“Crushing It” Review 5

Crushing It was sent out for reviews in May, and I’ve received some in return. Here’s one from bookstagrammer JourneytoBiscovery:

Cover art by @pinkpiggy93 on Tumblr and @flowerraven93 on Instagram

Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!

Physical from Canadian indie bookstoresphysical from Indigo, electronic version

How I crushed the writing of “Crushing It”

Crushing It

It was 2021, and I had just finished writing Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers with Éric. We’d gotten feedback from the first beta reader, and it was effusive.

I was writing short stories for our Short Story Collection (currently on submission) and I thought, “I’d like to write something about Kennedy’s younger brother, Tommy. I wonder what his story is.”

I decided he had to come to Westmeath, and thought it would be cool to write about the tech side of the city. I already had a built-in friend for Tommy in Carter, from Assassins, and I was looking forward to writing more of his character, especially after some of the short stories I had written. I added Elyse, Rachel’s younger sister, and thus the trio was complete.

Beyond that, my jot notes were the classes during the March Break camp at Door Tech, and that was it.

I started writing during “March” Break, which was in April in 2021. I wrote pretty much the entire thing on my phone, thumb-swiping as I nursed my youngest to sleep. It was taking literal hours for sleep to come, so I had quite a bit of dedicated writing time.

I had told myself, before I started writing, that this wasn’t going to be a romance. The trio would be friends.

Wow did a curveball ever get thrown my way when Tommy’s reactions to Carter were so shy and awkward. I was super confused at first. Why was he reacting like that?

And then I figured out that he had a crush!

I panicked.

I’m not gay. I didn’t know if I should be writing his story since I wasn’t gay!

So I messaged my publisher and asked his opinion. I believe I also talked to a couple other queer authors to ask what they thought as well, but I don’t remember who.

The unanimous response was “Go for it! He’s your character. If he’s gay, then that’s what you should write!”

I went back to add a little bit more obvious reactions, and then continued writing. I got to the end of the camp, sent Tommy home, and added the novella to the collection of completed works.

Halfway through July, I told Éric that I wanted to write fanfic for Tommy. He thought that was hilarious and told me to write actual content.

So I started writing a short story about what happened to Tommy after he got home. At this point, I introduced Faith.

And I got an idea to have them go to a STEM competition. A province-wide competition that would take place in Toronto, so I could have the boys meet up again.

My jot notes expanded to include the competition topics. (If you’re keeping track, that means my jot notes were the sum of a list of classes and a list of competition activities.)

And I wrote. I was still writing at night while nursing, thumb-swiping on my phone. I would guess that 90% of this book was written in this way.

I did research into the science behind things. I got help from Éric, my mom, and my sister for various topics (especially the coding!).

And then one day I did a word count.

I sheepishly went to Éric and told him, “I think I’m writing a book.”

He said, “I know.”

Oops.

And that’s how I accidentally wrote a book!

Cover art by @pinkpiggy93 on Tumblr and @flowerraven93 on Instagram

Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!

Physical from Canadian indie bookstoresphysical from Indigo, electronic version

Mini MSN Chats 6-7

Crushing It

Here follows the accounts of 2003-version MSN chats between Tommy and Carter, set in the middle of Crushing It as they navigate their long-distance relationship.

MSN chat #6.1
MSN chat #6.2
MSN chat #7
Cover art by @pinkpiggy93 on Tumblr and @flowerraven93 on Instagram

Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!

Physical from Canadian indie bookstoresphysical from Indigo, electronic version

Come see us this weekend at Ottawa Comiccon

Hello Coffee and Crochet lovers,

JenEric DesignsJenEric CoffeeThe Travelling TARDISJen Desmarais, and Eric Desmarais will be at this year’s (September the 8th to the 10th) Ottawa Comiccon at the EY Centre.

Come get your coffee, crochet, and books!

We’ll be at booths 2604-2606!

Can’t wait to see you there!

Jen and Éric

“Crushing It” Review 4

Crushing It was sent out for reviews in May, and I’ve received some in return. Here’s one from Éric Desmarais:

Cover art by @pinkpiggy93 on Tumblr and @flowerraven93 on Instagram

Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!

Physical from Canadian indie bookstoresphysical from Indigo, electronic version

Our Tropes

The tropes we use in Crushing It and The Mystery of the Dancing Lights:

No angst romance, hidden magical world, young adult, cozy romance, detailed worldbuilding, partial dual POV, queer, STEM & music
Time loop mystery, hidden magical world, young adult, urban fantasy, detailed worldbuilding, time travel, dual POV, summer camp
Cover art by @pinkpiggy93 on Tumblr and @flowerraven93 on Instagram

Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!

Physical from Canadian indie bookstoresphysical from Indigo, electronic version

The Mystery of the Dancing Lights by Éric Desmarais is available now!
Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version

Aurora Awards Event

Hello!

The Aurora Awards are being presented this Saturday! (Tomorrow!)

It will be live streamed on both YouTube and Facebook on August 19th starting at 7pm EDT (5pm MDT, and 4pm PDT). Here are the links:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FlRl0g279U

Facebook: The 2023 Aurora Awards | Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/events/2014114358935372)

Here is the itinerary for the evening:

– Opening Segment

– Territorial Acknowledgement

– Introductory Bits about this year’s Celebration

– The Hall of Fame inductees

– The Awards

  1. Fan Related Work
  2. Fan Writing and Publications
  3. Cover Art
  4. Related Work
  5. Poem/Song
  6. Graphic Novel/Comic
  7. Short Story
  8. Novelette/Novella
  9. YA Novel
  10. Novel

A reminder for the categories in which we have been nominated:

  • 2. Fan Writing and Publications (both Jen for Travelling TARDIS and Éric for Movie Reviews)
  • 4. Related Work (Jen’s short story is included in Nothing Without Us Too)

No matter who wins, we are very honoured to have been nominated and we appreciate your support immensely. I hope you enjoyed reading all the books!

Jen and Éric

“Crushing It” Review 3

Crushing It was sent out for reviews in May, and I’ve received some in return. Here’s one from bookstagrammer @JourneytoBiscovery:

Cover art by @pinkpiggy93 on Tumblr and @flowerraven93 on Instagram

Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!

Physical from Canadian indie bookstoresphysical from Indigo, electronic version

The science behind Crushing It

Crushing It

Probably one of the biggest hurdles I had in writing this book was the science. Writing it clearly enough that readers could follow along, but not get bogged down by the science, was hard.

I think my favourite science part was the obstacle course ice breaker in the March Break camp. I had a lot of fun planning that out, and I even made the modified version of it that we recorded for the cover reveal video. My eldest and her friend completed it together.

The STEM competition was more difficult, mostly because I had to make it more advanced. I discussed the five different sections with Éric beforehand, finally deciding on optics, electronics, programming (part 1 & 2), construction, and mystery.

A bit of background on me: I have a Bachelor of Science, so I took many many post-secondary science classes. Do I remember them? Not in the slightest.

However, I do remember how to research for them. Mostly.

Éric (a huge science nerd) was a huge help with all of it, but especially the optics and mystery.

My mom (has her masters in computer science) and sister (has her bachelors in a information technology) were invaluable for the programming section. I was able to suggest solutions and they would explain why they would or wouldn’t work. Most of that discussion went into the book.

Overall, I had a lot of fun writing the science of the book, and I hope you have fun and learn a little while reading it. This is not a science book, but I tried to make it as accurate as possible.

Cover art by @pinkpiggy93 on Tumblr and @flowerraven93 on Instagram

Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!

Physical from Canadian indie bookstoresphysical from Indigo, electronic version

Mini MSN Chats 4-5

Crushing It

Here follows the accounts of 2003-version MSN chats between Tommy and Carter, set in the middle of “Crushing It” as they navigate their long-distance relationship.

MSN chat #4.1
MSN chat #4.2
MSN chat #5
Cover art by @pinkpiggy93 on Tumblr and @flowerraven93 on Instagram

Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!

Physical from Canadian indie bookstoresphysical from Indigo, electronic version