I wish I’d thought of this earlier and assembled a cookie swap among the writing bloggers, but I’ll do it just for myself this year and perhaps see about expanding it next year.  Below is my mom’s recipe for mocha brandy balls, with some modifications I’ve made through trial and error.  I’m sure she got the recipe from somewhere, but I don’t know where to credit it.

Mocha Brandy Balls:

• 2 tsp instant coffee
• 6oz semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 ⅓ cup crushed chocolate wafers
• 1 c pecans, toasted and chopped
• 3 Tbsp corn syrup
• 2 Tbsp brandy
• 2 ½ + ½ cups powdered sugar
• ⅓ cup water

Dissolve coffee in ⅓ cup of boiling water.  Allow to cool.  Melt chocolate over low heat in saucepan or double boiler, stirring frequently.  Remove chocolate from heat.  Add wafer crumbs, nuts, syrup, brandy, coffee, and 2 ½ cups of powdered sugar.  Chill until workable.  Roll into balls and dust with remaining sugar.  Put each ball into its own paper cup.  Store in an airtight container.  Makes several dozen, depending on size of balls.

Notes:  Chocolate wafer cookies are a real thing, I’ve found them in most larger grocery stores on the cookie and cracker aisle.  They’re in a long yellow package, and there are exactly 5 to the ⅓ cup, making measurement easy.  If you absolutely can’t find them, I’ve successfully substituted chocolate teddy grahams, or chocolate cat cookies from Trader Joe’s.  If the dough is too firm to work, microwave it for 30 seconds at a time, just to make it pliable.  I find these get better as they sit, and typically make them 4-5 days in advance of whatever party I’m bringing them to.

My own recipe (same instructions, modified ingredients bolded):

• 2 tsp instant coffee
• 6oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1 ⅓ cup crushed chocolate wafers
• 1 c pecans, toasted and chopped
• 3 Tbsp corn syrup
• 2 Tbsp spiced rum or chocolate liquor
• 2 ½ + ½ cups powdered sugar
• ⅓ cup water

I find often find the recipe is a little too sweet, even with just semisweet chocolate.  The unsweetened (not bittersweet) cuts the massive amounts of sugar nicely.  The spiced rum can add a brighter flavor to the recipe, or the chocolate liquor obviously makes the recipe that much more chocolaty.

There are a lot of flash fiction contests out there, which is why I don’t run one.  But a lot of these contests are taking next week off, so I will run one.  Once.  It will be the One-Off Flash Fiction Contest.  It will be rules light, because that’s what I do.  I’ll put up a prompt at noon eastern on Wednesday the 28th, deadline at 8pm, winner announced the next morning.  The prize: getting to call yourself the one and only winner ever of the One-Off Flash Fiction Contest.  No one else will ever win because it won’t ever happen again, so no one can ever take that away from you.

Help spread the news on Twitter with the hashtag #OneOffFlash, and join us here on Wednesday for some writing fun.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that a short listed story was picked up for an anthology.  I’ve now gotten a green light to reveal more details.

The anthology is called The Memory Eater.  I can’t give any kind of release date information as the editor is still shopping the anthology to several publishers.  Though I’m sure he wouldn’t say so himself, the anthology reminds me very much of the Death Machine anthologies, in that it starts with a piece of magic tech and asks all stories to branch off from there, exploring either direct or indirect consequences.  Each story will be accompanied by a piece of original art, again keeping with the Death Machine similarities, and the full slate of selected artists can be found here.  I have some favorites, but just the fact that my story will get an illustration excites the hell out of me.

The prompt:

“Have a cheating ex you can’t stop thinking about?  How about a past failure which now defines you?  Do you wish you could forget about the time you walked in on your parents making your brother or sister?

“Yes?  Well then today’s your lucky day.  Introducing the brand new Memory Eater—an orb-like device that fits neatly around your head like a diver’s helmet with the ability to locate and destroy any memory in the human mind.

“Victims of rape no longer need to fear dating.  Drunk drivers don’t have to regret getting back on the road.  And for those who have lost loved ones, you no longer need to mourn.

“Today is a new day.  Today is your day.  Start it off by deleting the past so you can save your future.”

My story is called Home Again.

We’re just starting down the road towards publication, so it may be a few weeks or months until I can give any more details.  Right now all authors have been asked for a manuscript formatted version of their stories so the editing process can begin.  Needless to say, I’m damn excited about this anthology, I love the theme, and I love the enthusiasm that the editor is putting into it.

Details as they develop!

Edit:  I don’t have a full list of my fellow writers yet, but I’ve been able to track down two by tweeting back and forth with them after we got the green light to go public.  I’ll be maintaining a Twitter list as I find people.

Acceptable uses for $49.

• 98 tries at that Angry Bird in the claw machine.
• Nearly year supply of McChicken sandwiches.
• 196 consecutive plays of Inna Godda Da Vida on the juke box
• 490 Atomic Fireballs
• Short fire to thaw your fingers on a cold night trapped outside and alone
• 24 bottles of Two Buck Chuck…with change back!
• 2GB iPod shuffle
• Nearly 38 songs from the iTunes store
• Cashed out in pennies and used as a 27 pound dumbbell
• Cashed out in nickles and stacked to 6’3″ to prove that’s how tall I am
• Cashed out in dollar coins to…really annoy the bank

Unacceptable uses for $49

• Paying someone to stalk a world renowned author under the auspices that she’ll actually read your book and give you commentary on it.

I suppose what depresses me more about things like that is not that someone offered the “service” it’s that anyone might have actually paid for it.  Be smart, there’s a lot of companies out there that are more than happy to separate you from your money while selling you dreams, and that doesn’t just mean in the vanity publishing world.

Normally I do these over on Unleaded, but today I’m doing them here, because I already have something I want to talk about over there this week.  Anyone who has looked at my deadlines tracker over on the right hand side of this blog will notice it’s getting precariously empty, so let’s fill it back up again.

Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations: This one intrigues the hell out of me.  Anthology is looking for “Horror, Speculative Fiction, and to a lesser degree Science Fiction, relating to civilizations that are lost, or have been forgotten, or have been rediscovered, or perhaps merely spoken about in great and fearful whispers.”  The first provided example is Atlantis which, in my mind, means don’t do Atlantis unless you have something to set you apart from everyone else who will.  I’ve got my culture picked, one that I’ve wanted to write a horror story about since I first read about it.  But I’m not telling you, not yet at least, because I want the concepts all to my greedy self.  Length: 2000-7000.  Payment: Penny/Word.  Deadline: October 31st.

Flush Fiction Anthology:  We’ve all seen the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader series hanging out in the humor section of the book store, right?  Sounds like they’re branching out a little, looking to put together a cross-genre, humor-optional flash fiction anthology.  It’s the rare beast among anthologies right now: one requiring submissions printed and sent through something called “The Mail.”  I’ll have to figure out what that is if I decide to submit.  Might bulk and polish a Fortnightcap for that one.  Length: <1000.  Payment: $50/flat (pro rate). Deadline: August 31st.

Benevolent Apocalypse:  It’s the end of the world as we know it.  Or it was, a few years ago, and now humanity is moving on because what people do is survive.  Benevolent Apocalypse is looking for answers to the question “What happens when people keep calm and carry on?”  Lots of stories focus on the end, these are stories about a new beginning.  Which has such a hopeful ring to it, especially since they specifically don’t want “Solitary, angry, lonely, desperate, fearful figures in a bleak or desolate landscape.”  Length: 1000-6000.  Payment: $20/flat.  Deadline: August 31st.

I usually do three, but I feel like if I mention Benevolent Apocalypse, I should also mention:

Apocalypse Hope: Similar deal.  In fact, I wonder how many crossover submissions there will be between the two anthologies.  Please note that while Benevolent does say, Hope specifically does say no simultaneous submissions.  In their words, “The stories must in some way address the idea that after the apocalypse (whatever and wherever in your universe that might be), there is a future for the peoples who survive it.”  Length: 2000-8000.  Payment: AUS$50/flat.  Deadline: September 30th.

Did that get your attention? i09, one of the blogs that are part of Gawker Media, is running a contest for stories about environmental disasters. Grand prize? $2000! Here’s a link. And here’s some info from that page:

Your story should deal meaningfully and plausibly with some aspect of environmental disaster. There are no limits on the kind of disaster you explore. It could be an exploding star, a plague, tachyon pollution, nanotech diseases, climate change, or something else. What’s important is that your story deal with causes and consequences. How did the disaster happen, who will benefit from it, how will people (or other creatures) respond to it? We don’t want morality tales or after school specials here – just good stories that deal realistically with the subject matter.

Deadline is December 11, and the target length is 3000-5000 words. I got this from the SWFA twitter feed, so it’s being well advertised, should be a nice competitive contest, especially at well above pro-rates for the winner.