Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year!! I hope you’re not too exhausted by the holidays, and that you can take a little time now to catch your breath and relax.

The holidays can be both wonderful and stressful, sometimes at the same time. And one of the concepts I like best in life is the idea of a fresh beginning, of renewal, of casting off the old and putting it to rest, and starting out again. That’s really the whole idea of Easter. The most important part of Easter is The Resurrection, the rebirth, the coming back to rise from the ashes of one’s mistakes or disappointments, and be new again, as best we can be. It’s the idea of spring, when the barren trees burst forth in bloom, when the earth begins again. We feel fresh and alive and full of hope in spring. And in January, we do begin again, with a new year, a clean slate, a whole new time to write another chapter of our personal history. Even if tired, or feeling a little battered, we begin again.

So that’s what we are facing now – a brand new year. Another chance!! A time of renewal, even though winter hasn’t slumped off yet, and the trees are still bare and the landscape is gray. But we know that spring is coming soon. The calendar tells us in January that the year is new, and that we are new, as we contemplate the year ahead and all that we want to accomplish and enjoy this year. So put the past behind you. Turn that page. Start with a brand new clean slate. Let’s look ahead with hope, and faith that we can make this a great year.

I wish you strength and renewal, and an absolutely wonderful year ahead. And however good (or bad) the last one was, the new year will be even better. I wish you a FANTASTIC new year!! Not just a happy one, or an easy one… I wish you an AMAZING 2018!!

Love,
Danielle

Hi Everyone,

I hope the fall has gone well for you. I love this part of the year, it’s so cozy with colder weather and the holidays to look forward to. And whatever your religious convictions, or not, Thanksgiving is really about friends and gratitude, and is such a special holiday. It’s an opportunity to welcome old and new friends, and celebrate the things we have to be grateful for. Like most holidays, it’s a hard time to be alone, and a good reminder to us, who have homes and families, to welcome people in to share a meal with us.

When I was single and alone one year, before I had my family, I came across the Bible quote, “God places the solitary in families”. I really like that idea. And I really love a holiday based on being thankful. Thanksgiving has such a warm feeling … and it certainly is about a lot of delicious food!! I love the stuffing and the pumpkin pie!!!

My book PAST PERFECT will be out in hardcover and eBook at the end of the month (November 28th.) It’s one of my favorite books, and really is a fun read. I’m not much on ghost stories usually, but this is about two very appealing families a hundred years apart, who meet and discover they are living in the same house, in an unusual time warp. As the modern current day family leads their present day life, with iPads and jobs and emails and video games and all the trappings of twenty first century life, the family who built the mansion a century ago are following their path to the First World War, the Crash of ’29 and beyond, sharing insights into history and life, complete with a grand dowager grandmother and an eccentric elderly Scottish Uncle. It’s a book that should make you laugh, and touch your heart, and give you a closer view of some important moments in history, and the blending of two families whom I really came to love as I wrote about them. And I hope you’ll love them too.

I hope that your Thanksgiving will be a very special day, full of warm times, good friends, yummy food, and a holiday full of blessings.

Much love,
Danielle

Hi Everyone,

Happy October!!! There’s still a taste of warm days here and there, but for the most part we are launching into October with beautiful leaves turning red and yellow in some parts of the country. We’re rushing toward the winter, and the holidays will be here before you know it!!

My book THE MISTRESS just came out in paperback on September 26th, which is a special date to me … my youngest daughter’s birthday!! The date is precious to me because it’s not only her birthday, but was her father’s as well. When I went into labor with her 3 weeks early the night before her father’s birthday, I thought how fantastic and fun it would be for them to share a birthday forever… not. She was born at 1am, just into that date by an hour, which I thought was a major coup. My husband John looked at me like a crushed five year old after he had expressed his joy over her birth, and said “Does this mean I have to cancel my birthday dinner?” I hadn’t even thought about it, but we decided to have the dinner go on anyway, even with me in the hospital. He LOVED his birthday, and celebrated all month. My daughter had no comment on it the night she was born, but she had plenty to say about it in the years afterwards – and so did John.

They started complaining weeks before…”Why does she have to ruin it and take over my birthday ever year?? (uh, because she’s five… or twelve…. or fifteen), and she’s grousing just as loudly, “he ruins my birthday every year, why cant he pick another day?” They growled at each other for the rest of his life, each one feeling that they had a right to the day, but the other didn’t. So that day particularly makes me smile.

THE MISTRESS is a fun, fast-paced book about a beautiful young Russian woman, working in a factory, starving on a Moscow street in winter. She is discovered by a Russian Oligarch, and slowly gives in and becomes his mistress. He introduces her to a golden life, and she knows not to ask questions about his somewhat shady activities. She gives up all her freedom for him, and shares a life of enormous wealth, comfort, and security. But eventually, the lack of freedom becomes an agonizing burden, and when she discovers just how dangerous he truly is, she has some important choices to make about him, and most of all about herself. If you haven’t read it, I hope you love it!!! it was really fun to write!! And hopefully fun to read as well. It’s a world and a life few of us get a glimpse into, even from the distance – a life of unimaginable wealth (there’s a yacht the size of a cruise ship with a crew of 100, and that part is actually real in today’s world.)

My new hardcover FAIRYTALE will release very soon – on October 10th!, It’s a simple story with some amazing twists and turns, set in the vineyards of the Napa Valley, which is also a fascinating world. The main character of the book leads a fairytale life as a child. Her life becomes more complicated when she grows up, with an evil stepmother, dangerous stepbrothers who are out to take everything they can from her (including her life,) and a modern day “Fairy Godmother”, who is a wise and wizened elderly French woman, with red hair. She’s funny and charming, and becomes a powerful and kind force in the heroine’s life. Modern day fairytales do happen – but they’re not quite as simple as they used to be. I hope that makes them all the more fun to read about, in the rarefied world of the Napa Valley, where evil lurks even in an idyllic setting. Happy Reading!!

October was always my children’s favorite month, with Halloween to look forward to. The entire month was always about who would wear what costume. They put a lot of thought into it, and loved to turn our house into a haunted house, where they would jump out of a closet screaming, scare me to death, and drip fake blood all over the carpet!! And we had some very funny tamer costumes too. I took them trick or treating every year, and they still love wearing costumes to Halloween parties they go to.

So whatever you’re doing, whether you’re going to celebrate Halloween or not, I hope that this month is all treat for you, and not ‘trick’. Have a great month!!

Love,

Danielle

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

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’ve had a great summer so far. The beginning of August always seems like the halfway mark to me, but it’s the downhill slide. On July 4th, we have the whole summer to look forward to. A month later, we can see school looming at us, and a busy fall at work, and I don’t relax the way I do in July. In fact, I usually start writing heavily again in August. But hopefully, you’re more relaxed than I am, and can still enjoy the last month of the summer, and take some time off!!!

I get one more week of vacation with all my kids in August, and then after that, it’s back to work for me!!! The summer always whizzes by way too fast!!

At the end of the month, I have a new book coming out called THE RIGHT TIME. It’s about a young girl who is abandoned by her mother as a young child, adores her father, but is then orphaned at fourteen. She shared a passion for thrillers and detective stories with her father, and writes a book while still in her teens. With huge talent, she becomes a successful writer while very young, and writes her books under a man’s name as a pseudonym. She thinks that no one would take her seriously as a young girl in her teens otherwise (and she’s probably right!! I wrote my first book at nineteen!!) The male pseudonym she uses complicates everything, and creates a double life, which she continues throughout her life with some sometimes funny, and sometimes upsetting situations where she cannot reveal her true identity, even in her personal life. It’s an inside look at fame, and an unusual life, of ups and downs, victories and disappointments, dreams that fail, and others that come true beyond anything she hoped—like real life!! I hope you love the book!!

Have a fantastic month of August, relax and enjoy it, and I will try to do the same!!

Happy end of summer!!

Love,
Danielle

Hi Everyone,

July at last!!! The summer month we’ve been waiting for all year!!! Vacations!!! Fourth of July!! Beach time!!! Sheer Heaven. I love the summer months. I take a vacation with five of my children every year in July. We used to give a big fourth of July party every year, for all ages. We had line dancing, carnival games, a fortune teller, hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, fried chicken, apple pie and ice cream! We stopped doing it when we spent our summer vacation in France, but I miss those Fourth of July parties. I hope you had some kind of celebration or picnic or barbecue earlier this week for the holiday.

I love it when we have the whole summer still ahead of us, and the summer is really just getting started. I love catching up on all the books I want to read. My new book THE DUCHESS just came out hardcover. It’s a historical novel set in the nineteenth century about an enterprising young English woman, adored by her father, who dies when she is 18, and according to the laws of the times, her half brother by her father’s previous marriage inherits everything. Women were not allowed to inherit property then, and her half brother casts her out of her home. She is forced to become a governess, and when she loses that job due to a nasty employer, she ventures from England to Paris. Desperate for a job and unable to get one without a reference, she comes up with a shocking idea. She rents a house, meets a group of somewhat scandalous very attractive young women of the night, and she becomes the madam of the most elegant brothel in Paris, which she sets up. Soon all the most important and powerful men in Paris are her clients, though she doesn’t sleep with them herself. Beautiful, young, admired, desired, aristocratic, a Duchess by birth, she becomes the talk of Paris – in whispers. A scandal forces her to leave Paris, and everything behind. She sails to New York, and begins a new life there, a proper life once again. Her past follows her to America, and she rebuilds her life, which takes some fascinating twists and turns. I loved the idea of a brave young woman, using her wits, courage, and dignity to survive. I hope you love the story and it becomes your favorite summer read, whether on vacation or at home!!!

I hope you have fun this July, get to take some time off, and go on vacation … or at least get to the beach, a lake or the countryside nearby on weekends. We all need to take a break when we can.

Happy summer – and have a fabulous July!!!

Love,
Danielle

Hi Everyone,

I hope that June is finally going to bring us some warmer weather. All of my cities have had a VERY chilly May!!! (and a lot of rain!!) It used to be that June was warm everywhere, now that’s not always the case!!

For anyone with kids, June is a VERY busy month. They get out of school and have to make the transition from well filled school days and after school activities to having more time on their hands, which is challenging for parents. Even if they’re going to camp in July, you still have June to fill as you keep them entertained before the summer begins in earnest. And kids are used to being super busy these days, with many lessons, sports, homework and other activities during the school year—and suddenly once they’re out of school for the summer, keeping them challenged and their days filled falls to their parents.

I’m still busy writing in June, and don’t meet up with my kids for vacation until July. One of them will be staying with me while she works this month, which is great for me. I love knowing that my kids are under my roof again, even if I barely see them, or just get a glimpse of them and a few minutes to chat as they come and go. It’s such a great feeling to have them staying at home.

If you’re putting together a summer reading list, or taking a stack of books on vacation with you, I hope you’ll add some of mine to that list! AGAINST ALL ODDS came out last month, and if you haven’t read it yet, I hope you’ll get a chance to read it now. It’s about the very complicated relationship situations a woman’s four young adult children get into, and how unlikely that they’ll beat the odds and succeed if they take too many chances, and ignore the risks. But who listens to their parents???

And I have a new one for you coming in just a few weeks!!! It’s called THE DUCHESS and releases on June 27th.

In France, most of the country takes their vacation in the summer, so nearly half the country is on vacation in July, and the other half in August. That makes it very hard to get much business done in France then, since almost every business is half-staffed for those two months. And many, many businesses, stores, restaurants, etc. close down entirely for the month of August. It adds a real holiday atmosphere to France in the summer!!

I hope your summer plans are shaping up and that you’re looking forward to them. And I hope it’s a gorgeous sunny month wherever you are!!!

Love,
Danielle

Hi Everyone,

May is always a very special month for me, full of happy memories. May Day was always a big day in France when I was growing up—I used to dance around a maypole, wearing a wreath of white flowers on my head when I was a very little girl. The flower symbolic of May Day is the lily of the valley, my favorite flower, which has such a delicate fragrance. And in France, even now, everyone gives each other a little sprig of lily of the valley for good luck. There are flower vendors on every street corner in Paris, so you can give the people in your life lily of the valley on May Day. The whole city smells of the beautiful flower.

My son Nick was born on May 1st, like a very special gift, so the day also brings up this very happy memory. And even now that he is no longer here, it seems like his special day. I host a dinner every year for close friends, in honor of his birthday, and I give everyone a little vase of lily of the valley to take home. I even have special plates and glasses with lily of the valley painted on them!!! It’s a very special day for me.

And this year, today (May 2nd) is a big day for me as well since my new book AGAINST ALL ODDS is now on sale. It’s full of the adventures and challenges of parenting once one’s kids grow up. I hope you love that book, as I do!!

To top it off, Mother’s Day is coming soon. It’s my favorite holiday, other than Christmas. I get presents and don’t have to get another year older like on my birthday!!! What could be better? I used to get macaroni necklaces, pencil holders made out of soup cans, and hand-painted Kleenex boxes. I still have all those gifts too!!! Now I get more grown up presents from my children and we have brunch together to celebrate.

I hope your May will be very special this year, full of happy memories, and providing new ones…..and I hope you love the new book!!!

Love,

Danielle

Hi Everyone,

I hope that all is well with you. Well, we made it through the winter, and with April here, in some places it actually feels like spring.

Even if it’s still a little chilly, I love the way California looks in spring, with blossoms out, leaves on the trees, and a lush carpet of green grass on the hills, like in the Napa Valley (especially after all the rain this winter!!) It’s much harder to feel spring-y when I visit New York and the landscape is still gray in April. The trees are still sad branches with no leaves on them. Winter lasts a lot longer in New York, despite occasional warm days, and it never truly feels like spring to me there until June.

Easter is coming up this month, and all that comes with it … Easter bunnies, Peeps (I love them!!!), baby chicks, and all sorts of things that children love. We dye Easter eggs and make Easter baskets. I usually have purple fingers for weeks afterwards, from dipping hardboiled eggs in different colored harmless dyes.

Easter always makes me think of Easter bonnets too. I don’t think anyone wears hats much anymore. I used to, but I don’t these days – life is so much more informal now. I remember that when I was a little girl, it was a big deal to wear a hat on Easter, and my mother had some fabulous ones. My mother was very, very, very beautiful, and was a model when she was young. She was tall, with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. One of my daughters looks a lot like her, but I look nothing like her. I more resemble my paternal grandmother who was very small, like me, and had dark red hair and green eyes. My mother looked spectacular in hats, and always wore a big beautiful hat on Easter. My parents gave a big formal Easter brunch for their friends, everyone was very chic and all dressed up, my father looking formal in a suit, my mother in a pretty dress or suit and a big hat. And there would be ballroom style dancing after lunch. My big thrill as a young child was dancing with my father at these events. As Europeans, my parents were a lot more formal than people are now. And it was always exciting for me to go to that Easter brunch. I loved seeing my mother in those gorgeous hats, I still remember them vividly. One that still sticks in my mind was huge and wide with pale green mossy looking tulle, and nestled in the tulle were tiny white silk flowers that looked like lily of the valley. They are fun memories to have.

I share Easter brunch with my children these days—everyone comes in jeans, we eat too much (pancakes, waffles, etc. — yumm!!!) and just enjoy being together. Whether you celebrate Easter or not, I hope it’s a nice relaxing day for you.

April is also special because one of my daughter’s has a birthday, so that gives us something else to celebrate too!!!

Have a lovely month of April!!!

Love,
Danielle

PS – If you want to put some magic in your life, please read my book MAGIC, which just came out in paperback. It’s about the White Dinner in Paris, which is one of the most exciting events I’ve ever been to! I hope you love it!!

Hi Everyone,

March gives one hope of spring, although that’s probably all it is in most places – a hope. It’s been a harsh winter in most of the places I go, with freezing weather, floods, blizzards, and snow. So I’m not sure how fast spring will come, but it’s nice to think about at least!

I think Mardi Gras falls in March this year, which is a huge event in New Orleans. And St. Patrick’s Day is a big day for the Irish. I have no Irish ancestors or relatives, so I’m left out on that one, but I’m happy for those who do celebrate.

The big excitement for me in March is that my hardcover DANGEROUS GAMES is coming out (just 1 week to go!!). It was a fascinating and very challenging book to write. It’s a political thriller, involving lobbyists, crooked politicians, oil deals, and clever investigative journalists, who uncover treacherous illegal deeds. It’s much harder writing that kind of book, where every detail and piece of the plot has to fit together seamlessly. I hope you love it!! It’s a very exciting story!!

And as usual, I will be writing in March, tucked away in the last of winter, and waiting with great anticipation for spring to come!!! I hope you have a great month.

Love,
Danielle

Hi Everyone,

Here we are, a brand new month. And a good one!!! We get a long weekend for Presidents’ Day, which is always nice, and I think some school kids get ski week, which is fun!! The winter weather is a little less fierce by this point (I hope) … AND (drum roll please), this month we celebrate Valentine’s Day! No Leap Year this year though, so I guess I wont get to propose to anyone. Gee, that’s too bad!!!

As I’ve told you before, my track record with Valentine’s Day is a mixed bag. In 3rd grade I was the only girl in my class who didn’t get a Valentine – a traumatic experience! So my love life got off to a slow start, ha. I’ve been proposed to twice on Valentine’s Day, and I am corny enough to love that…. no need to hike me up a mountain for an exotic proposal, just take me to lunch, or dinner, on Valentine’s Day, and ask. Works for me!!! Some years I’ve had dates, some years I haven’t. I bought myself a red pick up truck once as a Valentine’s Day present (very fun). And we still always set a Valentine’s Day dinner table with candy hearts and a heart shaped cake. I think flowers and chocolates are lovely. I love flowers, and ANY excuse for chocolate works for me.

I don’t see a major romantic statement in my future on Valentine’s Day this year, but you never know. If not, I will hunker down with a box of chocolates and enjoy it!!! I hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day, get taken to dinner, or proposed to, or get a yummy box of chocolates, or a beautiful bouquet of flowers. And whatever happens, YOU will always be my Valentine!!!

Lots of love,

Danielle

Hi Everyone,

There’s nothing better than reading a book and getting engrossed in the story with a cup of tea, coffee, hot chocolate, or a mug of soup – especially in winter. And my new hardcover THE MISTRESS is officially on sale today! It’s the story of a beautiful young woman, living a life of abject poverty in freezing cold Russia, who is rescued by an extremely wealthy man of dubious ethics. She becomes his mistress and he saves her, and leads her into a glamourous international life. But eventually she has to confront who he is, how he lives, what he does, and who she has become at his side, and decide if that’s who she wants to be forever. It’s an exciting book about a glittering world where people get easily led astray, and danger lurks. I hope you love it!!!

When I think of January, I think of hibernation – of bears tucking into some cozy cave to sleep away the cold weather. And we all feel a little bit that way too. Many of us raced around for the holidays, buying presents, seeing family, entertaining friends, wrapping, baking, doing, maybe travelling in bad weather. And by the time the holidays are past, we are ready to tuck in for a long winter’s nap. In most places, unless you live in Florida or the Caribbean, the weather can be pretty miserable in January. Unless of course you’re a skier and the snow is great. But for the rest of us, some form of hibernation is the order of the day!

I fell over a suitcase on Christmas morning one year, broke a toe, and limped around through the rest of the holidays. A week later, I decided to stay home in freezing cold weather, put on my first DVD of Downton Abbey, which had been a gift, and binge watched the whole first season in a single day. And then spent the rest of January watching the rest!!

January is a great time to stay home, relax, tidy up, get long overdue small projects done, and wait for the weather to improve, and spring to come. By February, things will be looking hopeful. So I suggest you rest, relax, and stay warm! Maybe pick up a copy of THE MISTRESS and hole up for a few hours.

Have a wonderful cozy January!!

Love,

Danielle

Hi Everyone,

Here we are in my favorite, favorite FAVORITE month: December. I truly know how difficult the holidays can be–with family stresses, financial strains, and just too much to do–but, I am just a corny person, and I love the Christmas holidays, and even some of the Chanukah traditions that I know. Holidays are often a magnifier of the good and bad things in our lives. I love the warmth and fun, the lights and songs, and decorating the tree. I love our family traditions–baking brownies for friends, going to Church together, eating dinner together on Christmas Eve, and again on Christmas Day. Christmas used to be a frenzy of wrapping gifts and assembling toys at 3am with 9 kids. But we have all come away with cherished memories, and still cling to our traditions. We used to give a big ice skating party for our friends and their children every year. We don’t do it anymore since everyone has grown up, and my kids and many of their friends have moved away.

Christmas brings out the child in us, the secret hope that Santa will turn up. We have always had a “Santa” who comes to our house on Christmas Eve, who makes his way around the table, and asks us all what we want (and believe it or not, I actually tell him every year!!!) There have been some funny moments in our Santa visits, like the year one of my daughters, about 5 then, walked away after sitting on Santa’s lap for a photo, and said “Yerghk! Santa smells like beer!” And another daughter who asked him for a sapphire necklace when she was 6. A very sophisticated group!!

In Paris, where I spend a lot of time, the city is all lit up, and it’s just beautiful during the holiday season. When my kids were small, we used to take them downtown to look at the store windows. And I have warm memories of my own childhood holidays.

And however challenging and stressful the holidays can be, I hope there are some things that you like about them that make them special for you–maybe traditions that you enjoy, or meeting up with old friends, or making new discoveries during the holidays.

In our heart of hearts, there is always a child tucked in there somewhere, who still believes that wishes can come true, miracles happen, and Santa will bring us exactly what we want and need. I hope that for all of you, and whatever your beliefs, or none at all, that these holdiays will be very, very special.

May all your wishes come true. Have wonderful holidays!!!

Love,
Danielle

Hi Everyone,

First of all, my new novel THE AWARD is now officially on sale!!
I hope you read it soon and let me know your thoughts. And I truIy hope you enjoy it. It makes for the perfect gift book too if you are like me and do your holiday shopping early!

Today is also the first day of November. November is one of those challenging and important months, which can go any number of ways. The most important day that stands out is of course Thanksgiving. And like all holidays, it can be blessed and wonderful, or really hard. With European parents, and in Europe most of the time, I didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving as a girl. The holiday only became meaningful to me as an adult.

On the surface, Thanksgiving appears to be a holiday focused around food. I’m not much of an eater (I can be happy with a hard boiled egg and an Oreo cookie on most days – with a little peanut butter thrown in!), and big meals always seem overwhelming. But having said that, when faced with Thanksgiving, I eat way too much stuffing, cranberry sauce, and popover rolls. And I can never decide which pie to have, so I wind up eating them all: pumpkin, mince and apple – topped with whipped cream! By the end of dinner, I’m so stuffed, I can hardly talk. They say that turkey has some sort of stupefying effect on people, but in my case it is definitely the stuffing, the popovers and the pies (a carbohydrate/calorie feast.)

What I really LOVE about Thanksgiving is the excuse for families to get together, and that in truth, it is a holiday about gratitude. It’s a reminder to be thankful, and to share our gratitude, our meal, and our home with friends and those we care for. Gratitude is the essence of life, and we should be thankful for what we have, however much or little it is.

Like all holidays, Thanksgiving has the potential to be stressful or disappointing – not being able to get home to those we love, or being disassociated from them in some way, or shaken by some difficult event in our lives. The year we had lost my son Nick (only two months before the holiday) was very, very hard. And sharing a meal with our extended family isn’t always easy. But Thanksgiving isn’t just about our families, it is also about our friends. We don’t have to share the holiday with our families, we can spend it with our friends—or we can be a blessing to total strangers, serving a meal in a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen of some kind. There are many, many ways to spend the day. And the more you give to others and share with them, the more you will be blessed.

I’m grateful for my family, my friends, my work, my home, and the many blessings in my life. But I am also very, very grateful to you, my readers… for reading my books, being supportive of me, caring about my work, and making the long hours I spend writing worthwhile. I am so very grateful for you this year, and every year, and not just on Thanksgiving. Thank YOU for every moment of joy you give me.

I hope that however you spend it, big or small, simple or fancy, dressed up, or in jeans, with your family or at a homeless shelter, I hope that Thanksgiving will be a blessed day for you this year.

With much love,

Danielle

Hi Everyone!

I hope the fall is off to a good start for you. I love October!! The weather is crisp and invigorating!! Fall activities are well underway, the kids are settled back in school, there is no pressure about the holidays yet (except for people like me who start Christmas shopping in August.) I do a lot of serious writing in October, but then again, I guess I do that all the time! October just feels great, and everyone is full of energy before the really cold weather hits, or you are knee deep in snow, shovelling out your driveway.

One of our favorite family holidays is in October… Halloween, of course! When my kids were little, we spent months deciding on costumes, and making them. There were some pretty exotic ones: The Little Mermaid, assorted witches, Superman, Spiderman, Prince, Michael Jackson, Wonderwoman. And then as they got older, more complicated ones. One of my daughter’s boyfriends showed up in a costume that looked like her dog. I painted my face white one year and wore a white wig and was a “Ghost Writer.” We turned our guest room into a haunted house, with spider webs and scary sounds, and the kids loved scarying everyone!!

My children only stopped dressing for Halloween a few years ago. Some of them still occasionally do, as characters in their favorite TV shows and such. One of my daughters looked terrific two years ago as a matador/bullfighter, and went to a party with a friend who dressed as a bull. Even now, I set a table full of candy out on Halloween, and have a big cake, and my kids show up and help themselves. They don’t make a big deal of Halloween in France, so I take candy and decorations to the little kids I know there, since I’m often in that country. It’s definitely a fun day!

On the book front, I have a new hardcover coming out in just about a month, on November 1st. It’s one of my favorites, and called THE AWARD. It’s the story of a woman who was a hero in her teens in the Resistance during World War II, saving countless children, and was falsely accused of being a collaborator at the end of the war, a reputation which follows her throughout her life. Her adventures and bravery during the war were remarkable, and her life interesting thereafter (as a fashion model right after the war, married to two very different men during her lifetime, with a life in Paris and New York, and running a Holocaust museum in France in later years). Her granddaughter is a journalist who spends years trying to clear her grandmother’s name, and at last, her heroism is acknowledged. Her name is cleared and she is decorated with the Legion of Honor. It’s a very touching book, filled with excitement from World War II to the present. I hope you love the book as much as I do. There is something about heroic people during that time that is very special.

I hope you have a wonderful month, are full of energy, and that life is more treat than trick for you on Halloween and always!!

Much love,

Danielle

Hi Everyone,

Well, with Labor Day around the corner, summer is officially almost over. Mine flew by, and I’ll bet yours did too. I had two short vacations with my five youngest kids, and thoroughly enjoyed them. I’m sorry to see the summer over, but I REALLY love September and always have.

When my kids were little, September was my busiest month of the year. Getting nine kids ready for school is not easy—lunch boxes, notebooks, pens, pencils, new school books, new school uniforms and shoes, new teachers, and a million errands to run! There was so much excitement to September then, and I still feel it now. The autumn beginning, books to write, outlines to do, projects to start, plans for the rest of the year and into next year. More than January, which is always a slow month when people tend to hibernate, September has the feeling of fresh starts and new beginnings—there is excitement in the air, especially as it starts to get chilly, which is so invigorating!!!

My new hardcover RUSHING WATERS just came out yesterday. It’s about an enormous hurricane in New York and all the devastation it causes. We lived a storm like it a few years ago, when one of my daughters lost her apartment to Hurricane Sandy, with the terrible flooding. RUSHING WATERS is a fictional story, but the force of nature is always astounding. It’s an exciting book and I hope you love it!!! It centers around a group of people the storm affects, brought together by the hurricane. As they fight to survive it, their lives inextricably intertwine during the events. It’s a book about survival and courage, and how people are affected by catastrophic events, and what it brings out in them—both good and bad.

I hope you have a wonderful September, and that you have lots of plans and new projects too, and face them with new energy after some time off this summer!!! Have a great month!!

Love,

Danielle

P.S. My paperback BLUE will be out on September 20th, it’s a deeply moving story about a homeless boy, the woman he meets who wants to help him, and how they change each others’ lives forever. I hope you love that book too!!!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’ve gotten some time off this summer, and if you haven’t done so yet, I hope that you still have some vacation time coming your way in August. We all need a break when we can manage it!

August always seems a little bittersweet to me—the weather is still warm, it’s still officially summer, we may not even have gone on our vacation yet, but the evenings start to get cooler, summer’s end is near, and we can see the fall coming at us faster than we’d like. Suddenly it will be back to school, and back to work!

My birthday is in August. I’m one of those people who hate celebrating my birthdays, but it’s a good excuse to get together with my children for a long weekend… and I always look forward to that.

I’ll be busy writing in August too. Other than that, I have no big plans for the month ahead. Before revving things up in September, I’ll do my best to enjoy the last days of summer.

At the very end of this month, I have a new book coming out in hardcover and eBook, called RUSHING WATERS. It’s about a hurricane that hits New York—the damage it creates, the lives it affects, and the chaos it causes. I enjoyed writing it a lot, and I hope you love it!!!

Have a wonderful month, and enjoy these last glorious, hopefully lazy days before we get catapulted into fall, faster than we can imagine.

Love,

Danielle

Hi Everyone,

The month of April conjures up springtime and flowers, which is a nice image of the month – but not always true! I’ve been caught in snowstorms in New York and other cities (Chicago) as late as mid-April, so winter may not be entirely over. But let’s hope the weather will get warmer soon wherever you are!!

If you have kids in school, one nice thing to look forward to is spring vacation. While my children were growing up we went to Hawaii every year for Easter and their school spring break. It was a fantastic vacation for all of us! All my nine children loved it — they swam all day and enjoyed the beach. We went to luaus and they took hula lessons, and it was just a wonderful change of scene. We have terrific memories of those times in Hawaii, and two of my children still go there every year. I haven’t been in many years (about ten.) Once my older children were in college, they no longer had Easter vacation, so it didn’t work for us as a family trip. I think if I went back now it would just make me sad, remembering a time that is gone now, with kids all grown up. But I do cherish the memories, as we had a ball there!!!

April in Paris is beautiul, as the song says, but still chilly. However, as the calendar moves along, it reminds me that summer is coming, with a lot to look forward to – warmer weather, sunny days, holidays and summer vacation!!

My newest hardcover novel came out 2 weeks ago: PROPERTY OF A NOBLEWOMAN. If you haven’t had a chance to read, it’s a fascinating story with surprises and mysteries – and a big jewelry auction!

And as always, I’ll be writing this month, working on new books to give you in the near future.

Have a great month of April wherever you are!!!

Take good care!!

Love,

Danielle

Hi Everyone,

I hope that last month was a good one for you, and that Valentine’s Day turned out the way you wanted. That’s always a dicey day, with lots of hopes, and not always so easy to have it go the way you plan. So I hope it was a good one!!!

And here we are in March!!! As usual, the year is off to a racing start. It seems like the New Year began just yesterday, and BAM!!! March is already here. March is such a hopeful month, with spring promising to arrive soon, sometimes with a few teasing warm days to entice us, and then another blast of cold or snow before winter is really over. But the few warm days give us hope!!!

Easter is really early this year, coming at the end of this month. Easter used to be a big event for us (9 kids!!), with dyeing eggs until my hands were blue, green and purple for weeks, planning Easter egg hunts, and enjoying chocolate eggs. Some of my kids still come home for Easter, but many of them don’t get time off to travel. So we have a nice Easter brunch with those who are around.

March is exciting for me, because my new book PROPERTY OF A NOBLEWOMAN will be coming out on the 15th. It was a really intriguing and fun book to write! It begins with a seemingly abandoned safe deposit box in a bank, which has a stack of mysterious letters, some old photographs and newspaper clippings, and some truly spectacular jewelry in it — all belonging to a woman who appeared to die penniless. The book traces who she was and what happened in her life, all reconstructed and deduced from what is found in the box at the bank. Some truly poignant moments arise, as her history emerges and family mysteries begin to surface. Two young people, one from the bank and the other an auctioneer, attempt to solve these mysteries as they trace her life.

It also touches on the world of important jewelry auctions, which is fascinating. I hope you’ll find the book intriguing and exciting, and touching. It’s a reminder of how little we know of people sometimes, particularly older people, and how we sometimes have no idea who they were when they were young. A glamourous history emerges in the book, and our hearts are touched by the woman who left all her worldly possessions in a safe deposit box, and then failed to claim her belongings, or designate anyone to inherit them. It traces a family history through some shocking revelations, and the final discoveries of who she was changes several lives at the end. It was fascinating to write!!!

I hope March unfolds well for you, and happy first day of spring!!!

Love,
Danielle

PS – My novel COUNTRY recently released in paperback. If you missed it in hardcover, I hope you’ll enjoy it now. It’s an exciting view of the Nashville music scene, a sexy, handsome country music star, and a whole new life that begins after the heroine is widowed. She discovers a brave new world, and decides to put the past behind her and ‘seize theday’! It’s a fun book!!

Hi Everyone,

I hope that things are going along well for you. We’ve got some holidays coming up in February – President’s Day, which gives us a long weekend (always welcome!!!), Groundhog Day, which always seems a little silly to me after the classic Bill Murray movie of the same name, Chinese New Year, which is colorful, exciting, and usually with some great parades, Mardi Gras, which is fabulous and festive in New Orleans and Brazil, and Ash Wednesday, which is more serious and is the beginning of Lent before Easter 6 weeks later. Coming up this month is also my son’s birthday (which I can’t wait to celebrate!!), and the biggie: Valentine’s Day.

Since this is a Leap Year, we get a double dose of romance, which means that if your true love doesn’t come through with a proposal on Valentine’s Day, you can take control of the situation and propose to him on February 29th!!! There’s a very cute movie about that called “Leap Year” with Amy Adams and Matthew Goode. So sweet.

My Valentine’s experiences have been a mixed bag all my life. My first one in third grade (in a French school) was a total bust. I was the only girl in my class who didn’t get a Valentine. I was very sad about it, but managed to survive. And John, the eventual father of eight of my nine children, proposed to me on Valentine’s Day, which was definitely my best Valentine’s Day ever!!! He swept me off my feet, after a whirlwind romance, and we were married 4 months later on June 14. We shared seventeen very happy years married, and have stayed close forever after.

I gave a Valentine’s Day party the night he proposed (he asked me to marry him over lunch), and we both had other dates planned for the evening, and paid no attention to them after his proposal!!! They were very happy times, and we shared some very happy Valentine’s Days. He was always very creative about doing something special.

But let’s face it, real life is real life, and I have had some real dud Valentine’s Days too. Some really awful ones – no candy, no flowers, no romance. But a holiday based on chocolate can’t be all bad… in fact, it can be terrific!! My children and I love to exchange silly little gifts on Valentine’s Day. And I love anything with hearts. I collect art, paintings and sculptures with hearts on them. I have some of Jim Dine’s paintings, and some of the Robert Indiana ‘Love’ sculptures.

The French say that “love has no age”, which is a theory that I like, and actually believe in. I’m always hearing about some couple who re-found each other after many years, or met and fell in love -old enough to be my parents, or older – who decide to make the most of their ‘golden years’, and even marry. Why not?? Why shouldn’t older people be happy and even fall in love? The young don’t have a monopoly on love, it’s available to all of us at every age.

Hopefully someone will take you to dinner, or send you flowers, or bring you chocolates, or get down on one knee and propose (and yes, I’m old fashioned and believe in marriage, and the statement it makes about love and commitment, especially in the uncertain world we live in.) And if nothing is lining up for romance in your life this Valentine’s Day, you just don’t know what will happen next year. So keep an open mind – use leap year if it seems appropriate – and enjoy the chocolates. Life is full of surprises, and you just dont know what might happen this year, next year, or in a few years. I hope it will be a special day for you.

Have a great month of February, whatever you decide to celebrate!!!

Much love,

Danielle