A Letter from Danielle for September ‘17
Hi Everyone,
Ready, set, go….. here comes September!!! Maybe because I have so many children, September has always been the busiest month of the year (other than December during Christmas.) Kids go back to school, they’re adjusting to new teachers, more homework, you’re dashing to buy school supplies, adjusting to new schedules yourself, driving car pools, and getting kids to all their after school activities and sports practices!!! Even now, I love the revved up atmosphere of being busy after the summer, starting new projects and doing some serious writing. Everything seems to pick up speed in September. It’s a month full of energy. I’ve loved it ever since I was a kid in school, and would get a box of new pencils – I loved the smell, and the thrill of starting a new school year, with old friends and new ones, and new classes and teachers.
By October, everyone has settled into their routines, but in September, it’s all about adjusting to new ones, and getting back to ‘real life’ after the summer. It can be a hard adjustment at first, but it’s exciting to meet the challenge.
My September is starting out with a new book for you, THE RIGHT TIME. It was a fun story to write, about a young writer, whose life takes some unusual and interesting turns. Abandoned by her mother as a young child, orphaned at fourteen, she shared happy early years with her father, reading the mystery books and thrillers he introduced her to and she came to love. Blessed with a remarkable talent, even at an early age, she began writing thrillers herself that few adults would have been capable of writing, which alarmed her teachers, and thrilled her father before he died. His one big piece of advice to her: don’t try to publish under your own name, use a man’s name as a pseudonym if you want to be a professional mystery writer one day, and she followed his advice implicitly. Her high school years were unusual, living in a convent of very active nuns, writing her books and hoping to publish one day, the young writer publishes her first book at nineteen (as I did!!) – under a male pseudonym, in her case. And then her double life begins, as she follows her father’s advice, and conceals her real identity throughout a long, successful writing career. Hiding her real identity creates endless complications in her life, as she produces a long list of bestsellers under a man’s name, and lives her real life as a young woman. Both her success and her double life isolate her and involve her in complicated situations.
It was fun writing about a writer, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!!! (I even read a few Nancy Drew books, to get back in the mood of mystery books that might have been read by a child, when she first got interested in them, which reminded me of my own childhood.)
So enjoy the Labor Day weekend, to celebrate the end of summer, and then have fun leaping into the busy days of September. And I hope you take the time to read THE RIGHT TIME when you have a few free moments.
Love,
Danielle