So despite the book, and my self-imposed isolation, I got dressed and went to the airport, and took the dog, and it was such a thrill to see her bounce out of the airport after her ski weekend. (Even though I lent her ski clothes she made fun of!! But wore anyway. She had the nerve to call them ‘vintage’!!! My favorite ski suits imagine that!!) She climbed into my car, and we spent an hour and a half talking and laughing and gossiping, and chuckling, and having a good time, talking about nothing in particular, and enjoying each other, and even hugging and holding hands, and trying to figure out when we can next see each other. It was just perfect, and really fun, and I was so happy I had decided to go out to the airport, and not worry about the book!! She is sooooo MUCH more important than a book, all of my kids are!!!

The moment came at last when she had to check in for her next flight, and I walked her into the airport with a lump in my throat and an ache in my heart. I hated to see her leave. The little time we had together had been so sweet. We hugged about five more times at the entrance to security, and I reached out for just one more. And then she went through security with her carry-on and her dog. I had tears in my eyes. She’s in her 20′s, but they remain our babies forever, no matter how grown up they are. As I stood gazing at her going through security, like a watchful mother hen, an incredibly grumpy security man told me to move away (as though I was a threat to airport security, waving at my daughter, a harmless woman with tears in her eyes.)  I stepped aside, blew a few more kisses and waved again, and that really pissed him off, scowling at me he told me to move far away, and pointed to a distant corner, where I could still see her through the glass wall. He must have had a really bad day, or a miserable life. In any case, I moved, and found myself standing next to a Greek man, waving just as frantically at his daughter, who looked about the same age. “Your daughter?” He asked me and I said yes, “Me too,” he said, “she lives in Vancouver”. I told him mine lived in LA. And the two of us were waving and blowing kisses at our two girls, who were blowing kisses and waving back. I was suddenly reminded of leaving her on the first day of school in Kindergarten, or standing mesmerized at the window of the hospital nursery where they are so brand new. Nothing had changed. We loved them just as much, and seeing them leave was clearly hard for both of us and our girls. (My family travels a lot, as do I and I normally don’t go to airports to see them off, but this special moment was like a gift when I could have an hour or two with my daughter in the midst of her travels, when I might not see her for another month or two).  “They’ll always be our babies”, the man commented next to me, and we chatted then about how old they are, what they do for work, how often we see them, as we continued to wave through the glass wall, and our girls continued to wave back. And then finally, they passed to the other side of security and we couldn’t see them anymore. I saw that the man had the same tears in his eyes that I did, and surely the same lump in his throat, as his daughter disappeared. “Good luck”, he said wistfully, and we shook hands…..good luck with watching them grow up….saying goodbye….watching them leave…..standing in an airport all alone, and wishing you could turn the clock back to another time, when they still lived at home, and you never had to say goodbye.  I went back to my car and drove home, thinking how lucky I was to have these precious moments with a child I love, and how blessed I am when I see them, for however little time and far too seldom, living in different cities now from several of them. That 90 minutes of hugging and talking and laughing today really was a gift, an island of joy in a turbulent world. And all I could think was Thank God, I stopped working and went to the airport to see her, even for a short time, even if it slows the flow of “genius” for an hour or two—who cares??? I was so grateful for that time with my daughter, and that I’d been smart enough to seize it, with the excuse of taking her dog. The Greek man I chatted with had the same feeling I did, of how lucky we were. Such tiny precious moments…..I will never forget them, they go in a memory book of motherhood and get tucked deep into my heart. And on the way home, she texted me from the plane, and felt the same way I did, of how lucky we had been to have those precious moments today…..I smiled through my tears when I read it…..what a beautiful day.

I get so busy sometimes, talking to you about other things, holidays, children, new dogs, relationships, travel, music, art that I rarely talk to you about writing. And in reading your comments at the end of my blogs, I see that you have a number of comments and questions that I thought I’d address here.

Most of you wrote extremely kind comments about my work, which really warm my heart. I work incredibly hard on the books, I try to make them varied and different on different subjects (you noticed!!! thank you!!!), and do very, very thorough research, whether they are historical or contemporary books. And it really means a lot to me that you notice and you care. You each have a favorite book, which are also varied and different, depending on what resonates for you, and what you’re personally going through. Many of you have offered to tell me your stories so I can turn them into a book, but I never write real people’s stories. I prefer to rely on my own imagination, although I often use things I’ve learned, the feeling of experiences I’ve had (like losing my son, or great joys), and emotions I’ve experienced, even if I use them differently than they actually happened. I am fascinated by the human condition, and human relationships of all kinds, between friends, between lovers, spouses, siblings, parent and child, even co-workers. I like what happens between people, how we impact each other, good and bad, and how we respond to the stresses in our lives, whatever they are. And those experiences are universal, we have all dealt with people we care about, or difficult families, or children, or friends, or relationships, and we’ve either been hurt or blessed or helped by those experiences. I feel strongly about what I write, which I think is why you do too. And it rings real for you, because all the emotions in it are real, and some of the experiences, so it rings real for me as I write it, and for you when you read it.

One of you asked how I can do the research, with all those kids (mine) running around. Unfortunately, they’re not running around anymore. The youngest is in college, the others are in their first jobs, and only one still lives at home. And they are running around their own lives now, I’m no longer driving carpool, or taking anyone to ballet lessons, or watching lacrosse games. I wish I were. I still spend a lot of time with them all, when they have time to see me in their busy lives, but my days are my own now. I’m not having dinner with them every night as I used to, or picking them up at school. And I miss those days. When they were little, at home and in school. I worked during their school hours, then picked them all up at school, and stayed busy with them til after dinner, and after their homework was on track and underway, and then I worked/wrote at night. I didn’t sleep a lot, and still don’t. I got used to short nights, and I still work til late at night, when it’s quiet and I have fewer distractions, and the phone doesn’t ring every five minutes.  As for the actual research, which there is a lot of for every book, I have a fantastic researcher who has seen me through all 121 books, and is fabulous with both historical and contemporary research (like about locations, or an industry). She does the basic research and then passes it on to me to read, and process, and include what I need in the books. She narrows it down for me, so I can concentrate on what she gives me. I have worked with her since my first book. She is an amazing woman!!!

There is a question that none of you asked, but I’ll answer anyway. Some fans have written in the past asking who writes my books. I was stunned the first time I was asked that question. Who writes my books? Are you kidding? I do. Every word. I was shocked at the question, I even mentioned it to my agent who informed me that some very major writers actually hire writers now to write their books and the authors just give them the outlines. I can’t even imagine that, and it seems like cutting corners in a major way to me. I write every word of my books, and do all the editing and correcting. There are no gnomes or elves in my basement or attic. I do all the work myself!!!

Will I ever write a sequel? No. I’ve been asked a lot, even by my publisher. I think sequels are an invitation to disappointment. I don’t like comparisons, and would rather do something new every time. When I finish a book, that story is over for me.

One of you asked how many times my first book was turned down. It’s actually worse than that. I was turned down by my first agent, who told me to forget writing and do something else——and that agent pretended, once I got successful, that they’d never met me or told me that. But that person did, and I was heartbroken. A friend referred me to another agent, who read my book and signed me up the next day, and believed in my work. I was 19 years old then. She sold that first book very quickly, it came out in original paperback, and by the time it came out, I had already written another one. And that’s when things got tough. The next five books did not sell, ever, and never have. I still have them, and probably someone will publish them one day after I’m gone. I have moved on, and rarely look back at books, so I’ve just put those five away, for my kids to do what they want with one day. The 7th book I wrote was a novelization, that means it was actually a screenplay for a movie (that I didn’t write), and they wanted to sell a book of it when the movie came out. So I turned the screenplay into a book, and that was the book that started the ball rolling again, and I’ve been published ever since. It was a good lesson for me though, because I had 5 unpublished books, and if I had given up before the 7th one, I would never have the career I do today; it was a great lesson in persistence!!!

One funny topic that came up in emails from you was sex. Years ago, I got a letter from an 11 year old reader who complained that there wasn’t enough sex in my books!!! Wow.  No one has complained since, but certainly sex isn’t the main focus of my books. With only a couple of exceptions, there are always some sex scenes in my books, although I hope they are tastefully handled, and they have to make sense with the characters and the story. But I write about real things that happen, unfortunately people do cheat on each other, or take advantage of others. There is a rape scene in “A Good Woman”, and those things happen too. My main characters tend to be decent people (except when they are intentionally male or female villains), who do their best in life, like the rest of us. And when I write about ‘bad’ people, it’s clear that that’s what they are. But in the recent comments to the blogs, one woman complained that I write about immoral events and people, that I shouldn’t be writing about cheating, or other immoral acts, and that all the sex should be between married people. Fortunately or unfortunately, that’s not part of real life today, and as a writer I chronicle the kind of real life experiences many of us have, or that exist in the real world. So I write about a broader spectrum, and I take a stand for integrity on all subjects. And I can’t satisfy every reader, and purify a world that isn’t pure in the real world. But that one reader considered me highly immoral!!! I’m sorry about that, but the books are more meaningful if they report accurately on what happens in the world today. We may not like what some people do, but they do it nonetheless. As I said, integrity is important to me, and being tasteful. I try not to offend anyone with what I write, and it always has to make sense in the story.

Another reader who answered the blogs complained that my stories aren’t more religious. I’m actually a religious person, personally, but I don’t feel right imposing it on anyone else. That’s a very, very personal thing, and once again, my stories would be much too limited if they only centered around a religious theme. Again, it’s about integrity and values, but I don’t think it would be fair to my non-religious readers to focus on only religious themes. I try to stay away from religion and politics as a good rule of thumb, although once in a while religion may become part of the story, if I write about nuns. But I try to keep things varied and not offend anyone.

I hope that answers some of your questions, and as you read this, I’ll be starting a new book!!! Thank you for reading them, and for all your wonderful comments!!!

Love, Danielle

Love, Danielle

First, I wrote some poems in French, then the composer showed me how to break them into ‘couplets’ (in French, which tell the story), then I added the refrain. The number of beats in each couplet, and the refrain, were very important. It was a whole new language of creativity for me, which made it that much more exciting to work on. Meanwhile, the composer worked on music to go with what I’d written (and I love his music!!). We’re still working on it, and I love all that I’m learning. I wrote the lyrics in French, and then translated them into English as well, and the composer created music to go with my words. And on the last song, he wrote the music, and I tailored the lyrics to work with it. This has been so much fun, and so educational for me. What a fascinating process, and whereas my normal work is so solitary, this is a real collaboration, and it’s so much fun to work on this together, and have company (the composer) while I do it. I hope the final result is good.

For now, we have a very rough version of one song, on CD, with both lyrics and music, in French. The composer still needs to polish up the music, and do the arrangements, and the singer needs to rehearse what we’ve done. In time, we will make proper recordings of all these songs, with full implementation of music and lyrics, in both languages. It is REALLY exciting for me. It has been a very exciting process, and a real joy to work in collaboration with two very talented people. We made 5 songs in all, and will do polished recordings of them. I try to take a break from writing in the summer, so this was a perfect time for me to work on it.

Anyway, I wanted to share that with you. The young composer spent hours with me, working on these songs. He brought a portable electric keyboard, and we sat at my kitchen table, working on all the songs.  I had an absolutely terrific time doing it—–and I hope you’ll be hearing more about these songs soon!!! The sounds of music were echoing in my kitchen this summer!!!!!!

Love, Danielle

I’ll be busy writing for the next couple weeks so I won’t be posting a new blog for a little while.  Until then…

Love, Danielle

In the second chapter, you fast forward 16 years. The kids are pretty much grown up, the oldest is the jewelry editor of a fashion magazine and leads a high powered very stressful life (afraid to attach to anyone since her parents died). The middle child, a boy, is a law student, and the youngest child is an art student and a very independent kid (tattoos, piercings, and very much her own person). The aunt who brought them up adores them, and they love her. And she is now adjusting to their having grown up and moved out, and the void they have left in her life. For 16 years, her whole life has centered around them, so now what does she do? She has a successful business, but an empty nest, and hasn’t had the time or inclination to have a serious man in her life for 16 years, she was too busy bringing up the kids.

The book is about everything that happens after that, to the 3 young people, to the aunt, their relationship with each other, and with other people. The people they get involved with, the situations they face. There are a lot of touching things in it, and some funny ones (a series of terrible blind dates set up by friends who insist she has to find a guy, and she really doesn’t want to—particularly after those dates.). I love the book, and I hope you will too. It’s about 4 people, facing real life and the real world, and the situations that some of us face, with kids, and just trying to cope, particularly as single parents—-and in this case, the kids aren’t even hers, but they might as well be, she has been a wonderful stand-in single parent for them. And of course there is some excitement and adventure and a few hairy scary moments.

Anyway, I wanted to share with you that the book is out. I hope that you’ll buy it and love it. I have a paperback out right now too, “Matters of the Heart”, about the very unnerving story of a woman who gets involved with a charming sociopath. Parts of that are terrifying, and experiences like that must happen to a lot of people, because I got an enormous amount of mail from people who had survived similar situations. I try to write about the things that happen to real people, and affect us all. If you have time for summer reading, I hope you’ll buy the books!!! Love, Danielle

I’ve been meaning to tell you about a restaurant for a while, after my last stay in Paris. I had been there years before and forgotten about it, it’s a wonderful bistro in the 7th arrondissement in Paris, called “La Fontaine de Mars”, it’s small and crowded, but with an airy, spacious outdoor terrace, typically French food and great atmosphere, and word must travel, because apparently President Obama ate there when he was last in Paris. I had a fun evening there with a friend, and we had ‘blood sausage’, which probably sounds terrible, but was delicious!!! Very French (although Italians eat it too). So if any of you are going to Paris this summer, you might enjoy a meal at “La Fontaine de Mars”.

My summer is rolling into gear. I will be on “Good Morning America” for my new book, on Friday June 11. The book is “Family Ties”, and I’m excited about it. It is about a young woman who inherits her sister’s 3 children, when her sister dies in an accident. I love writing about the relationships in families, in this case between 3 siblings and an aunt, who loves them dearly, and rises to the occasion to bring them up. (She is only 26 when the children move in with her, and I focus on the time l6 years later, when she is in her early 40′s, and the kids are almost grown up.). I hope you like the book!!

After my appearance on Good Morning America this Friday, I will be off to my usual summer plans, with my children for part of the time, in Italy and France, I’m going to a fabulous art fair in Switzerland that I have always wanted to go to. And in August, I will be curating an art show myself, which I love doing. I still miss the contemporary art gallery I had, and closed a couple of years ago. The art world is always so exciting. So I’ll keep you posted on my doings. I just wanted to let you know about my appearance on Good Morning America, and give you a hot restaurant tip, in case you go to Paris.

More soon, love, Danielle

I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything in a couple weeks.  I’ve been so busy, buried in writing a new book, but I promise I’ll have a new post to share with all of you very soon!!!  Thanks for all the support!!!

Love, Danielle

I try to make the photographs relate to the subject of the book, if possible. We shoot several book covers over two days, in different outfits and different locations. And it may not seem like it, but it’s a lot of work.

The photographer who usually does it is a wonderful French woman name Brigitte Lacombe, who works all over the world and is based in New York. She travels to exotic locations, and does beautiful portraits of her subjects. There is a book out of her work. She is brilliant at what she does and has photographed a lot of well known people. She is discreet, charming, intelligent, unpretentious, enormously talented and very modest. And the results are excellent. It’s a real pleasure to work with her. Scheduling our sessions together takes time, because her schedule is so full, and she usually has to travel from halfway around the world to meet me. Today she came from Korea, via Tuscany and then LA, and we met in San Francisco, and spent two days photographing in different settings around my house, in different outfits, for about 10 hours a day. She works the way I do, and likes to power through until she gets the shots she wants.

We did many set ups, in a big antique chair, at my desk, in a vintage chair from the 60’s, in front of a 17th century tapestry for a historical novel I have coming up. We did some head shots in front of a large roll of plain paper for a simple backdrop, and in a family living room. This time, we stayed mostly in the house, although sometimes we work outdoors. And I changed clothes for each set up. We hope to get several book jacket photos out of the last two days work. She has three assistants who travel with her, and she arrives with a mountain of equipment, and an assortment of very fancy looking cameras. One of my assistants works with us, and a hairdresser and a make-up artist…and by the end of the day all I want to do is wash my face, rumple up my hair, and put on jeans and an old sweater. But I try to look decent in the photographs for my readers—it seems like the least I can do! This was the first time we took photographs of me at my desk, which is usually sacred territory, in my tiny little office, filled with mementos from my children, their framed nursery school reports, and treasures they have made me over the years. I spend most of my time there, with a view of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. Brigitte had to stand on the fire escape to photograph me at my desk, because the room is so small.

In the past, in our outdoor photo shoots, we have taken photographs in front of the Golden Gate Bridge (for Amazing Grace), in a garden (for Bungalow 2), and last year in Paris (for Rogue and Matters of the Heart, and several of my upcoming books). Because both our schedule are so tight, we try to do several covers at one sitting, once every two years. But today, we stayed inside, looking for cozy settings in my house. We even took a photo of me with one of my dogs once (for Sisters), because there were some very funny dogs in that book. We try to keep each cover different, and interesting for the readers. And next week, I will be shooting videos to be shown on the Internet. So that’s what I’m up to. It’s keeping me busy and pretty soon I’ll be hard at work on a new book, locked up in my office, pounding away on my typewriter. I can hardly wait!!!

It’s actually fun working on an outline and getting into the story, developing the characters and the plot, and pulling it all together in a chapter by chapter outline. I do the outlines so I know exactly where I’m going when I start a book. It’s a great chance to refine it and make the story really work.

It used to be that Labor Day marked the end of the summer but now kids go back to school earlier and earlier, and Labor Day is just a long weekend after many of us have gone back to work.

I hate to see the summer end. It was so much fun, and I have a lot of work ahead this winter. Most of all, I miss my kids once they leave. We have wonderful memories from this summer.

So happy fall, everyone!! And as the seven dwarves said in Snow White….it’s off to work we go!!