Copper Tarnish

Motivation, Writing, and Creative Procrastination

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Hello Friends, Family, and Fans;

Have you ever started a movie, and five minutes into it, you realize you’re really not in the mood? Now imagine if that movie was going to take you months to watch… That’s kind of how writing can be. I have more ideas than time and I should be done the fifth Elizabeth by now, but I’m stuck at chapter 4.

I don’t even have a good reason; I just can’t seem to motivate myself. I love the characters and I want to see what happens, but I’m having trouble writing without a deadline. Jen has spoiled me. When we write together, I feel the pressure of a deadline without the stress. It makes writing solo a lot harder.

A shiny new idea is always hard to resist.

In that vein, here is a short list of ideas I’ve had recently that I’m aching to work on:

The Pie Shop Murders

Short murder mysteries following Pieper the burnt-out web developer who takes over her recently deceased Grannie’s Pie shop. There will be murder, a grumpy slow-burn romance (at least 4 books), a ghost, and magical shenanigans.

Guardian of Chaos

Follow the adventures of Elizabeth Coderre at thirty+ as she comes to terms with being the Guardian of Chaos and what it means. With the power to travel the “back rooms” and a world that is still hostile to the magical community, she needs to not only discover her place in the universe but will need to save it too.

This would be a sequel series to the Baker City Mysteries

Public Service Zombies (PSZ)

Thomas, a father of 2, returns to work for the Federal Purse of Canada in January 2020. Being away from his kids is hard but the free coffee is nice. Until the government loses an election and suddenly there’s no free coffee. He’s missing the focus it gives him, but his coworkers are having a really hard time and they’re starting to freak out a little. When someone brings COVID into the office, the withdrawal mutates into a full on Zombie apocalypse. Then the zombies start showing supernatural abilities.

Paracosm

Agents Kitty Price and MacKenzie Fairfield of Elmsley are starting to think that their boss’s sudden retirement is fishy. Especially as the new head of Elmsley wants to bring it back to its glory days. They have to figure out how to bring back their boss and expose the corruption in Elmsley, all while trying to figure out why kids are disappearing into magical pocket worlds.

I’m hoping that Jen will write this with me since MacKenzie is her character and I think there’s place for a romance with the two leads.

This would be a direct sequel to Parasomnia.

“The University Book or Battle of the Bands”

A group of friends at Baker University move into a haunted house. The book would be split into “Episodes” like short stories that feature each of the main characters. Each story would have their own plot but would also be part of the overall story.

Jen and I have been talking about this book for way too long.

It will connect with characters from Baker City Mysteries and act as a sequel to both The Copper Tarnish and Faymous (Coming 2026)

There are more…. so many more.

This post has been brought to you by procrastination and executive dysfunction.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Edits for The Copper Tarnish

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Hello Friends, Family, and Fans;

Sorry for the late post. The little mythological creatures have been fighting a cold all week and now Jen seems to have caught it. I’m in my yearly war with allergies, and I’ve been exhausted.

Today I got the edits for The Copper Tarnish. EEEEEEE! I’m excited to go look at them and get this ready.

The ebook pre-orders are available now!

The Copper Tarnish by Éric Desmarais available June 3rd, 2025.
eBook
Paperback

Be kind and stay safe,

Éric

Going Home in a Writer Sort of Way

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Hello Readers,

I’ve started re-reading The Copper Tarnish. I started the novel in November 2016 and took several breaks from working on it. I’ve finished six books since then. I’ve worked on it a little here and there, but it stalled when Pegasus was born and I devoted myself to finishing The Mystery of the Dancing Lights (Elizabeth book 4, coming this fall.)

The big issue with not touching a book for nearly three years (whoa Pegasus is going to be 4 soon!) is that I forgot the story, the characters and the voices.

That meant I needed to read the unfinished book, something I’m not good at. I haven’t been reading very much lately, mostly because it’s hard on my arms, but my wonderful wife inspired me. I loaded the document in Word and used the feature where it reads it to me. I set it to fast and read along. It’s really helpful and I think it’s helping me to re-connect with the story and characters.

I’m also really liking the story and the pure snark of the characters.

The Copper Tarnish is my attempt at a monster movie style story. It’s also a little more personal, being about a bisexual in Northern Ontario. Although I never had to deal with zombie people, green goo, aliens, or rogue goverment agents.

A lot of the book is set in a fictional town that’s an amalgam of the towns where I grew up, and re-reading feels a little like going home. Everything feels smaller and doesn’t fit right.

It’s weird reading something I wrote and it feels like someone else did it. I think once I get back into it I’ll feel like it’s mine again.

I’m hoping to be done writing this by the end of summer (more realistically the end of year) so I can submit it to my publisher. I only have about 20 thousand words left to write.

Thanks for reading,

Éric

The Community of Tomorrow – Proof of Concept

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Hello,

Book and story ideas pop into my head more often than is comfortable. When one really sticks it’s like a piece of popcorn in my teeth and I don’t get full relief until I get it out on paper.

A Proof of Concept is kind of like a trial run. It’s me wiggling the popcorn (story) with my tongue.

This would be the third in my LGBT+ Romance / Northern Ontario Horror novels, along with Copper Tarnish and Parabiosis which I think will need a new name.

“Why the hell do you smell like antiseptic?” screamed my mother. I didn’t wait for my dad’s reply and closed my door. It was an open secret that Mr. Zelan had built himself a still and was selling alcohol from the back of the pharmacy.

It had been less then a month since we’d moved here. Somehow my parents thought that after ten years of fighting, cheating, and just generally being bad at being married; that moving into an experimental green community in the middle of nowhere would save their marriage.

I was extra pissed because I’d believed them and instead of doing my first year of university at Western or U of T like I wanted, I was stuck two hours northwest of Big Falls Ontario.

Aeter Aerospace had been around since they broke off from Door Technologies in 2004. It had since made a name for itself in every aspect of space travel technology. It created everything for both space missions and consumers. Because everyone needs space-worthy airfiltraion and aeroponics.

Aeter had decided that it needed a testing and development facility. So came the idea of creating The Community of Tomorrow. Build an approximation of what you’d need on Mars or the Moon and then fill it with two-thousand of the brightest, most gullible minds and their kids.

If the first month of this place was any indication, it was a damn good thing they didn’t try it in antarctica or actual space. There has so far been a murder suicide, two people escaping into the wild, and history’s lamest black market.

Not to mention the power outages.

I could hear my parents yelling even through the thick ‘space’ door. Everything here was space or tech or something that sounded like it was named by a middlegrader. The power went out and they didn’t stop fighting. If anything, it got worse.

I stormed out of my room. I’m not sure what I was going to do; yell, scream, tell them to get a divorce? Any thought I had left my mind when I saw them. Standing there yelling, but not moving, just standing with their arms at their sides, no emotion on their faces. Nothing was moving, but their lips.

That’s when I saw the thing for the first time. It unfolded itself from the shadows with a series of cracking noises that sounded wet. Its legs and arms were too long and it looked like it didn’t have any skin. What still keeps me up at night was its face. It looked like a skull with silly string oozing all over it and teeth in every hole.

It’s teeth chittered at me like a squirrel run through an autotune and then the power came back on and my parents started moving normally.

Okay. I’m liking this one. No idea when I’ll write it, but I look forward to it.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Busy Busy and Paragenesis

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Hello Imaginary Friends,

I’m juggling multiple things at the moment. This weekend is Comiccon Holiday edition, we have another event the week after, I’m doing a bunch of other creative work and finally I have NaNoWriMo, which is kicking my butt.

So in the spirit of not wasting time here’s the first 1000 words of Paragenesis: The Copper Tarnish.

Old Cover from when I thought the book wouldn’t be part of the Aetherverse.

Enjoy and Later Days,

Éric

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I’m not busy, I’m temporally deficient

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

When I told someone I was going to take paternity leave, they jokingly said, “Wow! A nine month vacation. Lucky you.” At least I think they were joking. This isn’t a vacation.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the time I’m getting with Dragon. She makes me smile and ache with love every day, but she’s a lot of work. I have no idea how one parent handles a baby on their own.

It might be easier if Jen and I weren’t both freelancers. Working from home takes twice as long with a baby. All of which to say we’ve been really busy both with work and enjoying the little Dragon.

That means there are a few things that I haven’t told you, so it’s update time! WOO!

Darthdad
Darthdad from Vaders Little Princess by Jeffrey Brown. Click the image to go to the link.

Coffee

I’ve been working hard on research and development for new flavours to join JenEric Coffee’s roster. I’ve settled on one flavour that will be debuted at Geek Market at the end of March.

I have another 4 flavours that I’m asking people to test. If you’re interested, check out our Coffee Testers Page.

Writing

I have unfortunately not been writing as much as I should have. Other then the blog, I’ve written half a story and a few thousand words in Copper Tarnish. It’s going to be shorter than my average book, but I’m still only a third of the way through.

I’ve talked to my publisher and they’re considering covers for Parasomnia. I’m really excited to get the next round of edits on this one.

A Study in Aether is eligible for both the Nebulas and the Auroras. Both are fan voted awards. If you feel like nominated it, I’d be very happy.

The Ed Greenwood Group

If you don’t know about TEGG, let me tell you. It’s a new publishing company for games, role playing games, genre novels, and general awesome.

If you’ve played the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons setting, you’re familiar with the breadth of creativity that Mr. Greenwood has shown over the past thirty years.

What he’s done is bring together many amazing creative types to create new games, settings, and stories.

I have the honour of working with them on the book formatting side of things. I’ve been given the title of Print Production Manager, fancy term for layout artist. It’s a freelance thing and I’m really excited to be working with such amazing people.

And Jen, whom I’ve often referred to as “the weditor”, has been given the title of Lead Editor for the Hellmaw line of novels. She is just as honoured and excited to be working with this awesome group.

Secrets

I have two other pieces of news, but I don’t have permission to divulge one, and the other will be a surprise. You should know both next week.

 

Later Days

Éric