Pardon me while I interrupt your regularly scheduled posts to inform you that…
Drum roll, please!
Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers has been picked up by Renaissance Press for publishing! It will be published in Fall 2022 (twenty years after its setting).
We are so ridiculously excited about this, you have no idea!!
A council of seven members that owns lands and businesses in the Oldtown district of Westmeath. They are prominent members of the Community and the Council dates back to the original founding of Westmeath.
A research and development agricultural facility, they hold the patents to countless hearty crops and pest resistant strains. One of the world’s top agricultural researchers, Dr Amita Dubois, runs the cooperative.
It is funded by the Oldtown Council and its crops are used as a form of food bank and low income supplementation.
A subsidiary of Aesir Holdings, they own an empty warehouse and small fleet of black vans. It is suspected that they are a front for something, but unsure what.
In the sixties, several large tech companies moved facilities to Westmeath due to military contracts. With the tech companies came people, infrastructure, schools, and other businesses. In under fifteen years, Westmeath went from a backwater town to a metropolitan city.
The tech companies are extremely paranoid and have built massive city block sized campuses that have security walls around them.
One of the most elusive crime groups in the country, it is known to only operate in Westmeath, Toronto, and Quebec City. The Syndicate is brutal to its enemies and controls a lot of the smuggling and human trafficking in its territory.
One of the country’s most notorious, and hard to shut down, gangs. They operate each city as a cell with no one knowing the national leaders. They mostly deal in drugs, thugs, weapons, and robberies.
The Daemon Bikers are Westmeath’s largest drug dealers. They deal in everything. They are known to make deals rather than go into a turf war.
This is a new religion that believes that a great power, they call the Key, will unlock a gate to a new world where they and the devout will be given their eternal reward. They seem to mix Christian, Norse, and science fiction concepts.
They are known to be violently devout.
An Anglican Church first built in the early 1900’s. The Reverend is known to be extremely accepting. This church is also an Aetherborn sanctuary.
A cult of trained assassins that believe the way to paradise is on a wave of blood. Once they are hired for a job they do not stop trying.
These are a few of the secondary characters in Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers.
In order of appearance:
Age: 20
Date of Birth: Unknown
Appearance: Dark hair and tan skin
Job: Student in third year at Westmeath University, working in sales at Discreet Frills
Connection to Protagonists: Coworker of Kennedy’s, was babysat by Jason when they were younger
Age: 23
Date of Birth: Unknown
Appearance: Grey eyes
Job: Head server at The Hawaiian in Oldtown
Connection to Protagonists: Works at Jason’s restaurant
Age: mid-50s
Date of Birth: Unknown
Appearance: Tall and thin, greying hair
Job: Owns and operates Mortimer’s Diner in Oldtown
Connection to Protagonists: Jason loves his Hungry Man’s breakfast
These are a few of the secondary characters in Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers.
See Part 1 here.
In order of appearance:
Appearance inspired by Jackie Burroughs and Cloris Leachman
Age: Unknown (very old)
Date of Birth: Unknown
Appearance: Old, hunched demeanor, Lydia uses a cane carved to look like Baba Yaga’s house
Job: They own and operate a tailoring and sewing store called Seams Likeable in Oldtown
Connection to Protagonists: Kennedy’s neighbours
Age: Early 60s
Date of Birth: Unknown
Appearance: Very large, red hair, Black
Job: Owns and operates Judy’s Butchery in Oldtown, has a dojo on the third floor above it and runs classes on the weekends, in charge of policing and protection for the Oldtown Council
Connection to Protagonists: Trained Jason in Kung Fu
Appearance inspired by Michelle Trachtenberg and young Alexa Gerasimovich
Age: Early 30s and 3
Date of Birth: Unknown
Appearance: Single mother and daughter, blonde
Job: Unknown
Connection to Protagonists: Kennedy’s neighbours
These are a few of the secondary characters in Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers.
In order of appearance:
Age: 14
Date of Birth: March 5, 1988
Appearance: Long and gangly, grey eyes
Job: Grade 9 student at Oldtown High School
Connection to Protagonists: Kennedy tutors him in math, son of the bakers at Oven Baked in Oldtown
Age: 25
Date of Birth: Unknown
Appearance: Short and pale, with shoulder length chocolate wavy brown hair, large eyes, heart shaped face, and pointy chin; has an air of innocence
Job: Something in engineering
Connection to Protagonists: Jason’s best friend and the Phantom’s ‘Person in the Chair’
Age: 66
Date of Birth: Unknown
Appearance: Silver hair, attractively wrinkled face, handsome and affluent
Job: Manager of Jason’s restaurant The Hawaiian, treasurer of the Oldtown Council
Connection to Protagonists: Honorary uncle to Jason
Age: Unknown
Date of Birth: Unknown
Appearance: Tall, lanky, large eyes
Job: Lead researcher at Westmeath Agricultural Research Cooperative (Westmeath ARC)
Connection to Protagonists: Tutor of Jason’s during high school
The two protagonists of Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers are Kennedy Fairfield and Jason Johnson.
Age: 22
Date of Birth: July 11, 1980
Appearance: Long blonde hair, green eyes, tall, white
Job: Currently working in sales at Discreet Frills, a boutique lingerie store. Looking for work in her field of Agricultural Science
Parents: Lilah and Gerard Fairfield live on a farm in Parry Sound, Ontario
Siblings: Older brother Phillip, married and has one son (15 months old). Twin older sisters Eliza and MacKenzie. Younger brother Tommy
Age: 25
Date of Birth: November 8, 1976
Appearance: Shaggy dark hair, hazel eyes, tall, golden brown skin
Job: Owner and operator of a pizza restaurant The Hawaiian. Head of the Oldtown Council. Aka the Westmeath Phantom, a vigilante with the power to manipulate and control shadows
Parents: Hammond and Monique Johnson, deceased.
Sibling: Younger sister Zoe is married to Gabrielle and they have one daughter Brooke (15 months old)
This is the first book in The Gates of Westmeath series.
Kennedy Fairfield just graduated in the class of 2002, and is now trying to find her purpose in life, or at least a job in her field. When she saves Jason Johnson, the leader of a secret Community of supernatural people called Aetherborn, from an attempted assassination, they embark on a whirlwind epic romance and adventure.
For Kennedy and Jason to discover why people are disappearing in time to save her friends, they’ll have to face teleporting assassins, grumpy wizards, gossiping hags, mafia robots, and secret military groups, all in the city of Westmeath, Ontario, which has more secrets than residents.
The first book of four in The Gates of Westmeath series.
If we were to put this book on AO3, it would require the following tags. The tagging system gives a hint about what can be found in the book without giving everything away.
Rating: M (mature for sex and violence)
Tags: Urban Fantasy, Romance, main character injuries, kidnappings, fight scenes, deaths of NPCs, death of villain, superheroes, magic is real, aliens exist, no relationship angst, flirting, dancing, happy ending, puns
Hello Book Lovers,
Jen and I have been writing, a lot, lately and we’re at the 2/3’s mark of The Untitled Mystery Book Project. It’s been a lot of fun working on it with her and I hope we can keep pace with the rest of the book.
“The Untitled Mystery Book Project” is a cool name but since the book doesn’t involve mystery, projects, or books; we thought we should probably pick a better name.
Without further ado the name is:
Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
The Gates of Westmeath book 1
Hope you’ll enjoy reading this half as much as we enjoyed writing it.
Stay safe and stay kind,
Éric
Hello readers,
Here’s some exciting news. Jen and Eric have started working on a book together. This is the first time either of us have co-authored a work of fiction.
The book is an Urban Fantasy Romance, with a superhero and robots.
Here’s the synopsis:
When Kennedy, a recent graduate trying to find her purpose in life or at least a job in her field, saves Jason, the leader of a secret community of supernatural people called Aetherborn, from an attempted assassination, they embark on a whirlwind epic romance and adventure.
For Kennedy to help Jason discover why people are disappearing in time to save her friends, they’ll have to navigate teleporting assassins, grumpy wizards, gossiping hags, mafia robots, and secret military groups all in the city of Westmeath, Ontario, which has more secrets than residents.
We’re currently 1/3 of the way through writing and have planned out most of the book. Accounting for us slowing down a little, we should have the book ready for beta readers in Fall at the latest.
So what do you think? Hope you are at least a tenth as excited as we are.
Éric and Jen
Hello my Imaginary Friends,
It’s time to release this book! And it’s being released with 3 other fantastic sequels.
Join us for a virtual book launch filled with mystery and fantasy!
We are launching FOUR novels during a virtual party. The authors will read from their book, and we will draw prizes for those in attendance.
The event will be via Zoom, and places are limited so make sure to register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7lICanqfSX-yE56cB0ZtZw
About the books:
A Case of Synchronicity by Éric Desmarais: A young adult supernatural time-travel mystery partially set in the 1980s.
The Unavoidable Quests by John Haas: A fantasy comedy involving dimensional treasure hunting.
Death by Association by Madona Skaff: A thrilling contemporary mystery with a disabled amateur sleuth.
To Pluck a Crow: Death Stalks the House of Herbert by Sue Taylor-Davidson: A gripping historical mystery following a dual narrative and concerning itself on the Shakespeare authorship question.
So come by and see the awesome stuff we’re doing for the launch.
Hope to see you there,
Éric
