Jen Desmarais

Jen Desmarais is the creator of the sex education game Blush and co-author of "Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers" and "Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests." "Crushing It" was her first solo novel. You can also find a short story by Jen in "Nothing Without Us Too", and a novella in "The Mystery of the Dancing Lights". Co-founder of JenEric Designs, she creates unique geeky crocheted items. Her blogs The Travelling TARDIS and How I Taught My Dragon have been nominated for the Prix Aurora Awards over 2018-2023. She lives in Ottawa with her author husband, daughter, son, and their library of over 3000 books.

Renaissance Press is closing

by

What does that mean for JenEric Authors?

First, we’d like to take a moment to thank Renaissance Press for giving our books a home. Éric was one of the first authors signed with them; his first book released in 2016. Since then, he released a book a year. Jen’s first book released in 2022, but before that, she helped out with the metadata and behind-the-scenes data entry that comes with publishing a book.

The loss of Renaissance will be felt heavily in our household as well as across the Canadian landscape. We are losing a fantastic spec-fic press that elevated marginalized voices.

Renaissance Press will be missed.

What is happening with our books?

Well, that depends on the book.

Our series (serieses? seriesi?) have been picked up by publisher River City Siren Press!

We’re already published by them for a few of our books. We’re extremely excited to work with them for the rest of our series.

However, we don’t want to overwhelm them! We have a lot of books! We’ve discussed a slow-ish re-release schedule. Things may change, but for now, this is how things stand:

Everdome and Parasomnia will stay published under our imprint.

Faymous, The Copper Tarnish, and Connections! The Unexpected First Collection will stay with River City Siren Press (obviously!)

Now comes the slightly more complicated stuff.

The Elizabeth series is getting new covers! They will be released yearly over the next four years, starting with “A Study in Aether” very shortly. The goal is for Éric to finish writing books 5 & 6 in time to release them after the re-releases.

The Gates of Westmeath rights are returning to us as of June 15, 2026. There’s a 20% off sale going on right now to try to empty the warehouse of the excess stock. (https://alllitup.ca/book-list/renaissance-press-book-sale/) These covers will stay the same. The goal is to re-release these in time for book 3 to come out in Fall 2027. (Book 4 is not yet written – sorry!)

The Lucky in Love series is staying with Renaissance until the end of 2026. This is partially due to the fact that Crushing It has an audiobook coming out that was part of a CCA grant, and partially because Winging It has been nominated for an Aurora Award! They are included in the 20% off sale. (https://alllitup.ca/book-list/renaissance-press-book-sale/) These covers will not change. Ideally, I finish writing book 3 this year, and we can release the full series by the end of 2028. (Our daughter is a good motivator…)

We’re undecided about where Coffee Shop Between the ‘Verses is going after Renaissance closes at the end of the year, but until then, it is available through the warehouse sale, so get it for 20% off while you still can! (https://alllitup.ca/book-list/renaissance-press-book-sale/)

Keep up to date with us by:

Pictogram of the Tropes in “Faymous”

by
Image showing the rating for the tropes in Faymous. Roadtrip explorations, Magical shenanigans, and Music are about 90%, Riddles are about 75%, and Kissing is about 40%. At the bottom, there’s a “Vibes”, which has an image from the movie The Princess Bride.
Faymous by Jen and Éric Desmarais
Cover art by Pinkpiggy93
eBook
Paperback

Shawna’s Google Search in Faymous

by

If Shawna had access to Google during Faymous, these might be some of her search terms.

Character’s Google Search: “Shawna Peaceblossom in Faymous” in the search bar reveals the following six results: “neon orange fox name”, “what can I eat in Fay”, “how to play chess”, “types of salamanders”, “common riddles”, and “what’s a Fay lord”. Under that and the cover in ebook and physical book form reads: “Get it here: jeneric-designs.ca/UBL-Faymous“. The image of Shawna from the cover is off to the right.
Faymous by Jen and Éric Desmarais
Cover art by Pinkpiggy93
eBook
Paperback

Hockey Stick Make-over

by

Have you seen the McDonald’s hockey sticks? They’re super cute, but I’m not a fan of hockey IRL, so I decided to give mine a little revamp!
Just print out the PDF on sticker paper, cut it out, and stick it to your box. If you REALLY want to get fancy, you can paint the sticks to match the player’s. Note that Shane’s stick has his mom’s name at the top!
Update: McDonald’s Canada on Instagram commented “hi yes so this is everything” and now my year is complete.

Image for printing – PDF

I’m not overly thrilled about the colour of yellow on Ilya’s stick, but highlighter didn’t work and I didn’t have a brighter nail polish. I used black, white, and yellow nail polish to redesign the sticks, and black fine sharpie to write Yuna’s name. The font for the character’s last name is grabbed from the jerseys up in the Heated Rivalry gift shop, as are the numbers. The logos for the teams are from the enamel pins in the same place. The MLH logo is from the video game (with Ilya’s “face on the cover of the fu€king game”). I removed the backgrounds in Photopea. The pictures are screen grabs. The signature is a font that I felt embodied the character, and I made the decision of how they would sign their names. Everything was dropped into Canva, and then I downloaded images that I made into a PDF to keep the size right.

No AI was used at any point of the process.

The original
The completed make-over

Note that I used nail polish for my painting because I don’t have paint and it didn’t occur to me to ask my sister if she had the colours I needed.

Randal’s Google Search in Faymous

by

If Randal had access to Google during Faymous, these might be some of his search terms.

Character’s Google Search: “Randal Lake in Faymous” in the search bar reveals the following six results: “how to not offend a Fay”, “how long is a stadion”, “where is New Albion”, “what to feed a newt”, “Fi Follet myths”, and “meditation classes”. Under that and the cover in ebook and physical book form reads: “Get it here: jeneric-designs.ca/UBL-Faymous“. The image of Randal from the cover is off to the right.
Faymous by Jen and Éric Desmarais
Cover art by Pinkpiggy93
eBook
Paperback

Faymous Google Search

by

If you were to search “Faymous” in Google, this is what might show up…

Not really, but these are related to the book!

Looking for a new read? “Faymous Jen and Éric Desmarais” in the search bar reveal the following six results: “young adult romance”, “shared hidden magical worlds”, “portal fantasy”, “music and riddles”, “roadtrip tropes”, and “magical shenanigans”. Under that and the cover in ebook form reads: “How good does this look? Get it here: jeneric-designs.ca/UBL-Faymous“
Faymous by Jen and Éric Desmarais
Cover art by Pinkpiggy93
eBook
Paperback