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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. 

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Infographic created for Quirk Books by Michael Rogalski, eyewashweb.com.

Fall 2017 marks the 15th anniversary of Quirk’s first publishing season. To celebrate, we're chatting with Brett Cohen, Quirk’s president.

Brett started with Quirk in 2001 before we were even publishing our own books. Over the last 16 years, Brett has been a jack-of-all-trades. He was the first hire on the business side, brought in to develop our operational and financial procedures, as well as manage Quirk’s relationship with our sales distributor. He expanded that work into business development and strategy. He revised our marketing program by developing our consumer initiatives including comic con attendance, relaunching this site as an entertainment blog, and starting our social media accounts. Now, he continues to have his hand in all facets of the business ranging from finance and production to marketing and sales.

Fathom Events is bringing a beautifully remastered version of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial back to the big screen for a special 35 anniversary event on September 17 and 20 only! We're positively over the MOON.

Photo credit: Courtney Apple

As part of our #PeculiarSummer, Quirk publisher Jason Rekulak answered questions from Twitter about the process of editing the blockbuster Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series. Here are Jason’s thoughts on some of the most popular questions.