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Weird Coincidence or Did I Inspire a Name

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Last night Jen and I were procrastinating and we searched for Everdome in Google. What came up was mostly Everdome.IO. It’s some sort of virtual reality world that’s connected to cryptocurrency. I’ll be honest, I don’t fully understand what it is, but it’s pretty and uses Unreal Engine 5, which is amazing.

I didn’t think anything about it until Jen came across a Reddit post:

A screenshot from the site Reddit
The original post reads: A book written by Eric Desmarais, about Everdome which idea Rob took to create Hero and Everdome. https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Éric-Desmarais-ebook/dp/B07W19ZHF8/ref=nodl_
The link leads to the Amazon.com link in spanish for my book Everdome.

There are two posts on reddit about the book inspiring someone called Rob.

When I looked into who created it, I found the CEO was called Robert Gryn. I looked into the site and it looks like it was launched in Fall 2021.

For context, my book came out in 2019. Now other than the name, the site and the book have nothing in common. The site is science-fiction and is 1 big dome while the book is fantasy and has multiple domes created when the planet exploded.

So I did what any cheeky author would do and I tweeted the following:

I was promptly followed by a fake account with the same name but nothing else has happened.

I find it wild that I might have influenced something so large. It’s really cool.

Then again it could be pure coincidence.

If it isn’t a coincidence, I’m more flattered than anything else. Titles and names are not copyrighted. If the site had taken plot or world building from the book that would be different, but just the name is fine. I could have trademarked it but it’s not worth the cost and effort at this point.

If you want to find out what the book is about, it’s available at all major bookstores and ebook retailers.

Everdome

Or get a signed copy on our store.

It’s a wild world.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – JenEric Movie Review

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How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

This was my favourite film of 2018.

Story

I’m not sure there is a better done origin story for a superhero. The combination of dark themes with the lighter elements are perfectly balanced. The audience always has just enough time to process what’s going on before they’re treated to another action or drama point.

Score: 1

Characters

Miles’s narrative arc is a perfect hero’s call to arms and we get to see him grow so much from the beginning to the end. He’s also both brilliant and artistic which is a nice combination.

The rest of the cast are extremely well developed in a short time.

Fisk’s story is both heartbreaking and terrifying at the same time; making you feel for the villain while hating his methods.

Score: 1

Dialogue

Everything from the internal monologues, to the character’s backstories, to the interactions between people feels real while still being honed to perfect quippiness.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

The animation style wasn’t new, but the way they used it was groundbreaking. It’s a way of making 3D animated movies into a more paper/comic look. The ink-dot style that mimics old comics was wonderful.

The music was great. The score was obviously inspired by previous Spider-man movies, but with a fresh spin. The song choices were masterfully done and integrated with the animation.

Score: 1

Fun

The themes were complex, but the plot was fairly easy for my kids to follow. The reveal of who the Prowler is had my five year old gasping in surprise and my two year old just loved seeing all the Spider-people.

Score: 1

Overall

By far my favourite Spider-man movie and possibly my favourite superhero film of all time. The movie weaves a near perfect coming-of-age story and hero’s journey, while being funny and heartwarming at the same time.

If you haven’t seen this, you should.

Final Score: 5* stars out of 5

*A 5 star review doesn’t mean the movie was perfect nor that it is perfect for everyone but it is a movie I believe is as close to perfect as possible.

Damien Robitaille or How the future is stranger than I expected

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

I had a surreal moment yesterday. It takes a little setup so check the full story after the picture.

First let me shout out Damien Robitaille who had a concert yesterday and it was awesome. If you enjoy music check out his webpage and facebook, he posts new covers almost every day.

Pegasus and I watching a live concert on the Google nest hub while I make snacks.

A lifetime ago, I worked at a little radio station CFRH Radio Penetanguishene. I was a student radio host, and honestly was way out of my depth. The people I worked with were fantastic at their jobs.

One of the people was Damien; he was in his last year of university or college and he was a lot of fun to work with. A really down to earth and friendly guy. At a party, I mentioned that I was feeling like I wasn’t good enough for the job. Damien told me that I was doing fine and then said something that stuck with me since. He said that the next few years (meaning university) would be a big adventure and that I’d grow a lot. It was good advice and helped me relax and not worry so much about feeling less mature than my coworkers or later those older than me.

Fast forward fifteen years, and I see his face in an ad for his fourth album on amazon. I wasn’t sure it was him so I checked his wikipedia page and yeah, it was. (I have 5 published books, when do I get a wikipedia page?)

Yesterday was a hard day, my stomach was upset and the toddler was getting super restless, so I checked facebook and saw Damien was playing a concert. So I sent the stream to my kitchen hub and we watched while I made us toast to snack on.

The whole situation was mildly surreal for me. First, that I’m of the age to have met people twenty years ago who are now famous (wikipedia page famous anyway).

Second was that I could watch a live concert that was being streamed by almost a thousand people around the world and share that with my son while making toast, while the musician was in his home studio. How cool is that? It was a surreal moment for me.

I’m sure he doesn’t remember me and it really doesn’t matter. I think the whole situation was something special. I am extremely jealous that he can play drums, piano, and sing all at the same time. I have trouble walking and talking at the same time.

Be kind and stay safe,

Éric