7/23/18, A dose of real life.

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’ve had a good week—-even a great week!! And have even taken some time off. I can’t believe how fast the summer is speeding by. We’re already halfway through it. I’m glad we still have August to look forward to!!! And I hope you have some fun plans ahead.

I had a wonderful vacation last week with four of my children, and two of their friends. We had a really great time, but that went too fast too! And as happens sometime in life, real life intervened at the very end. One of my beloved dogs, (who turned 5 this week!!) got very very sick, injured vertebrae in her neck and was in terrible pain. It breaks one’s heart when any little being, whether a child or a dog is suffering, and you don’t know what’s wrong and can only guess. A lot of tears (hers and mine) and tests later, it turned out that she had gotten an infection in her bone marrow, and once they knew what was wrong, with medication, she bounced back fast, but it was very upsetting for a while.

Even more seriously, my beloved brother in law, who has been like a true big brother to me since I was sixteen, passed away on the last day of our holiday, a sad event for me. And then, since problems and griefs usually come in bunches, like grapes, I got hit with an unexpected re-write on a book, and a big project I was excited and hopeful about, went down the tubes. So after the wonderful vacation, came a dose of real life. And I found myself having to practice what I preach (to my kids), that even when everything seems to be going wrong, some good always comes out of it, things will look up again soon, and sometimes our greatest disappointments turn out to be the greatest blessings, but it’s tough to take when the bad stuff is happening. At least I am happy to say that my little dog isn’t suffering and sick anymore, she’s bouncing around like nothing happened. She recovered very quickly once they knew what was wrong, and gave her the right medicine to clear it up. My Chihuahuas are so tiny (teacup size)/3 lbs. that it’s scary when they get sick. And she’d never been sick before.

I was sad to see my kids leave after our holiday together, and half an hour after they left, I buckled down to the re-write, and worked twenty hours a day for a week, and finished it. Work is always the best medicine and cheerer-upper for me. (As are my kids!!). I get so involved in the work that it keeps my mind off everything else. I finished the re-write last night, and am going to enjoy some adult time now, seeing friends, and maybe relaxing for a day or two before I dive into my usual pace and heavy work load. So after a terrific week, I had a not so great one. I take very little vacation/time off, so I appreciate every minute of it, especially when I spend it with my kids!!!

Hopefully August will be an easy month, I have a little more time ahead with my children, a long weekend in August, and I’ll be visiting two of my daughters.

And despite my own griefs, worries, and disappointments, I was SOOOO THRILLED that they saved all 13 of the boys trapped in the cave in Thailand. When the story first hit the news, it seemed unlikely that they would be able to find a way to save them, all of them anyway, or any of them, and when at last they brought them out one by one, I was elated. What a fantastic rescue mission, a thousand people, experts, working on it with such brilliant results—-a tragedy averted, and I can only imagine how grateful and relieved their parents are. With wisdom and dignity, they kept the press away at the end, so we didn’t get much of a view of the boys as they were rescued, but just knowing that they were safe was fantastic. The whole world was watching it unfold. Truly wonderful that they were saved. Young boys do foolish things sometimes, either fearless or testing their courage, curious to see how far they can go, it must have been terrifying for them to get trapped, and what a blessing that they were all saved!!! Bravo!!!

I hope you have a great week ahead, with some vacation plans hopefully.

And some good news for me: My new hardcover book, “The Good Fight” came out a week ago, and will hit the bestseller lists this week at #2, right after Bill Clinton’s book. Seeing my books do well, and knowing that you’re enjoying them never gets old. I hope you get a chance to read it, and love it!!! It’s about the turbulent times of the 60’s, the battles for desegregation, and the Vietnam War, and a young woman who forges ahead bravely, ahead of her times, following her grandfather’s example as a courageous Supreme Court Judge. I hope you love the book. It’s a fascinating time in our history.

Have a wonderful week, and I hope lots of good things happen for all of us….

much love, Danielle