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Earlier this year, we announced a contest with our friends the Bridgeman Art Library. They're the folks who give us the awesome artwork for our Quirk Classics series, which our designers then redesign. You can check out some before and after shots of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters, Dreadfully Ever After, and Dawn of the Dreadfuls on Bridgeman's official website, here.

The winners of the Art of the Mash-Up competition had their works framed and displayed in Brave New Worlds, a comic book shop right near our office in Old City Philadelphia that maintains an awesome art gallery. Despite the chilly and rainy weather, the exhibit's opening night had plenty of folks stopping in to scope out the mashed up art… as well as drink our wine, eat our pizza, and snatch up free posters. One of the winners even drove all the way up from St. Louis to see his runner up on display in the gallery. 

Unfortunately, my camera battery died about 5 minutes into the event… but I did manage to grab a bunch of photos with my iPhone. Have a look at the Flickr gallery below (if you don't have Flash, just go here). Thanks to everyone who stopped by, and a huge thank you to Quirk's Melissa Jacobson, for letting us use her expertise in hanging artwork.

One of my employees has a hilarious poster in her office that reads “NOW PANIC AND FREAK OUT.” (From the Philadelphia-based design studio, Print Liberation.) I thought of the poster last week when I did just that, and for not a very good reason-I freaked out because my kids and I were late for school. It was a bad parenting moment. But we all have those.

You see, my daughter has discovered the joys of “doing her hair,” something she had no interest in last year. It was time for us to head out the door, but her hair “just isn’t right,” she informed me as she tromped back upstairs to the bathroom to fix it.

“We’re going to be late,” I told her. She just stopped and glared, then headed upstairs nevertheless. “Soph,” I said, “watch it.” This, of course, made matters worse, as it sent her not to the bathroom to fix her hair, but to her room, crying.

It’s the moment a lot of you have been waiting for! Pride & Prejudice & Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After hit stores on Tuesday, and we’ve got a stellar book trailer to go along with launch.

Produced by our talented friends Dirty Robber (who created the stunning Dawn of the Dreadfuls trailer), the trailer is packed full of zombies, intrigue, ninjas, and one seriously epic high-flying kick.

Give it a watch! Hope you enjoy it as much as we do. I’ve embedded it below, but I recommend scoping it out directly on YouTube. Enjoy!

Tomorrow’s the big day. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After hits bookstores everywhere, and we are psyched at the Quirk HQ. If you’re like me, you live in constant fear of the inevitable zombie apocalypse.

Your apartment is stocked with non-perishable goods, you scope out optimum “last stand” locations, you have a detailed escape route… all that good stuff. But do you have a plan if you get bitten? Where would you go? How would you treat yourself?

Chances are, if you’re an optimist, you’ll hope for some sort of cure. And we’ve (sort of) got one for you. It won’t save you, but at least you’ll look stylish and prepared.

We’ve got eight of these cute, bright red antidote necklaces up for grabs. All you have to do is give our Pride & Prejudice & Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After Facebook page a ‘like’ for a chance to win one. I’ll select eight of you at random come the end of April.

What? You heard me.

If you’ve taken a peek at our Fall 2011 catalog, you might have spotted a particularly quirky title… Crafting with Cat Hair: Cute Handicrafts to Make with Your Cat.

Originally released in Japan, we’re bringing it stateside in the Fall. It’s the perfect book for you craft-loving cat owners with sweaters and couches covered in fur. Pick up that lint roller, collect some hair, and get to making tote bags, finger puppets, picture frames, and more.

The book doesn’t hit stores until November… but editor Margaret McGuire and designer Katie Hatz have already begun crafting. One of them doesn’t even own a cat, and I’m not at liberty to divulge where she’s been collecting the animal fur… though it may involve a Mission Impossible-esque cable drop scenario.

However with all the crafting they’ve been doing, there just isn’t enough cat hair. And that’s where you come in.

Charles Dickens’ enduring line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” could apply to the best-selling Worst-Case Scenario® series, which has advised millions of people how to survive life’s sudden turns for the worse.

For more than ten years, readers have been entertained and informed by these well-researched solutions to the worst-case scenarios of life—from how to escape from quicksand to how to fend off a shark, and from how to deal with a nightmare boss to how to escape from a bad date. With over 10 million books sold worldwide, it’s clear that the desire to be prepared is universal.

Welcome to the Worst-Case Scenario community! Author Dave Borgenicht and the Worst-Case team are here to help prepare you, and you, and you(!) out there in webland for anything. Need to land a plane? Fending off a shark attack? Graduating and facing “what next?!”? We’re here, for you.