Danielle Steel's Blog, page 7

12/6/21, STOP!!!!

 

Hi Everyone,

 

19 more days until Christmas, barely more than two weeks. I hope your plans are shaping up as you want them to, that your family can get together safely, and most of all I hope that you are safe and well. As I used to say when my kids were little, safety first, then happiness. I hope you will be able to achieve both during these upcoming holidays.

I think an important issue is being overlooked. For the 21 months of the pandemic, I think many of us have been shocked and dazed by the reality of the entire world coming to a dead stop around us. Businesses closed, working from home, masks or not, vax or not, which have become hot political topics in the US, and are only considered safety and health issues elsewhere. We have worried about our families and ourselves, in some cases our jobs and incomes have been impacted by the pandemic, or our businesses have folded. Everything we relied on before seems shaky now, which makes us feel anxious and insecure. And a frightening element has crept in with the basic safety and health issues, and the job issues, an element that has snuck up on us like a thief in the night: violence, and what appears to be the breakdown of our very morality, and an important human element.

 

According to statistics, violence and crimes have increased in every country in the world during the pandemic. There is an underlying tension. A law passed in California last year that theft (from a store) of under $1,000. will no longer be prosecuted. As a result, people are simply walking out of supermarkets, drug stores, and other stores with whatever they want to take, with no risk of being prosecuted. What is basically theft is now common place, and the shelves in many stores are bare, with items being stolen, and managers afraid to put merchandise on display. People are stealing without a second thought. And it appears that the people stealing are not unemployed parents stealing food for their kids, the door has been opened wide to petty criminals, who are stealing for profit. In theory, these are small crimes which have led to bigger ones.

 

From the theft of toothpaste, snacks and toilet paper in grocery stores or at Walgreen’s, there has been a huge leap to what is now called “Smash and Grab”. Luxury stores and department stores have now become the victims of looters who smash windows, enter stores, grab whatever expensive merchandise they can and run, in order to sell it later. Sometimes at night, and sometimes in broad daylight. In other stores, armed thieves enter, terrorize the customers, grab what they want and run, expensive things they can sell. When I was in San Francisco for 2 weeks last summer, armed robberies (of Louis Vuitton and Neiman Marcus) were committed across the street from where I was standing. I didn’t go downtown again. Three months later, when I was again in San Francisco, 7 luxury stores were broken into and looted in one night, including 80 looters who attacked a Nordstrom’s, and stole whatever they could lay hands on. Maybe some amateurs, but mostly professional criminals who are stealing to resell, adding theft and violence to our woes while Covid still rages on, and people argue about why they should wear a mask. In the meantime “Smash and Grab” has become an ordinary daily occurrence, which is theft on a massive scale.

 

And now, the deterioration of our moral fiber has gone a step further. In Northern California, ‘Smash and Grab’ has become a booming business, and the new ‘sport’ has become ‘Home Invasions’ in Southern California, where criminals break into homes, hold everyone at gun point and steal what they can. A horrifying example of that was the invasion of the home of a well known couple, in the music business, and the 81 year old wife, a remarkable woman greatly respected in LA, was shot and killed in cold blood during the event. So wholesale theft has led to armed robbery, and now to murder. In my own peaceful residential neighborhood in San Francisco, three women have recently been beaten to within an inch of their lives by men who stole their purses, another was beaten savagely while walking her dog, and her attackers stole her dog, and two very young children were kidnapped in the course of a car jacking. On the shopping street two blocks from my home in my neighborhood in Paris, where it was fun to walk, and window shop, or buy chocolates or pastries, we are now advised not to walk anymore, because hoodlums and criminals are mugging people, stealing purses, and ripping watches off their victims’ arms, and jewelry off their hands, ears, and necks.  What is happening to us? Where will it end? What makes it okay to steal toothpaste in one location, expensive handbags in another, beat up old women, steal people’s dogs, tear a necklace off a woman’s neck, or shoot people in their homes? That’s not a ‘home invasion’, that is murder plain and simple. And a young woman I know took an Uber in a normally safe neighbourhood in Paris a few days ago, and was savagely beaten and raped. How? Why? How did this appalling threat to our physical safety, and mental balance enter our lives unseen, and settle in as some kind of offshoot of the health crisis we are already living through. While those who govern us argue about wearing masks, roving groups of random criminals are looting, shooting innocent people, and stealing whatever they can lay hands on with no regard for human life.

 

Violence has become a way of life. I was told not to wear a purse if I go out in San Francisco. You can’t walk down a street in any city now, without fearing for your life. Bad enough that we are faced daily with the Russian Roulette of Covid, praying that we and our loved ones wont get sick or wind up in a hospital,  and now we get to worry about being caught in a shoot out at the grocery store, or in a store like Neiman Marcus, or we could be beaten to a pulp while walking our dogs. WHAT is happening to our moral fiber, where are our lawmakers while they look the other way, and allow people to steal up to a thousand dollars worth of what doesn’t belong to them. Where is the respect for human life that shooting an 81 year old respectable remarkable woman has now become commonplace. This is not a video game, this is our real life, while civilization as we know it is crumbling around us, and unthinkable, immoral, illegal acts are given clever names like ‘Smash and Grab’ and ‘Home Invasion’.

 

No!!! A thousand times NO!!! We all need a wake up call, we need to be profoundly shocked, even horrified by the violence happening around us that we seem to take for granted now. The pandemic has been like living through a war, where our lives are on the line every day. I have a hard time believing that during the Blitz in London, where countless people died daily from the bombs—-I can’t imagine other people shooting the survivors in their homes, or looting stores, while bodies were being removed from the rubble, and others were taking refuge in bomb shelters during an air raid.

 

We need to stand up, we need to wake up, we need to do EVERYTHING we can to stop the violence, end the criminal acts, and take a stand against the violence that impacts us all, and we are beginning to take for granted as a common occurrence. It could be our own homes that are invaded next, for a handful of money, or our loved ones or ourselves are shot randomly. We are fighting for our lives with Covid, there should be no room in our lives or in our world for violence as well. Living through the pandemic is hard enough without being mugged, beaten up, raped or killed as well. Enough. And those in government need to take a strong stand against it. Even the police are afraid of this tidal wave of violence we are facing. It needs to stop, before we have no safety, no moral fiber, and no respect for human life left at all.

 

 

Have a great week, and a safe one!!! love, Danielle

 

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11/29/21, “Before the Holidays”

 

Hi Everyone,

 

Well, we made it through the first round of holidays, as Thanksgiving opens the season of holidays, followed by Christmas or Chanukah, and ending with New Year’s. So here we go!!! The busiest time of year!!

 

I hope you had a beautiful thanksgiving, surrounded by friends and family, with an abundance of warm feelings of friendship and kindness, and a turkey on your table. I was lucky enough to celebrate it with my five youngest children. It was warm and cozy and everything I missed so much last year, alone and locked down in Covid in France. The Covid numbers all over the world appear to be rising again, and I hope that things settle down and improve again soon.

 

In the meantime, there is lots to do before the holidays, finishing shopping, making plans, inviting friends and family for Christmas, decorating the house, which is so much fun. We picked our tree the day after Thanksgiving, at a huge tree lot that is run as a Charitable event, the proceeds from the trees go to a summer camp for underprivileged kids in the summer, and gets the holidays off to a wonderful, warm start.

 

I hope you have lots of plans you love over the holidays, and there is still time to include friends, or someone who might be alone.  The next few weeks will fly by!!! I wish you a fantastic week up ahead, with beautiful surprises and happy times.

 

love, Danielle

 

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11/22/21, Thanksgiving

 

Hi Everyone,

 

It’s a big week this week. The beginning of the holidays, and things are liable to get hectic from now until the end of the year. Tomorrow is an exciting day for me with my new hardcover coming out, “Flying Angels”, it’s a carefully researched historical novel, about the nurses who flew military missions in World War II, to rescue wounded soldiers from the front lines. The missions were extremely dangerous, and many of the brave women who flew those missions gave their lives to rescue the wounded men. The nurses on those flight missions were among the unsung heroes of World War II, and it took the military and the government another two decades to recognize them as the courageous heroes they were, and finally acknowledge and decorate them. It was a wonderful, exciting book to write, and I hope you love it as much as I do. I fell in love with the characters in the book, and I hope you will too.

 

Although holidays can be challenging for everyone for a variety of reasons, either being alone, not having a family, or being far from home. I got a taste of that last year myself, in spite of having a big family. I was alone in France during the pandemic, and it was too dangerous to come home, so for the first time in my life, I spent Thanksgiving and Christmas entirely alone, and it was incredibly hard, which makes me all the more grateful to be with my family for the holidays this year and it gave me a first hand view of how hard it is to be alone for the holidays.

 

Even surrounded by family, the holidays can be dicey and stressful for everyone, if things don’t work out as we plan, or if old problems have not been resolved and surface at family gatherings. But I find Thanksgiving very special, it’s a holiday meant to celebrate gratitude for the food on our table, the people around us, the blessings we have. It’s a time to quietly take stock, and be grateful for as much as we can. Sometimes we don’t even realize how blessed we are, and if we can be grateful for even the smallest thing, it gives the holiday real meaning. And reaching out to family and friends, and including people at our table is part of it. With the vaccines that have become part of our lives, we are able to share our holidays with family and friends again, while still respecting the safety measures that are still important, in order to protect all of us, whether testing before gathering, or wearing masks until we eat, and being careful not to expose anyone unduly, and being vaccinated if we can be.

 

I wish you a blessed Thanksgiving, and a wonderful day. And I hope that you will be able to gather with the people you care about and who care about you.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

 

love, Danielle

 

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11/15/21, Gratitude

 

Hi Everyone,

 

Last week was a busy one, as the holidays approach, editing a book, and travelling, and just keeping up with work, doing big and small projects. I find many people tense and anxious, maybe with pre-holiday anxieties, holidays can be emotionally charged for many (most?) people, and many people seem to have shorter fuses than usual. It’s a good reminder to stop and take a deep breath, appreciate beauty and kindness where you find it, and to remember that everyone is stressed at this time of year. I was dealing with an inexplicably undelivered package by Fed Ex, which I am still fighting to retrieve (unsuccessfully so far), and the same petty aggravations and worries we all deal with, which can make daily life a challenge and eat up our time, and can spoil a day. The challenge is to remember our blessings, and be grateful for the things that go right, instead of wrong.

 

I watched my favorite series, New Amsterdam, wrote my Christmas cards, and was lucky enough to share in a wonderful spiritual meeting I participate in every year, which gets me back on the right track. And I was able to spend a few minutes with two daughters and one son, and two days with my two daughters in New York. They all have full, busy lives, and it’s a gift to share whatever time they can spare. At their ages, the last thing I wanted to do was spend time with my parents, so it’s a gift that they spend time with me at all.

 

The Covid numbers seem to be rising steadily all over the world, which is worrisome, and it’s a reminder to us all to still be careful, wear masks when it is wise to do so, or required. The vaccines appear to have lowered the number of deaths, but the number of cases is rising nonetheless. Let’s hope the number of cases doesn’t continue to increase. Our family will gather for Thanksgiving for the first time in two years, with all members of the family vaxxed, and Covid tests taken beforehand, with masks worn when appropriate, and social distancing respected. Our gatherings cant be as carefree as they used to be, but for the last 20 months we have shared no holidays at all, so it will be a huge blessing to be together. It still shocks me to realize that we have lost nearly two years out of our lives, focused intensely on staying healthy, and trying to avoid Covid. And the effects of the last two years have impacted us all.

 

What I like best about Thanksgiving is that aside from the traditional food everyone loves, the turkey, the stuffing, the mince, apple, pecan and pumpkin pies—–it is a holiday dedicated to being thankful, to gratitude for our blessings, large and small. We can’t always be with the people we love on the holidays, and families don’t always get along, but it is a day, and a time when it’s good to remember all the things we all have to be grateful for. It’s a great thing to remember. Gratitude changes one’s outlook about everything, it shifts the perspective to thinking about the people we are grateful for in our lives. It’s a time to reach out to family, friends, and people who are alone, and hold out a hand to them, a time for forgiveness, compassion, and gratitude.

 

I hope this week leading up to Thanksgiving will be a peaceful one for you, and you’ll have time to enjoy the holiday the week after, with whoever you spend it with. And even if things don’t go exactly as you hope, maybe this year it will be your turn to be a blessing to someone else.

 

Have a great week!!! full of unexpected blessings and happy moments,

 

love, Danielle

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11/11/21, Traveling…

Busy traveling,,, I will see you next week!

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11/1/21, Flying Angels

 

Hi Everyone,

 

It’s a quiet winter weekend where I am, after 4 days of rain, and chilly weather. Winter is definitely here, the trees are bare and it’s good weather to stay home. I’ve been getting an early start, wrapping Christmas gifts, catching up on letters and emails, and doing some reading. It’s the day after ghosts and goblins and trick or treat on Halloween, and today is All Saints Day, a religious holiday. (Halloween is actually All Souls Day/ All Hallow eve). Halloween isn’t celebrated in France so I had no trick or treaters.

 

Thanksgiving will be coming soon. I love that it’s a holiday dedicated to gratitude, and being grateful for one’s blessings. It’s a good chance to take stock, and be thankful for the people in our lives that we are grateful for!!!

 

I’ve been working very hard on two new books. And I hope you love them when they come out. I have a new book coming out two days before Thanksgiving, “Flying Angels” in hardcover, about a squadron of nurses in World War II, who flew missions to save wounded soldiers from the battlefield and fly them back to hospitals where they could save them. The women in those units were extraordinarily brave, and I hope you love the book, with all its history in it, and the stories of four courageous women.

 

Have a great week, full of happy surprises, much love,  Danielle

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10/25/21, ‘Harvard Business Review’

 

Hi Everyone,

I thought you might enjoy this interview, which just came out.

Have a great week!!

love, Danielle

https://hbr.org/2021/11/lifes-work-an-interview-with-danielle-steel

 

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10/18/21, Nose to the Grindstone

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I hope you had a good week last week. I am crazy busy, writing. Just finished a set of galleys, then worked hard on a new outline. Now I’m doing a rewrite for a second draft, after which I’m going to write a first draft for another book. All back to back. It is a LOT of work. But I love doing it, which helps!!!

 

Yesterday, was the Paris marathon, with thousands of people crowding the streets, no one wearing masks. It was unnerving seeing them, and wondering if an event like that will start a new wave of Covid. It seemed so incredibly irresponsible, despite their enthusiasm. It just seems too soon for a huge crowd like that with no precautions.  And one of the big art shows in Paris opened today. I would love to go, I go every year, but I don’t think that’s sensible either, so I’m not going. I still think we need to be careful, and big crowds still don’t feel smart.

 

I’m not taking time to play right now, with so much work to do. It’s nose to the grindstone time, and I hope that by next week I’ll have lots of work done. Have a terrific week, and I hope you’ll have some fun this week.

 

love, Danielle

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10/11/21, “Busy Bumpy and Beautiful”

 

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I hope you had a good week, even a great week!!! Mine was busy, bumpy, and beautiful. I write that after sitting here thinking for a minute, asking myself ‘How was last week?’…Not bad, pretty good…no actually, I think it was a good week. Sometimes time slips away from me, and I get swallowed up by the million tasks of real life, of working, having kids, dealing with crises and ordinary stuff, like calling the plumber, but with kids and a busy job of deadlines, the days are full. Most of the time, I don’t have time to ask myself how I am, I just rush along at full speed, trying to get each day’s tasks done. I had a lot of catch up to do this week, including a ‘text proof deadline’ (the very last chance to make corrections before a manuscript goes to the printer to become a book). So, I had that and a lot of work to do, after having fun and playing hooky with my daughters last week.

 

I just read back through your comments and messages on my recent blogs, you touch my heart—the regulars, the recurring names, some new ones. You warm my heart. You can’t imagine how much I appreciate your comments and messages. You always touch me, you give me back tenfold whatever I am able to give to you in my books and the blog. Thank you with all my heart for your responses, they truly mean the world to me, they feed my soul, as you say I feed yours—it is a fair and good exchange that I am so grateful for!!!

 

Your messages are often very profound, I love the beautiful quote from Corinthians to the effect that “Love faces whatever comes along and doesn’t give up.” Wow, that’s a good one and a tall order. I believe it, and sometimes it is so hard not to give up, to keep on going through every storm. But every time I do that, the rewards are enormous. But it certainly isn’t easy sometimes. And it certainly is good advice.

 

I faced a challenging situation this week. I always tell my children, and have always told them, “Stand up for what you believe in, even if you stand alone.” Great motherly advice!! So noble, so strong, so honorable—-easy to say and sometimes so incredibly hard to do. I found myself alone in an unpopular position this week. And standing up for what you believe in can cost you: a job, a friend, someone you love. It’s all very nice if everyone agrees with you, but when you take a hard position, based on principle, or your profound beliefs, or you know what’s right, there can be stiff consequences, and wisdom may dictate not to stick your neck out and rock the boat. If you do it at work, you can lose, and we all have responsibilities. It’s easy to take tough, unpopular positions if you have nothing at risk. In any case, I found myself unexpectedly in an unpopular position this week, with a stand I knew I had to take. I truly felt I had no choice. I anticipated heavy criticism, and got some, and the potential for a major storm was great. I wound up alone on the firing line, stuck to my guns as politely as possible, and in the end I had one ally at my side to support me (but an ally who didn’t agree with me). I took my position firmly…..and much to my amazement, the roof didn’t fall in, no major explosion happened, the ‘other side’ had thought it over and agreed with me, and everything fell into place quietly without a battle. Wow!! But I had the guts to take a stand on what I believed to be principle, and I’m so glad I did. Even if you appear to lose from doing that, it’s the right thing to do in the end. It was a good reminder that what I’d always said to my kids was right….but it was scary as hell for a while!!! Doing and saying the right thing is always the right thing, even if it’s hard. I stuck to what I believed in. At every age we are faced with the same questions, the same battles, the same challenges, to test us, and make us stronger. But it’s definitely not fun when it’s happening. It’s a good feeling though, standing for what you believe in.

 

Other than that, I missed my kids, was grateful for their recent visit, did a little more Christmas shopping to cheer myself up, and had ‘tea’ with a friend. (He had tea, I had my favorite drink of recent years, a Virgin Mojito—sounds fancy, tastes great: lime juice, a little sugar, fizzy water, and mint. I love it!!!). I went to a funny little antique shop, and the owner claimed to know my husband years ago, and gave me a gift, which was kind but embarrassing, and appreciated. So, it was a week of challenges and some sweet unexpected moments. Just like life.

 

So hang in, dear friends. Next week will be full of surprises, and hopefully not too many challenges. I wish you an easy week, with joy and good surprises in it, and as few bumps as possible.

 

with much love, Danielle

 

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10/4/21, Fun is Back!!!!

 

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I hope you had a great week, and you’re feeling alive and energized after the summer (although I hear it’s still warm in New York, and I’m slightly jealous, since it’s already chilly in my other cities, but the cool air does wake one up, and makes the pace faster).

 

I had a great week, and had visits from three of my daughters, it was absolutely wonderful to see them, and we had a terrific time, with some quiet down time, and some running around, and many meals out (at outdoor restaurants). After the lockdowns due to Covid last year, after being separated from my family for 15 months, every moment with them is even more precious than before, AND after sitting around at home for months, during the worst of Covid (with 6pm curfews, and restaurants closed for 9 months in France), the three major spikes, the whole year before vaccines made things somewhat safer, and 6 or 7 months of lockdowns, with solitude and isolation—-just going out to dinner now, feels like a major fiesta!!! I really missed my family, and seeing friends during Covid, so dinner out with a friend, or one or two of my daughters (which I did this week, but still with Covid precautions, at outdoor restaurants) felt fantastic!!!

 

Last week and this is Fashion Week in Paris, which I have told you about before. It is a week of fashion shows by French designers (for Paris fashion week, at New York fashion week it’s American designers, in Milan it’s Italian Fashion designers, and London….it is actually Fashion Month!!! in 4 different cities). Each designer gives a fashion show of next season’s fashions (so we just saw Spring clothes). It is a super busy vibrant busy event, with several fashion shows a day, by invitation, and big parties at night. Fashion shows have been virtual during the pandemic, and this is the first Fashion Week in a year and a half with live spectators. I will confess that I personally am not ready to attend live fashion shows in crowded locations, with thousands of people attending in many cases. But many people feel comfortable going, so there are many, many spectators, and parties afterwards. (Which I’m not doing yet either. Next year!!) But with all of those fashion shows happening, international press everywhere, and spectators from the fashion world (editors, buyers, etc.), the atmosphere in the city is electric and jubilant, and the ‘In’ trendy restaurants are full to the rafters. After 18 months of a VERY quiet life, going to a restaurant now has become super exciting. I went to 4 of the most popular restaurants with my daughters, and it is definitely alive and fun, designers are there, big editors, celebrities, movie stars. I saw Yoji Yamamoto in a restaurant, and many celebrities. Actors, supermodels, handsome men, beautiful women, big celebrities, wannabes galore, women in tiny sequined shorts with 7-inch heels, or towering platforms, in a few chic outfits, and some seriously inappropriate ones. The trendy restaurants were exploding with humanity. I kept my mask on until I ate, and put it back on when I was finished eating. My children kept telling me I was staring—but who wouldn’t??!!! And it was so much fun to be out in a place where there were good looking people are wearing some very far out clothes, some gorgeous outfits, some crazy ones. It was way more fun people watching than in my apartment for the last 18 months!!!

 

And in the spirit of it, I wore a new pair of jeans with sequins and beads on them, and a pair of shoes entirely covered with little pieces of mirrors. Way jazzier than I usually wear, but why not?? And afterwards, when I went home, I felt like Cinderella after the ball, minus one glass slipper. It was just me and the dogs, another quiet night with a stack of work on my desk.  Blue was under the weather for 2 days with a stomach upset, so after the fun dinners out, babysitting a sick dog is considerably less fun, making sure she eats her rice, and a stack of work waiting on my desk.

 

The other fun thing this week was the art installation by the late artist Christo.  They wrapped the Arc de Triomphe in shimmery fabric and tied it with red cords, like a giant package. It’s interesting to see!!!

 

We’re still wearing masks. and eating at outdoor restaurants, but eating at an outdoor restaurant is definitely more exciting with fun people to watch while you’re dining. Covid is not over, but it’s better, and that’s a start, and I was getting blasé about Fashion Week for a while. But nothing is blasé now, it all feels new and fresh after Covid.

 

It’s not a highly intellectual activity, but it sure was fun to have a rest from all the grim seriousness of the past eighteen months, Fashion Week was a joy, and people watching was fun And getting to wear my sparkly rhinestone and beaded jeans, with mirrored high heel shoes was an event!!!

 

Have a great week, and I hope you have some fun!!!

 

lots of love, Danielle

 

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