Awesome

Dragon at Comiccon 2019

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

This was Dragon’s third Comiccon and she had a blast! (Read about last year here)

She spent this year playing with her new (they were actually her mum’s) Fisher Price Little People, hanging out with Vic, Aunt Lindsay, Modryb Sonia, and all the other wonderful people who vend around us.

Madona Skaff was nice enough give Dragon some rides on her scooter.
Learning to draw from Vic Putinski
Playing with her toys in the wagon
Aunt Lindsay and Vic
Wearing Aunt Lindsay’s hat

Her favourite thing to do was stand on the cooler and “help” me sell coffee. Other things she enjoyed include:

  • Playing in the wagon
  • Hanging out with Vic, Lindsay, S. M. Carrière, Madona Skaff, and Grannie.
  • Walking around the Con floor
  • Fries
  • Pepperoni Sticks
  • Saying hello to everyone
  • Getting her face painted by Paint Me Playful – Face and Body Painting

The two big highlights for her were Daleks and amazing cosplayers. (Tinkerbell by Princess of the North, Sailors Moon and Venus by Mysticfae, and Rapunzel and Eugene by East Coast Speedster)

Dragon had another great year at Ottawa ComicCon.

Thank you to everyone who interacted with her and helped us this year.

Éric

Thank You Ottawa ComicCon

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Hello Imaginary Friends, Coffee Lovers, Blushers, Fandom Travellers, TARDIS lovers, and Crochet aficionados,

THANK YOU! To everyone who came to see us this past weekend at Ottawa Comic Con. It’s not the venue or the guests that make a great con, but the attendees, and this year you were extra awesome.

Without you ,there would be no JenEric Coffee, Designs, Travelling TARDIS, or Blush. (Aspiring Something would still exist because I don’t think I could stop writing, but it would be much less fun alone.)

Thank you again and see you next year at Ottawa ComicCon 2020!

Éric

I’m not going to See Captain Marvel

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Why am I not going to see Captain Marvel? My in-laws (whom I go to the movies with) are out of town. We’ll go see it, probably, the 19th. I do wish I could go see it opening weekend but it’s time to ramp up for spring (by name only in Ottawa) convention season.

Did you think I was going to talk about the Brie Larson controversy?


The actor said in an interview:

“About a year ago, I started paying attention to what my press days looked like and the critics reviewing movies, and noticed it appeared to be overwhelmingly white male. So, I spoke to Dr. Stacy Smith at the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, who put together a study to confirm that. Moving forward, I decided to make sure my press days were more inclusive. After speaking with you, the film critic Valerie Complex and a few other women of color, it sounded like across the board they weren’t getting the same opportunities as others. When I talked to the facilities that weren’t providing it, they all had different excuses.”

This has led to plenty of insecure men to call her racist and sexist and somehow means she doesn’t want white men to see the movie. I’m not sure they’ve learnt to read critically.

Even after she said:

“What I’m looking for is to bring more seats up to the table. No one is getting their chair taken away. There’s not less seats at the table, there’s just more seats at the table.”

The angry white men are still very angry.

They’ll argue that it’s just about:

  • Bad writing – she’s overpowered
  • Ethics in Journalism – she shouldn’t get to choose
  • Should be a man – they think Mar’vel was a better character
  • Ruining science fiction – Because she’s too powerful
  • Bad acting – the Oscar winner just wasn’t built to be a superhero
  • Too feminist – there are women in the movie who are in the lead roles

I’m sure I missed some sad-puppy, proud boy, kkk, incel, gamergate, bullshit in there.

Long story short, the entire controversy is just another, in a long list, of made up sexist crap.

This movie looks amazing and I can’t wait, even though I will have to, to see it.

Éric

The Reluctant Barbarian – Recommendation Thursday

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Do you enjoy fun? Humour? Fantasy? Well then I have a book for you. It was my favourite book read in 2018.

The Reluctant Barbarian

Arthur Jenkins would have been happy to live his life the way it was until he finally died, but the angel in his office has different ideas. He’s there to grant a wish Arthur made as a kid, and it’s a doozy. It’s also a wish he doesn’t want in the slightest. After all, what grown man would want to be a barbarian hero? Seriously! Whether he wants it or not, Arthur is getting that wish granted. Angels have quotas too, you know. Join Arthur, Dead Mike and Valeria the Paladin on a quest across the land, having unwanted adventures while looking for a comfy place to sit.

John Haas has a fantastic imagination, great sense of humour, and wonderful understanding of narrative flow. He’s also recently won a spot in Writers of the Future.

His followup novel to The Reluctant Barbarian is due to be released this year from Renaissance Press.

Go read the book!

Éric

Ottawa Comiccon Report 2018

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Hello Imaginary Friends, Coffee Lovers, and Everyone else,

This last weekend was Ottawa Comiccon and a lot of you came out to see us. Thank you so much for doing that. I love talking coffee, signing books, and seeing all the wonderful people. I’m not lying when I say that JenEric Designs, Coffee, and Aspiring Something would not exist without all of you.

Without the support of fans, friends, and family I wouldn’t have the confidence or want to try and get my books published. I’ve been writing seriously now for nine years and I’ve completed 7 novels (2 which might never see the light of day) and written 5 years’ worth of serial stories. I think if my publisher disowned me and my blog died, I’d still write. It’s become important therapy and such a large part of who I am.

Coffee however is a lot of work. Although we make our money back, we don’t make enough for the hours of work I do roasting, we do packaging, and we do working conventions. It’s a labour of love and earlier this year I was not feeling the love.

I know we have a great product and that we have fans, but there are certain events that make us jump through hoops and dance and still reject us. One in particular almost broke me. Our current set up has me doing 12 hour days on weekends before comiccon, and combined with the negative attitude I got from that other event… Well, I had decided before this year’s comiccon to slow down JenEric Coffee and maybe kill it outright. I was drained, disillusioned, and scared.

Now after the event I feel completely different. Being around crowds of like-minded people, seeing the look of joy in people who love coffee, the joy of chatting with everyone, and (I won’t lie) the sales, have completely reinvigorated me. I feel much more confident and extremely hopeful for the future.

The organizers and volunteers are not what makes a good convention. What makes a good convention are the attendees, and you guys were fantastic!

THANK YOU! Thank you for making us part of your convention experience, Thank you for saying such nice things, and most of all Thank you for being awesome.

 

Did you go to Ottawa Comiccon? Did you enjoy it?

Éric

Ottawa Comiccon 2018

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JenEric Coffee, JenEric Designs, and Éric Desmarais Author will all be at Ottawa Comiccon this weekend.

Come see us at booths 2505 and 2507!

We’ll have all kinds of wonderful crocheted item including these awesome baskets:

And we will have all these coffee flavours available:

 

We will have coffee samples so please come by and try something new.

Recommendation Thursday – We Shall Be Monsters – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein 200 years on

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Hello,

There’s a fantastic anthology that is being Kickstarted. There are some great rewards and I can’t wait to read it!

Go check it out:

We Shall Be Monsters – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein 200 years on

“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.” Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

As you may already know, Renaissance will be celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2018, and to mark the occasion, we’ve decided to launch a project celebrating another important anniversary.
In 1818, Mary Shelley published Frankenstein, sparking the genres of horror and science fiction. On this, the 200th anniversary of its publication, the narrative is more relevant than ever.

We Shall Be Monsters: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Two Centuries On will feature a broad range of fiction stories, from direct interactions with Shelley’s texts to explorations of the stitched, assembled body and narrative experiments in monstrous creations. We Shall Be Monsters is a fiction collection that will feature explorations of disability through Frankenstein, ace, queer, and trans identity, ideas of race and colonialism.

Seven-time Aurora Award winner Derek Newman-Stille and award-winning author and theatre artist Kate Story team up to direct this excellent collection.

This anthology is a huge milestone for us as a publisher, and we won’t reach it without your help.
Kickstarter works on an all-or-nothing basis, which means that if our campaign does not get fully funded, we will not get any of the funds. Please take some time to look at the campaign; I think you’ll find the rewards for this campaign are incredible. You can get this wonderful book, but also a selection of Renaissance novels, your portrait made as Frankenstein’s monster, you can participate to a writing workshop, and so much more!
If you can’t pledge, that’s OK! Sharing the link with all your friends is a great way to help!

Thank you in advance for your support. We take the success of our very first anthology to heart, and really believe it can be a great vehicle for emerging and underrepresented voices.

Check out the Kickstarter!

Recommendation Tuesday – truLOCAL

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

After having some terrible luck with a certain company, we decided to look for other options.

If you’re in Ontario you might have seen the ads on facebook and other social media for truLOCAL. Unlike other companies where you have to buy a year’s worth of meat at once, truLOCAL is a subscription box that comes to your home on your schedule.

You can do every 2, 3, 4, or 6 weeks and they have 2 different sizes of box.

You decide what you want. Each box has a certain number of points and you select meat that has a number assigned. A package of two chicken breast is 2 points and so is a single fillet minion steak. Before every delivery you can go online and change what you want and try new things.

The meat is fantastic and the service is amazing. We commented that we had less chicken in one box and they made sure we had extra in the next delivery. They answer almost all questions asked on social media and are always friendly and polite.

I highly recommend this service!

Later Days,

Éric

Recommendation Thursday – Platoon of Power Squadron

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Hello,

About four or so years ago I came across a youtuber called Weezy Waiter. He’s irreverent, silly, and arguably one of the best video editors from his generation of youtube.

He’s also part of a fantastic Super Hero series called POPS (Platoon of Power Squadron). Like a good webcomic, it ages and improves over time.

If you have a few hours to kill and love superhero origin stories as much as I do, go check it out. It’s insightful, funny, and really entertaining. Find all the information on their site:

http://platoonofpowersquadron.com/
PopsHeaderBanner2

Later Days,
Éric

Dragon’s Room

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Some people put a lot of effort into a baby’s room. They pick out the right colours, paint the walls, murals, get special thingies, using those small room décor tips etc. Jen and I decided that was all awesome, but felt less personal. What we did instead was ask some fantastic artists to make things for the baby’s walls.

They are all fantastically talented and you should go buy their stuff.

Dragon-room-01

Big Hero 6 Painting – Gilove2dance Designs

Lindsay Coderre is a talented and versatile artist. She primaraly works digitally, but painted this amazing image of Hiro and Baymax that Dragon will always love. Her online store primarily has photo manipulation and design.

Lindsay is Dragon’s Aunt and one of her Godparents.

Dragon’s Den Painted Plaque – The Art Shop

This was given to us as a baby shower present from one of my in-law’s sisters. It’s great when even your extended family’s family know you well enough to get something so perfect.

It was made by the Art Shop. They have some fascinating pieces.

Dragon-room-02

Firefly Cross Stitch – Rebecca

My wife has an amazing super-power; it seems to run through her whole family. It’s the ability to make friends easily and anywhere. Jen met Rebecca on the bus and loved her TARDIS hat. They struck up a conversation and became friends.

She’s an extremely versatile crafter which can be seen on her Tumblr.

Rainbow Wall Hanging

This is from Jen’s room when she was a child. We have no idea where it’s from, but it’s adorable.

Dragon-room-03

Baby Dragon and Tardigrade – S. M. Carrière

The beautiful baby dragon print was painted digitally over our first ultrasound. It was done as a beautiful surprise. The Tardigrade we tried to commission, but she gave it to us as our baby shower present. Don’t you love the detail in the spacescape? So beautiful!

I’ve commissioned her to design me my first tattoo. I’m both excited and a little scared.

S. M. is Dragon’s other Godparent. She’s a talented author, artist, and all around wonderful person. Her newest book was written by votes on her blog and the profit goes to charity. Go buy it and read for a good cause!

TARDIS Lovey – Nerdy Needles

This soft and adorable TARDIS was given to us by the wonderful Nerdy Needles. She has a wide variety of knit and crotchet items. All wonderfully geeky.

Check out their facebook for all the cool stuff.

Dragon Name Plaque – 9five7 Pyrography

We commissioned this piece, and boy did 9five7 do an amazing job. It has the Hogwarts motto on it, Dragon’s name, and her date of birth. The dragon in the middle is really awesome and designed especially for her by the artist.

They do a huge variety of fandoms and I’ve never seen woodburning done so well. Check out their Facebook page and their Deviant art page for more amazing work.

So many talented people. Dragon is extremely lucky.

Later Days,

Éric