Pocket Library – Jen and Éric edition

The Pocket Library template was made by @thebookishanimator_, and I thought it would be fun to make character editions of it! Here are Tommy and Carter’s Pocket Libraries.

Winging It by Jen Desmarais is available June 3rd, 2025!
Cover Art by Pinkpiggy93
49th Shelf Crushing It
Indigo Books Crushing It
Archambault Crushing It
Amazon Crushing It
Rakuten Kobo Crushing It
Apple Books Crushing It
The Copper Tarnish by Éric Desmarais available June 3rd, 2025.

Pocket Library – Kennedy and Jason edition

The Pocket Library template was made by @thebookishanimator_, and I thought it would be fun to make character editions of it! Here are Kennedy and Jason’s Pocket Libraries.

Read Kennedy and Jason’s books here:

Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
49th Shelf Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
Indigo Books Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
Archambault Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
Amazon Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
Rakuten Kobo Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
Apple Books Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!

49th Shelf Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Indigo Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Archambault Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Amazon Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Rakuten Kobo Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Apple Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

Add it to your “Want to read” on Goodreads here!

Pictogram of the Tropes in Winging It

Image showing the rating for the tropes in Winging It. Coming of Age Romance, Teenage shenanigans, and kissing are all about 90%, Monsters is about 75%, and Music is about 60%. At the bottom, there’s a “Vibes”, which has an image from the movie Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017).
Winging It by Jen Desmarais is available June 3rd, 2025!
Cover Art by Pinkpiggy93
49th Shelf Crushing It
Indigo Books Crushing It
Archambault Crushing It
Amazon Crushing It
Rakuten Kobo Crushing It
Apple Books Crushing It

Our tropes (2025 Books)

The tropes we use in Winging It and The Copper Tarnish:

No angst romance, hidden magical world, young adult, portal fantasy, detailed worldbuilding, dual POV, queer, STEM & music
Creature-feature, Sci-Fantasy, young adult, Canadian Gothic, detailed worldbuilding, 1st person POV, queer, snark & coffee
Winging It by Jen Desmarais is available June 3rd, 2025!
Cover Art by Pinkpiggy93
49th Shelf Crushing It
Indigo Books Crushing It
Archambault Crushing It
Amazon Crushing It
Rakuten Kobo Crushing It
Apple Books Crushing It
The Copper Tarnish by Éric Desmarais available June 3rd, 2025.

Similar books to Winging it

@jendesmaraisauthor

“Winging It” is a queer YA portal fantasy romance. A wedding and a summer camp that Tommy and Carter are never going to forget. The only way they, and their relationship, can survive is if they start Winging It! Cover artist: @pinkpiggy93 Publisher: @PressesRenaissancePress Universal book link: https://www.jeneric-designs.ca/UBL-WingingIt #WingingIt #original #pinkpiggy93 #artist #book #YA 2SLGBTQ+ #LowStakes #queer #romance #STEM #music #JenDesmarais #author #PressesRenaissancePress #Canadian #booktok

♬ Walking Around – Instrumental Version – Eldar Kedem
“Winging It” is a queer YA portal fantasy romance.
A wedding and a summer camp that Tommy and Carter are never going to forget.
The only way they, and their relationship, can survive is if they start Winging It!

Cover artist: @pinkpiggy93
Publisher: Renaissance Press

Universal book link: https://www.jeneric-designs.ca/UBL-WingingIt

#WingingIt #original #pinkpiggy93 #artist #book #YA #2SLGBTQ+ #LowStakes #queer #romance #STEM #music #JenDesmarais #author #PressesRenaissancePress #Canadian #booktok
Winging It by Jen Desmarais is available June 3rd, 2025!
Cover Art by Pinkpiggy93
49th Shelf Crushing It
Indigo Books Crushing It
Archambault Crushing It
Amazon Crushing It
Rakuten Kobo Crushing It
Apple Books Crushing It

Tropes of “Winging It”

@jendesmaraisauthor

“Winging It” is a queer YA portal fantasy romance. A wedding and a summer camp that Tommy and Carter are never going to forget. The only way they, and their relationship, can survive is if they start Winging It! Cover artist: @pinkpiggy93 Universal book link: https://www.jeneric-designs.ca/UBL-WingingIt WingingIt original pinkpiggy93 artist book YA 2SLGBTQ+ LowStakes queer romance STEM music JenDesmarais author PressesRenaissancePress Canadian booktok

♬ Powerful songs like action movie music – Tansa
Every book utilizes tropes, even if it’s to subvert them, and Winging It is no exception. This book covers: Queer, Young Adult, STEM & music, portal fantasy, Hidden magical world, Dual POV, No angst romance, and Detailed worldbuilding.
Winging It by Jen Desmarais is available June 3rd, 2025!
Cover Art by Pinkpiggy93
49th Shelf Crushing It
Indigo Books Crushing It
Archambault Crushing It
Amazon Crushing It
Rakuten Kobo Crushing It
Apple Books Crushing It

Winging It puzzle

There’s this site that allows for any picture to be transformed into a digital puzzle. For free. And you can play for free.

I used it for the cover of Crushing It. See that puzzle here.

And now, here is the puzzle for Winging It!

Winging It by Jen Desmarais is available June 3rd, 2025!
Cover Art by Pinkpiggy93
49th Shelf Crushing It
Indigo Books Crushing It
Archambault Crushing It
Amazon Crushing It
Rakuten Kobo Crushing It
Apple Books Crushing It

Nominate for the Aurora Awards 2025

The Aurora Awards, which are for Canadian science fiction and fantasy writers and artists, are open for nominations for the 2024 works! (Nominations are open March 2 – April 5) This means the LONG lists of eligible works are being narrowed down to 5-6 per category.

Once they have a list of nominated works, every single person who signed up and paid the $10 membership fee gets ALL the nominated works as downloads. That’s all the adult novels, YA novels, novellas, short stories, graphic novels, and related works (usually anthologies), so about 36 works, for just $10 CAD, which is a great deal.

Getting nominated for an Aurora Award is a BIG DEAL in the speculative fiction writing community. You get a nomination pin (only once, so I’m terrified I’ll lose mine!), and you’re part of an elite group of people. This would be Adrien’s first nomination, so my fingers are crossed!

Not only do Éric and I have quite the list of eligible works, but Pegasus (for his work last year in his kindergarten homeschooling, and the short story he wrote and illustrated) and Dragon (for the short story she wrote and illustrated) are eligible as well! By the way, nomination forms are not ranked.

How do you nominate?

  1. Go to this website: https://www.csffa.ca/members-home/
  2. Join, pay membership fee
  3. Nominate up to 5 works per category https://www.csffa.ca/members-home/nomination/

It would mean a lot to all of us if you’re willing to nominate us! (Categories are in alphabetical order by work)

  • Eligibility Category 1 – Best Novel
    • Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais
  • Eligibility Category 3 – Best Novelette/Novella
    • Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises: A Sun Speaker Story by Éric Desmarais
  • Eligibility Category 4 – Best Short Story
    • A Concert Tail by Jen Desmarais
    • Costume Magic by Éric Desmarais
    • Escaped by Pegasus Desmarais (age 4)
    • Funky Looking Chickens by Éric Desmarais
    • O Tannen-bomb by Jen and Éric Desmarais
    • The Hole in the Playground by Dragon Desmarais (age 7)
    • What Scares Pre-teen Monsters? by Jen Desmarais
  • Eligibility Category 6 – Best Poem/Song
    • Shadows Live for the Light by Jen Desmarais, found in Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais
  • Eligibility Category 8 – Best Cover Art/Interior Illustration
    • Escaped by Pegasus Desmarais (age 4)
    • The Hole in the Playground by Dragon Desmarais (age 7)
  • Eligibility Category 9 – Best Fan Writing/Publication
    • JenEric Movie Reviews by Éric Desmarais
    • Pegasus Flight School: Kindergarten education through genre media (second semester) by Jen and Pegasus (age 4) Desmarais
    • The Travelling TARDIS by Jen Desmarais

In case you’re wondering why Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests is not included in the best cover art category, it’s because our cover artist is Vietnamese! Only Canadian creators are eligible, unfortunately.

Thank you so much for your time, attention, and support. If any of the above does make it through the nomination round, which ends April 5, I’ll be making another post for the voting round, which will be taking place starting in June 2025.

Winging It Dreamcasting – Protagonists

You’ve already met 3/4 of the main characters in Crushing It (here and here). The problem is, those actors have grown up. I still think they’re the perfect dreamcasting, though, and it got me thinking: People don’t like it when the movie doesn’t match the book. So why not write the movie post-Lucky in Love trilogy? It would be set when they’re in university, in Westmeath, and I think it would be super fun.

Tommy Fairfield

Maxwell Jenkins 2021 (high school/book age)
Maxwell Jenkins 2025 (university/movie age)

Age in Winging It: 15

Date of Birth: May 11, 1988

Appearance: Short blond hair, green eyes, tall, white

Grade: tail end of grade 9

Favourite class: Math or Science or Music

Parents: Lilah and Gerard Fairfield live on a farm in Parry Sound, Ontario

Siblings: Older brother Phillip, married to Sarah and has one son, Arthur (almost 2 years old). Twin older sisters Eliza and MacKenzie. Older sister Kennedy, engaged to Jason Johnson (gets married in this book) and lives in Westmeath (seen here).

More information: human, plays guitar

Carter Batudev

Max Torina 2021 (high school/book age)
Max Torina 2024 (university/movie age)

Age in Winging It: 15

Date of Birth: March 5, 1988

Appearance: Curly brown hair, grey eyes, tall, bronze skin

Grade: tail end of grade 9

Favourite class: Science and Drama

Parents: Sam and William Batudev own a bakery in Westmeath, Ontario

More information: Aetherborn rock giant, marital artist black belt first degree

Elyse Garrido

Meesha Garbett 2023 (high school/book age)
Meesha Garbett 2025 (older high school age – she’s younger than Maxwell and Max because I picked her two years after I picked them!)

Age in Winging It15

Appearance: Wavy brown hair, blue eyes, short, tan skin

Grade: tail end of grade 9

Favourite class: Math and Dance

Siblings: Older sister Rachel (seen here)

More information: Aetherborn succubus, dancer

Greg Finch

Casey West Simpson 2020
(high school/book age)
Casey West Simpson 2025 (university/movie age)

Age in Winging It15

Appearance: Blond cropped hair, brown eyes, tall, white, muscular

Grade: tail end of grade 9

Favourite class: Science and Gym

Family: Dad

More information: Blue Blood gang member, boxing champion