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.
I’m getting a strange feeling as I’m writing. (Not that kind of feeling, you’re dirty.) It’s something I haven’t felt since I wrote the first Elizabeth book. I don’t know if anyone is going to want, or enjoy reading the book I’m writing, and I really don’t care. I’m having fun writing it. There’s something joyously broken about my characters and I look forward to seeing what happens to them.
At least one of them will die in the second act and I’m not sure which one. I might kill off the one I like the least or most or I might ask you for help. We’ll see what happens.
JenEric Designs is starting to plan for our 2014 events and stuff. With that in mind we’re asking everyone who enjoys our products (JenEric Designs Crochet, Travelling Tardis, and Aspiring Something) to fill in a short ten question Survey.
Please fill in our survey! (If we have a good enough response rate we might do something special for our fans.)
I’m neck deep in a new novel set in a psychiatric institute for people with Parasomnia. So far it’s a lot of fun to write. I’m still working on the concept for my Vlog. Testing things out, playing with the equipment, and being a total chicken. On top of my weekly Modern RPG that I’m running.
Still no word about the book I submitted. Hopefully before March.
Something that’s been draining a lot of time and energy from me lately is being sick. I spent a few days last week, completely dead. To top that off both my wife and I are starting to feel colds. Hopefully they’ll go away, or we’re nuts, or both.
On their Facebook Page, Silver Stag Entertainment asked for suggestion for movies. In case you want to do a psychological analysis of my mind (Please don’t, that way leads to madness.) here’s what I suggested:
Wall-E
The Incredibles
Willow
Alien
The Last Starfigher
Dude Where’s my Car
Splice
Journey to the Center of the Earth(1959)
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)
The Court Jester
Stargate
The Gamers
Frankenstein (1931)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Rocky Horror Picture Show.
They also asked on their Goodreads Book Club, for book suggestions. Here are mine:
Bitten by Kelley Armstrong
The Silvered by Tanya Huff
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Redshirts by John Scalzi
Terrier by Tamora Pierce
Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
The Sleeping Dragon by Joel Rosenberg
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King
In the Tall Grass by Stephen King and Joe Hill
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini
The Sleeping God by Violette Malan
How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper
Sins of the Son by Linda Poitevin
Destiny’s Blood by Marie Bilodeau
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
Wyrm by Mark Fabi
The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
The Hunter’s Moon by O.R. Melling
Hollow Earth by John and Carole Barrowman
Defining Diana by Hayden Trenholm
Disappearing Nightly by Laura Resnick
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clark
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Red Mars by Ben Bova
Don’t Bite the Sun by Tanith Lee
Knight Life by Peter David
That’s it for now. I’m going to see if I can nap with my eyes open.
I’m fighting a cold or flu or something. I’ll spare you the gory details.
I spent yesterday in a weird nauseated fog and hibernated. Today I felt mildly better and slept in just to make sure.
The one thing weighing on me is that I didn’t write yesterday. I’m always extra stressed about writing during the first third of a novel. It feels like if I stop then I’ll never get started again.
With than I’ll stop procrastinating and go try to write.
Wish me luck.
Attached below is my version of the Venusian Lullaby sung by the 3rd Doctor. It’ll be the credits song for my eventual web show.
I’m fighting a cold or flu or something. I’ll spare you the gory details.
I spent yesterday in a weird nauseated fog and hibernated. Today I felt mildly better and slept in just to make sure.
The one thing weighing on me is that I didn’t write yesterday. I’m always extra stressed about writing during the first third of a novel. It feels like if I stop then I’ll never get started again.
With than I’ll stop procrastinating and go try to write.
Wish me luck.
Attached below is my version of the Venusian Lullaby sung by the 3rd Doctor. It’ll be the credits song for my eventual web show.
This is a picture of the stuff on my desk. It’s only missing The Mummy mug that my brother got me from MGM.
Agent P. Pez, Tardis USB hub, Uncle John’s daily calendar, Two Portal Turrets, Princess Cadence, Crystal Applejack, and K9 Mark 2.
Last night I received my microphone. I now have everything I need to start my vlog. I was so excited about the microphone that I just tossed and turned until 1am. Leaving me exhausted.
It’s kinda silly that I’m so excited. I mean I barely have a concept. I don’t even have a channel name yet. I was thinking JenEric Productions. If anything I should be panicking. And there I go. Ack. I have no clue what to talk about other than just ranting on random subjects that interest me.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what topics I should talk about?
I’d heard of Susan Cooper before but had never read any of her books. They were on my “To read, maybe someday, if I remember, who knows” list but hadn’t gotten to them yet.
Last month S.M. Carrière asked me to join Silver Stag Entertainment as a contributor. All I had to do was sit with other people and discuss movies and books. That’s how I joined The Nights of the Round Table.
The first book was Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper. If you hadn’t guessed yet.
Below is my review. For more information on how and why I review books read my posts Part 1 and Part 2.
Characters
I liked
I really enjoyed the ominous and creepy villain but wished we’d been properly introduced to him earlier on. I also enjoyed Barney who was the only fleshed out character in the book.
I also enjoyed that the main characters spoke to each other, as if they were siblings. It’s a fine line between friends and siblings but the banter is a little different and Cooper nailed it.
I didn’t like
I felt that for the size of the book, there were too many characters that didn’t get fleshed out. The parents were basicly set pieces.
Other than the scene where the Uncle lays out what’s going on, I found he was more or less useless. He was so useful that the author needed to pull a Gandalf and have him disappear.
For characters, I give it 2 out of 5
Writing Style
I liked
The language in this book was wonderful. It wasn’t dumbed down or over explained. I also liked the weaving of Arthurian myth into the story. It was a very simple book and didn’t pretend to be anything more.
I didn’t like
I felt she spent too much time describing how they solve the puzzle and not enough explaining the puzzle.
I give it 4 out of 5.
Story
I liked
I liked the second half of the books, action. It was quick and well-paced. Again I think a little trimming of characters might have helped the pace.
I didn’t like
The beginning was just so slow and I kept thinking certain people were more important than others. It was a little frustrating that the Author introduced characters and possible stories and then didn’t follow through.
I give the story 3 out of 5
Fun
I liked
It was light and easy to read. The language was nice and it was an Arthurian Quest. It was written to be fun and that’s what it was. I also really like the part at the end with the Uncles name.
I didn’t like
How slow it was to begin or that the majority of characters aren’t fleshed out as much as they should have been.
It shows that the author made the characters interesting if one of my major complaints is that she didn’t let me see more of them.
I give it 4 out of 5 for fun
Overall
It’s an interesting book that holds a lot of nostalgic value for people who read it as children. Since I read it as an adult I can see the flaws in the over-simplicity of the story.
I’d heard of Susan Cooper before but had never read any of her books. They were on my “To read, maybe someday, if I remember, who knows” list but hadn’t gotten to them yet.
Last month S.M. Carrière asked me to join Silver Stag Entertainment as a contributor. All I had to do was sit with other people and discuss movies and books. That’s how I joined The Nights of the Round Table.
The first book was Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper. If you hadn’t guessed yet.
Below is my review. For more information on how and why I review books read my posts Part 1 and Part 2.
Characters
I liked
I really enjoyed the ominous and creepy villain but wished we’d been properly introduced to him earlier on. I also enjoyed Barney who was the only fleshed out character in the book.
I also enjoyed that the main characters spoke to each other, as if they were siblings. It’s a fine line between friends and siblings but the banter is a little different and Cooper nailed it.
I didn’t like
I felt that for the size of the book, there were too many characters that didn’t get fleshed out. The parents were basicly set pieces.
Other than the scene where the Uncle lays out what’s going on, I found he was more or less useless. He was so useful that the author needed to pull a Gandalf and have him disappear.
For characters, I give it 2 out of 5
Writing Style
I liked
The language in this book was wonderful. It wasn’t dumbed down or over explained. I also liked the weaving of Arthurian myth into the story. It was a very simple book and didn’t pretend to be anything more.
I didn’t like
I felt she spent too much time describing how they solve the puzzle and not enough explaining the puzzle.
I give it 4 out of 5.
Story
I liked
I liked the second half of the books, action. It was quick and well-paced. Again I think a little trimming of characters might have helped the pace.
I didn’t like
The beginning was just so slow and I kept thinking certain people were more important than others. It was a little frustrating that the Author introduced characters and possible stories and then didn’t follow through.
I give the story 3 out of 5
Fun
I liked
It was light and easy to read. The language was nice and it was an Arthurian Quest. It was written to be fun and that’s what it was. I also really like the part at the end with the Uncles name.
I didn’t like
How slow it was to begin or that the majority of characters aren’t fleshed out as much as they should have been.
It shows that the author made the characters interesting if one of my major complaints is that she didn’t let me see more of them.
I give it 4 out of 5 for fun
Overall
It’s an interesting book that holds a lot of nostalgic value for people who read it as children. Since I read it as an adult I can see the flaws in the over-simplicity of the story.
Why do we accept that villains are stupid? Not that they make stupid mistakes but that they are stupid. Think of a villain… I’ll wait… Ok do you have one? Great!
Are they stupid? Not unintelligent. All Bond villains are brilliant but soooo stupid. “I will destroy the world.” Chances are you’ve thought of a dumb villain and chances are it doesn’t bother you that they’re dumb.
It’s like there are four classes of villains, anti-villains, comic, stupid, and scary. Some villains are just there to make you laugh and some are there just to give the protagonist something to achieve.
Most of what Loki does in Avengers and Thor seems absolutely dumb. Did he really think he could get away with it? I mean really? No of course he didn’t. I don’t think Loki is a villain any more than I think Dexter is a hero. Loki is an Anti-Villain. He wants to be a bad guy and he wants it bad but at heart he’s really a big softy.
The comic villains are the ones that are so over-the-top that they are barely even considered villains. Darth Helmet from Spaceballs or Amilyn (Paul Reuben) from the Buffy movie.
The stupid villains are everywhere. Sometimes it’s just bad writing. Benedict CumberKHAAAAN from the latest Star Trek was a super-genius but apparently didn’t understand how to work a scanner. (Armed torpedoes beamed on his ship and he didn’t know?) STUPID!
I’m not against villains having flaws. Sauron, from Lord of the Rings, loses simply because he’s too arrogant to think anyone would destroy the ring. Other than that he was a scary level of brilliant. Benedict CumberSmaug, from the latest Hobbit, is so prideful that he doesn’t believe anyone can touch him. Pride and Arrogance are the most common fault in villains and Heroes.
Now try to think of a villain that truly terrified you. In horror movies, we have Micheal Myers, from Halloween, and Jason, from Friday the 13th, all they want is to kill. No elaborate plans just carnage. That’s scary! The audience knows what the villain want, understands why they want it, and knows they’ll get it.
Disney has some scary villains. Gaston is a true villain. He pretends to be dumb but plans and schemes. He’s a bigot, murderer, and hates progress. Worst of all, he’s charmed everyone around him to make them think he’s the Hero. Now that’s scary.
Or how about Ursula, or Cruella De Vil? They make a few mistakes but overall they were good at what they did and they did it ruthlessly.
I love television but it’s the worst offender when it comes to having stupid villains. Every recurring bad guy in Bones starts out as scary and then they have to make them stupid at the last minute. Castle did it for a few villains. Whedon seems to avoid this by making a lot of Anti-Villains. Warehouse 13, Sanctuary, Eureka, and to a lesser degree Stargate all had this problem.
Back to my original question: Why?
Why do we, as an audience, allow stupid villains?
Is there a villain that scared you with how smart they were?
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 730 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 12 trips to carry that many people.
