I faced my fear of Halloween and my husband and I sat in the dining room and drank wine on Halloween night waiting for kids who never showed up.

So I went all out and I bought - and this still makes me angry - I bought 200 full size candy bars, because I wanted to be the house that kids came to and remembered 30 years later saying, 'Oh my God, that one place gave us full-size Snickers bars!' So I got all ready. If you look at the floor still, there's glitter here from two years ago. Q: Am I remembering this right? You called glitter the STD of the crafting world? Lancaster: It is the STD of the crafting world because it never, ever goes away. I put glitter on pumpkins, which was the greatest thing to ever happen to me in my entire life. So, part of the whole Martha Stewart thing is: Halloween is kind of her Super Bowl. Loved it as a kid, but the minute I got out of college, there were little kids at my door demanding candy which, No. Q: Two years ago, while writing 'The Tao of Martha' you overcame your fear of Halloween, right? Lancaster: I had been terrified of Halloween my entire adult life. You can listen to the entire interview on our podcast 'The Big Questions,' available on iTunes, SoundCloud and YouTube.

In recent years, Lancaster has also reinvented herself as a novelist, most recently with the sibling rivalry of 'Twisted Sisters' and time-traveling delirium of 'Here I Go Again.' Below is an excerpt of our wide-ranging conversation, which included musings on regret, 'Twilight,' her bucket list and why she'll never write a sex scene. In 'The Tao of Martha,' she lived a life informed by Martha Stewart. In 'My Fair Lazy,' she sought high culture. In 'Such a Pretty Fat,' she tackled weight loss. Jen Lancaster has built a career on reinventing herself.

Such a pretty fat by jen lancaster