Oh Noes! It’s Halloween morning and you have failed to adequately plan and execute the perfect costume! That fabulous party you’ve been invited to is only T minus X hours away!

Not to worry, the Geek Girls got your back! (and, apparently all your exclamation marks too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Want to go as Molly Ringwald from the Breakfast Club? Voltaire? Yo Mama? Just follow this link to the instant costume generator.

You can thank us tomorrow.

And … don’t forget. Today is the last day to enter to win Shadowed Summer and Give Up The Ghost. So if you’re staying in this year and handing out candy (or even if you’re not), why not leave a comment here or here.

Take note! Geek Girl Darcy will be at Meet the Author night at the Allen County Public Library this Thursday (October 29th) at 7 p.m. She’ll be doing a reading, then talking about first kisses. She’ll also be signing books and will be on hand to answer your questions about writing and publishing.

Plus! Refreshments will be served. Nothing scary about that. So, if you’re in the Fort Wayne area, get your geek on and come on out.

Geek Girl Darcy grew up in an era when it was perfectly acceptable to go trick or treating in a sheet. The less creative moms cut two eye holes in one and called you a ghost.

My mom put in more effort than that. I remember the year I was an angel – a pink angel cuz that was the color of the bedding that wore out that year. It was actually a pretty cool costume with its Christmas garland halo and wire hanger wings.

My mom was ahead of her time when it came to going green too. She believed in recycling way back then — at least when it came to Halloween costumes. She remade my pink angel costume the next year by cutting off the bottom two thirds of it to make a mini dress. Next, she bought me a beret and a fancy fake cigarette holder and called me a beatnik. (Yes! A cigarette holder! For an eight year old! What can I say? It was a different world back then.)

Don’t feel sorry for me. I fared much better than most kids. I lived in a neighborhood of large families. For most of my friends that meant hand me down costumes. Dan of planetdan.net lived in a different neighborhood (and a different decade) but the results were hilariously the same. Check it out!

And don’t forget…

You still have a ghost of a chance to win two spectacular spooky books Saundra Mitchell’s Shadowed Summer and Megan Crewe’s Give Up the Ghost by leaving a comment here.

You can earn a second chance by commenting on this post. Just tell us about your best (or worst) Halloween costume!

It’s a ghastly day in northeast Indiana, where Geek Girl Darcy makes her haunted home. It’s cold. It’s rainy. It’s windy. The perfect day to curl up with a ghostly good story. And, lucky me (!), I’ve got two of them.

Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe

Cass McKenna much prefers ghosts over “breathers.” Ghosts are uncomplicated and dependable, and they know the dirt on everybody…and Cass loves dirt. She’s on a mission to expose the dirty secrets of the poseurs in her school. But when the vice president of the student council discovers her secret, Cass’s whole scheme hangs in the balance. Tim wants her to help him contact his recently deceased mother, and Cass reluctantly agrees. As Cass becomes increasingly entwined in Tim’s life, she’s surprised to realize he’s not so bad-and he needs help more desperately than anyone else suspects. Maybe it’s time to give the living another chance…

Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell

Iris is ready for another hot, routine summer in her small Louisiana town, hanging around the Red Stripe grocery with her best friend, Collette, and traipsing through the cemetery telling each other spooky stories and pretending to cast spells. Except this summer, Iris doesn’t have to make up a story. This summer, one falls right in her lap.Years ago, before Iris was born, a local boy named Elijah Landry disappeared. All that remained of him were whispers and hushed gossip in the church pews. Until this summer. A ghost begins to haunt Iris, and she’s certain it’s the ghost of Elijah. What really happened to him? And why, of all people, has he chosen Iris to come back to?

I’d love to share my ghostly good fortune — so the Geek Girls will be giving away both books! The only catch is… you’ll have to wait until I read them first. (Don’t worry, I promise to not to leave too many Cheetos stains behind.)

And if you can’t wait to get your fear on, why not kick it old skool ghoul by reading one of these scary tales: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving or The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe? Both of them (and hundreds of other creeptastic classics) are available online at HorrorMasters.com.

But wait, how do you win our spooktacular prize? Just leave a comment below with the title of your own favorite (new or old ghoul) ghost story, and on November 1st (The Day of the Dead) we’ll bring the Random-nator back to life and choose one fiendishly fortunate friend for the win.

Just a quick reminder. Darcy will be at the Fort Wayne Public Library (Main branch), tomorrow (that’s Wednesday), October 21 at 10:00.

Are you a teen librarian at a school or public library? Would you like to add 46 books to your collection … for free? Here’s your chance.

To celebrate Teens Read Week, the YA and MG authors of Debut 2009 are giving away a 46 book set of their debut novels to ONE lucky library, anywhere in the world! From October 18th until December 31st, 2009 we’ll be taking entries from librarians only- public and school libraries are eligible.

Visit the 2009 Debutantes for all the details. And yes, the collection does include a copy of The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading.

Sure. Zombies are scary (actually, the pics on the site are kind of freaking me out). But sometimes, real life can be just as scary. Consider:

I can’t decide if I want to work there or not. You can thank me for the ear worm later.

The Geek Girls think this might make an excellent Halloween costume — It’s zombies! It’s cheerleaders! Add a pair of geeky glasses and it’s zombie geek girl cheerleaders! You can purchase a costume already put together, or you can get creative, like these folks:

Or you could just buy the T-shirt:

What do we want?
BRAINS!
When do we want them?
NOW!
Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!

Celebrate Teen Read Week with Darcy!

Darcy will be at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, IN on Wednesday, October 21st at 10 a.m. to give the Expectations presentation in celebration of Teen Read Week.

And … she’ll be back on October 29^th at 7:00 p.m. for a meet the author night.

If you’re in the Fort Wayne area, stop by! Keep up-to-date with what’s going on in the Young Adults’ Services department here.

Yes, it’s back! The Debsness bag, filled with all sorts of awesome. But hurry. As always, it’s a limited time offer.