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[Image by Sabrina Ripke from Pixabay]

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and, for many of us, that means mentally preparing for the annual digging up of family drama. Someone’s secretly pregnant – or was. Someone illicitly adopted a baby and is unwilling to return them to their birth parents. Someone is completely bankrupt and is planning a pilgrimage to their daughter’s house. Oh wait. That’s just the families in these incredible novels. To prepare for the family drama (and ensuing headache) of the upcoming Thanksgiving festivities, here are four novel courses of families you’re thankful aren’t yours, plus a palate cleanser to get you through the rest of the holiday season.

It’s no secret that we’re obsessed with witches over here at Quirk Books. We’ve explored our favorite covens in pop culture, published a book about self-care through spellbinding (shout out to all the Basic Witches in our lives), and are known to describe a good hair day as “witchy.” But what if our favorite covens from classic literature were bona fide witches? Imagine if the women of Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Les Miserables, The Great Gatsby, and Romeo and Juliet were all masters of spells and potions. Just imagine how differently those plots would turn out.

Line your life (and your cupcakes) the Geeky Hostess way. Find out more about Tara Theoharis, the founder of The Geeky Hostess—a geeky baking and party accessory brand and blog! Tara gives us the scoop on how she transformed her geeky passions into a business by creating geeky baking and entertaining products. Read on!

Hey Tara! What inspired you to create The Geeky Hostess and can you tell us a little bit about its evolution since 2010?

I originally started The Geeky Hostess as a geeky party/lifestyle blog. I wanted to "level up" my cooking and entertaining, and thought a blog would hold me accountable. The blog started at a time when there wasn't much for geeky women out in the world. I was one of the original "geek girl" lifestyle blogs and I've been thrilled to see that community grow over the years! 

As the years went by, I wanted to do more with the idea of sophisticated geeky parties/recipes, and I created a line of geeky baking and entertaining products. This started with a line of sprinkles in 2014, and I now have a line of literary and gaming-inspired cupcake liners. 

We absolutely love your cupcake liners. Is there a Geeky Hostess product that has a special place in your heart?

Thanks! While I absolutely love the literary liners, my favorite has to be the dice liners. I love creating interactive/themed recipes for my game nights, and these cupcake liners allow me to use cupcakes instead of dice. Players can pick one up and look on the bottom to see what number they "rolled"! 

If you could invite three fictional characters to dinner, who would they be? And what would the theme be?

I think I'd have to host a tea party potluck for some of my fave princesses: Belle, Jasmine, and Cinderella. They can each bring a favorite small bite and a favorite dessert with them, and we'd spend the evening sampling delicacies from their kingdoms while finding out if being a princess is all it's cracked up to be. 

On your blog, you have some great recipe ideas. What are your top tips for making geeky recipes your own?

1) There are plenty of ways to make a recipe from your favorite fandom. You can create a replica of something they eat (like The Doctor's Fish Fingers and Custard), you can create a meal based on the world of the fandom (like a tavern meal from Dungeons and Dragons), or you can create something based on a name, pun, or inside joke (like Banana-na-na-na-na-na-na Batman cupcakes). Figure out what calls to you most and use that as a starting ground for your recipe!

2) Don't make too much work for yourself! You don't need to make an item perfectly from scratch if you don't normally cook. I try to make my recipes approachable to everyone. There's no shame in using box-mixes or doctoring store-bought versions if that's what your time and skill level allows! And if you're putting together multiple recipes for a dinner or a party, pre-make as many things as possible so you're not a frazzled, sweaty mess when everyone shows up. 

3) Make changes to suit your tastes! If you've ever read the comments on a recipe, you'll know that everyone makes substitutions. Don't be afraid to experiment with other flavors or swap out a certain ingredient you don't love. A recipe is no good if you don't like it!

If you were to offer one piece of advice to Quirk’s Geek E. Girls, what would it be?

Whatever you want to do in life: start. You don't have to be perfect, you don't have to go big, but don't give up on your dreams because you're too scared to try. Put your first piece of writing, photography, or demo online. Sign up for a class. Watch YouTube tutorials. Find a friend with similar interests and hold each other accountable. 

When I started The Geeky Hostess, I had never made cupcakes, and had definitely never manufactured any products. But I was willing to start somewhere, and in the process learned so much. 

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

Hana Mae Lee’s birthday is today and while she’s best known as the incredibly soft spoken yet powerful beatboxer Lilly in Pitch Perfect, the real Hana Mae is a bona fide badass and funny as hell. To celebrate her birthday, we’ve created a wish list of literary roles that we’d love to see Hana Mae Lee play. Listen up, Hollywood. We’ve got some big plans.

[TV still from Parks and Recreation, NBC]

Leslie Knope is a cultural icon. She’s kind, assertive, and feels like your best friend. She’s so incredible that we often need to remind ourselves that she’s a fictional character. She’s too wonderful to be confined to a half-hour of television! We’re celebrating Amy Poehler’s birthday and are wishing Leslie Knope a very happy birthday right along with her by looking back at some of our favorite lessons from Parks and Recreation. And while she’s no longer dispensing her wisdom on a weekly basis, Leslie did give us some incredibly evergreen words to live by.

We have apps that tell us where the moon is in its rotation and offer our friends sage with a straight face. We put our best ladies first and are glued to Jaya Saxena and Jess Zimmerman’s Twitter feeds. We are the Basic Witches Jaya and Jess write about in their new book, aptly subtitled “How to summon success, banish drama, and raise hell with your coven.” To celebrate this book’s release, here are five of our favorite covens in pop culture.