Books published to date:

• Honor Thyself
• Amazing Grace
• Bungalow 2
• Sisters
• H.R.H.
• Coming Home
• The House
• Toxic Bachelors
• Miracle
• Impossible
• Echoes
• Second Chance
• Ransom
• Safe Harbour
• Johnny Angel
• Dating Game
• Answered Prayers
• Sunset in St. Tropez
• The Cottage
• The Kiss
• Leap of Faith
• Lone Eagle
• Journey
• House on Hope Street
• The Wedding
• Irresistible Forces
• Granny Dan
• Bittersweet
• Mirror Image
• His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina
• The Klone and I
• The Long Road Home
• The Ghost
• Special Delivery
• The Ranch
• Silent Honor
• Malice
• Five Days in Paris
• Lightning
• Wings
• The Gift
• Accident
• Vanished
• Mixed Blessings
• Jewels
• No Greater Love
• Heartbeat
• Message From Nam
• Daddy
• Star
• Zoya
• Kaleidoscope
• Fine Things
• Wanderlust
• Secrets
• Family Album
• Full Circle
• Changes
• Thurston House
• Crossings
• Once in a Lifetime
• A Perfect Stranger
• Remembrance
• Palomino
• Love: Poems
• The Ring
• Loving
• To Love Again
• Summer's End
• Season of Passion
• The Promise
• Now and Forever
• Passion's Promise
• Going Home

Upcoming Books:

My current hardcover book is called “A Good Woman”, it takes place in the early years of the 20th century, right after the sinking of the Titanic, and goes to the years after World War I. It takes place in America and France.

The story is about a woman who leads an honorable, exemplary life, and due to other people’s actions, decisions, and poor choices, her reputation is destroyed. It’s a theme that has always resonated with me----sometimes even though we do all the right things, others can believe the worst of us, and we are branded with a reputation or label we don’t deserve. It can happen in any era at any time, and suddenly we are left to pay the price for what others have done, although innocent ourselves.

The woman in this book innocently marries a man who loves her, but has not been honest with her about himself or his life. In an attempt to right the wrong he did in marrying her, he decides to divorce her, and in the days before World War I, in New York society, her reputation is instantly destroyed. She is unjustly believed to be an adulteress, and with no other recourse, and all doors closed to her in New York, she flees to war torn France.

There are other themes in the book as well. Her passion has always been medicine, a career that was impossible for her in the aristocratic world and time in which she lived. Divorced, with no husband, no family, thousands of miles from home, she is not only set adrift in an unfamiliar world, but she suddenly has the freedom to pursue her dream. In researching the book, I discovered a fascinating Scottish woman who had not only set up a medical school for women in Scotland, but actually set up two hospitals in France, near the front, both hospitals entirely staffed by women doctors and female personnel. Our heroine begins her medical career there. Before that, she had been a volunteer at Ellis Island, another fascinating and poignant place that was wonderful to learn more about in my research. The true story of these entirely female run hospitals was an amazing discovery in the research for this book.

We follow the heroine’s dedicated medical career, through the war and medical school in France. And despite her earnest efforts, once again her reputation is jeopardized by a stranger’s violent act. Once again, she is punished with a label she does not deserve.

She is a good mother, a good doctor, a kind person, and honorable woman, yet if those around her knew her entire story, she would be shunned, just as she was in New York.

It takes her years to discover and fully understand and appreciate what a good woman she really is. Hiding her history, cringing at the ostracism she lived through, her one instance of total honesty to a man she loves leaves her abandoned yet again. She pays a high price for other people’s opinions and mistakes. And as we see her evolve, and come to realize her own worth, she and we realize that being a Good Woman does not depend on what others think and say of you, but who you truly are and what you do. The labels and accusations mean nothing, her merit is in the worthy life she leads and the good she does. At the end, the burdens that have weighed her down for so long fall away, and she is free. She recognizes in herself the Good Woman she has been all along.

There is a great deal of history, and some interesting information and important themes in this book. I hope you like reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

If you’d like to know more about this book, and my other work, published by Random House/Delacorte Press, please see my publisher’s web site for me at www.randomhouse.com/features/steel.

About the Research:

I research all my books meticulously, with the invaluable help of my researcher, who has worked with me since I began my career. All of the historical books are thoroughly researched. And in the contemporary books, we research locations, cities, industries, legal and medical details, and all the elements that go into the books. The research is as accurate as humanly possible, and literally years of work go into the research for each book.

Upcoming books: (after ‘A Good Woman’)

“One Day at a Time”/Hardcover/Delacorte Press due out in February 2009.

I had a lot of fun with this book. It’s about a chance encounter between a major Hollywood movie star (male, and handsome beyond belief) and a dog walker (female), while one is house sitting, and the other is a houseguest fleeing from his psychotic ex girlfriend. Their worlds and lives collide, and their hearts follow suit. And they manage to carry on a secret affair for an entire summer, as they get to know each other.

It’s a love story I love, with some good chuckles in it, and at a deeper level, the book portrays three unusual couples and relationships. An older woman (much) and younger man (much), and the older woman happens to be the dog walker’s famous novelist mother. She discovers her widowed mother’s secret affair entirely by accident and is shocked. The second couple is the dog walker’s older sister, who is her harshest critic and a successful Hollywood movie producer. She’s gay and is in a longstanding relationship with a loving partner. And the dog walker and movie star become a couple too. None are your typical family, all are serious, worthwhile profoundly decent people, trying to make their lives work, and facing some real life struggles that we all face at some point. No matter the age differences or sexual preferences or conflicts in careers, they’re real people with real lives, who want the same things we all do. Good lives, loving relationships, and a partner they love, trust and respect.

I hope you have fun with this book, and are touched by it. I had a terrific time writing it.