Shadowbox Ornaments: Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers

I got the idea to make shadowbox out of the cover image of our books, and I thought it would be fun for you to have access as well!

Materials:
Paper (or cardstock)
Colour printer
Scissors
Exacto knife
Cutting board
Tape (or glue)
Patience

Instructions:

  1. Print the template provided (PDF download above)
  2. Cut out the pieces using scissors
  3. Cut out the greyed out background with the Exacto knife
  4. Tape (or glue) the parts together.

The Music of Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

Hello Readers,

Music is an integral part of setting the mood in movies but when writing a period piece (it hurts to say that 2003 is a period piece) the music is part of the setting.

Like cities and characters, if you want a specific feel (and don’t want to pay lots of money for it) you have to make things up. In the case of Monsters, there are 3 songs that are made up for the book, two are references to the Elizabeth series, “My Drums Ate My Baby” by Kings of Rock and “Curtain of Love” by The Barrett Family. Neither of these have music or lyrics yet; someday I’d like to go back and compose these.

The third song is “Shadows Live for the Light” by Tommy Fairfield. This one, Jen wrote the lyrics and the music and it turned out great. She’s really gotten impressive with the guitar and composing.

Have a listen to the song on Spotify or any other music platform.

Isn’t that catchy?

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!

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Add it to your “Want to read” on Goodreads here!

The Hidden Worlds

Hello Readers,

There are many ways to go about designing a Hidden World. In the case of the Aetherverse, it almost designed itself by accident.

It started with me reusing names and then purposely doing mini-crossovers. Soon (okay five books in) I realized the whole thing was connected. The Aetherverse currently spans ten published books and has a little of everything in it.

The Elizabeth Series introduced hidden magic, wizards, and a society of magical people called Aetherborn.

Parasomnia introduced the concept of Elmsley the paramilitary organization who hunt down monsters and all things weird.

Everdome introduces the other Realms, worlds that are parallel to our own and connected by magic (Aether).

Finally Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers and Crushing it expanded on the concept of Aetherborn and how they stay hidden. These two and their sequels also add another dimension that is rarely explored in Fantasy, that of space aliens.

Westmeath 2004

The city is the home to one of the largest populations of magical and mythological people in the world. It’s a city where aliens, Aetherborn, and superheroes co-exist and often come into conflict.

The veil of secrecy in Westmeath is kept up in part because of the technological companies that call it home. When a military tech contractor is working on projections and mechs, it’s easy to dismiss a few monsters. Even then, monsters makes sense with superheroes in residence.

The Balance

As an author, and a reader, you want big adventures. Those don’t always end up being subtle and it can be difficult to make sure the veil of secrecy isn’t destroyed. There’s only so much suspension of disbelief a reader is willing to do.

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

Giant monsters are not subtle. When they disappear after being fought by a superhero, it gets easier for people to believe there’s something else going on. The normal citizens of Westmeath are used to gangs, superheroes, and weird things happening, so to them, this is more like a hazard to avoid.

For the outside world, it’s significantly easier for them to assume a marketing ploy or some sort of advanced tech gone wrong. It might seem hard to dismiss and move on, but how many of us remember the mysterious monoliths of 2020?

One of the bigger story points in the Gates of Westmeath series is secrecy and protecting the Aetherborn Community.

It’s not always easy keeping the secrets of magic when you have a wedding to plan and monsters to stop.

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!

49th Shelf Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Indigo Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Archambault Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Amazon Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Rakuten Kobo Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Apple Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

Add it to your “Want to read” on Goodreads here!

Missed the launch?

Hello Readers,

Did you miss the fantastic launch of Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests? You’re in luck; Renaissance Press recorded it.

Enjoy, and remember that it’s available wherever you buy books.

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The Process of Writing a Book 2

There were a few major differences when writing a second book versus writing the first one. If you’d like to read about the first book’s writing process, we wrote about it in 2021.

By the time we sat down to plot and write Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests, we’d gotten a contract for the first one, done several editing passes with beta-readers, wrote a dozen or more short stories, and talked about the second book the entire summer.

Jen had written Crushing It and I’d written the fourth Elizabeth book, both of which altered the shared world of the Aetherverse to a point where we now had nine books, and a dozen short stories worth of lore.

As much as consistency in story was important, Jen realized we needed to keep track of how we wrote things. Was it Aethercreature, Aether-Creature, or Aether Creature? Not to mention the impressively hard to find rules of Canadian English (looking at you, ‘practise’!). She created a spreadsheet with a list of things we needed to keep consistent. Something I wish I’d thought of after my first book.

The other major hurdle was the sheer quantity of content. Every time one of us took a shower, we’d have new ideas. (Yeah, boohoo. I know.) We had a couple pages of random ideas, scenes, and plotlines. We even had a list of fun quotes we wanted to integrate.

Take all that and having to use everything to start building the overall arc of the series.

We weren’t really thinking about this as a series while we were writing, which means we had to go back into Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers a few times to add foreshadowing and little plot details. (One which won’t come up until book 4!)

This book had the same excitement of the first but felt a lot more like a giant puzzle where every piece was a square.

We managed to corral all the information and looking at the outline now it looks really clean and easy to follow. (Thanks to Jen for updating it as we deviated.)

It’s impressive how every book has a different feel and despite doing it almost the same as last time, it feels like a different process.

It keeps us on our toes and honestly I love it.

Éric

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!

49th Shelf Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Indigo Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Archambault Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Amazon Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Rakuten Kobo Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Apple Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

Add it to your “Want to read” on Goodreads here!

Let’s launch Monsters… Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests book launch that is.

Hello Readers!

Join us online this Thursday at 7pm to launch Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests.

It will be live streamed on Youtube (Keep an eye on the facebook event for the link)

There will be prizes, books, and a sneak peak at the Fall book covers from Renaissance.

See you there!

Éric and Jen

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests release day!!!

Hello Readers,

The book is finally here! Get the second instalment of The Gates of Westmeath from your favourite bookseller.

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

The week before Kennedy and Jason’s wedding is busy. There are cake tastings, dress fittings, a formal ball, and, as their superhero personas the Phantom and the Wraith, fighting monsters.

These behemoths are destructive, smell like snack food, and are only after one thing: Door Tech Industries technology.

Adding to the chaos are their friends and families; Jason’s grandmother has returned after having been missing for half a century, Kennedy’s mom is dead-set on keeping things traditional, and Jason’s best friend is kidnapped before the rehearsal.

Kennedy and Jason just want to get married, preferably before the next monster attack.

The second book of four in The Gates of Westmeath series.

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!

49th Shelf Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Indigo Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Archambault Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Amazon Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Rakuten Kobo Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Apple Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

Add it to your “Want to read” on Goodreads here!

Enjoy!

Jen and Éric

Pictogram of the Tropes in Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

Image showing the rating for the tropes in Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests. Battle Couple, Wedding Planning, and Superheroes is about 90%, Monsters is about 75%, and Spicy is about 40%. At the bottom, there’s a “Vibes”, which has an image from the movie Argylle (2024).

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!

49th Shelf Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Indigo Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Archambault Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Amazon Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Rakuten Kobo Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Apple Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

Add it to your “Want to read” on Goodreads here!

Monster Mess – A One-Shot Party Adventure

Find the character sheets and rules at: One-Shot.JenEric-Designs.ca

Description

You are a teen who needs to do community service and have been placed on super-cleanup duty. Westmeath has had a rash of monster attacks and although they don’t leave any biological matter (thankfully) they do make a mess of the city. You are assigned to deal with a mess in the downtown core after a group of flying monkeys attack.

The adventure should take approximately 1-3 hours, depending on the Party.

Setting

Westmeath, Canada’s fourth largest city, is the tech hub of North America. It’s also one of the most crime-ridden cities, fueled by prominent gangs and corporate espionage. It is also a place where magic, aliens, and technology meet. 

It’s June 2003 and the party is assigned to clean up the Hedy Lamarr Memorial Park in downtown after a group of flying monkeys destroyed the advanced WiFi transmitter installed in the park.

Suggested Backgrounds

The players can be anything they want, but here are some fun choices for their background: 

Aetherborn: Beings created with magic and the human imagination. They are copies of sentient people from mythology or pop culture. 

Alien: From all over the galaxy, Aliens have innate powers; mostly combat, but a few royals can heal.

Human: Humans are the most adaptable and scariest creatures in the universe.

Suggested Reasons for Community Service

Petty Crime: You did it and you got caught but let’s be fair it’s not that bad.

Parental Privilege: You did something bad but because of your last name or family fortune you got off easy.

University Admission: You really want to get into that university program and the best way is to have way too many extra credit activities along with your high grades.

High School Credit: It was this or parenting and there was no way you were going to carry a bag of flour around like it was a baby.

Fought Back: They started it, you ended it but you were the one who got in trouble.

Mistaken Identity: It wasn’t you but no one believes it.

Story

Part 1: Cleaning the park

The officer who’s in charge of the group gives them their cleaning tools and then tells them to clean up the park. He then leaves to find “decent coffee”.

The park is set between three large buildings and is a perfect square. The walls of the building have been painted in murals dedicated to women scientists. In the center of the park is a four-metre tall statue of Hedy Lamarr. There is a swing set, several trees, a slide, and a destroyed plot that must have been a flower garden.

The park is filthy, covered in shards of glass, metal, and more garbage than the players have ever seen.

Let the players talk amongst themselves. With a Luck or Mind check of 3, they find pieces of the WiFi transmitter with DoorTech logos on it. With a Mind of 4 they recognize the tech as not being human design.

Have the players all do a Mind check and have the highest remember that the statue used to be a hologram and not a large brass statue.

Part 2: Gang encounter

As they are cleaning, a group of men in purple jackets come by and start heckling them. They are a local gang called the Blue Bloods. If one of the players has done something criminally impressive, they try to recruit them. There are the same amount of gang members as players.

The gang members are aggressive in their taunts and recruitment. Either way they are looking for a fight. The players can avoid a fight by bluffing that they’ll join, intimidating, or outsmarting them. Have the players role against the gang members’ Luck.

Part 3: Strange noises and a big red button

After the gang members leave, their chaperone comes back and berates them for how little they’ve done before leaving for more coffee.

A Luck, Body, or Mind of 2 will have them finding a large button hiding in the mural of Hedy Lamarr. There are weird squeaks and chirps coming from behind the mural. If they press it, it opens a large door that leads to a staircase going down.

Part 4: Monkeys in the secret room

If the players choose not to go into the secret area or even hit the button, have 3-5 Flying Monkeys come out of the door as they go back to cleaning.

If they decided to explore, they will find a secret surveillance lab. A Mind or Luck 2 will have them realize that Door Tech has found a way to use WiFi to map and surveil areas, which was why they’d installed the large WiFi transmitter.

There is a door at the other side of the lab that seems to be a weapons cache.

As they decide to leave the room, 3-5 flying monkeys fly in from outside and attack.

Part 5: Statue

Once the players have fought the monkeys, have the police officer return and offer them a donut. It will heal 2 health.

If they tell him what happened, he doesn’t believe them, if they don’t, he sits on a swing and starts to eat a donut.

Just as the players are finishing up the park cleaning, they find an inscription at the base of the statue that says, “All creative people want to do the unexpected.” It’s attributed to Hedy Lamarr and once they’ve read it, the statue comes to life and tries to kill them. The police officer faints.

The statue disappears after it’s defeated.

Conclusion

After they’ve defeated the statue, three military vehicles with the DoorTech logo show up and interrogate the players. A luck or mind 3 will be enough to bluff that they haven’t seen anything. The police officer wakes up and helps the players get away from the DoorTech security teams.

If the players go to the police about the underground they are dismissed as making stuff up. If they go back, the button is gone. Have the players be visited, together or separately, by either the Blue Bloods or DoorTech with offers of scholarships, recruitment, internships, or something else the player(s) would want.

If the players have cruised through the adventure, you can have them visited by the local superhero team of the Phantom and the Wraith. The heroes believe them and want to know more. They promise to get to the bottom of it.

Opponents 

Blue BloodsFlying MonkeyStatue
Health526
Defence556
Body304
Mind030
Luck334
AbilitiesBrass Knuckles 2
Stun Gun 2
Bite 2
Scratch 1
Giant fist 2
Explode Electronic 2

Read More about Westmeath in Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

The week before Kennedy and Jason’s wedding is busy. There are cake tastings, dress fittings, a formal ball, and, as their superhero personas the Phantom and the Wraith, fighting monsters.

These behemoths are destructive, smell like snack food, and are only after one thing: Door Tech Industries technology.

Adding to the chaos are their friends and families; Jason’s grandmother has returned after having been missing for half a century, Kennedy’s mom is dead-set on keeping things traditional, and Jason’s best friend is kidnapped before the rehearsal.

Kennedy and Jason just want to get married, preferably before the next monster attack.

The second book of four in The Gates of Westmeath series.

49th Shelf Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Indigo Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Archambault Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Amazon Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Rakuten Kobo Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Apple Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests