The Secret Adventures of WriterGirl

Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): King of Lullaby by Eiffel 65.


Halloween in a word, rocks. Because I enjoy it so much, I've compiled a list of book-related costume posts for this most auspicious week. Dress up as your favorite character, author, or heck, your favorite book (good luck getting through doorways though). There are about 1.4 trillion and a half books out there*, and I know there is a perfect character for you.

So to help get some literi buzz going, I've scoured the internet and the deepest recesses of my mind (a scary place mind you), to help kick-start the idea engine and help you find the perfect literary figment of your imagination that is dying to break out.


There are, of course, the classics:
Nancy Drew
Sherlock Holmes
Elizabeth Bennett (and Mr. Darcy for your lucky boyfriend)
Edgar Allen Poe, complete with a raven on your shoulder - quite appropriate for Halloween.
For Miss Havisham all you need is a trashed wedding/prom dress and a crazy look in your eye and viola!
Ariel/Prospero of The Tempest
Titania/Oberon/Puck of A Midsummer Nights Dream. Shakespeare character's could go on and on, or dress up as the bard himself!

An inflatable globe makes you an instant Atlas (or if you carry it lower you can be Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged) ;) (ah, me and my puns. I kill myself).

Want to be tricky? Dress up as one of the seven deadly sins (a fabulous visualization of them can be found on blackeri's Deviant art page).

Pregnant? No worries! Pin an "A" to your dress front, and you are a perfect Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter. (Shannon Hale did this one year and it was fantastic to see pictures of her in it).

Already have a costume planned out, have kids or are on a tight/non-existent budget? Got that covered too. :)
-Baby mouse costume = Hickory Dickory Dock/If You Give a Mouse a Cookie/Tale of Despereux
-Any barnyard costume = Animal Farm
-Roman centurion = Antony and Cleopatra
-Baby bunny/rabbit costume = Peter Rabbit.
-Witch costume = Wicked Witch of the West/Wicked (a scarecrow and Tin Man costume could be easy to "scare" up). :)
-Indian = Indian in the Cupboard/Last of the Mohicans/take your pick.
-Tons of layered shirts = Mrs. Whatsit from A Wrinkle in Time (this one could easily cost you nothing).
-White pajamas, ears and a tail = Max from Where the Wild Things Are
-Striped red and white shirt and hat - Where's Waldo (awesome!).
-Shirt with a green ham painted on - Sam I am.






Costume I seriously want to do someday: Scout's ham costume from To Kill a Mockingbird.


You can go as a famous character, like Twilight or Harry Potter, but do your own imagining. Who says you have to follow the movie? From Danielle Dreger-Babbit of The Examiner, here are her ideas for creating your own Twilight characters:

For the character of Edward, the only items you'll need are vampire teeth and some powder to make yourself pale. For Bella, cover your body in band-aids and ace bandages and carry around a copy of a Jane Austen novel. Jacob is a slightly harder look to achieve. My advice is to wear some super tight clothes with tears in them and give your best "werewolf" face."

She totally forgot the rub-on glitter though. And what about Wuthering Heights? This can equally be applied to any popular series/books.


Let your imagination fly and your inner literary figure break free and bust a move. :D
(feel free to add any extras in the comments)




*that is a totally accurate number by the way.

Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): Mario Kart Love Song by Sam Hart (it's AMAZING. Seriously, go listen to it).




For those who were not here before, I'm resurrecting these from the dead (or at least, the long-since-buried-in-the-digital-archives) because it is Halloween and that is just plain awesome, and even more because this is all about authors getting scared. Back in 2008 Lauren Myracle put an all-call out to 13 famous authors to face their worst fear and show evidence of it, preferably in the form of a YouTube video. Hers? Learning the Thriller dance. But my absolute favorites by far are Shannon Hale's -which is secretly subtitled The Dean Witch Project- and John Green's. Shannon's is flippin scary and John's is downright heroic. So enjoy everyone! Man, I love this time of year. :)

Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): Breathing by Lifehouse.





You guys were so right. I did go to the State Fair (this is 2009's though. I was looking through my photos and went something like "Whoa! I didn't know I took pictures of that!") I love the fair. There's such a cool atmosphere there. But you won't see me near any of the rides. I hold serious doubts to the safety of anything big and mechanical that can be assembled or dissembled in a day. Just sayin.




Yum. I love trying new things and I can definitely say this is the first time I've ever had a pork burger. I had a bison burger once. Also good. And even better - there was a gelato station just around the corner. Heaven *dies of happiness in glorious gelato-y thoughts* :)




See the chandelier? Out of place? I thought so. But this is where we had my prom. No, seriously (but maybe that's a common practice. Is it?). When I came here (no limo, unlike other groups. But I was okay with that) I was seriously afraid of stepping in a cow pie. I was even more terrified because I had to shell out the dough for the dress myself (and seriously! What guy in their right mind gives girls in $200-$800 prom dresses baked potatoes with CHILLI and fried chicken as food choices for dinner!? There may have been spaghetti too, but that could just be imagined in my state of near paranoia. However, they did serve us in tuxedos, which was very very hot and very gentlemanly like, so I forgave them. Though I've never eaten so slow in my life before).



Back at the State Fair - I had no idea if this guy was real or not. I *think* he was because how well he moved, but I'm still not sure. He gathered quite a crowd too.




I think he was proposing to this girl here. Or waltzing. Maybe both.




And the famous butter sculpture! Yes, it is indeed a cow in a tutu and I have no idea why the other one was wearing a scarf. Maybe they were dancing on an ice rink. :) What do they do with all of that butter once it's gone? World's biggest brownie has my vote. :)

Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): Comme Des Enfants by Coeur De Pirate.

Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): The Resistance by Muse.




Since we didn't get a Feature Fun Friday on Friday, I'm sneaking it in here now. What can I say? I love internet videos. ^_^ Ever since I heard Zooey sing in Elf way back when I have loved catching glimpses of that side of her in movies (so sad nothing ever happened with that in Tin Man. I mean come on, you had six hours of sci-fi miniseries goodness on your hands! *shakes head* But hey, 500 Days of Summer lived up to it quite nicely). So while not a match made in heaven, it was still really cool to see her singing all Glee-esque in a library here. :)