Renaissance Press is closing

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/)

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Thoughts on the second semester of homeschool

This comes a couple weeks later than the end of second semester, but I have an empty week here, and I don’t have one earlier, so here we are.

This post was originally set for the March Break, but as that got moved to April, so did this.

I am extremely pleased with how well homeschooling went this semester. There were a couple weeks that we were not able to complete all the activities, but overall, we had a lot of fun and Dragon didn’t miss the activities that we didn’t do.

The worksheets were a great success, and I won’t be changing how they worked. Dragon loves the math worksheets especially. If I could remove one, I’d get rid of the counting worksheet, but since that’s her favourite, I won’t be.

The biggest struggle we’ve got is convincing Dragon to speak French. She seems convinced that she can’t do it. Although she knows individual words, but can’t seem to pick them out when people are talking to her, and she doesn’t try to meld them into sentences on her own either. We’re just continuing to soldier on.

Thoughts on the first semester of homeschool

Overall, I am incredibly happy with how well the homeschooling of Dragon went this semester. We were able to coordinate with her virtual school teachers, and supplemented her assigned schoolwork with pop culture and other activities.

However, some things are going to change next semester, as I feel like the usefulness is not to it’s full potential.

Overview of each section:

Dance

Ballet and martial arts on alternate days – this will stay the same, although hopefully we’ll be able to do more martial arts.

Music

Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano – I need to remember to change the disc more often! Piano will continue as long as Dragon and my mother are okay with it.

Crochet

The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho) – We’re going to keep working on this in the new year.

Basic Information

We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. We are also doing the seasons of the year, but verbally. – We will keep doing this. She’s doing well with it.

Printing words

This is going to be changing. Rather than asking questions and having one-word answers, I am going to change this to be a bunch of words related to the movie. Hopefully this will help to increase her vocabulary.

Counting objects/math-type activities

This will also be changing. I am going to have two different worksheets in here. One will be a grid similar to this past semester, although I’ll be making it more squares instead of 25. The other will be an addition/subtraction and/or pattern worksheet.

Storytime

This will continue, as Dragon enjoys it, especially since the virtual school gives excellent online books to read.

Vampirina or other short Disney Junior shows will be watched one episode/day in French.

Activities

These have been a big hit and I will continue doing them.


I will be continuing this blog in the new year with a whole new set of movies, sarting with these four in January:

Blush: Menstruation Changes Article

I read this article from Heathline yesterday, and I loved it so much that I’m going to recommend it for today’s post.

It’s all about how menstruation changes throughout a person’s life (and it uses neutral pronouns!).

Image from healthline.com.

If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.

No I shan’t I’m on Vacation

Hello My Imaginary Friends,

I am going on vacation. I’ll be taking a 4 day scenic trip to Tamriel and a few days to work on secret projects.

I have a new story for you while I’m off hunting dragons.

A lot of things are going on right now so I’ll split it into categories:

Writing

My book is now available on Amazon.ca!!!

This is my first novel and I’m so very proud of it. Order a copy from Amazon or wait for it to be available from the Publisher. It’s up to you.

Once you read it, make sure to review on Goodreads and Amazon to have it recommended to friends and so on.

When I get back from vacation I’ll be starting a massive re-write of the next book in the series Memories of Faust.

JenEric Designs

Some Major Changes are coming to the website. There may be an interruption in service next week but hopefully it won’t be long.

Subscribe to the newsletter (Top right sidebar) to get all the juicy details.

Coffee Names and Packaging

Let me tell you a secret… I never expected the coffee to be as popular as it is. Because of that I made a few mistakes when I started. The major one was using copyrighted material in the coffee flavour’s name.

Now that it’s doing well I’d rather not be sued, which means one of the major changes that will take place of this year and the next is an update to the coffee names. It’ll be done slowly since we ordered a lot of labels for some.

The only thing I know for sure is I’ll have to rework some of the artwork for a few of them.

If there are any Copyright Holders or Lawyers reading this feel free to give me some advice or knowledge.

Subscribe to the newsletter (Top right sidebar) to get all the juicy details.

Coffee Sizes and Prices

Changes are coming to the size and price of coffee. With sales up and a regular sales routine I can afford to take a few more risks and buy in bulk. That means things will change a little. Don’t worry it’s all for the best.

We’ll also have some spiffy new stuff to offer.

Subscribe to the newsletter (Top right sidebar) to get all the juicy details.

I’m off

That’s it for now, lots of exciting top secret stuff going on.

Image borrowed from Sean Celaya.
Image borrowed from Sean Celaya.

See you later and enjoy the new story!

Éric