Fight Deadlines with Brownies! (recipe included!)

By the time I got to my last semester as an undergrad, I'd somehow managed to take all the classes that were required, and then some, but still come up 6 credits short of the number required to graduate. I was taking a full load of classes as it was, plus working 2 part-time jobs and apprenticing with a nocturnal glass artist. Bummer. Still, I was unwilling and unable to put off graduation, so I reached a compromise with my advisor: 6 credits of literary independent study on a topic of my choosing. Thinking myself very smart and sneaky, I came up with "The History of Speculative Fiction," essentially doing a giant book report on fantasy and sci-fi books I'd already read. I started with The King of Elfland's Daughter and ended with Dune. Figuring I didn't really have any work to do, I just kind of forgot about the part where I had to write a minimum of ten pages on each book, until a week before the end of the semester. Crap.

I suffered the worst case of Deadline Elves* I'd ever had. I had this huge document to create and for some reason, I suddenly cared a LOT about the Cirque du Soleil marathon that was showing on TV. My boyfriend at the time kept bringing me coffee, which was great, except I was bouncing off the ever-loving walls and finding every excuse I could to leave the house. Suddenly, the car needed to be filled with gas; we needed something from the grocery store; I remembered I'd run out of blank CD's; the grass could stand to be cut... Luckily, during one of those trips to the grocery store, I'd decided I needed chocolate ('cause I wasn't already caffeinated/sugar high enough!) and lo and behold, therein lay the solution to my Deadline Elf infestation and the beginning of my quest for the perfect brownie recipe. I got home, mixed up the brownies, put them in the oven, then realized something. They were going to be in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
That was 30-40 minutes I couldn't go anywhere or do much else. 30-40 minutes that I might as well spend writing. By the end of the week, the house was full of baked goods and my advisor's inbox was full of my completed assignment. The habit continues to this day, as my roommates are enjoying a pan of mint-chocolate chip brownies that helped me write 3,000 words the other day.

And now--now that I've just written a few hundred words that do nothing to help increase the word count of my novel--I will pass the cure for Deadline Elves on to you.
The brownie recipe I have tweaked and perfected over the past few years to require only 1 bowl, 1 spoon, 1 measuring cup, 1 pan, and 5 ingredients is now yours, to help you get through National Novel Writing Month:

Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted sweet-cream butter
1 4oz bar Ghirardelli's 100% chocolate (if you use a different chocolate, make sure it's at least 70% dark or it'll change the consistency of the brownies and I can't guarantee what'll happen)
2 cups light brown sugar (if you don't have brown sugar; regular sugar will do the job, but they'll taste a little different)
4 eggs (or 1 cup EggBeaters)
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1. Melt the butter & chocolate together in 30-second zaps in the microwave, stirring between zaps.
2. Stir in the brown sugar
3. Add the eggs one at a time (it might seem like way too many eggs, but trust me, all 4 will mix in)
4. Make sure you stir up the flour & spoon it lightly into the measuring cup. If you pack it down, it'll be too much and the brownies will be dry. Stir in the flour just until it's all combined and all the big lumps are gone.
5. Bake in a greased pan @ 375: 18-20 min in muffin tins; 30-35 min in 9-by-whatever-inch (lasagna size) dish, or whenever a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.

Notes:
1. These are fudgy-gooey brownies, not fluffy-cakey brownies.
2. Really good with some mint essence, peanut butter chips (use Maranatha brand if you can find them at either Whole Foods, Earth Fare, or sometimes the organic section at Kroger or Harris Teeter. Reese's has got nothing on these!), or cinnamon & cayenne to taste (when you're in a really deep, dark, smoldering chocolate mood!)

Enjoy!


***
*"Deadline elves are the reason that such writers will often find themselves unaccountably having their fifth bath of the day, or taking a bracing walk instead of knuckling down to the work at hand. Similarly, the elves may lead writers to consume more cups of tea per day than is either useful or desirable. In all cases, the writer is absolutely convinced that as soon as they have finished their bath, walk or cup of tea they really will get on and do some work. No, honestly, they will. No, look, that rather interesting television program is just starting, after that, though, they will start work in earnest, absolutely definitely." from The Hitchhiker's Guide to Deadlines

Sci-Fi and Eggplant

What do the two have in common? People who have never tried it tend to turn their noses up at it. I have a theory: it's all in the name. If I call it "speculative fiction," then the instant mental image isn't of aliens and spaceships, just like if I call it an "aubergine," that sounds exotic and French and yummy, right?

A lot of my work falls into that weird slipstream category where it isn't quite Sci-Fi, but it isn't just non-genre contemporary fiction either. Oh, and I like eggplant. They have this great baked eggplant with sundried tomatoes on sourdough thing over at 2nd City and... wait, I'm talking about books now. Lunch was just really good, and it was definitely hearty, stick-to-your-ribs eggplant, not fancy, frilly aubergine.

Anyway, I'm guilty of speculative-fictioning my own work because I feel like a giant dork when I call it Urban Fantasy, even though that's what it is. My biggest fiction project, which will commence at midnight as I've saved it for NaNoWriMo, is definitely a fantastical story taking place in a real-world setting. By definition, that's Urban Fantasy and yet, when people outside my circle of geeks friends ask what kind of book I'm working on, I suddenly become acutely aware that I am the nerd who says things like "these aren't the droids you're looking for" without first checking to see if I'm among people who have even seen Star Wars, and so I say "Speculative Fiction."

One of Bill Maher's New Rules is, "call things what they are." So, in the spirit of that rule and in honor of NaNoWriMo-eve, I will hold my chin up high and announce that my novel, titled On the Wings of the Night, is Urban Fantasy.

Now, you can go about your business. Move along. Have the eggplant.