A Letter from Danielle for October ’23
Hi Everyone,
October is one of my favorite months, as the weather cools—which is always energizing—and the fall gets busy with new projects and writing new books. I always find October inspiring, it’s just cool enough but not freezing yet, and we seem to hit our stride in this month.
And for comic relief we have Halloween at the end of the month, which was always a BIG event at my house when my kids were younger, all the way through high school and into college. They took Halloween very seriously!! Lots of goblins and Batmen and Supermen and Wonderwomen as well as scary ghosts and witches and Disney characters, at my house on Halloween!!!
Two of my favorite recent books are coming out this month. Second Act in hardcover, about a very powerful studio head in Hollywood, at the top of his game for the last 20 years. He sacrificed everything for his success, including his relationship with his wife and daughter, and his marriage ended in divorce. A sudden twist of fate and the studio is sold, and the hero in the book, a really great guy and a HUGE success, loses his job, his status, his power and position, and his self-confidence. He hits rock bottom, goes away to a small forgotten beach town in England, and meets a woman who is also trying to recover from tragedy and rebuild her life. The book is an intimate view of what happens to a man’s heart and soul when he loses everything he built and worked for. Who does he become? What does he do? What will he do with the rest of his life? The book is the story of his discovering himself in a new light, and the new life he creates for himself . . . and then the tables turn again . . . the doors which slammed in his face just a year ago open slowly again—and what will he do now? Keep moving forward in a new life, or return to an addictive, enticing high-speed, high-risk past? Second Act comes out at the beginning of the month. I hope you’ll love it.
And at the end of October, my book Without a Trace will come out in paperback, which examines a different aspect of a man facing a whole new life. In Second Act, a radical change is brutally thrust on one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. And in Without a Trace, the hero hates his job, his life, and his marriage has been dead for years. He has a terrible accident on the road at the edge of a cliff one night. His car plunges into the water and he nearly drowns, and, as he survives the accident, he realizes that he could walk away and let everyone think he died—which is what he does. And completely unknown, he begins a whole new life and he leaves his old life behind. The book is about the complications he faces, the new life he builds, the old life he walks away from, and all that he learns about himself and the people he loves in the process. I hope you love that book too. Two really strong reads for October. Have a great time with them!! And a great Halloween if you’re out trick or treating!!! Have fun with October!!!
Love,
Danielle