Ottawa MINI-ComicCon the Weekend

Hello!

This weekend (April 1st and 2nd) is Ottawa Mini-ComicCon. It’s at the EY centre. Free entry, but $10 Parking.

Look, they even labelled us on the map.

JenEric Coffee and Designs will be there and we’ll have lots of baskets for Easter and coffee! For the first time since 2019 we’ll be offering free samples again.

Hope to see you all there!

Éric

Come see us at Virtual NerdCon

Hello Coffee and Crochet Lovers!

Tomorrow from 10am – 5pm est, we will be participating in Virtual NerdCon.

Virtual Nerdcon is a nerdy convention hosted in an ACTUAL virtual world! You can customize your avatar, make friends, and shop from actual booths! It has all of your favourite nerdy hobbies and interests for you to shop from AND you can support small businesses! Best part is, you technically don’t even have to get out of bed!

Date: July 10th
Time: 10am – 5pm EST
Price: $1 CAD/ticket

Get Tickets Now

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All proceeds from ticket sales are going to helping Native Women in the community through the charity Native Womens Wilderness.

Native Women’s Wilderness was created to bring Native women together to share our stories, support each other, and learn from one another as we endeavor to explore and celebrate the wilderness and our native lands.

https://www.nativewomenswilderness.org/

Hope to see you there!

Virtual NerdCon Buck-A-Thon!

Hello Con Deprived People,

We’re going to be doing Virtual NerdCon again. It’s an online convention in a 3D game-like environment. Lots of fun and really cool.

This time it’s July 10th and all ticket sales go towards helping Native Women in the community through the charity Native Womens Wilderness.

Virtual Nerdcon is a nerdy convention hosted in an ACTUAL virtual world! You can customize your avatar, make friends, and shop from actual booths! It has all of your favourite nerdy hobbies and interests for you to shop from AND you can support small businesses! Best part is, you technically don’t even have to get out of bed!

Date: July 10th
Time: 10am – 5pm EST
Price: $1 CAD/ticket

Get Tickets Now

Thank you and Stay Safe.

Éric

JenEric Designs NoCon Party and Sale

Hello Coffee, Book, Crochet, and Blush Fans,

Everything is cancelled so let’s have an ONLINE party!

Let’s celebrate JenEric Coffee, Blush, Éric Desmarais Author, and JenEric Crochet.

Everything is happening on the event page. Follow, Comment, Win, have fun, and Wash your hands.

Schedule

7:00-7:30 – Coffee
7:30-8:00 – Blush
8:00-8:30 – Éric Desmarais Author
9:00-9:30 – Crochet and Travelling TARDIS

How things will proceed for each Topic

:00/:30 – Introduction of Topic with Questions and Answers
:10/:40 – Game
:15/:45 – Promotions of other fantastic businesses
:20/:50 – Reveal of product
:25/:55 – Announcing winner of Game

Prizes


Hope to see you all there!

Éric

Ottawa Comiccon Holiday Edition 2019

Hello Fans, Friends, Coffee Lovers, and Crochet Enthusiasts,

JenEric Designs, JenEric Coffee, The Travelling TARDIS, and Aspiring Something will all be at Ottawa Comiccon Holiday Edition 2019.

It’s this weekend November 9 from 11am to 6pm and November 10 from 11am to 5pm.

We’ll be at tables 108 and 110. (That’s on the right against the wall.)

We will have limited extra Advent Calendars for sale and coffee samples all weekend.

See you there!

Jen and Éric

Tired but alive

Hello,

So the toddler Dragon got a post-con cold last week and I have been fighting off the same thing on top of one of the worst cases of Con fatigue I’ve ever had.

I’m not complaining; the past two events we’ve done were fantastic and I truly appreciate all the kind words and awesomeness that is our business.

I just want a very long nap…

The world is an exhausting place but watching Dragon’s excitement when I unpacked the Christmas stuff last night was wonderful.

I’m off to get some work done

Later days,

Éric

Creative Ottawa Nerds Craft Fair!!!

Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Saturday is one of my favourite events C.O.N – Craft Fair. I’m a little biased since my wife is one of the organizers, but I also love the feel of the event.

It’s a different crowd from bigger events and is very non-geek friendly. The exhibitors are always awesome and the crowds tend to stick around and chat.

If you have the chance, come by and check it out. The entry fee is low (adults $5 or two non perishables, kids are free) and all proceeds from it and the silent auction go to the Ottawa Food Bank.

For C.O.N. and by request of the Ottawa Browncoats, I have finally created a Firefly-themed coffee.

So come see us on Saturday and try Kaylee’s Coffee.

A dark roast with strawberry flavouring
A dark roast with strawberry flavouring

See you Saturday!

Éric

 

New Flavours, Contests, and Vacation

Hello,
Lots of exciting things going, my wife is officially a game designer and has signed a contract for a sex-ed game. It’ll be a card game called Blush. If you have any sex questions she will answer some on the blog and use them as research for the game. Go ask anonymously here.

Coffee

I’ve been hard at work testing new flavours. Our first seasonal flavour available at all our fall events will be:

The Great Pumpkin

A dark roast with pumpkin flavouring
A dark roast with pumpkin flavouring

And the newest flavour in our continuous roster will be:

Jack CoCo’Neill

A light roast with coconut flavouring
A light roast with coconut flavouring

Coffee Poll

If you haven’t voted in our poll to decide what past flavours are going to be available at our three fall events, vote now! The poll closes September 2nd.

What flavours would you like us to sell at the fall conventions? (Pick 3)

  • Spiked Coffee: Butter Rum Light Roast (22%, 13 Votes)
  • Davroast: Chocolate Medium Roast (20%, 12 Votes)
  • Raktajino: Cinnamon Dark Roast (17%, 10 Votes)
  • Elvis: Peanut Butter Banana Mixed Roast (12%, 7 Votes)
  • Jabba the Peanut: Peanut Butter Medium Roast (10%, 6 Votes)
  • Minion Coffee: Banana Cream Light Roast (8%, 5 Votes)
  • Red Pill: Raspberry Medium Roast (8%, 5 Votes)
  • Key Lime PI: Key Lime Dark Roast (3%, 2 Votes)

Total Voters: 21

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Contest

We are still holding the contest to win a credit of $10 to anything in our store. All you have to do is like our Facebook page and enter the contest below.

[contesthopper contest=”2886″]

Vacation

My wife is a travel agent (Check out her blog), which means she’s travelled a little and the TARDIS travels a lot, but me, I haven’t travelled for anything but weddings in around four years. So we’re going to Disney World! Yay! I’m really excited.

Between my trip to Disney and needing to do a huge amount of editing on my books (A Study in Aether and Parasomnia), I’m going to take the next three weeks off from blogging.

Don’t worry; I’ll have a special treat for you while I’m away. Tune in next Tuesday for a brand new story.

See you around,
Éric

CON, Words, Language, and Books

Hello and Welcome to Thursday,

Today will be a mix of subjects. Feel free to skip the ones you don’t care about.

Creative Ottawa Nerds First Craft Fair

Last Saturday was CON’s first event and I have to say I was impressed. We had over 150 people pass through the hall and most vendors seemed happy with their sales. We managed to raise over $600 for the food bank and something like 4 big boxes of non-perishables.

For a first event it was a success! Yay! That means we’ll try to duplicate and improve on that success. Our next event will be announced sometime in the near future. We just have to lock down dates.

Words

S.M. Carrière knocked it out of the park with this post. Go read it.

It’s a fact that I think we often forget. Words are powerful, they can make us feel and make us act. They’re too often short changed in what they do.

Word Cleaner

Words are powerful. The choice and structure of a sentence is important. I don’t use much profanity in my writing or my life but when I do I do it for a reason. There’s a new app out that that will filter you ebooks and “Clean” them. It’s disgusting. An author uses words for a reason and changing them changes the book.

The website for the App makes it seems like they’re protecting the children but it’s not a few F-bombs that they need to worry about. The truly objectionable things won’t be cleaned by a single word.

Don’t trust an app to clean a book for your kids, read the book and decide for yourself.

Lynda Poitevin has a great post on the subject.

Stories vs Posts

I can knock out a 1000 word story in an hour, maybe an hour and half if it’s a hard story or that annoying middle section. It can take me 2 to 4 hours to write a 500 word post.

Why is that? I think it’s that I can picture and follow a story much easier that a post. A post is supposed to say something that will keep your interest and keep you informed. A story has to keep you entertained.

It gets even worse when I’m stressed. Being stressed means I over analyze and over edit a post. I don’t want to piss off to many people or say something that can be misconstrued.

Books

Do not read an epic fantasy when you’re sick or recovering from a cold. I’m currently reading Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. It is an unforgiving read. If you don’t remember who a character is, he doesn’t remind you. It’s an expansive and intricate book that shows an artistry I can only hope to someday accomplish.

Beta-Reader number 1 for Parasomnia has sent me their changes. It’s absolute torture not to jump into editing it again but I want to finish beta-reading what I have before I jump into it. I should be done the beta-reading I’m doing now by this weekend and then I can start editing Parasomnia for Beta-Reader 2. I’m scared and excited…

 

What have you been up to?

Eric