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Lil’ Trekkies: Awesome Star Trek TNG Amigurumi

Ah! I am absolutley smitten with these amigurumi custom crochets of Star Trek: The Next Generation's characters by Deviant Art user Smapte! Everyone is rocking a precious smiling face, all except for Worf. Perhaps these dolls are made to mimic Star Trek: Insurrection, and he's currently experiencing jak’tahla.

Thanks for the tip, Mikey!

Lil' Trekkies: Star Trek TNG Amigurimi [DeviantArt]

Posted by Eric Smith

Celebrating National Rabbit Week: Top 10 Bunnies in Literature

Did you know that we’re in the middle of National Rabbit Week? It’s true. And I should know, proud owner of a bun that I am. My darling bun, Rory, is featured in Quirk’s upcoming craft book, Microcrafts. That’s her tail at the end of the book. Squee!

Ahem, but I digress.

According to Petwork, National Rabbit Week is “dedicated to education and the promotion of responsible ownership, as well as showing people what great pets bunnies can be.” So in honor of the week that pays tribute to my favorite cute and fluffy animal, I’ve pooled together a list of my top 10 literary bunnies. From comic books to classic literature, baby books to newspaper strips, these buns adorably appear in all wakes of print. If I missed a favorite of yours, let me know!

Bunnicula: Attempting a Google image search for an actual illustration of Bunnicula is a study in patience. Rabbit owners all over post photos of their bunnies, red eyes blazing from camera flashes, labeled as Bunnicula. A favorite pick of Quirk’s own Doogie Horner (he recommends the Celery Stalks at Midnight and the Howliday Inn), it’s hard not to love James Howe’s vampiric bunny who sucks juice out of veggies with his tiny fangs. “Today, vegetables. Tomorrow… the world!”

Peter Rabbit: Even though the story is over 100 years old, Beatrix Potter’s tale of Peter Rabbit and his sisters Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail continues to sell a fantastic amount of copies. Peter’s rebellious nature makes him all the more endearing. Really, who can blame him for going to town in the vegetable garden? As a child, any one of us let loose in a candy store would do the same thing, and maybe that’s why we love him so much.

Posted by Eric Smith

Quirk’s Broetry Slam @ National Mechanics

A little over a week ago, Broetry author Brian McGackin visited Philadelphia to host his first Broetry Slam at National Mechanics, a favorite haunt of the folks here at Quirk.

Fledgling Broets and Broettes shared their broems in front of a lively audience at the Old City bar, while Jason Rekulak, Doogie Horner, Brian McGackin, and Anna Goldfarb (from the popular local dating blog Shmitten Kitten) judged away. We gave out some books, epic prizes to our two winners, and had an absolute blast. One of the winners, Christopher Wink, posted his broem in full on his personal website.

For those of you who missed the slam, Nathan Edmondson of Reel 9 Productions shot this fabulous video, full of highlights from the event. Enjoy!

Now, I know you're curious about those cupcakes in the video. Whipped by local baking genius (and guest Quirk blogger) Christine Eriksen, the recipe for those Broetry Cupcakes (which featured Jell-O shots inside), will be posted on here in the coming days.

Before the slam, Nathan shot a handful of Bro-Vignettes, featuring Brian reading select poems from Broetry at a couple locations around our office. That being said, a huge thank you goes out to A.K.A. Music, Brave New Worlds (especially Brian Johnson for his cameo appearance as a character in a video), and the Book Trader for letting us impose ourselves in your shops. I'll be posting the video clips here on blog over the next few weeks. For now, here's some photos.

Posted by Eric Smith

The Scientist & the Sociopath: Joseph D’Agnese Releases 99 Cent eBook

Joseph D'Agnese, co-author of the Indiana Jones Handbook, 24: The Official CTU Operations Manual, Signing Their Lives Away and the upcoming Signing Their Rights Away (due out in September), recently decided to try an experiment in self-publishing, releasing a collection of his best non-fiction science journalism in an eBook.

Entitled The Scientist and the Sociopath, this best-of collection features a number of pieces featured previously in places like Discover, Wired and Seed. From profiling the guy who conceived the Big Bang Theory (but watched someone else get the Nobel Prize for it) to hanging out with scientists investigating flying snakes, there's plenty of true, undeniably quirky stories here

You can download a copy for the ridiculous price of 99 cents for the Kindle and Nook. Get it.

Posted by Eric Smith

The Accidental Sea: A Short Film by Ransom Riggs

When Ransom Riggs isn’t busy penning awesome New York Times bestselling novels or collecting odd vintage photographs, he enjoys shooting short films. And I’m not just talking about his book trailers for Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. He’s done a number of them, all of which you can brose on his website, including this fantastic short film, The Accidental Sea.

He released this video back in May, and it has since racked up over half a million views on YouTube, some nice compliments from Roger Ebert, and has been featured on popular websites like Neatorama and mental_floss.

Check it out. It’s pretty incredible.

The Accidental Sea by Ransom Riggs [YouTube]

Posted by Eric Smith

Become a Quirk Books Broet Laureate [Contest]

Edgar Allan Bro by Joseph Toschlog

Yesterday, Brian McGackin's debut book, Broetry, hit bookstores everywhere with its hilarious (and often heartwarming) portrayal of the modern bro. Time liked it, USA Today liked it, and we sure as hell do too.

And now, we want to hear YOUR broems.

Submit your best broem to our author, Brian McGackin, for a chance to become one of the monthly Broet Laureates of Quirkbooks.com. The winners will be selected by Brian, and will have their poems posted here on the blog, along with a brief bio and a photo.

We're encouraging those of you submitting broems to be creative. Shoot a video. Record a bro-cast (also known as a podcast). Write your broem on a bar napkin and take a picture of it. Tweet a bro-ku (haiku!) at Quirk or Brian. You can also just email it in to Brian ([email protected]). Have more than one broem? Enter as many times as you'd like.

Winners will be announced on the first of the month and will recieve a fancy certificate, an autographed copy of Broetry, a handful of bro appropriate Quirk titles (Old Man Drinks, Perfect Drink For Every Occasion, Art of the Video Game & more!) and some serious bragging rights. Two monthly runners up will recieve a signed copy.

Good luck, broets and broettes in training. And again, send your broems to Brian at [email protected].

Posted by Eric Smith