Daisy Whitney: The Mockingbirds

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Title: The Mockingbirds

Author: Daisy Whitney
Publisher: Little Brown
Hardcover: 335 pages
ISBN: 9780316090537

Number One Novels: Congratulations on the publication of your first book! Tell me a little about it—what's your pitch?


Daisy Whitney: The Mockingbirds is the story of an underground student-run justice system at a prestigious boarding school and the cases they try, including one about date rape.

NON: How did you get the idea for your novel?

DW: I’ve always been intrigued by boarding school and also by the potential teens have to take a stand for what’s important. The Mockingbirds - an underground student-run justice system - was born from those twin thoughts as a way to look at what it takes to stand up for yourself and for others.

NON: No two authors seem to take the same route to publication, but almost every author has an interesting story about their journey. How did you get published? Did you use an agent? How did you find out that your book had sold?

DW: I wrote three chick lit novels that were repped but never sold. When I switched to writing for teens, I finally broke through and landed a book deal! But suffice to say, it was a long road paved with many rejections and I have the stack of rejection letters to prove it. But I am a big believer in perseverance so I kept writing and I view those first 300,000-plus unpublished words as writing school in a way. And, yes, I work with an agent and highly recommend working with a literary agent for anyone who is serious about getting published.

NON: I think that names say a lot about a person, especially a fictional person. How did you decide on your protagonist’s full name? Did you have any other names that were in the running?

DW: I wanted a name that was simple and strong and didn’t have too many existing connotations where you automatically think of a certain person or character, so I went with Alex Patrick. I had toyed with the name Leigh for a while too, but the main character in Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep is named Lee and because both our books take place at boarding school, my agent advised against using that first name.

NON: Do you have another book in the works?

DW: Yes! The Mockingbirds will have a sequel published in fall 2011! And I am working on many other projects as well.

NON: What's your writing routine? Do you write in the mornings, nights, daily, or when the mood strikes you?

DW: I write every day, usually in the evenings after my kids have gone to bed and after I have done my work for my clients during the day. I believe writing is like exercise and you should do it daily.

NON: What’s your favorite way to procrastinate?

DW: Reading!

NON: What’s your favorite non-essential item on your desk?

DW: Five or six purses. (For some reasons my desk has become the place where I leave all my purses. I don’t know why!)

NON: What are you currently reading?

DW: Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt