Best-selling book chronicles Danielle Steel’s work with the homeless

Danielle Steel, the famous American novelist with more than 90 books to her credit and sales of 60 million copies worldwide, is easily one of the most popular and best selling authors of our times. Her book ‘A Gift of Hope’ was reissued last year but it’s reportedly as salable if not outselling her latest book, ‘Till the End of Time’ which hit bookstores last January.
‘A Gift of Hope’ is a personal memoir but it is not the conventional life story about the author, her parents, education or techniques in writing. In fact, the book is a narrative about her 11-year experience on the streets of Los Angeles with her friends and employees under cover of darkness to help the needy and homeless using her own resources without fanfare.
Steel gave away good quality sleeping bags, warm jackets, gloves and warm socks stocked in two vans. For a prolific writer with huge demands on her time, it is hard to understand how she found the time to do this charity work. But her novel, ‘A Gift of Hope’ brings out the inspiration behind the act of charity and concludes in a ‘moving and inspirational true story.”
The writer’s own life story is a checkered history of failed marriages but interestingly, she kept at her pen and with every new alliance sprung a novel of magnificence. All her novels have been bestsellers including those issued in hardback.
Perhaps the most traumatic event of her life is the birth of her son, Nicholas Trania. Nicholas was a manic-depressive child and later committed suicide overdosing on heroine. He was also the lead singer of the San Francisco punk band groups Link 80 and Knowledge. Steel wrote the nonfiction book, ‘His Bright Light’ in honor of his memory which talks about his life and death. Proceeds from the book which made it to the New York Times Nonfiction Best Sellers list were used to found the Nick Trania Foundation which Steele runs to fund organizations dedicating to treating mental illness.
“Nicky was a child who made you laugh and he always looked at me as if he wanted to say something to me and when he was around seven or eight months old he began talking. I spoke in Spanish to him most of the time.” She continues, “Nick exploded into life and began speaking at the same time he started walking.” Nicholas was speaking in full sentences by the time he was a year old. “I know now that this was not normal but at the time, it was so utterly remarkable,” Steele said.
As he grew older, the signs of his disability became more obvious. At age 11, he was harder to control and handle. He was destructive yet never hurt anyone intentionally. Nick continued to make the honor roll at school despite his learning difficulties. He was dead at 19. He had bipolar disease.
During the early days and months after Nick’s death Steel was in deep despair. But an accident concerning her daughter became the turning point for her. Her daughter had had a serious moped accident which damaged her knee resulting in seven years of grueling physical therapy and repeated surgeries which kept her on crutches. In order to distract her from her troubles, one of the doctors suggested that she work with people who were even more unfortunate than she was. Her daughter took his advice and volunteered in a pediatric cancer ward. And there, she found true passion and lifelong vocation.
“So with my face in my hands, I prayed for something to make me hold on, and to find a way to help someone else in greater need. The answer came faster than expected, was loud and clear, and was by no means the answer I wanted... It came very simply: ‘Help the homeless, “she says.
And that is where ‘A Gift of Hope’ found its beginning.
Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel (born Aug. 14, 1947), better known by the name Danielle Steel, is currently the best selling author alive and the fourth bestselling author of all time, with over 800 million copies sold. Her books have been translated into 28 languages, with 22 adapted for television, including two that have received Golden Globe nominations.

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