Joe DeRouen's Blog, page 2
September 27, 2021
New Covers for Small Things and Threads
To coincide with the upcoming release of A Pattern of Shadows, the final book in the Small Things trilogy, Small Things and Threads have new covers! I’ll always love my original covers, but this was a necessary change to make all three books more cohesive. The changes will be effective October 1st, to coincide with the pre-sale date for A Pattern of Shadows. The books themselves will also be updated, to fix a couple of typos and to update things, Hope you love them!
Small Things
Threads
June 20, 2021
A Pattern of Shadows
A Pattern of Shadows, the third book in the Small Things trilogy, is currently with my editor and will be published sometime late this year. It’s been a loooong journey, but thanks for sticking with me. I think you’re going to love this book!
June 14, 2021
Revamped Website
Well, the site is finished, more or less. There are still a few little things I need to do, but for all intents and purposes it’s done. What do you think?
June 8, 2021
Under Construction
Under Construction
January 9, 2021
Website Revamp
I will be totally revamping this website soon. Stay tuned!
November 22, 2020
Leap Year is Coming!
Just nine days until Leap Year, my newest novel, is released! If you want to pre-order the Kindle version, check out the link below. $3.99! If you want an autographed trade paperback, send me a message. It’s $15.99 + exact shipping costs!
https://www.amazon.com/Leap-Year-Joe-DeRouen-ebook/dp/B08ND9ZHV6/
[image error]
March 21, 2019
Happy Together
March’s Patreon Challenge story is here! If you subscribe to my Patreon, you can read it for free. Here’s a teaser:
Happy Together, an old song by The Turtles, played on the Amazon Echo while John used a hacksaw to disassemble Miranda’s body. It was ironic, he thought, because they had indeed been very happy together, for many long years, but that had all changed less than 24 hours ago.
Finally, he sawed through the ankle bone. That was a tough one. John tossed the foot into the Hefty black trash bag he had purposed for the task at hand, and then began working on the other foot.
“Alexa, next,” he said, and the 1960s playlist skipped ahead to the next song, Yesterday by The Beatles.
Yesterday, all their troubles seemed so far away…
For more, visit: https://www.patreon.com/posts/happy-together-25402477
January 18, 2019
Online Undead
I released the third of my Patreon Challenge stories a few days ago, Online Undead. You can check it out here if you’re my patron:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/online-undead-23976252
And here’s a teaser:
My name is Charlie (no relation to Leroy) Jenkins, and I think I’m being haunted. But of course, I’m getting ahead of myself, and it’s not so much haunted as…well, I suppose I should start at the beginning.
Nathan and I had been best friends since the 2nd grade, when his family moved here from Dallas eight years ago. His parents hadn’t allowed him to socialize outside of school at first, but we’d found other ways to connect. We’d done everything together online we could, really, but mostly what we’d done is play video games. We’d spent so much time paired up in the digital world, it was almost impossible to believe that I’d never see him again not only physically but also digitally.
Around 5th grade Nathan’s parents loosened up a bit and we’d begun hanging out more in person, but the pattern had already been set. The digital world was our domain, and we spent most of our time together there, battling dragons of all different shapes, sorts, and sizes.
We started with Disney’s Toontown Online, quickly progressed to Pirates of the Caribbean and then to City of Heroes, and when NCSoft stupidly shut down CoH, moved on to Secret World: Legends and World of Warcraft. Lately, however, we’d been going the nostalgia route, playing Toontown Rewritten (a fan-made server created after Disney shut down the original) while our phones were almost completely dedicated to Pokémon Go.
December 5, 2018
Next Time is Now
The second Patreon short story, Next Time is Now, is finished and up for everyone to read! It’s a story about a love so timeless that… well, I’ll give you a taste of the story itself. (Cassie Cook-Ward’s idea inspired this one. Thanks, Cassie!)
Peter lay on a queen-sized bed in a nondescript Super 8 motel room in Westbrook, Maine, [image error]strapped to an EKG monitor, trying to calm his nerves. This would work. It had to. He couldn’t go through losing her again.
“It’ll be okay, Peter,” said Marnie Amari, squeezing his hand. “I still wish you’d let me do it, though.”
They’d argued about this for days. Marnie had a heart murmur. If her heart were stopped, it might not start again. His would, or at least he hoped it would.
Want to read more? Just subscribe to my Patreon (below) for at least a $1 a month and you’ll have access to this story, last month’s story, and all future short stories!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/next-time-is-now-23124105
Thanks for reading!
[image error]
November 5, 2018
The First Story is in the Books
My Patreon short story contest appears to be a success! Each month, I draw a name from my patrons and they get to tell me what kind of story they want me to write. I completed October’s short story, titled Tom, on Halloween. [image error]
Want to read it? All you have to do is subscribe to my Patreon, below. Even just $1/month will get you access to this and all future stories AND will get you an entry into the hat to tell me what to write!
I’m already working on November’s story, as suggested by Cassie Cook-Ward. I hope you’ll join me on this amazing ride!
