Creative ottawa Nerds

Creative Ottawa Nerds – Update

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Hello Creative Ottawa Nerds,

After our last event we had a little money left over that we kept to cover website costs and advertising for future events. We had some plans of working with local organizers and a new space but nothing concrete had been decided.

With events unlikely to happen in the near future, C.O.N. has decided to close its books and donate any funds we have left to the Ottawa Food Bank.

It’ll mean starting back from nothing when we hold our next event, but money can always be raised for an event and right now there are people who need it more than the event does.

We were able to donate just over $400.

If you are lucky enough to have some extra funds, they could make a world of difference for those that need it.

It’s a difficult time especially for parents and babies. The Ottawa Food Bank is doing some great work.

This year, Mother’s Day is happening at a time of uncertainty. The coronavirus pandemic is affecting our lives in ways we never thought it would. You have been incredibly generous with your outpouring of support to meet the urgent food needs. But Ottawa’s youngest need your support today. The Baby Basics program needs your support.

You can make a difference for mothers and babies in our community. More than ever in these uncertain times. Thank you.

Please consider donating.

Thank you!

Creative Ottawa Nerds organizing committee

Creative Ottawa Nerds Spring Craft Fair – June 10, 2017

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CON-CreativeOttawaNerds

June 10th from 10am to 5pm
At 9 Rossland Ave, Nepean, ON K2G 2K2, Canada (Julian of Norwich Anglican Church)

Hello,

JenEric Designs, JenEric Coffee, and Eric Desmarais (Author) will be at CON Creative Ottawa Nerds Craft Show this Saturday.

We will have an over abundance of free coffee samples and some ridiculously awesome new crotchet products.

Come by and see us at our favourite event of the year.

Later Days,

Éric

What’s Éric Been Up To?

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

It’s been a crazy few months. (Yeah I’ve said it before but it’s always true.) Since September, I’ve been posting a lot of pre-written posts, stories, and rants. Mostly what I haven’t been writing as much are updates. So here’s an update.

Baby Dragon

She’s been a joy. Face meltingly cute. I’m sure all parents say that, but I genuinely mean it. She’s also, so far, very mellow and loves to sleep. Recently she’s been babbling a lot, which is cute.

I’m off of my government job and being off work gives me the chance to hang out with her and watch her grow. It’ll be really hard to go back to work.

Coffee

Speaking of being off work. I might be off for my day job but JenEric Coffee is still going strong. (Check out the new store and get yourself a little present.)

We’ll be at two different events in two weeks.

The always amazing

November 26 – Creative Ottawa Nerds Craft Fair

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and

November 26-27 – Ottawa Comic Con Holiday Edition

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We’ll have the following flavours at both events:

Yes, those are both on the same weekend.

Books

Reminder that A Study In Aether is available from both Amazon and directly from the Publisher. There will be copies for sale at the two above events also.

I’ve been extremely busy editing during September and October; both Parasomnia and Elizabeth Investigates: The Sign of Faust have been sent to the publisher and we’ll start work on them in the new year.

In January, I’ll get started editing Everdome in order to send it to my beta-readers along with working on the edits on Elizabeth Investigates: A Case of Synchronicity.

Currently I’m writing a new novel for NaNoWriMo. It’s moving well but the writing is slow between the baby, freelance work, and coffee roasting. I’m hoping to be done by mid-December but who knows.

Next year is the year of sequels. I’m going to finally, after over three years, return to writing Elizabeth Investigates with the next novel in the series Elizabeth Investigates: The Hounds of Bakerville. If I get through that fast enough I might start work on Paracosm which would be an indirect sequel to both Everdome and Parasomnia.

Serial Story

Wargrave Island is coming to an end, which means we’ll be voting on a new Serial Story in January. Expect a few options to pop up in the next month and a half.

 

Well that’s all the excitement on my end.

Later Days,

Éric

Creative Ottawa Nerds Craft Fair!!!

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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

 

CON, Words, Language, and Books

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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

CON Contest, Coffee, Buttons, and Felix Felicis

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Sick

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but I’ve been really out of it that past three weeks. I first caught a cold, then a stomach flu, then hurt my back, and then things started to thaw. So I’ve been valiantly combatting viruses, bacteria, and allergies. It was a hard fight but I think I’ve finally gotten the upper hand.

So if my stories seemed extra delirious, I have an excuse.

CON Contest Winner

The CON Contest ended yesterday and was won by Tricia. Congrats again and hope to see you at CON.

CON, Coffee, and Buttons

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Saturday is CON. YIKES! If you don’t yet know CON is Ottawa’s newest geeky craft fair dedicated to creators, artists, and artisans. No stores but sooooo much awesome. Come check us out.

I have roasted and flavoured five flavours for sale and I’m going to seal them tonight. I ordered labels that will hopefully arrive today or tomorrow. I’ll have the 100g bags for $10 but I’ll also be selling 25g tasters for $3 each or 2 for $5. The tasters will have an exclusive flavour that I’m calling Elvis (Peanut Butter and Banana Cream).

I restocked our buttons and created a new product. I call it the EGGcellent lottery. We have 48 easter eggs each with a pin inside. 1 out of 4 pins have prizes either $5 or $10 dollars off your next purchase or 2 pins of your choice. We’ll be selling the eggs at $3 each or 2 for $5. Yes you can mix and match the coffee and eggs. (Yum breakfast.)

Felix Felicis

The end is coming for poor Felix. His year round adventure is coming to a close. Only 2 more chapters left before his end.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about The Ridiculous Adventures of Felix Felicis is a serial story that I’ve been writing since April 1st, 2014. It currently has 9 parts and will end on April 2nd. Go read what you’ve missed, it’s silly fun.

After that I will start a new serial story. My goal is to have a new serial story every year that has between 5 and 15 chapters. The next one will be decided by reader votes. So get ready.

 

That’s it for me today. Have a great weekend and I hope to see you at CON.

Will you be Attending Con?

Eric

CON Contest 2015

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Here’s the deal. We’re all really excited for CON: Creative Ottawa Nerds’ event on March 21st and since we’re excited we’re giving you the chance to win $15 dollar credit for JenEric Designs. All you have to do is enter below.
[contesthopper contest=”2319″]

But There’s More!

Like and invite your friends to our Facebook Page and if we reach 500 like on Facebook by the 20th at 6pm, we’ll randomly give another $15 to one of our fans.

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That’s two contests for the price of one!

Good luck!

JenEric Designs

Coffee Pre-orders are open!

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Coffee for CON

Last week I asked you to vote for which coffee’s you’d like me to sell at CON.

The response was pretty clear and I’ll be selling 4 coffees at CON:

  • Banana Cream: Rebranded as Minion;
  • Cinnamon: Raktajino;
  • Peanut Butter: Jabba the Peanut;
  • Raspberry: Morpheus’s The Red Pill.

I’ll have free samples of one of these available on the 21st.

Coffee Pre-orders

You can pre-order any of the flavours above and a few others on our new Coffee Pre-Order page!

Writing

I’ve gotten back into the habit of working on Everdome and I’m really enjoying the characters. It’s really easy to write this book.

Reading Quest

I’m trying to get through the first book in over 20 series I’ve accumulated over the years to see if I like them.

I recently finished Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews the first in the Kate Daniels series and I absolutely loved it. The author weaves genres together to create something original and fascinating. The maturity in the prose and world building is a joy to read. I look forward to devouring the rest of the series.

I give it an 85%

 

You excited for coffee?

Éric

Favourite Coffee Flavours

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Hello Friends,

Coffee Polls

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So last night I tried a new coffee flavour and for the first time since I’ve started, it failed. Turns out that Butter Popcorn isn’t strong enough to overpower the taste of coffee.

I have two polls for you. The first being which flavour you liked best of those you’ve tried. I will be selling 2 of these at CON on the 21st of March.

What Classic Flavour Should I Bring to CON? (Select 2)

  • Captain Jack (Banana Cream) (36%, 4 Votes)
  • Raktajino (Cinnamon) (27%, 3 Votes)
  • Davroast (Chocolate Hazelnut) *May Contain Nut Oil (18%, 2 Votes)
  • Spiked (Butter Rum) (18%, 2 Votes)

Total Voters: 7

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And the second is what new flavours you’d like at CON.

What new Flavour should I bring to CON? (Select 2)

  • Jabba the Peanut (Peanut Butter) *May Contain Nut Oil (56%, 5 Votes)
  • The Raspberry (Raspberry) (33%, 3 Votes)
  • Fires of Mordor (Spicy Chili) *May Contain Nut Oil (11%, 1 Votes)
  • Snow White's Wake Up Potion (Green Apple) (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 5

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Editing

I’ve managed to spend the past three weeks, editing Parasomnia and A Study in Aether, both of which are now with a second set of Beta Readers. Yay!

Reading Quest

I’m trying to get through the first book in over 20 series I’ve accumulated over the years to see if I like them.

I recently finished The Nymphos of Rocky Flats by Mario Acevedo. It’s the first in the Felix Gomez Series. Overall the book was OK. I’m not a big fan of the main character. The title is the sexiest part of the book unfortunately. It is well written and I have to give the author his due for making some unconventional choices in the mythology but not my favourite.

I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it. I give it a 55%.

Thank you and please Vote,

Éric

Busy, Busy, Busy!

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Hello my Imaginary Friends,

The code word right now is busy. I had a chance to work on Everdome yesterday but seeing the pile of work ahead I’m guessing I won’t get a chance until next week to work on it again.

The downside to writing a new novel, especially in the first half, is the lack of sleep. It might seem weird but my mind has been obsessing about the story and everything I can, and should be doing with it. It means I haven’t been able to shut my mind off until past midnight the past three or four days. I just keep running new and interesting scenes through my head… sigh.

A Study in Aether

I got a surprising email from the publishing company I thought either hated me or had forgotten about me. They emailed to say that they were super behind and I should be patient, they’re still interested in my book but haven’t gotten to it. (I submitted in November 2013) The biggest issue I have with writing and the publishing industry is that things move glacially. But I’ll take this as a good news and see what happens.

I still plan on editing it and passing it on to a new beta reader, once I get the chance to work on it.

Coffee

I’m going to be testing two new flavours this weekend, Raspberry, and Apple. I’m looking forward to seeing how fruity flavours mix with coffee.

C.O.N Creative Ottawa Nerds

IMG_29868975732683My wife and some friends are organizing a Craft fair for local Nerdy/Geeky creators. . It’ll be awesome!

Remember March 21st!

Check out the page: https://www.facebook.com/CON.CreativeOttawaNerds

It’s going to be at St. Richards Church House (8 Withrow Avenue, Nepean, Ontario)

There will be facepaiting for the kids, plush animals, magnets, crocheted things, buttons, books, clothing, cosplay supplies and much much more.

Oh and did I mention there will be coffee? I’ll have 100g bags of coffee for $10. Once I order the supplies I’ll open pre-orders.

Ok, back to work!

Later days,

Éric