If you’re stumped for Halloween costume ideas this year, don’t worry–you can dress as your favorite character from the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates! All you’ll need are a few common household items, a winning smile, and a big sign with your character’s name on it that you can wear around your neck (’cause if your friends haven’t read the book yet, they won’t have a clue who you’re trying to be).

To dress as Hilary, put your hair in a braid and wear big hoop earrings. Carry a bag with a gargoyle’s head poking out. When your neighbors ask if you’d like some candy, say, “A true pirate would never refuse such a generous offer!” Remember to share your loot with the gargoyle.

To dress as the gargoyle, wear grey clothes. Put your hands behind your back and hop around on your knees. When your neighbors ask if you’d like some candy, say, “No thank you, but do you have any spiders?” Encourage people to scratch you behind the ears.

To dress as Miss Greyson, wear a long skirt and a high-necked blouse. Stick a golden crochet hook in your hair. When your neighbors ask if you’d like some candy, turn up your nose and insist on cucumber sandwiches instead. Wonder aloud whether it is entirely practical to wander the streets at night in search of unhealthy foodstuffs.

To dress as Admiral Westfield, wear a blue coat with shiny buttons. Pat your friends on the head and tell them to run along and be good. When your neighbors ask if you’d like some candy, grab the entire bowl and run away while laughing in a villainous manner.

To dress as Claire, wear an itchy gray dress and a green cardigan embroidered with a dancing sheep. Don’t forget to be dramatic. When your neighbors ask if you’d like some candy, avoid the Swedish Fish.

To dress as Jasper Fletcher, wear a big pirate hat. Try your best to look dashing. When your neighbors ask if you’d like some candy, offer to hand their candy out to all the other children in the neighborhood. When everyone’s had their fair share, take whatever’s left and bury it in a hole marked with an X.

To dress as pretty much any other character, carry a big plastic sword and say, “Arr!” a lot.

I’m sitting at my computer and eating pie for lunch, which is a completely appropriate thing to do when it’s the day after Independence Day and you still have seventy-five percent of a homemade pie sitting in your refrigerator. In such a situation, eating pie for every meal is both responsible and practical. Don’t let anyone try to tell you otherwise.

This piece of pie may be one of the most exciting things in my life right now, but some other exciting things have been happening too. MAGIC MARKS THE SPOT’s publication date is only 2 months away, and the final files have been sent to the printer, which means that it is now too late to fix that giant mistake on page 174 where, for several paragraphs, all of the characters turn into red pandas. (Actually, have you seen a red panda? Those little guys are ridiculously cute. Maybe this wasn’t such a big mistake after all.)

I’ve also nearly finished revising VNHLP book 2 (which does have a title, though I think I’ll hold off on sharing it for a while longer). Here’s a weird fact about the publishing process: Since it can take a year or more between the time when a manuscript is finished and the time when the book is published, authors can often write an entire second book before their first book hits the shelves. By the time MAGIC MARKS THE SPOT is released, I’ll be working on copyedits for book 2 and starting to write book 3. In other words, I’m already planning the end of this trilogy when almost no one has gotten a chance to read the beginning of it yet. Weird, right?

So I thought I’d catch you up by sharing a sneak peek of a few things you can expect to see over the course of the books.

In MAGIC MARKS THE SPOT, you will find:

• an enormous carpetbag filled with cucumber sandwiches
• unscrupulous gentlemen traveling on a train
• a cabin boy dressed up as a beet
• a pirate wearing a feather boa
• plenty of sheep dancing the hornpipe
• a picture postcard of some grumpy Victorian children on vacation
• more hidden pirate treasure than you can shake a stick at
• and a gargoyle who is fond of Shakespeare but really prefers Keats.

In VNHLP book 2, you will find:

• the memoirs of a gargoyle
• a floating bookshop and magic dispensary
• a rather aggressive flying harpsichord
• an enchanted cutlass
• an explanation (finally) for all of those dancing sheep
• far too many explosions
• the most eligible bachelor in the kingdom
• a secretive group of evildoers
• and a pirate who prepares his chocolate mousse with just a hint of gunpowder.

I haven’t written the third book yet, so I’m not quite sure what you’ll find in it. Maybe you could leave a comment letting me know what you think should be in book 3.

One final piece of business: The fabulous team at Harper Children’s is holding a giveaway of 20 advance copies of MAGIC MARKS THE SPOT! You can enter the giveaway through Goodreads.