Éric

Éric has had an eclectic career which ranges from casino dealer to canal boat captain to radio station DJ. Since 2009, he’s worked as a desktop publisher for the federal government. During his off time, he works as a freelance typesetter for various Canadian-based authors and publishers, roasts gourmet flavoured coffee, runs several pen-and-paper role-playing games, writes, and helps run JenEric-Designs.ca (Home of the TravellingTARDIS.com).

He lives in Ottawa, Ontario with his author wife, daughter, and son.

Éric’s 2017 Resolutions

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

On Tuesday I reviewed my 2016 Resolutions. I managed to finish 60% of my goals, which is pretty good. This year I have 10 resolutions and I’m hoping, as always, to complete them all.

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1. Write 3000 words a week.

In years past, I’ve said 500 words a day. The importance for me is to write as often as I can. This 3000 will include books, stories, and blog posts.

2. Complete The Copper Tarnish by March

I’d like to finish The Copper Tarnish as soon as I can. I’m not sure if I’ll be submitting this book or not, but I’d like to finish it and see what I think.

3. Start the next Elizabeth Investigates

I really want to start The Hound of Baker Ville. I’ve been thinking about it for three years and it’s time to return to Baker City, Ontario.

4. Read 30 books

I failed at this last year but I was close. Let’s see if I can do it this year.

5. Write a Monthly Serial Story

This is going to be the fourth year for serial stories and I think I’m getting better at it. The goal is to write 800-1200 words every month without preplanning the story. Just letting it go where my mind wants.

Help me out and vote for the 2017 Serial Story – You Vote, I Write.

6. Test, Produce, and Develop 2 new coffee flavours.

The tough part will be not doing more. But we’ll be doing a lot of conventions and I want to give each flavour a chance to shine.

7. Playtest the new content for FADDS and get it ready for submission in 2018

I still have a lot of editing to do on the system, and with the new content it’ll take some time. Hopefully I’ll get to it and be able to shop it out in 2018.

8. Continue to ensure there’s content 5 days a week on JenEric Designs.

We’ve been going for four years now with content every weekday on JenEric Designs and I’m very proud of that. Jen and I have worked hard not to miss a day. A big thank you to all the guest posters on Fandom Travel and Blush when Dragon was born!

I’ll do my best to ensure we keep that streak going.

I also want to look into making a separate page for EricDesmarais.ca

10. Prepare A Case of Synchronicity submission to my publisher and Everdome for pitches at Can-Con

I have a lot of cleaning up to do in both novels, but it’ll be nice to revisit them and clean them up. If I decide that I’ll be pitching The Copper Tarnish, I’ll want to do that one also.

This years resolutions are skewed towards writing and are extremely ambitious but I’m okay with that.

What resolutions have you set for yourselves for 2017?
Éric

2016 Resolution Report Card

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

So 2016 is almost over. A lot of good things happened to me and my family this year. The best of which being Baby Dragon.

Let’s see how well I did with my resolutions for 2016:

1. Write 500 words a day – Pass

I might not have written every day, but between the blog, stories, and novels, I’ve written approximately 120,000 this year. It’s not quite 500 a day, but I wrote most days and that’s a good thing.

2. Complete Everdome before April – Fail

I finished before July and I’m still editing it, but at least I’m not a total slacker.

3. Start and finish a new novel – Half Pass

I’ve started The Copper Tarnish and I’m roughly a third of the way through, which is pretty good. I won’t have the time to finish it this year.

4. Read 30 books – Fail

As I’m writing this, I’m at 23 books for the year and I don’t think I’ll make it. A combination of Pokémon Go taking up my bus rides this summer and not having bus rides since September.

5. Write a Monthly or Bimonthly Serial Story – Pass

Wargrave Island was the most difficult serial story so far, but I’m happy with what I learned during it. I’m also happy that I managed to finish it without much trouble.

6. Test, Produce, and Develop a total of 16 Coffee flavours – Pass

At JenEric Coffee’s website we have 16 different flavours available and I have another 5 potential ones for next year. So yay coffee!

7. Develop a simple concept for a Youtube show – Half Pass

I have the concept but not the enthusiasm to actually make it. I think I may need to rethink how much I want to have a YouTube show.

8. Playtest the various stages of FADDS and prepare it for submission in 2017 – Fail

I played two games a week of FADDS and managed to get the system to a wonderful balance. Then in September I came up with 3 new power types for players and ran out of time before Baby Dragon came around. It’s close but it’ll have to go into next year’s resolutions.

9. Update JenEric-Designs.ca and add a proper webstore – Pass

I updated the look and feel of the website and built a total of 3 webstores before settling on the one we’re using for coffee.

10. Prepare Memories of Faust for submission (Added Mid Year) – Pass

Looks like I managed six out of ten resolutions. 60% is a pass in my book. I make these in order to push myself and to be completely honest I don’t expect that I will finish them all, but I’m extremely proud of what I have accomplished this year.

Stay tuned on Thursday for my 2017 New Years Resolutions.

How’d you do this year?
Éric

JenEric Holiday Contest – Win $25

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Would you like to win $25?

It’s easy: just look at the pictures below and say who is whom. One picture is Jen, the other is Éric, and the last is Baby Dragon, all at 3 months of age.

Fill out the form below and we’ll draw a name from the right answers.

The contest will close December 31st at 11:59pm

What’s it good for?

You can use the $25 for anything from:

Contest

Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3

CONTEST CLOSED

Happy Holidays and Good Luck!

Éric

Baby It’s Cold Outside

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

The song Baby It’s Cold Outside is downright creepy in modern days. I’m going to give the song the benefit of the doubt and assume it was written as a cute flirty song for the Holidays.

Recently the signer and songwriter duo Lydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski re-wrote the song to be less creepy and all about consent. As much as I applaud their enthusiasm, as a tool to teach consent it’s great, but it’s both a little awkward and really pushy as a message. That pushiness losses the original cute flirty feel of the song.

cold

With small changes, the song can be fun without being creepy. The first thing to do is change who’s saying what. The structure of the song has a person who wants to leave and another who doesn’t want them to leave. It’s called a Mouse and Wolf Structure.

Switch the lines so that the Mouse is the Wolf and you suddenly have a much flirty-er song.

Original

Mouse: I really can’t stay
Wolf: Baby it’s cold outside
Mouse: I’ve got to go away
Wolf: Baby it’s cold out there
Mouse: This evening has been
Wolf: Been hoping that you’d drop in
Mouse: So very nice
Wolf: I’ll hold your hands, they’re just like ice

My Edit

Mouse: You really can’t stay
Wolf: Baby it’s cold outside
Mouse: You’ve got to go away
Wolf: Baby it’s cold out there
Mouse: This evening has been
Wolf: Been hoping that I’d drop in?
Mouse: So very nice
Wolf: I’ll hold your hands, they’re just like ice

It’s a little pushy but not as creepy since it comes off as the Wolf not wanting the leave and the Mouse teasing them about it. Lines like the below go from “I’m trying to escape” to teasing.

Original

Mouse: My mother will start to worry
Wolf: Beautiful, what’s your hurry?

My Edit

Mouse: Your mother will start to worry
Wolf: Beautiful, what’s your hurry?

Besides the slight reversal of roles I’d also add a line after, “What’s in this drink” that says, “Marshmallows, you’re driving.” and change Cigarettes to Episodes.

 

What do you think? Would this make the song fun again without feeling dirty or should we just retire this one as a holiday song?

Éric

Wargrave Island (Serial Story) Part 12: Conclusion

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List of Characters | Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11

Dropping the bin and running, Riko felt so stupid. She’d left Kate alone and unarmed, other than a baseball bat.

The sand and smoke made running awkward and painful in equal measures. It felt like it took her a month to get to where she’d left Kate, and she fully expected to find the woman dead in her wheelchair.

“Take that, you asshole.” Riko heard Kate’s yell followed by a metal thunk and yelp of pain. The wind turned and the smoke moved towards the inside of the island, letting Riko see what had happened. A man was laying down cradling his head and Kate was glowering over him wielding the baseball bat.

“Kate, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I might be in a wheelchair but I’m also an Olympic athlete.” Giving Riko a sad smile, she said, “Your partner’s an asshole.”

The man laying on the ground was Ethan. His arm was still attached, but without his fathers watch. Taking her handcuffs out of her back pocket, Riko cuffed him to an old stump of a tree. He was unconscious.

After a few minutes of resting, she got some water from the lake and threw it in his face. He woke with a start.

“Why, Ethan? Why?”

Smiling he shook his head saying, “Not how? Really, you won’t give me the satisfaction of telling you how I bested the amazing Riko Dulac?”

Holding back the tears that were stinging her eyes, she shook her head and asked again, “Why?”

“Fine. I’ll monologue for you. This is revenge, pure and simple revenge. You are all terrible people and the planet is better off without you.”

When he didn’t continue, Kate laughed, “If anyone has reason to hate this group it would be me.” She pointed at her legs.

“At least you’re still alive. The merciless teasing and horrible things you all did to my sister made her kill herself. Do you know what it’s like watching someone you love change completely?”

“Yes,” Riko said unable to hide the crack in her voice.

Ignoring her he continued, “She went from a happy inquisitive girl to a depressed and angry one.”

“Kingsley was your sister? She killed herself?” Riko asked completely blindsided.

“Yes, and you didn’t even notice. Protector of the school, moral compass, bully slayer… All high and mighty and blind to everyone but her friends pain.”

“Why did you wait so long?” Kate asked.

“Revenge is a best served cold.”

“Fine. Now that you’ve told us why, tell us how. Do you have some sort of magic powers?” Riko said sarcastically. There was no way he could have sent the texts, move the bodies, set up the traps, and everything else.

His only reply was to smile. She slapped him. She couldn’t help it. She started to shake him. His smile only widened. She was getting ready to punch him when he finally spoke, “I don’t have magic powers. I have partner.” He looked over her shoulder.

She turned just in time to see a sword come out of Kate’s chest. Standing behind Kate with a crazed look was Allison. “You didn’t really think you had the brains or the resources to pull this off, did you?”

“Allison?” Riko’s head spun and she watched the light die in Kate’s eyes.

Struggling to get the sword out of Kate, Allison grunted. She finally gave up and took a shotgun out from a sling on her back.

“Yes. Poor little boring Allison. Did you forget about me again? Like the time I was supposed to tutor you in math and you never showed up? Or the time you, Zane, and I were going to go see Narnia together? Or maybe that time I was supposed to get a ride with you to the grad party? Ring a bell?”

“I’m sorry, Allison. I didn’t realize…”

“NO!” Allison yelled, “You didn’t care! And when I saw what you all did to poor Kingsley, I knew you had to pay. It took me years to get the money to buy this island and put cameras everywhere. Finding Ethan was a nice bonus.”

“How–”

“Did I make it look like you had no signal? My app has an extra layer. I can activate it and it take over your phone. Making it look like you have no signal. It then only allows texts from me to get through. And you were all dumb enough to install it.”

“Wow. We must have been horrible to have you go through all this trouble,” Riko said. She was still angry, but she was also guilty and exhausted.

“I don’t want your pity, bitch!” Allison snickered and then added, “I want you to die.” She raised the shotgun at Riko. “Any last words?”

Riko recognized the shotgun and hesitated before saying, “Don’t do it. I–”

Cutting her off again, Allison said, “I don’t care,” and pulled the trigger. The shotgun, the same that Riko had rigged to backfire in the hotel, backfired and shot Allison in the chest.

Ethan started giggling at the sight. He didn’t stop as Riko took her phone and deleted Allison’s app. Then she restarted the phone for good measure and when it turned back on, she had five percent battery, but she had signal. She called 911 and explained where she was and babbled what had happened.

Still giggling, Ethan started bashing his head against the tree stump he was tied to. Riko tried to care, she tried to feel indignant that he was trying to escape justice, but instead she just felt numb. When he stopped moving she reached over and felt his neck. He was still alive, barely.

In her numb state, she was relieved he would face justice but she couldn’t help feeling that the entire thing was partly her fault.

Help me write 2017’s serial story and vote for the
2017 Serial Story – You Vote, I Write

If you enjoyed Wargrave Island why not read previous years serial stories: 

2014 – The Ridiculous Adventures of Felix Felicis
The story of a man who likes things neat and organized and gets dragged across time and space.

2015 – Only Human
The story of an ordinary-ish human, who enrols in Monster University to find her sister’s killer, but finds love and friendship instead.

You Don’t Need to be a Jerk to Act Like One

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

There’s something that’s been bugging me since November 8th. A lot of people have been saying or doing stupid jerk-like things.

Jerk behaviour goes through cycles and the latest one is to say, “It’s okay, I’m not a jerk.” As if not being a jerk meant your behaviour couldn’t be that of a jerk.

A friend posted an article where a jerk-face was condescending a female expert about her field. Someone commented that this was obvious mansplaining (When a man disregards a woman’s experience and decides to explain things to her despite her being way more qualified to explain the thing.) A guy commented that they were using the term wrong and that there was no way to know if the jerk from the article was actually a sexist-jerk.

So here’s something that a lot of people don’t seem to understand: An action is independent from the actor. In the same way, the action is independent from the actor’s intention.

The action is independent from the actor’s intention.

Let’s tackle the second statement first. What this means is that despite being influenced by an intention, an action is its own thing. If you call someone stupid, the action is hurtful even if the intention wasn’t. Even if both parties believe the act to be harmless it’s still a hurtful act. Because it normalizes a difference in cognition as bad. This may seem like a banal example but try it by replacing the word “stupid” with the pejorative racial slur of your choice.

An action is independent from the actor.

You don’t need to be a Chef to cook a dinner. Just like you don’t need to be a jerk to do something that’s jerk-like. In the example above, the jerk who was condescending to an expert might not have been sexist, but what he was doing was sexist. It doesn’t matter what he was or what he was intending, he acted in a sexist way.

Why is this important?

It may seem pedantic to insist on this divide but it’s extremely important. People are fallible and we all make mistakes. It’s possible to do a jerk act from ignorance and not malice.

The trend is to say, “Look at that person; they did something jerk-like. They’re a jerk!” That leaves no room for the person to learn or for the person to grow. It creates a society where there are whole websites dedicated to how your favourite celebrity/activist/politician/etc is “Problematic.”

There are people out there who act constantly in a jerk-like manner and they are jerks.

I have acted like a jerk in the past and when someone explained to me why what I did was jerk-like, I tried to change my behaviour.

 

Try to not act like a jerk when people tell you your actions are jerk-like.
Éric

Heart Tea Heart

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

I love coffee (if you’ve read this blog for a little you probably know that) but I also have a soft spot for good tea. I mean loose leaf, flavourful, and bold tea.

That’s exactly what you get with all the different blends from Heart Tea Heart.

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I’m partial to the Knights of Avalon, the English Breakfast, and for reasons that are obvious in the next picture, the Harvest Apple Oolong.

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Heart Tea Heart has a pop-up location for the holidays and is stocking books along with tea. Including mine.

Books and Tea make wonderful presents.

They’re at the Merivale Mall 1642 Merivale Road, Ottawa, Ontario! Go check them out.

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Also go give them a Like on Facebook, and if you’re out of town, check out their website.

Later days,
Éric

Serial Story and Criticism

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Creating things is hard. Showing it to other people is like ripping a piece of yourself off and hoping people will like it. (Van Gogh understood and took it a little too literally.)

There’s no trick to taking criticism. There are rules however, (which I sometimes forget) the chief most of those is: Never engage or defend. If someone says that your setting sucks because of X, you smile and nod. Later you can cry and rant and scream, but to the person you smile and nod and even thank them.

The second rule is just as important. Don’t dismiss or accept criticism until you’re calm. Once you’ve gotten over the emotional reaction, you’ll be better able to judge if you should take the criticism to heart or throw it out.

As a writer, there are things that I do well. I can create compelling characters, silly jokes, and I’m pretty decent at adventure style stories. What I don’t do well is realism.

All this comes from a criticism of this years’ serial story. It was harsh, sarcastic, and a little condescending, but not wrong. I’m not a hard mystery writer. I’m also not practised at realistic fiction. Wargrave Island has been a little cartoony in the deaths and I’m ok with that. It’s been an experiment and it’s taught me that this isn’t the genre that I want to be writing.

If you’d like to help me decide what to write for 2017’s serial story vote in the poll below. So far we’ve only had 5 voters so tell your friends and decide what 2017 will be like:

2017-serial-story

What Should be the Genre of the 2017 Serial Story?

  • Comedy & Fantasy (21%, 3 Votes)
  • Romance & Science-Fiction (21%, 3 Votes)
  • Science-Fiction (14%, 2 Votes)
  • Science-Fiction & Fantasy (14%, 2 Votes)
  • Romance & Fantasy (14%, 2 Votes)
  • Romance (7%, 1 Votes)
  • Action-Adventure (7%, 1 Votes)
  • Fantasy (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Comedy (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Super Hero (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 14

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What Point of View should I write?

  • Third Person Limited (43%, 6 Votes)
  • Third Person Omniscient (29%, 4 Votes)
  • First Person (29%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 14

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What Form should the Conflict Take?

  • Person VS Nature (50%, 7 Votes)
  • Person VS Person (29%, 4 Votes)
  • Person VS Self (21%, 3 Votes)

Total Voters: 14

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How Many Main Characters Should Be in the Story?

  • 2 (43%, 6 Votes)
  • 3 (43%, 6 Votes)
  • 1 (14%, 2 Votes)

Total Voters: 14

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What should the Main Character(s) Be?

  • Normal Human (36%, 5 Votes)
  • Non-Human (Alien, Elf, Dwarf, etc) (21%, 3 Votes)
  • Special Human (Super Hero, Chosen One, Magic user, etc) (14%, 2 Votes)
  • Personification of a Concept (Death, Liberty, etc) (14%, 2 Votes)
  • Anthropomorphized Animal (Human looking fox) (14%, 2 Votes)

Total Voters: 14

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Should There be Time Travel?

  • No (57%, 8 Votes)
  • Yes (43%, 6 Votes)

Total Voters: 14

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If you have any extra suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments. No promises that I’ll use all suggestions.

Thank you and Later Days,
Éric

Dear Dragon – Your Gramma

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young001

Dear Dragon,

It’s the first of December and that means that Christmas is just around the corner. We’ve been listening to holiday music for the past three weeks and other than “Last Christmas” I’m still loving it.

There are all kinds of reasons I love the holidays, the snow, the presents, sappy movies/tv, spending time with family and friends, but most of all, it’s a time that most people feel more hopeful.

I hope you grow up with the kind of holidays that your Mum and I had. Our parents went out of their way to make it a loving and wonderful time.

As much as I love this time, I’m always a little sad. It reminds me of your Gramma. She loved this time of year, she’d get as excited as a child. I can still picture her with her santa mug of coffee and a mischievous grin.

christmas06001

It wasn’t an easy season for her. She wanted to give me everything the other kids had but couldn’t afford it. I was still spoiled (especially by your Uncle Dan) but I remember the pain on her face when we received food boxes. It hurt her pride but she knew she needed to accept it.

No matter what happened, she made sure it was a great day filled with laughter and family.

She’s been gone for eight years now and when she died I took custody of an old box. It was packed in 1996 and says not to open until 2016. I remember packing it with some of my favourite toys, although I don’t remember the toys.

img_20161129_140122img_20161129_140147

I’m a little conflicted about the box. I want to open it, but I also want to open it with you when you’re old enough to appreciate it… to appreciate her. I’ll decide at the last minute.

She would have loved you sooooooooo much,
Your happy and sad Papa

I’m Sorry You Had a Bad Year

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Hello my Imaginary Friends,

A lot of weird, sad, and scary things have happened this year. A lot of celebrity deaths, a lot of fear and hate based electoral decisions. That not to mention the natural and terrorist disasters. Pile on top of that the fact that everyone knows someone who’s sick, dying, or dead; and a lot of people are saying 2016 is the worst year ever.

I’m not going to get into the statistics that say that humanity is better off now then it’s ever been (It’s not great or perfect but better.) It’s been a bad year for many people and there are some serious scary things started this year that will carry forward to next year.

What I will say is this: I’m sorry you’re hurting. I’m sorry this year has been bad. I hope the next one is better for everyone.

I’ve been struggling with a large amount of guilt this year. Sometimes that guilt bubbles into anger, but mostly it’s sadness.

You see, this has been one of the best years of my life. I’ve had a lot of great things happen to me and to my family. My wife and I had a wonderful little Dragon, my first book was published, my wife’s game was successfully kickstarted, I signed a contract for another novel, I’ve had steady work, my brother married a wonderful woman, and that’s just the short list.  Things are not perfect (I wish my mom could have met Dragon) but they’re good.

So every time I see a post or news story about how horrible 2016 was, I feel guilty. I feel like I don’t deserve to feel this happy because others are sad. It’s silly, I know.

I’m not asking anyone to change what they say or post; this is completely my issue. What I would like is to remind everyone that there are still plenty of good things happening and it’s important to look for the good. It’s okay to be sad and angry but make sure you find the good in your life.

That’s enough sappyness from me.

Later Days,
Éric