Author Interview : Daisy Whitney

Interview with Daisy Whitney

Me: In your book The Mockingbirds are a group of students who run a type of court system. Where did you come up with the idea for a student court system?

Daisy: In the first draft there were no Mockingbirds, oddly enough. The story was just Alex’s story of what happened to her and she pressed charges through an above board, school-sanctioned justice system. But it never felt right. It never felt authentic to how justice might operate for teens. So I decided to take it underground! I suppose I’ve always been fascinated by justice systems - mock trial was my favorite class in high school.

Me: Alex finds a support group by way of The Mockingbirds. Who is your support group?

Daisy: My husband and my kids are amazing! My immediate family too! And I have a great group of girl friends and guy friends. They’ve been here for me and I’ve been here for them over the years and I have learned how vital deep friendship is to making it through life’s challenges.

Me: What was the hardest part about writing The Mockingbirds?

Daisy: Digging deep into the range of emotions. I worked hard on this in edits with my editor at Little Brown. She is great and she pushed me to mine the emotions further. So many of the best scenes, in my opinion, came from my editor’s overall suggestions to wring more, more, more emotion from the story. My writer friends and I have a saying that revisions eat a little bit of your soul and it’s true — to do a book well I think you must give a piece of yourself to each one!

Me: What is your hope readers will find within the pages of your book?

Daisy: I hope they take away the belief that taking a stand is cool - whether for yourself or a friend!

Me: Do you have any future plans as far as books go?

Daisy: I just turned in a sequel to THE MOCKINGBIRDS, and I am now revising an edgy, sexy, mystery-caper story and just started a new novel about a boy that I’m really digging too!

Let me just say I love this author! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog! Check out my review of The Mockingbirds here.

just sayin,