Happy Halloween! Let's celebrate with a FREE BOOK!

It's here!

Sadly, Halloween is on a Monday, which means I'm not dressed up or planning on doing anything spectacular tonight other than going to bed early. I live in an apartment building in Cambridge, so we don't get any trick-or-treaters (though I will buy one bag of candy just in case, and then eat it all myself when we, once again, don't get any knocks at the door).

We did do a little Halloween celebrating this weekend, when we got together with a couple friends and volunteered as chaperones for the annual Halloween Dance hosted by the Boston Alliance for GLBT Teens. The dance is meant to provide a safe, fun, bully-free space for youth to celebrate the holiday. It was a little hard for me to believe I was at a Halloween dance as a chaperone, but it was actually really fun. Watching a bunch of wicked cool, be-costumed GLBT Teens and Allies lose their mind to Katy Perry's Firework might be the most adorable thing I've ever seen.

The chaperones were encouraged to dress up, so I ran to the costume shop and picked up two little items to make a kickass costume:

Amelia Earhart!

Being a chaperone required a non-slutty, youth-appropriate Halloween costume (plus being a derby girl, the novelty of going outside without pants on has long since worn off....), so this was a perfect costume for a history nerd like me. Plus, it was comfortable and warm! BONUS!

Anyway, Halloween fun was had by all. But the holiday is not over yet, so I want to spread some more Halloween cheer! As I mentioned last night on Twitter, I'm giving away a copy of Possess by Gretchen McNeil. Gretchen is a fellow Apocalypsie (and shares the coolest name ever with my mom!). Possess is a super creepy, really engaging mystery/thriller that I think is totally in the spirit of the holiday, and if you haven't read it, you definitely need to.

Since this is a Halloween giveaway, and today is Halloween, we're doing this quick and dirty. All you have to do is comment on this post by midnight (um, the witching hour!), and you're entered to win! And while you're commenting, why don't you tell me your all-time favorite Halloween costume (links to pictures would be AWESOME). I'll announce the winner tomorrow and will ship the book out to you asap. Tweeting and Facebook sharing is always appreciated, but this time around it'll just be out of the kindness of your own heart.

I think Amelia is up there with my all-time fave costumes, but here's a good one my mom made me when I was just 2 (maybe 3?).

That's lil Lauren as a ladybug, in a costume lovingly made by my mom. I was pretty cute, huh? Hope you all have a fantastic holiday filled with candy and super-scary books (like Possess! Enter to win!)