Hello My Imaginary Friends,
My newest book, Everdome, is available to buy. You can get the Ebook or the Hardcover at Renaissance Press’s Website.
Also available as ebooks at Amazon, Indigo/Chapters, and Kobo.
This is the best book I’ve written so far and I’m very proud. I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Thank you!
Éric
Putting Sacre-Coeur to your back, you look out over the entirety of Paris from the top of Montmartre. Absolutely breathtaking view.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 4.5 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9
The screen sat there blinking, “Hello.”
The three of them looked at each other and eventually it was Seren who said, “Hello.” They all watched the screen waiting for something to happen.
Nothing did and Jan asked, “How does it know our language?” The others shrugged and they added, “It even has the same configuration as our keyboards.” They point to the old-fashioned looking keyboard in front of the screen.
Feeling silly, Seren said, “Maybe it’s not voice activated?” She typed in, “Hello”.
They once again looked at the screen, this time their text appeared under the first hello and the screen replied with, “It has been 3,920,002 planetary rotations since your last session. Welcome back.”
“Assuming the same amount of days in a year that’s just shy of ten thousand seven hundred and forty years.” Annie thought that number sounded familiar as she said it, but couldn’t place it.
“Would you like to continue with your last session?” The screen’s green text blinked.
Seren looked at the other two and typed, “Yes.”
What appeared next was an interactive, multimedia document that showed the creation of a micro-star. It was absolutely fascinating. Seren had always assumed that the stars were created by compressing the planet or moon until it was so dense it self-combusted. She was completely wrong. The process involved taking a small piece of a micro-stars plasma and introducing it into the planet. Over the next year the piece grew and expanded, eating the planet from the inside and finally bursting through the crust to become a viable micro-star for space travel.
“Ten thousand years. The Great Techo-Mage! This is where they got all their information.”
“That means that this is the birth place of our civilisation,” Jan sat back and rubbed their face absently.
“Do you know anything about the Children of the Stars?” Seren typed.
“Each micro-star is a unique part of the parent and therefore equivalent to a child.”
“That’s not helpful,” quipped Annie.
Seren tried something different, “What are you?”
“I am the Mother of Stars. Born from the collective of my people.” The screen changed again to a long text with images and information about the original inhabitants of this planet. They’d been very similar to Seren and the other Children but instead of taking to space they discovered a way to save their minds into a giant supercomputer. They developed alloys that could self-heal and an army of sentient robots to protect it. They hollowed out their own planet and installed a micro-star.
When they uploaded themselves, they discovered that the micro-star was sentient. All suns were sentient. Over time and interfacing they learned from each other and in the end the consciousness of the people merged with that of the star becoming something else completely.
This new entity made it it’s goal to teach others how to speak with and become stars.
“But what happened? Why did it stop?” Jan asked.
“According to this it got stuck in the void between galaxies. Something to do with a gravity well,” Seren did some more typing.
“So Hokulua was just coming home to tell mum what was going on?” Annie sounded sad.
The screen flicked and moved quickly as Seren typed question after question. Finally she said, “Oh Mother… We did this.”
“What?” the other two said at once.
“The Great Techno-Mage did this. They trapped the Mother so she couldn’t tell anyone else and then took all the information and a plasma sample. All the technology our civilization is built on is from here and we hid it.” Seren felt sick at the idea.
“But why did the micro-stars not come back before Hokulua?” Annie asked.
From behind them someone cleared their throat. The man was tall and thin, his dark cloak and robe sparkled like the stars. His eyes were cold and distant, his sneer and disgust weren’t. “Because the Mother wants to teach everyone to be like her. We can’t let the other tribes and the pirates have the same technology as us.”
“Why not?” Annie stood defiantly in front of their ship’s Techno-Mage.
“We were almost wiped out. There were less than a thousand of us on half a dozen crumbling stations. We were the first to escape our dying planet but we were not meant for space. We were dying and if the others had the same technology, we’d be no better than we were. Our first mission as Techno-Mages was to protect the Children.”
“That was ten thousand years ago. We’re spread out over the entire universe. There are billions of us with powerful stations and… surely we can let the Mother go.” Seren felt disgusted. Her love of archeology was born from a civilization that used it to enslave. Their whole way of life was based on stealing and exploiting.
“We’ve spent ten thousand years trying to make sure the micro-stars stay quiet, subdued, and controllable. We hadn’t anticipated that the new AI would allow the stars to communicate. Once the Mother analyzes the data from the station it will know what we’ve done and it will be furious. It must be contained or destroyed. And now… so must you.”
Read Next Chapter (October 2019)
While you wait for the next chapter, check out previous serial stories:
Sweden is the last place I would think of to look for the house that Pippi Longstocking lived in.
However, Vimmerby, Sweden is exactly where you’ll find this replica of the author’s drawing of Pippi’s house, complete with lopsided shutters and balcony railing.
Astrid Lindgren’s World is a theme park open in the summer (May to August) dedicated to the stories by the author. Pippi’s house, Villa Vallekulla, is the star attraction.
You can contact Jennifer Desmarais through Orleans Travel. jennifer.desmarais@orleanstravel.ca
Hello lovers of warm drinks,
This year at Ottawa Comiccon there was an awesome tea vender, who is based in Montreal. We bought some fantastic Sailor Venus tea that Jen loves.
Since then, we’ve tried a half dozen more of their teas and they’re amazing. They have a great selection of fandom tea.
Bonus; they are also selling an advent calendar.
Go check out their site and get some tea for those that don’t want to drink coffee all the time.
Later days,
Éric
At the top of the highest hill in Paris is a church: Sacre-Coeur. As with all the architecture in Paris, it was beautifully carved.
Tucked in behind it is a series of small gift shops with very reasonably priced souvenirs, and a courtyard where local artists hang out and paint caricatures and landscapes while you watch. And bakeries. Obviously.
One of my favourite companions was played by Catherine Tate: Donna Noble. Love her sass. I can’t wait to introduce Dragon and Pegasus to her character.
Dear little Dragon,
You’ve grown so much in every way possible. Today you turn 3. The last year has been absolutely amazing to watch. You’ve learned so much.
Since your last birthday you:
It feels like each year of your life we’ve taken a trip. This year we went to Stratford, Ontario for Katie and Mike’s wedding. Everyone loved you there and you really didn’t want to leave. You danced all night and made Katie and Mike really happy. It was your first long car ride and you did great.
You also went to your first Opinicon, the Coderre family reunion held every 5 years, you absolutely loved it. You said hi to everyone, played with your cousins and had a great time. In 5 years you’ll love it even more.
It was another year of conventions that you both helped prepare and are starting to help sell at. You went to Can-Con, Comic Con Holiday Edition, Ottawa Comic Con, and Geek Market. Your Mum and I love that you can hang out with us and help for 8+ hours a day at conventions.
I both love and fear your strength of emotions. When you’re feeling a strong emotion, everyone knows and it’s just like I was at your age. Thankfully you always swing back to happy quickly.
This year Baby Pegasus joined the party and you’ve been fantastic with him. He adores you, choosing to follow you more than anyone else (with his eyes… I can hear you saying, “He doesn’t walk yet.”) he smiles at you and you can calm him. You are a little too affectionate but you’re learning.
You are strong willed, clever, passionate, loving, curious, and you make everyone smile. You frustrate me with your procrastination and your stubborn streak but you also make me proud, every day.
The year coming has so many exciting things and I look forward to sharing them with you.
Happy Birthday Little Dragon and welcome to Level 3!
Papa
I’m sure, if you’re on the internet, you’ve seen the image of the girl putting a condom on over her arm. She wrote a tweet back in 2015 to prove that anyone saying that their penis is too big for a condom is either not telling the truth or hasn’t done their research.
While a regular condom might be too tight on a larger penis, there are definitely options out there.
It is important to wear the appropriate size of condom. If it is too loose, it might slip off inside the partner. If it is too tight, there is danger of it ripping.
To use a condom size chart, you must first measure the penis, both length and girth, while it is erect.
And remember, natural vaginal lubricant, saliva, and lubricated condoms are NOT sufficient amounts of lube for intercourse. Friction will require additional lube (and make sure to get lube that will not disintegrate your condom).
If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.
