October is the month for scaring yourself out of your shorts...

The Autumn winds are howling and October will soon be here with longer nights, colder days, costumes and confections. What better way to celebrate the most wonderfully frightening time of the year than with the suspense and terror that only short stories can deliver?

I am a big fan of All Hallow's Read, Neil Gaiman's idea that you should share a scary book with someone for Halloween. Well, this year I want to do that in a big way by sharing two books of short stories with you... one from an author we know and love, and one from an author who is new and waiting to be discovered by us all.

Book #1:

Photo courtesy of www.mousecircus.com

Neil Gaiman's "M is for Magic"

This is a well known collection of some of the most beloved scary stories of our generation. It has something for everyone. I know that my love for Mr. Gaiman knows no literary bounds, but this is an excellent collection, and you will have a wonderful time seeing little snippets of Gaiman's magic and trepidation found in its pages. It is available in most libraries, Amazon, and many small book sellers.

Book #2:

Tansy Undercrypt's "Small Towns, Dark Places"

Ms. Undercrypt is a new author, but her micro fiction has been published for quite some time at TansyUndercrypt.com. You can go back and read these tiny gems at your leisure. Her book was just recently published, and is available through many ebook formats (Nook, Kindle, etc.) Tansy is not only a new, independent author of dark fiction, but she is also a member and supporter of GGBC. Please feel free to spread the word about her and her book if you'd like... I love that GGBC is helping new authors find readers and slew of people who adore their words. Tansy will be no exception, you will be captivated and breathless by the places you will go in this dark and frightening town. Here is a link to the Amazon ebook: Small Towns, Dark Places and a hard cover copy will be available the end of September.

In the comments, please share with us what books you are going to share for All Hallow's Read... we can all use a gigantic list of scary stories, and this is the perfect time of year to read as many as we can get our clawed hands on.

As always, our read will start on the first of the month and will be discussed on the last Saturday of the month... so get ready to dig in to some dark places, but bring a lantern... because it will be black as pitch sometimes, and you need to come out eventually. 

And the winners are...

(I have no idea where this awesome graphic came from, but I am amazed what

I have on my computer. Thanks to the cool cyber person who made it!)

Congratulations to the winners! Please contact me on twitter at @NikkiSticks or on Facebook at the GGBC page to get your code for your free e-book!

OUT OF TRUE:

Elisabeth Flaum 

Michelle Watkins @abqmichelle

Lynette Aspey @LAAspey

ELEGANTLY WASTED:

@pixiestick1207 

Tasha Grey @adventure_chick

Christina Terry @voodoodarling

Thanks again to Luna Station Press for the generous support of Geek Girls Book Club, you are awesome.

Geek Girl Giveaway!

Win a digital copy of one of our September reads!

Three GGBC members will be chosen to receive a free digital download of GGBC September reads "Elegantly Wasted" and three more will be chosen to receive "Out of True". 

To enter, simply reply to the giveaway thread on Facebook, Twitter, or goodreads and one entry on each service will be chosen at random.

Entries accepted September 1st -September 7th.

Winners announced September 8th!

Digital downloads will be available to you in your eReader format preference, courtesy of the books' publisher. 

Thanks to Luna Station Press for supporting the GGBC!

September is for Geek Girls

Soon summer will be leaving us and Autumn will be here, crisp leaves, cool air, poetry all around us and contract killers.

The next few months at GGBC we will be highlighting new authors and not only new, talented and brilliant... they are members of GGBC. I want to see the smaller publishers and writers get more exposure so we have years and years to come of so much brilliance that it fills our eyes and fills our souls to look at these works.

September is a two-for-awesome deal. Both of these books are written by GGBC members AND published by our dear friend: Luna Station Press.

First, we will lure you into a poetic world that will help you escape the hectic start of a new season... the beautifully written "Out Of True" by Amy Durant.

You can find all the information and even read a sneak peek at: Out Of True.

You can purchase an ebook version or get a paperback version if you'd prefer.

After you have been captivated by Amy's poetry, you will be blown away by Cara Vescio's "Elegantly Wasted" If you think your family has got issues, wait till you meet the Fairholms, their relationships are a killer:

This is also available in ebook format and all the information and also a sneak peek is available at: Elegantly Wasted.  

Read them, enjoy them... and then share them with fellow readers! The more we share the creativity and just plain awesome power of our Geek Girls, we are making the world just a bit brighter and better for the little Geeks coming after us.  The read will begin on September 1st, and we will discuss starting on September 29th. 

We are back to school kids, and girls rule.

Bullies on the brain...

"Wow, you look TERRIBLE!" "Look at that nose!" "How much weight have you gained?" "You are REALLY not attractive."

If you heard those comments being said to someone you would probably rush to that person's defense. You'd tell that person to get away from this terrible jerk, that they were a bully... worse, an abusive asshat. You would never let your friends or family be spoken to this way. We would rise up like a geeky plague and put them in their place.

What if that bully is you? You are saying these awful, untrue, hurtful things to someone you should care deeply about: You. What if you are your own bully?

Why do we see the injustice of being unkind to someone else but not to ourselves? I see it so much, not just in the Geek community, but all over. We are downright cruel to ourselves. We wonder why we can't be like someone else. Prettier, more successful, BETTER. We want to be someone else entirely sometimes.

What if, even just once in a while, we treated ourselves like we would our loved ones? What if we remembered the beautiful parts of us... what makes us unique and even, dare I say, special. We are so beat up by our own thoughts that we can't help but believe them, but what if we could change that programming? What if instead of being someone else you could be YOU 2.0?

That you has permission to feel good about themselves. That version has some kick ass qualities that the world needs and is just out there waiting for. This version can override that inner bully's bullshit and tell it to cram it, you are no longer hearing that old, useless garbage. This you is waiting to come out, to be in the mental sunshine a lot more. That you is ready to put that bully's undies up the flagpole for once.

You have permission to never be bullied again. You are too damn amazing to waste one more day listening to anything but the truth: You are fabulous. Here and now.

Welcome to the reboot my friends.

Are you ready to away party?

I hope that you will all make it home safely from Amity Island and avoided losing a limb in your ocean adventure. We will be discussing that sharp toothed menace "Jaws" on July 28th, and please bring a swimming buddy.

But now it is time to move away from the ocean to another vast unknown: SPACE. That's right. You are going to be going to a party... too bad you're wearing a red shirt and it's an AWAY party.

The GGBC August read is John Scalzi's "Redshirts".

What is so bad about being on a away team? You're about to find out. Please report to your ship on August 1st, 2012 and be ready to take one for the team. You can follow the author at: 

@scalzi

Also: September is going to be a combination month of book and graphic novel, so be sure to keep those comic/GN suggestions coming. 

Project Blanket Fort: July

The GGBC project: blanket forts has been extended so those at SDCC can get their entries in too. New deadline: July 21st!

Join us to kick off Project Blanket Fort and support charities while making a comfy masterpiece!