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Please note: We do not intend to condone nor glorify substance abuse. But it does make for some good stories. That being said, read on and learn how to drink like your favorite author.

Ernest Hemingway (Absinthe / Death in the Afternoon): Ernest Hemingway was known for a lot of things — but right now, we’re going to focus on his drinking habits rather than his blatant misogyny. Hemingway was a known advocate of absinthe, a green liquor made from wormwood and other herbs that was commonly referred to as “The Green Fairy” due to the presence of a chemical compound called thujone that is thought to induce hallucinations (you know, like fairies).

If you want to drink like Hemingway, know that he preferred to drink his absinthe as part of a concoction called “Death in the Afternoon” (named after his own nonfiction book of the same name). He describes the cocktail preparation as such: “Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”

That being said, Hemingway was not known for, uh, healthy habits involving alcohol, so uh, maybe you shouldn’t try quite the same dosage. I’d start with one, maybe two, and then go from there.

William Faulkner (Mint Julep via Joy the Baker): “There’s no such thing as bad whiskey,” Faulker once wrote. “Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others.” Which is particularly fitting coming from a master of the Southern Gothic genre, where the bourbon flows as freely as the Mississippi River, if the stories are to be believed. (Okay well I’ve never actually been to Mississippi, but he was born there, so it seemed fitting) Faulkner is still recognized as a kind of champion of hard drinking writers; by all accounts, the man literally required whiskey in order to put a word on the page. In his own words: “I usually write at night. I always keep my whiskey within reach; so many ideas that I can’t remember in the morning pop into my head.”

I assume that Faulkner was generally able to get these ideas down on the page before he passed out, so that his brilliant ideas that were otherwise lost in the morning were somehow still salvaged for the future. Although some sources actually insist that Faulkner avoided drinking while working, all can agree that upon completion of a project, he would go out on a bender that would last for several days as a means of escape and decompression.

Whatever his habits, Faulkner preferred to take his whiskey in the form of a mint julep. He even had a metal cup that he preferred to drink out of, which stands on display to this day at the William Faulkner House in Oxford, Mississippi, accompanied by his personal recipe: whiskey, 1 teaspoon of sugar, ice, and mint. Simple enough — and quite delicious!

F. Scott Fitzgerald (Gin Rickey via Food52): It’s only fitting that the man who brought us the raucous parties of The Great Gatsby know a thing or two about partying himself. He and his wife Zelda were a raging pair of drunken pranksters, a ferocious force to be reckoned with. I mean, when your buddy Ernest Hemingway tells you that your wife is a bad influence on you and makes you drink too much? That’s saying something.

The Fitzgeralds’ decadent lifestyle did not come without its consequences, but that’s a story better saved for the sequel. “First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you,” said Fitzgerald, and for he and Zelda, that drink was the gin rickey (supposedly, he thought that gin was more difficult for others to detect on your breath): 2 shots of gin mixed with ¾ oz of lime juice, poured over ice in a highball glass and topped with club soda and a garnish of lime. While I can’t guarantee this drink’s discretion, I can guarantee a deliciously refreshing cocktail.

While those of you who are attending BEA this year might snag a poster of our special, ten-year anniversary timeline, we wanted to make sure we shared this with all of you.

So here it is. A History of Quirk Books.

Our lovely timeline (designed by our fabulous Andie Reid) touches on a little bit of everything, from Dave Borgenicht's publishing life pre-Quirk with The Worst-Case-Scenario Survival Handbook to our distribution partnership with Random House, from our first season with the Action Hero's Handbook to the publication of our New York Times bestselling mashups and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Award winning book trailers and awkward family photos, piles of cat hair and movie deals… it has been one wild ride.

Read on to scope out our timeline. Enjoy!

Photo by Lee Haywood

It’s almost June and everyone knows what that means: weddings!

June is the most popular month for weddings, and that makes sense as it was named after Juno, Roman goddess of marriage and childbirth. If you believe the latest rom-com, weddings are the perfect end to our search for a soul mate. But if we’re being honest here, there is almost nothing more terrifying than the incredible amount of potentially-tragic scenarios that a wedding can produce. Okay, it’s not exactly as dangerous as kayaking through the Amazon surrounded by cannibalistic tribes and poisonous frogs. But, you are combining your family, his or her family, liquor, high expectations, lots of money, and the most important decision of your life.

It’s honestly hard to pick just one terrifying possibility from The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Weddings, because they would all be pretty traumatizing.

BEA is almost here and as you might have seen in this earlier post, we are really excited. And we want to give you a chance to take home some special swag from the Quirk Books prize patrol.

Just email [email protected] to get this special BEA tote bag mailed to you before you leave for BEA. We hope you’ll bring your bag to BEA as a sign of your continued support, a way to carry home all the awesome swag you pick up, and—most important—an opportunity to win stuff! Members of our staff will be walking the show floor of the Javits Center and giving away prizes to attendees carrying this tote.

Once again, Quirk Books is truly grateful for the support you have given us over the past ten years. Your enthusiasm for our books has been a key part of our success.  Supplies are limited.  If you don’t get a bag before BEA, you can pick one up at our booth (#3848). We have lots of exciting books for Fall 2012 to tell you about, along with great giveaways.  Come say hi!

Again, thank you! We look forward to seeing you at BEA and continuing to work with you in the years to come. Check out the full size Books Are… image below!

It’s Wednesday again, which means it is time to prepare yourself for yet another worst-case scenario.

Today, we’re going to reach into The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Paranormal for some advice. This book may be particularly useful if you plan on having a vampire-werewolf-human love triangle at some point in the future, or you are looking forward to the next season of True Blood as much as I am.

Book Expo America is almost here, and we are psyched! We love this time of year. We get to spend several lovely days meeting bloggers, press, authors, and other publishing professionals. What could be better? This year, you’ll be able to find us at Booth #3848 and we’ve got a lot planned for you bookish guys and gals.

Since we’re celebrating our ten year anniversary, we’ll be giving out a bunch of special posters and totebags commorating that fact. We’re also bringing an amazing poster of The Last Policeman and lenticular Lovecraft Middle School postcards. If you grab one of our totebags, make sure you keep it on you! Our BEA Prize Patrol will be prowling the expo floor, dishing out bookish prizes to attendees we catch displaying their love of Quirk.

And speaking of Lovecraft Middle School, series editor Jason Rekulak will be on the BEA Book Buzz panel, talking about Lovecraft Middle School: Professor Gargoyle, the first installment in the series

Fans of Ben H. Winters will be psyched to learn that we’re bringing the New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award nominated author with us to BEA again this year. Last year, Ben was signing copies of Bedbugs. This time around, he’ll be signing copies of The Last Policeman. Swing by the Quirk booth on Wednesday from 10am to 11am, to nab free autographed ARCs and posters from Ben.

The fun doesn’t stop at BEA. We’ve also teamed up with a bunch of our publishing industries BFFs to throw a big ol’ party at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Wednesday, June 6th. And you’re invited! Come to PubDate 2012 to hang out with us, DC Entertainment, Graywolf Press, Other Press, Pegasus Books, Seven Stories, and Steerforth Press in a celebration of books, authors, and publishing.

There will be hors d’oeuvres and an open bar (wine and beer) until 10pm, with cocktails available for purchase. Make sure you RSVP on Facebook. It’s not required, but it is appreciated.

You’ll be able to meet the fabulous Stacy Adimando (The Cookiepedia) and Thomas J. Craughwell (Thomas Jefferson’s Creme Brulee). For a full list of other authors who will be attandance, visit the event’s page on Facebook.

Get excited! We are. And we can’t wait to see you there!