3/27/17, New York New York!!

Hi Everyone,

I hope everything is going well for you, and that you’re busy and having fun, and that good things are happening for you. I’ve been travelling a LOT lately, and writing a lot. I’ve been travelling for the last two months. And I just had a chance to do something I haven’t done in many many years, I just spent three weeks in New York. Usually I just fly through for a night or two on my way to San Francisco or Paris. This time family events required me to be in New York for several weeks, and it was a busy, fun experience. New York is always electric, more so than either San Francisco or Paris. It gave me a wonderful opportunity to spend a lot of time with three of my daughters, without rushing off the next day. They have busy lives too, and work hard, but we managed to carve out some really good time together. I LOVED it!! I always do. It reminded me though of all the reasons why I don’t want to live in New York. Although supposedly Spring, the weather was absolutely freeezzzing the entire time I was there. It snowed lightly once, and I was there for a blizzard, when the entire city was shut down, offices and schools were closed, and I got stuck in my hotel for three days, which gave me some unexpected time to do some writing. I edited three books during the weeks in New York, had a wonderful lunch with my publisher, which was terrific, and found time to visit a very dear friend whom I hadn’t seen in too long, a remarkable woman!!! And I appeared on Good Morning America with Robin Roberts, which is always a major treat for me. My newest book “Dangerous Games” came out in hardcover a few days before I got to New York, and it was #1 on the bestseller lists yesterday. I hope you’ve had a chance to read it. It’s a political thriller, a little different for me, and an exciting book full of twists and turns and surprises, some of which even surprised me!!! So it has been a busy few weeks!!! No fashion shows, just family, and a little business. And a lot of icy cold freezing weather, every single day (in the teens most of the time I was there.)

I’m off to see the rest of my children now, visit one of them in her city, and spend Easter with the ones who’ll be around. I used to have green and blue and purple fingers for weeks after Easter, from dyeing eggs with my kids and making Easter baskets. I have to admit, I miss it!!! Now we have a grown up Easter brunch, although I provide rabbit ears for everyone who comes to lunch.

I’ve had my little Chihuahuas with me during all my travels, which is always fun for me. The puppy, Lili, is still driving Minnie and Blue crazy, she wants to play ALL the time, and they don’t. She has limitless energy, and we’re all hoping she settles down a little as she gets older!!! (Her favorite game is finding a box of Kleenex, and shredding it all over the house into a million little pieces!!)

So that’s what I’ve been up to, blizzards and New York, and family. It’s been a really lovely few weeks, and I’ll be starting a new book soon. I hope you have time to read Dangerous Games in the meantime. Have a fabulous week ahead—-hopefully without a snow storm!!

love, Danielle

PS
I was just reading some of your recent responses to my blogs, and I’m always touched by the very nice things you say!!! A few things came up that I wanted to respond to, so I am adding a PS to today’s blog.

One lady said that her happiest Valentine’s Day EVER was bringing her baby home from the hospital on that day. Me TOO!!! I brought my son Maxx home from the hospital on Valentine’s Day!!! He was 4 days old. Such happy times!!!

Another person said that they would like to see more photos. There’s an explanation for that. I don’t have a Smart phone, I am not high tech, and you would laugh if you could see my phone, which doesn’t take pictures!! I have a tiny little Nokia phone from around the year 2000. You can drop it off a building and it never breaks. It’s very small, and when someone calls me, or I have a message, it lights up. I’ve had several of them, and when they wear out, I find another one of the same vintage on the Internet, so I have been stubborn about not getting a Smart Phone—-which is why I don’t take pictures with my phone!!! But I will try to send more pictures, with someone else’s phone!!

Someone else asked why I don’t write series, or sequels to my books. (I would LOVE to write a TV series, but haven’t yet). And I’ve discussed writing sequels to my books, but I like wrapping a story up all neatly and tie up all the loose ends. And I’m always hesitant to write sequels, so that people don’t say, “nah…I liked the first one better…” I don’t like comparisons like that. So, for now, there are no sequels to the books. But you never know, that could change if I get inspired to write a sequel one day.

And the last question was a sad one. A young woman in France asked why I’ve never mentioned Julie Campbell again, the extraordinary woman who helped take care of my son Nick. I wrote about her in my book about Nick, His Bright Light, and she was a very, very important and much loved person in our lives. That story had a doubly sad ending. She fell into a deep depression after Nick’s death, and never recovered from it. Like Nick, she committed suicide not long after his death. It was a terrible loss to our family, and for hers. She left three young children and a loving husband, and we remain close to them. He remarried a wonderful woman, the children have grown up and all are doing well. She died after the book about Nick was published, and I was too shaken by her death myself, and it was just too sad news to share at the time. So she and Nick are together, and will always be greatly loved, and much missed.

So that answers some of the points you brought up. Take care, and talk to you next week!!

love, Danielle