Mother Nature Can Be a Fearsome Thing: A Guest Post by Danielle Steel
We’ve been enamored with Danielle Steel’s books for years, and we’re so excited to read her latest. Trial by Fire centers on a Parisian woman whose life instantly changes when she’s suddenly trapped by wildfires. Read on for bestselling author Danielle Steel’s exclusive guest post on the real-life inspiration for this novel and why she wanted to write it.
Hardcover
$20.30
$29.00
Trial by Fire: A Novel
Trial by Fire: A Novel
In Stock Online
Hardcover
$20.30
$29.00
One woman’s brush with death reminds us of our own fragile humanity, and what we might do with a second-chance at life.
One woman’s brush with death reminds us of our own fragile humanity, and what we might do with a second-chance at life.
The wildfires that happened in Napa and Sonoma in 2017 were fiercely impressive, and I wanted to write a book with that backdrop. I happened to be in San Francisco then, and every day we woke up with our cars covered in ash. It looked like snow. The fires were 60 miles away, but the winds brought the smoke and ashes to the city.
The news reports were frightening. We were at the mercy of the shifting winds, which brought different areas into the heart of the fire, day by day. Wildlife was severely challenged, people were losing their homes, entire towns were wiped out. Mother Nature can be a fearsome thing.
I particularly wanted to write about it, because I had been trapped in a forest fire when I was five years old. It was one of the most impressive events of my youth. I’ve been afraid of fire ever since. It happened at a summer camp I went to, and fortunately no one was injured. They wrapped us in wet blankets, and we had to run across fields to a neighboring farm. I have had a profound respect for fires ever since. And after the fire, all the campers were sent home. (I was delighted to go home)
The most impressive moment of the Napa Valley fires was one day at noon. The city was dark, it looked like nightime, the sky was black with smoke, the sun obscured. And the sky was a dark brown color. It looked like midnight, not noon. And the air quality was so dangerous we were told not to go out. I wanted to share that experience with my readers.
One of the most traumatic moments was when my young son decided to make a run for the Valley from San Francisco. Our family has owned an old ranch in Napa for many years, and the fire was swirling around it (vines don’t burn, so our vineyards protected the house). All my children’s childhood photographs were there, many framed on the wall, and mementoes of their late father’s. I forbid my son to go and he went anyway. He got past the blockades to our house, and once there, he said he could not see his hand in front of his face. He pulled over 400 photographs off the walls, not even able to see the subjects. He threw them into his car, and dashed toward the city. I had those photographs copied later. Daring, and perhaps foolhardy, he was the hero of the hour, and saved all those photographs and memories. I thought the readers should know what it was like. Trial by Fire is a terrifying experience, and seemed worthy of a book.