This is another month that starts off with a bang. In France, where I spend a lot of time, May 1st, May Day, is Labor Day, and the tradition is for people to give each other sprigs of lily of the valley for the holiday. In Paris, there are street vendors everywhere selling it in little bunches, or small pots, so that you can give it to friends. It’s my favorite flower. And my late son Nick’s birthday was on May 1st. It’s a day that I love every year, usually with gentle, balmy weather, and the delicate scent of lily of the valley in the air.

And Mother’s Day is my favorite holiday. I get presents, get celebrated by my kids, and don’t have to get another year older. How great is that?! Very! I will be celebrating it in two cities this year, dashing from one on Friday to the other for the weekend, dividing myself up between my kids. It’s a lovely holiday, although it can be bittersweet if our mothers are no longer here.

The month ends with Memorial Day, the traditional beginning of summer. Although summer officially starts three weeks later, on June 21st, the long Memorial Day weekend always heralds its arrival, and hopefully some fun times!

Love,

Danielle Steel

Oh dear. April always begins with a challenge for me—April Fool’s Day. I have a flock of children who love torturing me on April Fool’s Day. And what’s worse, I always believe them—I never realize what day it is until I hear the third horrifying story about who’s in jail, who’s pregnant (and shouldn’t be), and who’s been fired or kicked out of school. They have done it to me for years and I always fall for it, which delights my children, and has me a wreck by the end of the day! So that’s how April starts for me. (I tried turning the tables on them last year, but no one believed that I was in jail, pregnant, and had gone back to the worst boyfriend I could think of. They just laughed at me, and knew exactly what day it was.)

Other than that, April usually brings us Passover and Easter, which is my favorite religious holiday, as it is centered around the ‘Resurrection,’ the essence of restoral, rebirth, and regeneration. It’s a day that reminds us that no matter how bleak things seem, it could all change tomorrow as hope is born again. I love that idea. (It also marks the end of Lent, when you can go back to eating whatever you want, particularly anything you gave up for Lent.) One of my daughters has an April birthday, too, so we’ll be celebrating that after Easter.

With luck, spring has arrived wherever you live, with sunny days and better weather. And if we look ahead, we can see summer coming toward us, with school vacation and summer breaks. I can hardly wait!

My latest novel, Betrayal, is now available. I hope you love it! Last week, I was on Good Morning America talking about it. In case you missed it, here’s the clip.

Love,

Danielle Steel

St. Patrick’s Day is always a special day in March, although I have no Irish ancestry at all. But it’s a holiday everyone seems to enjoy.

This month the seasons begin to change, and spring is on the horizon. It officially begins on March 21st, even if the weather isn’t too spring-like yet in many places. And on March 11th, we go back to Daylight Savings Time, which I always love because the days are longer!

My latest book is coming out in hardcover and eBook later this month. It’s called Betrayal, and it’s the story of a woman who is betrayed by people close to her, not a happy turn of events. It’s about how she discovers it, what she does about it, and how she grows from it in the end. It is suspenseful in parts, and an interesting character study that reminds us that even when we think we know someone intimately, what we see is not always the truth. It’s an intriguing story, and I hope you like it!

Love,

Danielle Steel

At thirty-nine, Tallie Jones is a Hollywood legend. Her work as a film director is her passion and the center of her life; one after another, her award-winning productions achieve the rare combination of critical and commercial success. With no interest in the perks of her profession or the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles, Tallie maintains close and loving relationships with her college-age daughter and her aging father, and has a happy collaboration with Hunter Lloyd, her respected producing partner, confidant, and live-in lover. Rounding out the circle and making it all work is Brigitte Parker, Tallie’s devoted personal assistant. Friends since film school, they are a study in contrasts, with Brigitte’s polished glamour balancing Tallie’s artless natural beauty, and her hard-driving, highly organized style a protective shield for Tallie’s casual, down-to-earth approach.

As Tallie is in the midst of directing the most ambitious film she has yet undertaken, small disturbances begin to ripple through her well-ordered world. An outside audit reveals troubling discrepancies in the financial records maintained by Victor Carson, Tallie’s longtime, trusted accountant. Mysterious receipts hint at activities of which she has no knowledge. Soon it becomes clear that someone close to Tallie has been steadily funneling away enormous amounts of her money. In the wake of an escalating series of shattering revelations, Tallie will find herself playing the most dangerous game of all—to trap a predator stalking her in plain sight.

In this riveting novel, Danielle Steel reveals the dark side of fame and fortune. At the same time, she brilliantly captures a woman’s will to navigate a minefield of hurt and loss—toward a new beginning.

I have a love-hate relationship with Valentine’s Day, and always have. Some years it’s fabulous, some years not so great. Like all holidays that have a lot of expectations attached to them, it can really be a let-down, but sometimes when you least expect it, something great can happen. My children’s father, and my husband of eighteen years, proposed to me on Valentine’s Day, which was very sweet.

Mardi Gras is also a fun holiday. Some people go all out with parties and beads and masks, and it must be fabulous in New Orleans. It also marks the beginning of the Lenten season.

And Presidents’ Day gives us a nice long weekend in February. I think many schools have ’ski week’ then, which I used to love with my kids. It was a great chance to go away as family. My novel 44 Charles Street is now available in paperback, and also as an eBook, if you haven’t yet read it. I hope you like it! Above all, I hope your Valentine’s Day will be wonderful and exciting!

Love,

Danielle Steel

Every year, I tell you that I never make New Year’s resolutions, and it’s true. I HATE making promises I can’t or don’t keep, and the very notion of New Year’s “resolutions” suggests something hard to do. So I make no promises, and just hope for the best (exercise programs, diets, giving up smoking, going out more, to see friends more often or making myself go to movies other than those I see on airplanes when I’m travelling). I guess the one resolution I should make is not to work on weekends. With my kids gone, I’m not very good at down time, and I often wind up working on weekends, which can be lonely for single people. Taking it easy is not my strong suit! (Maybe you can guess, since I’ve written 121 books!!) And I go back to work very quickly after the holidays, sometimes on New Year’s Day.

One of my daughters has a birthday in January, so we’ll be celebrating her!! (My father’s birthday was in January too).

My book 44 Charles Street will come out in paperback at the end of this month. It’s about four housemates in a townhouse in New York, how their lives become intertwined despite their differences, and how close they become — a modern day family made up of people who become friends. I hope you enjoy it.

And I hope your year gets off to a fabulous start! May it be a great year for you.

Love,

Danielle Steel

Wow! December! Christmas! Holidays! I love it. It is such a ‘loaded’ month, in so many ways. Loaded with plans and parties for most, family events, and also loaded with expectations. For many of us, it all begins in childhood, with Santa Claus, who is going to bring us everything we want . . . and somehow we carry those dreams into adulthood, and expect everything to be happy and perfect on Christmas—our children to be good to us, our families to be loving, and our friends joyful. And sometimes it just isn’t all we hope for and our dreams are dashed . . . or sometimes, if we’re lucky, it really is perfect. It’s a juggling act of hopes and obligations, stretched schedules and budgets, so much pressed into one month. For us, the holidays are a family time and everyone comes home. But few things in life are perfect. Fourteen years ago, we had to face our first Christmas without my son Nick, who had died that September, at nineteen. This year, we will be spending Christmas without my children’s beloved father, who passed away in February, and the memories will be bittersweet without him.

Above all, Christmas is a time of giving more than getting, of sharing and offering comfort and kindness, of remembering, and sharing tender times. So amid all the Ho, Ho, Hos! and frantic gift buying and wrapping, I hope that there will be some quiet, precious moments for you when the loving spirit of the holidays fills your heart and makes them meaningful for you.

I wish you the very happiest of holidays.

Love,

Danielle Steel

My new hardcover Hotel Vendôme goes on sale this month, and I’m very excited about it. It’s a book both men and women can enjoy, about the life and times of a New York hotel, and the man who owns and runs it. He’s the single father of an enchanting little girl, who grows up at the hotel, with all its excitement, mystery, and magic. Hotels and the people who visit them are fascinating, and the behind-the-scenes intrigues even more so! I love this book, and hope you will too and have fun with it.

November also brings us the Thanksgiving holiday, cherished by so many. Traditionally, it’s a time for families to get together and enjoy good meals and good times. Those of us who do not have the opportunity to be with our families may gather around the Thanksgiving table with friends who are dear to us. Sometimes even that can’t happen—I’ve had some years like that too, many of us have—and on those occasions, it is meaningful to do what we can for others, and to be grateful for the blessings we do have. It is a time to take stock and be thankful, to reach out to those who are less fortunate or lonely or solitary. It is a time for gratitude and giving. Whatever you do, and however you spend the holiday, I hope that it is peaceful, satisfying, and a warm moment for you.

Love,

Danielle Steel