Danielle Steel's Blog, page 4

8/22/22, Back to School!!!

Hi Everyone,

I hope these last days of summer are still giving you some fun times, as we all begin to rev our engines up for the Fall. This time of year still smells to me of new pencils, new Superman or Wonder Woman lunch boxes, new notebooks, and all the excitement of new classrooms, new teachers and old friends. September always feels like the time for new projects, and moving ahead with fresh energy.

The children I know went back to school last week, and the rest of us are getting the sand out of our shoes and putting on real clothes again. I just finished editing two books and am working on a new outline. My daughters who work in fashion are revving up their engines to start work on fashion week this week. And it’s exciting to start new projects with fresh ideas.

I enjoyed a week’s vacation in July with three of my daughters, and managed to see all of my children for a brief visit in August, but it was so wonderful to see them and be together. And now we’re all off and running to work. September is an exciting month. And I have a new book out, “The Challenge” about the daring rescue of 7 kids in their early teens lost on a dangerous mountain in Montana. It was inspired by the incredible rescue of the 13 boys in Thailand trapped in a cave, four years ago. The entire world held their breath as the rescue unfolded, completely successfully, which inspired my book. There is a new movie out about the Thai rescue, and a documentary, and I haven’t had time to watch either one, but I will. When it was happening, I was mesmerized by the complicated rescue operation and jubilant at its success. And I hope you love my book about the mountain rescue.

Since organizing a big family takes a lot of planning and military precision, I’m already thinking about the holidays, and I start my Christmas shopping in August. My family makes fun of me for it, but I love getting an early start!!!

I hope you have some fun plans for the Fall, and some exciting new projects in view. Have a great week!!!

much love,
Danielle

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8/8/22, The Good Doctor and The Challenge

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’re enjoying the second half of summer, and finding time off to just lie under a tree somewhere and dream, or read on a beach, or enjoy a series.

I love sharing it with you when I find a series I love. I am currently LOVING “The Good Doctor” on Netflix. It’s a medical series with appealing characters, knotty medical problems to solve and life dilemmas. It’s beautifully acted and well written, and there are enough positive resolutions and good life lessons in each episode that you come out on an up note and not a down one. I don’t like series where so much bad stuff happens that you’re more depressed after a show than before you watched it. We watch these shows for entertainment and distraction after all. And The Good Doctor gets my vote for the best show at the moment.

And if you would rather read quietly, I have a new book coming out in two weeks, “The Challenge”, about 5 young wholesome 14 year olds, a slightly older brother, and a younger one who go for a picnic at the base of Granite Peak, in Fishtail, Montana, and a fun afternoon turns into a nightmare with a flash flood out of the mountains, which blocks their way back, and traps them on the mountain. A five day search begins, as the parents are sorely tested, and the picknickers fight for their survival, with a forest fire approaching. I love that book, between the tension of the parents, and the brave struggle of the kids. It will keep you on the edge of your seat. I hope you have time to read it before vacation time ends.

Have a great week, full of fun moments and the final days of summer,

love, Danielle

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8/1/22, It never gets old!!

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I hope that all is well with you as the second half of the summer gets started on August 1st. I hope you have some fun plans for the month ahead, days off, or a vacation, and a break from work.  Back from my week of vacation with three of my kids, I’ve been working on three books, as I often do, at different stages. And I finished one of them on Sunday, which was so exciting. It always is!!!

 

Writing is arduous and solitary. Not lonely because the characters in the books keep you company, but you have to be alone to do it. I can’t work with any kind of noise, distractions, or interruptions. If something interrupts me, it stops the flow of the story, and it can take me a day or two even to get back “in the groove”. And when I finally finish the book, it’s an AMAZING feeling—like flying. Writing is like climbing a mountain, it is hard work. And sometimes you feel like you’re crawling up the mountain and you’ll never make it. Along the way, there are some beautiful views, of sunsets and sunrises, or peaceful moments in the middle of the night, when the story is just the way you want it to be, and you’re on top of the world. And four hours later, you have four flat tires and you’re at the bottom of a ravine, and you can’t see your way up the cliff again, and you think you’ll never make it. It’s a rocky path along the way.

 

So when you do make it, and you finish that last sentence on the last page, you feel as though you just made it to the summit of Everest. YOU MADE IT!!! It’s the most incredible feeling and it never gets old. I love it, and I hope you love the book I just finished!!! Now on to the next one….there is always another mountain to climb. I love the challenge!!! Have a great week full of victories and fun moments and things you love to do!!

 

Enjoy these last days of summer!!

 

lots of love, Danielle

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7/26/22, Hard at Work!

 

Hard at Work on a new book for you!! Have a great week and hopefully some time off to relax and have some fun!!!

Love, Danielle

 

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7/18/22, Gone Fishing

 

Hello Everyone,

 

I hope that you are having a break from work and your regular routine, as the month of July rolls out. People are on the move this summer, hungry to return to normalcy, travel, and summer vacations, after two years of staying home during the pandemic. Our family tradition has been a week’s vacation together every summer, which was cancelled for the last two summers, and we finally got back on track with a family holiday, for the first time in 3 years. Only three of my children were able to get the free time, and although we’re a small group, it is wonderful to be together, to swim and relax, and have dinners out in the same beach town where we go every year for our annual family week together. We go to the same hotel every year, and it was a joy to see the same people working there and everything unchanged, as the two disrupted years fade away. And next year, we hope that all of my kids can make it. I am so grateful for this precious week together.

 

My new book “Suspects” is on the bestseller lists and doing well. I was working hard right up until the vacation, and I will start a book the day after I get back. But I am thoroughly enjoying the time off for the first real vacation I’ve had in three years. And we all need time off from our daily routines to see things with a fresh eye. I hope you are getting time off this summer too!!! And I hope you have time to read ‘Suspects’ before the summer is over. It’s a thriller with Russian spies in it, as innocent people cross their path and get caught in a web of intrigue, and a dedicated CIA agent, who is discreetly following the spies tries to keep the innocents out of harm’s way before they realize the danger they are in. I hope you have fun reading it, and that this turns out to be a great summer for you.

 

Have a great week, with some beach time or time on vacation somewhere in a place you love!!!

 

with much love, Danielle

 

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6/28/22, Catching up!!

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I hope you are all doing well, and I owe you an apology, for not writing the blog for several weeks. I’ve been on the road again, threw a wedding for my daughter, whose wedding was cancelled three times during the pandemic, which was heart breaking at the time, and we finally managed to do it now, and it was a beautiful wedding, in a see thru tent with the ceiling covered with tiny lights that looked like stars, and beautiful flowers everywhere. They were married under an arch of exquisite white flowers, and she was a gorgeous bride. And it was wonderful to see all my children in one place, which is difficult to achieve these days.

 

And I did some house work and got our house in order for the wedding. And then spent a week in New York, for meetings and took some time off. And after that I had two books to edit, and I’ve just come up for air now—-so I haven’t been idle while not writing the blog. And this weekend I played hookie when I finished editing, and had The BEST time watching the new Downton Abbey movie, “The New Era”, all the familiar faces were there (except Lady Mary’s husband, Henry Talbot, played by Matthew Goode). It was like meeting up with old friends. I loved this movie even better than the first one after the series ended. Downton was the first series I fell in love with, and I was crushed when it ended after six years. It is so beautifully written, researched and acted, and perfectly balanced among the actors and many subplots. It’s a wonderful show, and I highly recommend the movie. I liked it so much, I watched it again the next day. SOOOO Much Fun.

 

And now it’s back to work for a while. Have a wonderful week!!! I hope you have some vacation time planned. I just finished a new book, and might even take some time off myself before starting the next one. And my new book comes out today “Suspects”, it’s a spy book and a thriller, full of intrigue, and I hope you love it!!!

 

love, Danielle

 

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5/31/22, Mort Janklow

 

Hi Everyone,

 

There have been some hard events in these last days. The tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, and on a more personal level, my beloved friend and extraordinary literary agent, Morton Janklow, who really built my career, for forty years, passed away peacefully in his sleep last week. Yesterday would have been his 92nd birthday. After publishing my first book at nineteen, I met Mort a few years later, and he became my agent, my champion, my mentor and close friend, and a father figure to me. He helped me build a remarkable career. He was brilliant, kind, warm, funny, erudite, eloquent dignified and a gentleman, with a deep love of family and the publishing world he shared with me. He worked until the very end, and I will be forever grateful for the years we shared, and all that he did for me. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him, and so very much by me. I thought you might be interested in the NY Times obituary about him. I will miss him forever, personally and professionally.

 

with much love, Danielle

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/books/morton-l-janklow-dead.html?referringSource=articleShare

 

 

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5/25/22, AGAIN?

 

Hi Everyone,

 

Serious times. Tragic Times. Columbine….Sandy Hook….and now Uvalde….so many other schools….so many children…..so many others, in grocery stores, in churches, in subways, in parks, on the streets….gunned down, because the weapons were available. It’s about inadequate mental health care, about greed and commerce, about a highly profitable lethal industry, and those who defend it. I don’t care about politics. I care about children and other humans, whatever their color or nationality. I ache for the grieving parents whose worst nightmare just happened. I have buried a son. I know their pain, I’ve lived it.

 

When did children become expendable, when did we stop protecting them, and why? Why wasn’t more done after Sandy Hook, as those parents live with a weight on their hearts forever. In Ukraine children are being bombed and mowed down, infants have been killed, and in schools all around this country. Children used to have fire drills, now they have drills about what to do when a gunman enters their school. They live with fear and survive trauma. Will they be the lucky ones who survive, or the tragedy of those who don’t. Why are the shooters not singled out and stopped sooner. Why are the weapons so readily available? The tragedies are too numerous now to remember…Las Vegas….the school shooting years ago in an Amish school, committed on peaceful unarmed people. Parents drop their children off at school now not knowing if their precious babies will be coming home. What world are they growing up in where violence is commonplace?. And some of our braver lawmakers have said “What are we doing? Why is this happening? Why is no one acting to stop it?” Questions we have to ask ourselves. High school students blame us for not doing more to protect them, and they’re right. These very young children at Uvalde, and at Sandy Hook had no voice to accuse us with, to ask the hard questions. It is OUR job to protect them, and we are failing abysmally. If we go to the grocery store, or the hardware store, or to church on Sunday, we don’t know if we will be gunned down while buying a loaf of bread.

 

We MUST protect the children and each other….We nurture our children and love them and teach them, and guard their health and get them vaccines against diseases…..and this scourge, this plague is far worse than any other and more destructive. And we will go to bed tonight, knowing that a mother’s heart is aching in Texas after the worst day of her life. Twenty one of them. We must do more than mourn them. We need to change things, to make a difference, to not just roll the dice every morning and hope that our kids will come home from school today. We need action and commitment and courage. When our children were born, we vowed to protect them. And then one deranged person changes everything….with a gun, and bullets. There aren’t enough tears in the world to wash our consciences clean, of all that we haven’t done to change it.

 

A tragedy like this cant happen again.  Those children deserved to grow old, to have children and grandchildren one day. We are all responsible for their deaths, because we have done nothing to stop it. May all of the children who have died as victims of these tragedies live forever in our hearts, and it’s up to us to save their sisters and brothers, protect them, and make it a safe world.

 

with all my love, Danielle

 

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5/16/22, Gratitude, Time, Timing, and Blessings

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I hope you’ve had a good week. Spring has arrived and I love it, although things have been a little hectic lately, with big projects and writing, family plans, and a massive purge/spring cleaning I did in my closets!!! It was an ambitious project, and fun to weed things out that I don’t wear, (and fashion mistakes I’ve made!!)

 

We all have our own ways to relax. Life today is stressful, after the pandemic, and just generally. Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some families. I live with constant publishing deadlines, to deliver books, or edit “text proofs” (the last shot at changing the printed pages for a book before it goes to the printers). It’s like having homework assignments due constantly, for the rest of your life. And other jobs are stressful because of constant contact with the public, which can be incredibly stressful. I deal with the press and the media, interviews and reviews. And the demands and needs of a big family can be stressful. Some people meditate or do yoga, or go to a gym, or jog, or do philanthropic projects that feed their soul. Or they have a glass of wine at night when they come home from work, or watch a favorite TV show. Whatever helps you to relax, as long as it’s legal and healthy, is a good balance to the constant stresses in our daily lives, which can be something as simple as a flat tire, or a big repair bill for your car or your roof, or as stressful as an argument with your boss (or your teen agers!!), or a serious health scare. Stress can be ongoing and chronic and part of your ordinary daily life, or situational in a crisis that lands on you suddenly. Either way, constant stress is hard to live with.

 

It sounds corny, but what gets me back on track and out of crisis mode in the daily grind of constant stress that rises steadily like the water level in a flood—-is that I try to devote several quiet hours once a week, to reading religious articles, about how to apply one’s faith to one’s daily life, to improve one’s attitude and be a better person. It’s like a breath of fresh air, and everything comes back into focus. I really cherish that time once a week, and  it makes a big difference. I devote a few minutes every day to some religious thought, and then I hit the ground running in my daily life. And after reading articles steadily for a few hours once a week, I feel like a new person, with new energy to face new and old challenges.  I like it best when religion is applicable to daily life, and not just theory.

 

Whenever I can focus on gratitude, it changes my whole perspective, being grateful for the blessings and positives in my life instead of focusing on what’s wrong. I also love acupuncture for stress and find it extremely helpful!!!

 

Time. With constant deadlines as part of my work life, it never fails that just when you are juggling One Big project, two others come along, AND the car breaks down and needs an expensive repair, Two more projects get heaped on me, and I am suddenly panicked about time, and I can see no possible way I’ll get everything done on time. And weirdly, no matter how busy I am, and no matter how little time I think I have, if I calm down, take a deep breath, no matter how big the pile of projects is, I just about always find that I have exactly the time I need. I always think there is no way I can do it all, and then I do. Time seems to be expandable, it expands to give me the time I need, to meet all the projects and deadlines I have, and I actually manage to finish everything, when it looked impossible initially. (I have to remind myself of that often when I start to panic!!)

 

Timing. Nothing happens fast in publishing and sometimes in life. Between the time I have an idea for a book and start making notes on a yellow pad and the time you have the book in your hands, it takes at least two years, sometimes three or four (particularly if there is a lot of research in it). And other projects are like that too, construction projects, waiting for a deal to come through, or to get hired for a job. Sometimes I want to scream it takes so long for things to evolve, and move forward, and solutions and answers can have long delays. But what I almost always find is that when a project has been delayed but happens later, the timing in the end is always the right one, the perfect one. There was always some really good reason for the delay that turns out to be a blessing in the end, although it didn’t seem that way when it was happening. The house purchase that just doesn’t go through and the deal keeps falling apart, and a MUCH better house turns up while you  were waiting, the deal goes through easily on the second house, and you are thrilled with the result and a much better deal and prettier house. Timing is usually right, even though I get REALLY impatient while I wait for things to happen!! Whether business issues or personal. There is just about always some really good reason for a delay, even though I can’t see it.

 

And Blessings. I came across a phrase in my reading the other day that I love and don’t always remember. “What blesses one, blesses all”—the concept that if something that involves several people is a blessing for me, it will be a blessing for you, and the others as well. I wont make out like a bandit with a huge blessing and advantage, and everyone else involved gets short shrift and loses out. A REALLY good outcome is one where ALL of the people involved get a blessing and something positive out of it—a Win Win for all. There is nothing better, and if it’s a blessing for me, it will be for you too. No one person “wins” while everyone else gets short changed. Situations that bless everyone involved are The Best!!! I love the belief that What Blesses One Blesses All—-and we ALL win!!!

 

Anyway, those are my stress relievers. They’re not magic. They take a little bit of faith, some deep breaths, some patience, and sometimes you just need to remember all the times when things worked out well, and try to know that it can happen this time too!!!….and if that doesn’t work, there is always jogging and yoga!!!

 

We are all struggling with something, and sooner or later just about ALL problems resolve. The secret and the challenge is staying calm and sane until they do!!!

 

Have a GREAT stress-free week!!!

 

love, Danielle

 

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5/12/22, “Gone Fishing”

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I hope you had a nice Mother’s Day, either as the recipient of your children’s attention, or as the giver of joy to your real mother, or a mother figure in your life. It’s a very special day, when one gets to show admiration and gratitude to the important women in your life—-it’s one of the few days of the year when mothers get to hear words of praise and thanks, instead of the usual laundry list of what one failed to do, or somehow managed to do wrong. I LOVE mother’s day, and my children have never disappointed me. They go all out, for which I am deeply grateful. I celebrated Mother’s Day in two cities this year, as I have for a long time,—twice as much fun!!!

 

I recently took 3 weeks “off” to visit all my children, now living in 4 cities in the US, while I’m in Paris much of the time. Until the pandemic I visited them every 3 or 4 weeks, since the pandemic and the ongoing risk of Covid, I visit them less often, but for longer and only see them every few months. They are all allegedly grown up (are any of us ever REALLY grown up?? Not always, no matter how old we are, we have our childish moments, and I do too.) But in any case, they all have lives and jobs, and some of them are recently married. And no one wants their mother hanging around at those ages, so the challenge for the mother of adult children is to keep it light, not stay too long, keep the critical comments to a minimum if at all, and don’t be a pain in the neck. I did not enjoy time with my parents at their ages. My kids are amazingly tolerant of me, and I try hard not to be a nuisance, but probably am anyway. And the criticism, if any, is mutual at those ages, they also tell me if they think the new curtains I picked are butt ugly, or if my daughters hate what I’m wearing. As I’ve often heard, motherhood is not for sissies, at any age. But for the most part it is an immense amount of joy. I am crazy about my kids.

 

To be a little more precise, when I say I took time off to visit them, in my case, it still means that I am working when I’m not with them during my visits, with conference calls with agents, and lawyers, dozens of emails I answer daily late at night, and I always have a manuscript near at hand to work on when I’m not with my kids, after I leave them after dinner,  or when they’re busy in the day time. I edit then, which is easy work to pick up and put down for an hour or two. Not like the actual writing of a book which is intense work I cant interrupt.  In fact, I take very little vacation. Usually less than 2 weeks a year, or about that. 1 week in July to be with my 5 youngest children on holiday somewhere with a beach, 5 days at Christmas at home, and about 3 days for my birthday, when all my kids come home. And my kids are VERY generous to spend a week of their vacations with me in July, a long weekend for my birthday, and Christmas week with me. And it’s very very very rare for me to take a weekend off, most of the time, I write on weekends too. I like staying busy, and filling my time, and I write a lot.

 

A comment on my Instagram caught my attention this week, which startled me. It said “It must be nice to be able to fly around all the time”. Hmm….fly around all the time? Do I? I did before Covid, but much less so now, given the risks of travel, airports, etc. And then I realized that the comment isn’t wrong. It’s not easy once children have grown up and gone, and being alone without a partner—-a double whammy. Both of my homes are full of empty bedrooms where my children used to live, and I’m happy to say I still have one daughter at home, although she leads a full busy life of her own. But I realized that the comment is true. There are more downsides than upsides to being alone, but the fact is that the only schedule I have to check is my own (and my kids if I want to visit them). If I am longing to see my children, I can get on a plane and go to see them. If one of them has a problem, I can be there as fast as air travel will allow. If I wanted to take a vacation alone, I could—though that has no appeal to me at all. I work hard, which allows me the luxury to travel, even if I have books to write and deadlines, and I work hard, and only take two weeks off a year. In France, people get five weeks of vacation a year by law, and if they have school aged children, they take school vacations too, which gives them months of vacation every year, not weeks. the French have more paid vacation than any country in the world, although I don’t. But the fact is that I don’t have to consult anyone’s schedule but my own and my kids, and my writing deadlines, and I can fly to see them when I want to. And because I work incredibly hard, I can afford to get on a plane and go when I want to. So the comment wasn’t wrong, and it is nice to fly around when you want to. There is no boss or partner to stop me or tell me I cant go. My natural innate work ethic and discipline make me feel guilty whenever I take time off—but the truth is that I’ve earned it, I deserve it. I publish 7 books a year, and I have always been a full time presence in my children’s lives. But I always feel somewhat guilty when I take “time off”, and think I should be working when I’m having fun. But yes, it is nice to be able to pick up and go whenever I want. It’s one of the advantages of being my own boss, although I am a hard taskmaster with myself, and don’t give myself a lot of free time. There is always something I think I should be doing. I’m not good at just sitting around, or even relaxing. And I love my work and my kids, so time with either one always seems well spent.

 

So “Gone Fishing” doesn’t really apply to me. And for now, I’ll stick to my two weeks of vacation per year. And the rest of the time, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing, writing and visiting my kids, wherever they are, and flying around to see them. I don’t like travelling or vacationing alone. I’m not adventurous about exotic travel, and it’s not fun taking vacations alone. But yes, it IS nice being able to fly around whenever you want. and maybe one day, I’ll take more than just two weeks off per year. But not just yet!!!

 

Have a great week, doing fun things, and whatever you love to do. For now, I’ll try to take a few more days off during the year, just for fun….I’m working on it….

 

 

love, Danielle

 

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