Beneath the surface lies a deeper truth... Discover suspense by Sylvie Kurtz
2005 Holiday Newsletter
As I write this, the trees outside my window are bare and a dusting of snow patches the ground. The wind has a brand-new chill to it that announces winter can’t be far away—neither can the usual holiday stress.
There’s an interesting principle called the Pareto Principle that states that eighty percent of results come from twenty percent of effort. We send eighty percent of emails to twenty percent of our address book. We wear a few favorite outfits most of the time. We spend most of our time with a few special people.
In an interesting book called Living the 80/20 Way, Richard Koch says that the secret of living better is doing less. The secret is not doing less of everything, but doing less of the things that don’t work well for us and doing more of the few things that give us what we want. So I’ve made the holiday season more enjoyable for myself by concentrating on the want-tos and eliminating as may of the shoulds and ought-tos as I can.
I like decorating the tree with the collection of mismatched ornaments accumulated over the years, each with its own special memory. I love to bake the few special treats that have come to mean Christmas to my family—my mother-in-law’s Cinnamon Sticky Buns, my mother’s walnut bread, a variation of my mother’s Yule Log and ginger star cookies. And I love that Christmas is my family’s own holiday. Others are welcomed to visit, but we stay home.
I thought I’d share my Yule Log recipe with you to get you started on the 80/20 way. With a small amount of effort, you’ll have a dessert that looks as if it took a lot of time to make!
Yule Log
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease a 10 X 15 X 3/4” pan, then cover with a piece of wax paper that fits the bottom. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt together. Using a mixer, beat the eggs in a bowl until thick and pale yellow. While continuing to mix, add the sugar gradually. Add the water and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients while beating at the lowest setting of the mixer. Spread the batter on the prepared pan. Bake 12 minutes. Immediately turn over a dishtowel sprinkled with cocoa. Remove the wax paper. Roll the cake, starting with the narrower side. Cool on a rack with the cake’s edge on the bottom.
Chocolate Cream Frosting
Mix 2 cups of whipping cream, 1/2 cup of cocoa and 1/4 cup of chocolate liqueur or strong, cold coffee. Cover and refrigerate for an hour. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Unroll the cake. Spread half the chocolate cream on the cake. Reroll the cake. Cut a small slice from one end of the cake. Garnish the top of the cake with the rest of the chocolate cream, saving a few dollops. Make “wood grain” on the “log” with a knife edge. Using the slice of cake, make a couple of branch nubs and place on either side of the cake. Frost nubs with the leftover chocolate cream. Decorate with toasted almond slivers.
Discover Your Best New Year
When I was a kid, I thought New Year’s Day was the most boring day of the year. Now I look at it as an opportunity to sit by a nice fire with a tall cup of tea, pen and paper, and dig beneath the surface clutter of the past year to find those few nuggets that will give me the most pleasure in the year to come.
Ever notice how we spend a big chunk of our energy dealing with a mass of trivial stuff? Find the vital few tasks, thoughts, people and techniques that bring you the most results and focus on bringing more of those into your life, getting more for less.
Think back to the last time you were happy. What were you doing? Who were you with? Where were you? Is there a common theme running through your answers? Reflect on what really matters to you, on the kind of person you want to be, on what you want to accomplish with your life.
What things that give you a poor happiness reward can you quit? What are you doing out of a sense of duty? If you’re doing things out of guilt, how much good can they be doing? Stop doing anything that isn’t valuable.
Focus on your best qualities, emotions and abilities. How can you accentuate those? Learn a few new habits—like regular exercise, better diet, daily nurturing of the people you care for (or if you’re a writer, applying butt to chair)—that will support the person you want to be.
Enjoy your relationships. Who are your key friends? Spend more time with them. Focus on the few things that make the significant people in your life feel they really matter.
The Pareto Principle also states that the top twenty percent of everything you do are sixteen times more powerful than the other eighty percent. Do less of the things that get you little results and achieve more of what you want. You’ll find yourself living the life you always wanted and have your best year ever.
On the website—
Eye of a Hunter
and Pride of a Hunter
(both Intrigues from The Seekers series) are still
available.
Ms. Longshot is available now! Check the website for excerpts and a new feature—a deleted scene from Ms. Longshot. You might also want to visit www.itgirlseries.com for a look at the rest of the Gotham Roses and a bunch of fun features.
Writing News—
Writing Ms. Longshot was a new adventure for me. I’d never written in the first person before and always had several points of views to play with. This was all Alexa, all the way. Staying in one person’s head was fun, but getting other people’s motivations across was much harder. Plus my editor threw in a extra complication. She wanted Alexa to have a prosthetic leg. A great big thanks goes to Amy Schiff who helped me get what it was like to wear a prosthetic leg right—especially in those tricky action scenes.
If you liked Eye of a Hunter and Pride of a Hunter, you’ll be happy to hear that I’ve just sold two more stories in The Seekers series. Look for Sabriel and Noah’s stories in 2007.
And if you liked A Rose at Midnight, you’ll be happy to hear that I’ve just sold another Gothic to Harlequin Intrigue. It’s tentatively scheduled to come out in January 2007.
My next release will be another Bombshell. Detour will be out in October 2006.
Have a joyous holiday season!