I always say that Mother’s Day is my favorite holiday because I get celebrated, get presents, and don’t have to get any older. How cool is that?!! My kids are usually very good about spending time with me on Mother’s Day, and although my own mother isn’t here anymore, I thoroughly enjoy spending the day with my own children.

And the long Memorial Day weekend at the end of the month reminds us that summer—my favorite time of year—is almost here. Spring should be well underway around the country by now, and I hope it’s beautiful wherever you are!

Love,
Danielle Steel

April has always been my children’s favorite month to torture me, and since there are so many of them, they’ve managed to come up with some really awful April Fool’s jokes to play on me—and I always believe them! Ugh. They’re a little better about it now that they’re older, but not much, and they still think it’s hysterically funny to scare me with some April Fool’s prank or another. I inevitably forget what day it is until the second or third joke call from them. They count on me to fall for it every year, and I do!

By now, spring is starting to show promise here and there, and we can look forward to warmer days ahead. And by April, my heaviest workload is beginning to slow down, and I can start to dream of summer, some time off and vacation with my kids! I can’t wait!!

Love,
Danielle Steel

The best news in March is that Daylight Savings Time begins on March 10th . I LOVE the longer days—early nightfall during the winter always seems so bleak. And we also have the first day of spring this month.

Saint Patrick’s Day is a big event, although I have no claim to it, with no Irish blood anywhere in my family. While it’s not a date I celebrate, it’s a lot of fun for those who have Irish ancestors (and even many who don’t).

And Easter comes early this year, on March 31st. Our family gets together for Easter, though now usually just for the weekend—as of this year, no one is in school anymore, so no more long Easter vacations. But it’s a good excuse for a family gathering. And with Passover beginning March 25th , there certainly is a lot to celebrate this month. Hopefully spring will be in the air, too!!

Love,

Danielle Steel

There are some fun days coming up this month—or they could be anyway. There’s Valentine’s Day, which I always say is a mixed blessing in my life. Some years are great, others not so great. But at least whatever happens, it’s a holiday that includes a lot of chocolate—how bad can that be?

Mardi Gras is a major event in New Orleans, and is celebrated in other cities too, featuring beads, feathers, masks, costumes, dancing in the streets. It’s intended to let people “cut loose” a bit before the more subdued season of Lent begins six weeks before Easter.

Presidents’ Day gives us a nice, long weekend to relax, go skiing, visit friends, or just take it easy. (I’m usually still working hard then and don’t get to take a break from writing until later in the spring. It’s still cold in February in the places I live, anyway!)

Above all, I hope that your Valentine’s Day is what you wish it to be. And even if spring is not yet in the air, I hope love is!!

Love,
Danielle Steel

January is a quiet month for many of us, as we recover from the holidays, but it’s always a busy writing time for me. The weather is lousy in most places, and it’s a good time to hibernate and catch up. It’s also a great month for skiers—if the snow is good. And this year, I have two books coming out in January, which is exciting!

My new novel, Until the End of Time, is an intriguing love story, which incorporates the busy world of fashion in New York, an attorney who becomes a minister in the beautiful terrain of Wyoming, and a young Amish woman and the fascinating world she lives in. The people in this book come together in unexpected ways, beginning in the 1970’s and ending in the present day. I fell in love with the characters and their stories, and I really hope you love the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

The paperback of my book Betrayal is coming out in January, too—about an embezzlement and the mystery surrounding who did it. It’s the story of betrayal among friends and trusted colleagues, which unfortunately happens in the real world. I hope you’ll find it an exciting book.

And of course memorable in January is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, in honor of a great American and a remarkable man.

January can be a busy, productive month, as we catch up on things we need to do. I hope you get lots done—and also that you’ll have time to read my new books, maybe curled up by the fire!

Love,
Danielle Steel

UNTIL THE END OF TIME

Bill, a dedicated young lawyer working at his family’s prestigious New York firm, leaves everything he trained for to follow his dream and become a minister in rural Wyoming. Jenny, his wife, is a stylist whose heart and soul are invested in fashion. She leaves the milieu and life she loves to join him. The certainty they share is that their destinies are linked forever.

Fast forward thirty-eight years. Robert is a hardworking independent book publisher in Manhattan who has given up all personal life to build his struggling business. He is looking for one big hit novel to publish. Lillibet is a young Amish woman, living as though in the seventeenth century, caring for her widowed father and three young brothers on their family farm. In secret at night, by candlelight, she has written the novel that burns within her, and gets it into Robert’s hands, wrapped in her hand-stitched apron. He falls in love first with the book, and then with the woman he has never met, living in the sequestered world of the Amish—a world without telephones, computers, electricity, modern conveniences, or cars. Although Lillibet faces banishment from her family and community, she embraces the opportunity to publish her novel, and is irresistibly drawn to the man who has heard her voice. Destiny is at work here. Fate draws her from her horse-and-buggy life toward his, and the publication of her novel.

In the hands of master storyteller Danielle Steel, these two remarkable relationships come together in unexpected and surprising ways, as lovers are lost, and find each other again. If it is true that real love lasts forever and lovers cannot lose each other, then Until the End of Time will not only comfort and fascinate us, as destiny does her dance, but it will give us hope as well. Love and fate are powerful, irresistible forces, as Steel proves to us here, in a book about courage, change, risk, and hope . . . and love that never dies.

For me, December is one of the best months, although for some, it can be the most difficult, both happy and sad. The holidays bring us together with our families and friends, but also make us miss those who aren’t there. We dream of what Christmas should be, and while it doesn’t always meet all our expectations, hopefully it fulfills most.

My wish for you this holiday season is that all your dreams come true and you find everything you wish for, both in your “stocking” and in your heart. May your holidays be filled with blessings, kind people, peace, and love.

Love,
Danielle Steel

This will be a big month, with the elections and their impact on our country, government, and decisions. And our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by Hurricane Sandy, in the midst of the terrible devastation the storm left behind.

Daylight Savings Time will end, which will make everything seem more wintery. The holidays are approaching and people will be gathering around the Thanksgiving table with family and friends. It’s a wonderful holiday to reach out to those who are alone or in need. You don’t need a family to enjoy Thanksgiving, just good people to share it with.

Book-wise, my new novel, The Sins of the Mother, is now out, the story of a woman who built a business empire, starting with a hardware store, and that of her family. It is a big, meaty book and I hope you love it.

The paperback edition of Hotel Vendome, is also out this month, which goes behind the scenes of a five-star Manhattan hotel to tell the story of the man who owns it, his daughter, and all the exciting people who stay and work there.

And this year, I have a third, very special, book available now too, the nonfiction A Gift of Hope, which talks about the plight of the homeless people on our streets, and my work with them for eleven years in a street outreach program I founded. The time I spent working with these people provided some of the most poignant, important moments of my life. I hope you’ll take the time to read the book. It was a labor of love to write.

And I hope your Thanksgiving is warm and wonderful, shared with people you care about and who are meaningful to you!

Love,
Danielle Steel

There are of course more important holidays, like Christmas and Thanksgiving, and our family still gets together for Easter. But October is the month of one of our favorite holidays: Halloween! As I’ve mentioned before, my kids used to spend months planning their costumes, and who and what they were planning to be, and some of what they came up with was amazingly creative. I keep thinking they’re too old for that now, but they always surprise me, and make costumes for themselves to wear to Halloween parties. Even last year many of them wore costumes, so they are not ready to give up on Halloween yet. One of my daughters was a fantastic toreador a couple of years ago, others were political leaders and personalities from TV shows. Some were incredibly funny, and you had to think to figure out who they were. It really is a fun event! I miss the elaborate Halloween table we used to decorate, and the haunted house my kids made in our guest room, complete with one of them leaping out of a closet dressed as a ghost or dripping fake blood to terrify everyone else.

My Halloween is now a very tame affair, and I haven’t worn a costume since my whoopee cushion costume a couple of years ago. But I give a dinner party every year in Paris, with Halloween decorations on the table. It’s fun to act like a kid now and then, and not be too serious. So I hope there will be trick or treat, and lots of Halloween candy for you this October too!

Love,

Danielle Steel

THE SINS OF THE MOTHER

As a way of making up to them for time lost, Olivia spends months every year planning a lavish holiday that everyone in her family will enjoy. This summer she has arranged a dream trip in the Mediterranean on a luxurious yacht, which she hopes will be the most memorable vacation of all. Her lavish gesture every year expresses her love for them, and regret at all the important times she missed during her children’s younger years. Her younger daughter, Cassie, a hip London music producer, refuses the invitation altogether, as she does every year. Her older daughter, Liz, lives in her mother’s shadow, with a terror of failure as she tries to recapture her dream of being a writer. And her sons, John and Phillip, work for Olivia, for better or worse, with wives who wish they didn’t. In the splendor of the Riviera, this should be a summer to remember, with Olivia’s children, grandchildren, and daughters-in-law on board. But as with any family gathering, there are always surprises, and no matter how glamorous the setting things don’t always turn out as ones hopes.

Family dynamics are complicated, old disappointments die hard, and as forgiveness and surprising revelations enter into it, new bonds are formed, and the future takes on a brighter hue. And one by one, with life’s irony, Olivia’s children find themselves committing the same “sins” for which they blamed their mother for so many years. It is a summer of compassion, important lessons, and truth.

The Sins of the Mother captures the many sides of family love: complex, challenging, funny, passionate, and hopefully enduring. Along the way, we are enthralled by an unforgettable heroine, a mother strong enough to take more than her fair share of the blame, wise enough to respect her children for who they really are, and forgiving enough to love them unconditionally.