide the fate of humanity. Who will survive?

Redemption: Can a former villain truly change his ways?

https://amzn.to/3AmelhC

I just added a new section—free stories—to my website. It includes access to three free short stories by me, as well as a chance to get another short story by signing up for my newsletter.

I’m also participating in a huge giveaway to win a $300 Amazon gift card. Entry is free, and all you have to do is follow a few BookBub pages. (Mine included, of course.)

One more thing. The audio version of A Pattern of Shadows: Small Things book 3 is now available on Amazon or Audible. My narrator, Elizabeth R. Taylor, did an amazing job. You’ll love it!

Leap Year, my paranormal fantasy novel, will be FREE for the Kindle Wednesday, March 2nd, through Friday, March 5th!

Rose was waiting tables at Ken’s All-Nite Diner in Keokuk, Iowa, circa 1959, when something happened that would change her life forever. Two men burst through the front door, fighting for their lives. Though it was morning, she could see stars in the nighttime sky through the doorway as the door closed behind them…

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...

A Pattern of Shadows, the final book in the best-selling Small Things trilogy, is available NOW in trade paperback and for the Kindle!

Find it on Amazon

View the book trailer

Purchase an autographed copy

A Pattern of Shadows will be released on October 26, 2021! Click on the cover to see the book trailer!