Before It Began is Done!
Free Story: The Third Door Ep. 1-3
The After It’s Over Sequel is Finished!
In November of 2021, I started writing the story After It’s Over. When the story began it was meant to be an ongoing post-apocalyptic survival adventure, but those of you who’ve read the complete first novel or who’ve been following along on Kindle Vella know it has veered off into different territory.
By March of 2022, I knew how I wanted the story to end and that it should be told over a two book arc. I’m very happy with how it’s come out and I hope you will be as well. The pre-order for the eBook version should be live this week for an April 24th release date, but for my newsletter readers, you have the opportunity to join my Early Reader/ARC Team for free. Just click this link to request your free copy!
Edgy Christian Fiction
Who knew this was a category. After It’s Over isn’t really meant to be a Christian Fiction book. It is a novel with some characters who are Christian and I tried to write them in an authentic way, but that is not the main point of the story. Someone suggested it could fit in the Edgy Christian Fiction genre (who even knew that was a genre) and this month After It’s Over is highlighted along with other stories. Check all of them out here. There is quite a variety with an emphasis on suspense, thriller and murder mysteries. There’s also romance if that’s your jam.
Book Recommendation - The Grace Effect
As everyone knows, Ukraine is in the headlines and the conflict rages on to great suffering of the people involved. Upon a recommendation, I picked up this book, The Grace Effect by Larry Alex Taunton. This real life story is about an American family’s attempt to adopt a little girl, Sasha, from Ukraine. The story is quite touching with a few surprises along the way, but the book is very timely if you want a peek behind the Iron Curtain at the culture of Ukraine at that time.
I highly recommend this book and I think anyone who wants to know more about Ukraine or adoption would find it informative. The wonderful story can be enjoyed by all readers. Sasha is a delight that you will fall in love with and the story of her and the other orphans will help you appreciate the benefits of a society that includes grace.
New Story - The Third Door
I started writing on Amazon’s Kindle Vella platform in November of 2021 and continue to publish all of my fiction work there first. Some of you may be reading on that platform, but I expect many of you have only read my books in eBook or Print. Unfortunately, Vella is only available in the US, but there are promises to expand in the near future. Vella stories are published one episode at a time, much like TV episodes. Please enjoy the first episodes of my new story, The Third Door, which is a combination of The Twilight Zone and The Office.
Ep. 1 - Adric Inc.
"So, you tell me Mr. Craft, is this going to be a pattern for you or is today the day we break the cycle and learn to do it the right way?"
Jeremy had almost zoned out listening to his boss, Ms. Jane James, drone on about his performance review. He knew it wouldn't be good. Nothing he did seemed to make her happy. In Jeremy's mind, he wasn't a bad employee. In the two years he'd worked here at Adric Inc. as an account manager, he'd never had a compliant from one of his clients, but for Ms. James it was all about the bottom line. If his sales didn't go up every quarter he was "trending in the wrong direction".
"I'm still not sure what it is you think I need to do differently?" Jeremy asked.
This brought a scowl to Ms. James face and she looked like she wanted to reach across the table and hit him.
"How many accounts do you manage for us Mr. Craft?"
"Currently it's eleven."
"And of those eleven accounts, how many of them saw an increase in net revenue last quarter?"
"Let me see…that would be one."
"One lonely account, and how many saw an increase year over year?"
Jeremy frowned and then held up his hand making a zero. "That isn't everything. All my clients love me. The reason my revenues are down is because I informed them about services they weren't using but were paying for. The accounts went down because they discontinued those services."
When he said this, Ms. James got an incredulous look on her face and looked at him as if he'd just gone insane. Then she just started shaking her head.
"This is about the long term. Those clients have stayed with us and haven't left for a competitor. If they'd left, the income from their accounts would be zero. When they need new services, they will trust me to sell to them."
Now her look seemed to be utter disdain, "Mr. Craft, you don't work for those companies, you work for us. Maybe that's the problem. If you don't understand that, you might be better off looking for a job with one of them."
Jeremy was done arguing. This happened every time he had a review. Ms. James and he had a fundamental difference in the way they understood his job. She would never be happy unless he complied and to do it the way she wanted it done would be to compromise his beliefs about right and wrong.
Maybe I should look for a job at one of those places.
"The next time you're in my office, I want better numbers or that will be the last time. Understood?"
Rather than give any kind of verbal assent, Jeremy just nodded and when she didn't say anything else, he stood up and walked out the door. He was tempted to give it a slam, but thought there was no sense throwing gasoline on the fire.
Her assistant, Kyle looked like he was just waiting for Jeremy to come out. He had a smug smirk on his face and when Jeremy tried to hurry past him, Kyle said, "Sounded like the boss wasn't happy again. Clearly you have no idea how to please a woman."
Jeremy ignored him and kept on walking continuing back to the cubicle farm where he worked. The only good part of the journey was the walk past accounting.
There she is, long dark hair mixed with crystal blue eyes. What a devastating combination. Mavis B. Jones, you are the girl for me.
She smiled at Jeremy when she saw him coming and quickly looked away, turning her focus back to the phone call she was on.
No chance to stop and chat. Maybe later.
In the six months Mavis worked at Adric Inc, Jeremy had gotten nowhere with her. She was always pleasant and friendly, but didn't have a lot to say when he talked to her. He'd dropped several major hints about getting coffee sometime or inviting her to join Clyde and he after work, but she always had an excuse. He wasn't about to stop trying, but Jeremy was starting to think it was a lost cause.
The client facilitators (a dumb name for sales reps) all worked in a cubicle quad. Two of the desks were on the window side, but neither of those were his. Instead they belonged to Max, Ms. James' golden boy and Sloan, who despite her stunning looks was the most unattractive woman Jeremy had ever met. Jeremy was stuck on the other side of the cubicle quad, bathed in the florescent lights with his partner in crime, Clyde.
Max and Sloan didn't bother to look up when Jeremy walked by. Sloan was still intent on lining Max out about something. At least she treated everyone with equal disdain. Jeremy had a suspicion she was only successful at her job because of her appearance. While he'd definitely never seen her flirt with anyone, Clyde was convinced she played the sultry vixen whenever she met with a client.
"Did she tear you a new one?" Clyde asked. He'd only been working here for a year and when he showed up it had restored a bit of Jeremy's sanity.
"The ultimatum. Increased profits or I'm out."
"You think she means it this time?"
"I think she meant it the last three times, but she just doesn't want to deal with the hassle of replacing me. Any new hires have to be trained and brought up to speed. What she really wants is for me to be more like…" Jeremy didn't say his name, but just pointed towards Max's cubicle.
"Oh to be the chosen one. The special someone in the boss's life. Do you think they have any after hours 'meetings' going on?"
"What? No! I think the only thing she cares about is profits and that guy would lie, cheat and steal to bring in every last cent. He's her dream. I'm her nightmare."
Ep. 2 - Caring is Sharing
"You know what your problem is, my man? You care too much?" Clyde said without looking up from his screen.
As Jeremy turned to look over at his friend, he wasn't surprised to find him playing the jumping dinosaur game in his browser. It seemed like Clyde was goofing off about 50% of the time he was at work, but somehow he never seemed to get caught.
"What do you mean I care too much? I obviously don't care about the same things as Ms. James or I wouldn't be in her dog house all the time."
Clyde's dinosaur wiped out and he looked over at Jeremy. "You take your job too seriously, trying to get all 'helpy' with your clients. You need to learn to let it ride. I don't do jack to sell more services and you don't see my accounts going down."
"What you're saying is we should all be lucky enough to sign up your first client who just happens to be a dot com startup that explodes into one of the fastest growing companies in the market. The reason you don't have to do anything is their user base grows every month and the more people they have over there using our products, the more money the company makes through a channel labeled 'courtesy of Clyde. That's not really replicable."
Clyde held his hands up and gave Jeremy a shrug and then started another game, "But you'll never catch me going out and actually trimming off revenue streams to benefit our clients either. Not so much because I don't like to help, but it's just too much extra work."
"Afraid work will get in the way of you racking up the latest high score?" Jeremy asked.
"Among other things."
It was then that Jeremy noticed Sloan glaring at the two of them over the top of the cubicle. When he looked up at her, she added a scowl to the equation as she looked back and forth between the two of them.
Without even looking up from his game, Clyde said, "See something you like, hot lips?"
"What I see is a couple of fools who are lucky to still have jobs. Every time we have a review I expect to see both of you headed out the door."
"And I suppose you pass yours with flying colors?" Jeremy asked.
"It doesn't take much to rise above such common stock," Sloan said.
In a quick motion, Clyde slid out of this rolling chair to kneel on the ground, bowing his head low, "We peasants are honored to be blessed by the presence of such a noble prima donna as yourself. We can but bask in your glory."
Before he could rise, Jeremy saw Sloan's scowl deepen and she dropped back down out of sight.
"Don't look now, but the glory has been withdrawn. Looks like it's nothing but us peasants left."
Clyde came up laughing and climbed back into his chair. When Jeremy looked back at his computer, he noticed Max walking by.
"You losers need me to put in a good word in for you? I'm sure I have more than enough excess good will that it wouldn't hurt to use some on your behalf…on second thought, no one has that much good will," Max said and with this last comment he nodded towards Clyde.
"Ms. James actually said she was going to give me two of your accounts to help you out. Thought it would be good for both of us. Take some of your burden and give me more to do," Jeremy said.
What looked like fear flashed through Max's eyes, but just for a second then his mouth twisted into a sneer, "You're just lucky some of us around here pull more than our fair share of the weight to make up for where some people are lacking."
"Seems like a fair trade since we obviously make up for where you're short in the manhood department," Clyde said.
Max's sneer faded, but then he said over his shoulder as he walked away, "I'll just report how little work you two jokers actually do."
Ep. 3 - Progress Report
Clyde was about to call out again, but Max was hustling away, determined to get the last word. "He's not worth another display of my gift of gab."
"Do you think he'll really make more trouble for us?" Jeremy asked.
"Anything that dude can try and do is probably something he already tried. You don't think he's writing complaints and snitching on us all the time already? He's cold-blooded and is already pushing for our premature demise whenever he can. You can take that to the bank."
"So how come I'm the only one who gets low marks all across the board?"
"Who said I don't? You're just the only one that gives a rat's furry bottom about it. I just slip in, keep my mouth shut and slip out. I don't think Ms. James knows quite what to think of me."
Jeremy looked at his friend, shaggy hair, a patch of a goatee and a company issue button up completely unbuttoned to reveal a shirt that said, "It's just a flesh wound."
"Imagine that."
Clyde went back to playing on his computer and Jeremy decided to look through his accounts and see if he could figure out where he'd gone wrong. Surely there was some kind of new service one of these clients needed. He'd almost made his way all the way through them without finding anything when he saw a notification come in labeled with a red exclamation point.
All Client Facilitators are to report to Conference Room A in ten minutes for a company progress report update.
I guess she's done with all the individual reviews and is ready to lay out the big picture to the plebs.
Jeremy noticed that every manager he'd had liked to have meetings for things that would be easier accomplished via email. It's like they needed to justify their position by wasting everyone else's time.
Clyde was on his feet and held out his hand to Jeremy. "Time to go, Jer-O, we want to get the best seats in the house, far away from trouble before someone else snatches them up."
Jeremy gave Clyde his hand and he pulled him up. In addition to the four of them, there was another quad in the other corner of the cubicle farm, but they were a person down, so only three would come from that group. When they came to the room, Kyle was setting up the presentation before the arrival of Ms. James.
When they came in, he said, "Sorry guys, no donuts. I'm guessing that's the only reason you're here early."
Clyde just strutted on past him until he came to the other end of the large oval table, "Just taking my place at the head of the table. Enjoy things down there at the foot where you belong Kyle."
"You guys are already on thin ice. You need to watch it."
Clyde was about to say something else when Max and Ms. James came in together.
Aren't they besties.
Not far behind them came the three reps from the other quad, followed by Sloan. The table had more chairs than they had people and everyone else sat close to the front, leaving several empty chairs between Jeremy and Clyde and everyone else. That didn't seem to bother Clyde a bit, but Jeremy felt self conscious, especially after that morning's meeting.
Judging by the look on Ms. James face, she wasn't too pleased with them sitting so far away either. She looked up at the clock and said, "We're a minute early, but everyone is here, so I might as well get started. I appreciate the cooperation of most of you with making the review process go smoothly this morning. Now that we've covered our individual performance, I want to go over our overall production. The short summary is that in spite of the less than stellar efforts of a few of your colleagues, the services division will finish with a new record in overall profits for this quarter."
Clyde just grinned at her comment and she ignored them as she brought up a slideshow and proceeded to bore them with charts and figures. After twenty minutes of this, she finally asked, "Any questions?"
Max raised his hand and Ms. James called on her pet pupil with a smile.
"Ms. James, this is great news of course, but is there anything we should be doing to make up for the…deficiencies in our department?"
Her smile only widened as she said, "I'm sure you've done more than enough. Don't worry about the weak links in the chain. They'll be shored up soon."
"That's great."
When there were no more questions, Ms. James closed the meeting.
"I thought up a good one to lay on Max," Clyde said as he quickly stood and moved towards the exit to catch Max as he left the room. Jeremy was about to follow when he noticed Ms. James was blocking the main exit talking to someone from the other quad. The second door was barricaded with some supplies Kyle was going through.
Jeremy looked back behind where they were sitting and noticed another door, smaller than the other ones. He thought it went to a supply closet, but it was on the same wall as the other ones. He decided to give it a try. The handle turned and he stepped outside to the hallway, almost colliding with Sloan as she hurried past.
"Sorry Sloan, I…"
She cut him off, surprising him by grabbing his arm. Jeremy half expected her to assault him in some way, but instead her touch was light and tender and he was shocked to see her smiling up at him. "It was my fault Jeremy. I should pay more attention to where I'm going. I hope I didn't startle you."
Jeremy was at a loss for words. He half expected her face to change back to the familiar scowl she normally gave him and slam him into the wall.
There has to be something I'm missing.
"If you're all right, we should get back to work. Walk with me?"
Jeremy could only nod and she took his arm and led him back towards their cubicles.
That’s all I can give away for free. To read more, you can find the story on Amazon under Hunter Chadwick - The Third Door