We attended Renaissance Press’s multi-author book launch recently, and brought the TARDIS for photo-ops with the authors and their brand new books.
What I *should* have done was ask the author which (if any) of their characters would run off with the Doctor. Hopefully they’ll answer in the comments!
Learn about Stephen and buy his book here!
Hello Coffee Lovers,
ALL ORDERS MUST ME PLACED BY TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT!!!
Would you or a loved one want 24 bags of coffee for advent? Or would you prefer 12 larger bags?
JenEric Coffee has you covered.
This is a pre-order for our Advent Calendars. Flavours will be picked from our current selection and a few experimental flavours.
Orders will ship mid-November.
Pick up will be available Ottawa Comiccon: Holiday Edition 2019! (November 9-10)
Enjoy!
Éric
My friends and I are getting to the age when our kids are getting shots that were not available when we were young.
The chicken pox vaccine, for one. (Varicella)
I, personally, had a very severe case of chicken pox over Christmas when I was 7 years old. My dad (and his mother) weren’t sure if he had had it as a kid, so I wasn’t allowed to go near him OR my 3 year old baby sister. Not a great Christmas.
Now, there’s a vaccine that prevents the horrible, full-body-and-sometimes-inside-the-mouth-and-on-the-eyelids, itchy rash. I’m ALL FOR IT. The vaccine, I mean.
But there’s another vaccine that wasn’t around when I was young: HPV9.
I heard about it in University. I was still under the age limit to get it for free, and chose not to. I think that was a mistake. I was not very well informed about it and I regret not looking into it better.
Because the HPV9 vaccine protects against 7 types of HPV that cause types of cervical cancer, anal cancer, and genital warts.
And, more importantly, you can get HPV without having had sex.
Because HPV is transmitted via skin-to-skin contact, if someone with HPV touches their genitals (say, wiping after going to the bathroom), doesn’t wash their hands (ew), and then touches you….you have a pretty good chance of catching it.
So if you have the chance, please get the HPV9 vaccine. It is super safe and will protect you for the rest of your life.
Immunize BC
Healthlink BC
CDC
Live Science
If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 4.5 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10
“And now, so must you!” Annie mimicked. “That’s overdramatic and a little clichéd.” She’d met the Technomancer a few times before. He’d always come off as a nerdy goof. That wasn’t the air he was projecting today though.
“Don’t mock me child.” The man looked frustrated.
“So… what’s your plan? Are you going to rip us apart atom by atom?” Seren seemed annoyed and more curious than frightened.
“No. Absolutely not. I will turn off this section of the repository and you can die when the sun implodes. It’ll be a little over a day.” With those words he stepped back and the door closed. Annie ran for the door but couldn’t get out. The lights and computer terminal went dark.
The only light was from their headlamps and portable computers.
“So what are you two planning?” Jan asked. When Seren and Annie didn’t say anything Jan scoffed and said, “I’ve known both of you since we were kids. There’s no way you sat through that without thinking of a plan.”
“Well…” Seren said. “Maybe if we can connect with another part of the repository with our computers we can reroute power.”
“I was going to use the battery in my computer to try and power the door,” Annie replied.
“Great, both of you get to work and I’ll take a nap,” Jan said, stretching out on the floor.
It was a few hours before Jan heard a pair of curses. Neither method had worked.
Seren said, “There’s some sort of interference, every time I think I’ve connected, something cuts me off.”
Annie said, “I can power the door but it’s locked somehow and I can’t power it and disable the lock.”
“What if we asked for help?” Jan’s question seemed to surprise the other two. They swung their heads around to stare at them.
“Um… Who are we going to ask?” Annie questioned.
“Isn’t there anyway to ask the repository or Hoku?”
It looked like Annie was going to argue but then she just smiled and said, “Yes. That’s brilliant. You’re brilliant. All we have to do is connect to the repository not the systems.”
“Wouldn’t the Technomancer have thought of that?” asked Annie skeptically.
“That arrogant gas planet wouldn’t think of talking to the repository like it was a person. He still refers to her as an it like the Mother-of-All-Stars was only some sort of computer instead of the spirit of an entire civilization.” Jan started calmly but as they spoke, they became angrier at the thoughtlessness of the Technomancers and their ancestors.
“Okay let’s give it a try,” Seren tapped away at her computer. After what felt like too long a time the same black screen with green text appeared on Seren’s computer.
“Hello again. Why have you disabled terminal 13?”
“We didn’t. The technomancer did.”
“Designation not recognized.”
Seren looked around and wondered how to explain that they were not the same. “There were four of us in this room. Now there are three. The other isn’t our friend, he wants to destroy the mother-of-stars.”
“That is illogical. Can you stop him?”
The three friends looked at each other and shrugged. “I don’t know, but we have to try.”
It must have been the right answer, the doors opened and the floor showed arrows. Jan smilled and said, “Lets follow. Seren, can you keep the link on your computer?”
“I think so. Why?”
As they ran following the arrows, Jan said, “If the Technomancers learned everything from the repository than we, and your Dad, are going to need to study quickly to beat him.”
Laughing, Annie said, “And you say we’re the ones that always have a plan.”
The arrows didn’t lead them back to the transportation room they’d been in. Instead it brought them to a larger but almost identical room. Again, nothing was in the room but a raised circular platform and that’s where the arrows ended.
Shrugging, the three of them stood on the platform and waited. The first time they teleported there was no sound or feeling but this time there was a bright flash of light and a slight feeling of nausea.
When Seren’s eyes adjusted she was in her father’s lab. Her father was looking at her like she’d just appeared out of thin air, which she had. “Matter teleportation is supposed to be impossible. How, where…” he trailed off as he pulled her in for a hug.
“It’s a lot to explain. We need to stop the Technomancer from destroying the planet and the station.” She shoved the computer at him and started to explain. When she was done she looked around and said, “Where are the others?”
“You’re the only one that teleported here.”
Just as she was reaching for her communicator, Jan’s voice came over the intercom, “Seren and Annie, are you there?”
“I’m here but I don’t know where Annie went. I’ve filled my Dad in on what’s happening.” She saw that her Dad was already talking with the repository.
“Great. I’m with the Captain. Apparently teleporting into his office was enough to convince him. Whatever the Technomancer did, his ship is already gone. The captain has no idea what he did.”
Mr. Plentyn interrupted with, “I’m trying to get a more direct link between us, the station’s sun, and the repository. I think the station’s sun is like a toddler and if I can get the repository to help it, it can run a diagnostic.”
The alarms went off and another voice came over the intercom, “Pirates have been spotted. All pilots to fighters, everyone else to your stations.”
Read Next Chapter (November)
While you wait for the next chapter, check out previous serial stories:
I couldn’t zoom in on the statues and still have the TARDIS in the shot, but LOOK AT THEM?!
Can you imagine being in one of those rooms and glancing out the window and thinking that there’s a person outside the window? Eeek!
Happy Halloween (soon)!
We attended Renaissance Press’s multi-author book launch recently, and brought the TARDIS for photo-ops with the authors and their brand new books.
What I *should* have done was ask the author which (if any) of their characters would run off with the Doctor. Hopefully they’ll answer in the comments!
Learn about Sonia and buy her book here!
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
This past weekend the entire JenEric family went to one of our favourite conventions; Can*Con. The people were lovely and the event was wonderful, but boy am I glad it’s over.
It’s definitely the most stressful convention for me. Most conventions, my job is to stand there, look pretty, and sell coffee. At Can*Con, I’m also an author and need to talk about my books and my experience. Often times, with people I respect and am in awe of.
This year I had a panel about multiple point of view narratives with Tanya Huff and Kevin Hearn. Both amazing writers and extremely intelligent panelists. I think, to my surprise, I didn’t come off as a complete fool, so yay. (A personal fanboy moment was when Tanya chided me for not mentioning my Aurora nomination.)
Took a deep dive into multiple POVs at the Who’s your Hero Panel today. Thanks for the insights @KevinHearne @TanyaHuff @EricDesmarais @KVJohansen @CanConSF pic.twitter.com/VCuOcol326
— Colleen Winter (@ColleenWinter3) October 20, 2019
I also had a signing with Charles De Lint. I spent half the time chatting with people in line to talk with him and half the time chatting with him. He’s a really nice person and we chatted about book formatting and support structures.
Now all that was stressful but awesome. Unfortunately, all 4 of us came down with a cold just before the convention. So doing a convention with a 3 year old and a baby while being sick was… exhausting.
Despite all of us being exhausted, we decided we needed to go to the Aurora awards banquet (we were both nominated but didn’t expect to win). Keladry wanted to dress up and we were just too darn tired so we didn’t. We were the schlumps in t-shirts and jeans but we had a great time.
On the Sunday I had a reading and took Keladry to ensure I had an audience. To my surprise, there were three other people. At least one of which was there to hear me read. Yay, I have a fan! Thanks S!
Doing conventions with kids is hard but totally worth it. Adrien mostly slept, but Keladry was as good as possible. She listened, didn’t touch things, and only melted down a few times. I’m really proud of them.
Doing conventions with kids isn’t easy, but what makes it infinitely better is doing it with people who love them and like to entertain them. S. M. Carrière being the godmother spends a lot of time helping us at almost every con. Nathan of Renaissance was amazing despite being busy 99% of the con. Heather Chambers was absolutely fantastic with Keladry. She drew with her, played, and spent lots of time laughing.
There are more people that helped then I can name.
To everyone who helped, chatted, bought something, listened to me read or rant, or just made this convention amazing. Thank you so much!
I’m exhausted but happy.
Thank you again,
Éric
We recently introduced the classic Disney movie Hocus Pocus to our 3yo Dragon. She loved it. Obviously.
But it got me thinking…why haven’t I written a post about visiting the sets of Hocus Pocus yet?
Most of the movie was set on a sound stage (kinda hard to rig a flying witch in the real world, I guess!) but the outdoor, daytime sets were in Salem and Marblehead, Massachusetts.
With the 25th Anniversary of Hocus Pocus last year, the cities saw an up-tick of Halloween tourists, happy to see the outsides (and some insides) of buildings that made up part of their favourite Halloween movie.
You can too!
You can contact Jennifer Desmarais through Orleans Travel. jennifer.desmarais@orleanstravel.ca
Hello Coffee Lovers,
Would you or a loved one want 24 bags of coffee for advent? Or would you prefer 12 larger bags?
JenEric Coffee has you covered.
This is a pre-order for our Advent Calendars. Flavours will be picked from our current selection and a few experimental flavours.
Orders will ship mid-November.
Pick up will be available Ottawa Comiccon: Holiday Edition 2019! (November 9-10)
We will be delivering or shipping any orders received before the 31st of September in mid-October. Any orders received between the 1st and 31st of October will be delivered or shipped in mid-November.
Enjoy!
Éric
The crow did not move from the top of that crown for the entire time that we watched it. Makes for a unique sort of picture, don’t you think?
This is the main gate of Versailles.
