Auspicious Beginnings

A collection of thirteen stories are gathered in this volume that depict ordinary people discovering love under less than ideal circumstances. In Legal Maneuvers a receptionist verbally spars with the junior attorney in the practice. A thirty-something baker who has labored under the thumb of his widowed mother suddenly finds himself able to live his own life for the first time when she suddenly dies, and he is ill-prepared for it. A funeral home director notices the same woman attending multiple funerals and finally finds the courage to approach her in Isabelle. An spirited, young artist crosses paths with the curator of an art museum and changes his life in Christien and Sophie. An American journalist on assignment in Paris is attracted to the author she is writing about in The Interview. An Irish girl working for her uncle makes a delivery to an Italian artist who is inspired by her beauty in Vittoria. A writer discovers a dead kitten in his cousin's refrigerator which alters the course of his life in Life, Death, Love & Kittens. A young woman is despondent and wishes to end her life but her guardian angel intervenes in Nova. A woman helping her great aunt plan a funeral discovers her former classmate is not so weird and creepy as she once thought he was in The Sentiment of Roses. A young man and a young woman cross swords at their wealthy parents' wedding in the French Riviera in Journey North. A teenaged girl flees her abusive home and is taken in by a band of gypsies in La Rose, Le Loup et La Lune. In Mahue a young woman rescues an abandoned kitten and catches the attention of the new vet in town. The calico cat belonging to a young widow plays matchmaker in "Cat"chmaker.