Daisy Whitney's Blog

Hurrah! I just learned that the Chicago Public Library picked THE MOCKINGBIRDS as one of its "Best of the Best Books for Teens." Yay! The Chicago Public Library system is amazing and I am honored to be on this list with these other fantastic books. Check it out!

I'm so excited for the upcoming debut FORGOTTEN by my fellow Little Brown author that I want to give her books away! This captivating debut is a story of love, memory and family and I had the pleasure of blurbing it, which means I have an advance reader's copy to give away! And because I love this book so much I will also give away two pre-orders of the book itself, in addition to the galley giveaway. (Please note: the book releases on June 7, so if you win a pre-order you'd receive the hardcover around the release date). All you have to do to enter is go to my Facebook page and post an entry — either a new wall post or a comment — on the last thing you remember that you had forgotten.

Editing. Yes, I'm editing. And sometimes editing is the easy part of writing. It's nipping and tucking and tweaking words, right? But sometimes, it's the hard part of writing. Because sometimes it's those little nips and tucks that make all the difference in a manuscripts. Though I suppose, the difference really lies in how well a writer can hide those cutlines and make sure there are no scars. Does that mean writing is like plastic surgery? And the best plastic surgeon makes it all look seamless? Why yes! So, you wanna hire me to do your tummy tuck too?

How could I leave you without a little romance? Because even in stories about justice, ethics, trials and juries, we ALWAYS need some romance. And I promise, readers, that you will definitely get some romance in book 2 of THE MOCKINGBIRDS, perhaps even more than in book 1! Just to whet your appetite, here's a teaser to the first kissing scene in Mockingbirds 2.

Want to know even MORE about Mockingbirds 2 (releasing in several more months)? Well, check out excerpt #2! It even shines a little light into some of the intrigue and mystery in the sequel!

Want a sneak peek of the sequel to The Mockingbirds? Here's the first of 3 video blogs in which I read from the new book that won't come out for many more months!

When you were in high school, was there someone you wanted to be just like?

OK, fine. I wanted to be like Madonna. And then I wanted to be like Patti Lupone. Obviously, I have some sort of limelight complex. But, along these lines, I'm super excited for the recent release of fellow contemporary young author Kirsten Hubbard's debut novel LIKE MANDARIN. Here's the description of the book.

It's hard finding beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming, but 14-year-old Grace Carpenter knows it's not her mother's pageant obsessions, or the cowboy dances adored by her small-town classmates. True beauty is wild-girl Mandarin Ramey: 17, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give anything to be like Mandarin. When they're united for a project, they form an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town's animal-head trophies, and searching for someplace magic. Grace plays along when Mandarin suggests they run away together. Blame it on the crazy-making wildwinds plaguing their Badlands town. Because all too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin's unique beauty hides a girl who's troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no friendship can withstand betrayal.

In Like Mandarin, 14-year-old Grace Carpenter would give anything to be like Mandarin Ramey. Mandarin is seventeen, self-assured, irreverent and mysterious; the notorious wild girl of their small Wyoming town.

Kirsten's book is likely to raise fascinating questions for readers and introspective ones too. Was there somebody you would have given anything to be like when you were a teenager? Maybe a sibling, relative, teacher, or even a celebrity.

Let me know who you wanted to be like and why!

I was recently asked by book blogger Ivy Reads who I would want to co-write a book IF I could co-write a book with anyone. I liked this question. It's an interesting hypothetical and one that most writers at some point entertain. Because, most writers, at some point, entertain most ideas. We rarely execute on them of course! But by nature, we like to use our imaginations and noodle on ideas that don't go anywhere but into the slow-cooked idea vat.

In any case, there are a handful of co-authored books in the young adult genre, such as Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Levithan and John Green, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and the many books co-written by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn. So would I co-write a book? Could I? Would it make me absolutely batty to work with someone else who probably has a different temperament, writing style, attitude, writing process, etc. than I do? Probably. Just because I KNOW my temperament, style, attitude and process and I'm just fine thank you very much working with myself. (Whoa. Am I like co-authoring a book with myself or what?) Anyway, putting aside the prospect of logistical challenges and head-banging-against-brick-wall possibilities for the sake of this purely hypothetical exercise, IF I were to co-write a novel who would I want to co-write with?

Chris Lynch. (If you follow me on Twitter, you know I've been bingeing on many of his books recently.) Here's why, as I told Ivy.

So who would you want to co-write with? And if you could read a co-written novel who would be the pair of authors?

Yeah, I do. I read endings first. I'm like Harry in "When Harry Met Sally." I read endings, I flip through to middles, I scan ahead. And yet, I still keep reading. (Well, if I like a book that is!). I knew the ending of Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (one of my favorite books) before I read it and I still read the whole story. I knew the ending of Where She Went by Gayle Forman before I read it and I still read the entire novel and still loved it (and you will too because it's AMAZING! So buy it next month!). I know most people cover their ears and avert their eyes and think knowing the ending ruins the experience, but books are a journey, movies are a journey, stories are a journey. So as long as the journey is enjoyable, I'll keep going even if I knew where we're going. In fact, maybe I'll even enjoy it more! Do you read endings first?

The current draft of my work-in-progress is titled "Soul-Sucking Version." It's only the five-thousandth revision of the story, which is WHY it earned that file name.

And, look, I'm not the only writer to refer to one of her works as "soul-sucking." This is, in fact, a common phrase writers use to describe the process of writing novels. Why do we say books are sucking our souls? Well, we are often given to dramatics. And to hyperbole. And to moaning and groaning and gnashing of teeth. We can't help it. We have no control over it. This is what we do. We are dramatic!

But, I also think there is a sliver of truth in the "soul-sucking" assignation. (Assignation – hee hee!). Because, really, a good novel should suck out a portion of a writer's soul. I don't mean to go all "artiste-y" here, but a good writer should be pouring his or her heart or soul into a novel. If you want readers to come along for the ride, to feel what your characters feel, to go to the places your characters go, to buy into the willing suspension of disbelief, then you – the writer – need to give a bit of your soul to the story.

By giving your story some of your heart, some of your brain, some of your soul, you are doing everything you can to make the eventual reading of it an authentic, meaningful experience.

That's why at the end of my life, I expect to look back and see a few pieces of my soul have been gnawed out by my books. Just picture – a chunk of a shoulder missing, a piece of a kneecap gone, a thumb disappeared.

Maybe I should write horror…