Character Interview with Daisy, from my novel The Daisy List

Today I’m linking up from Sky from Further Up and Further In as well as Cait from Notebook Sisters. It’s part of the Beautiful People meme, which is where you interview the characters from your novels/stories. The characters are the “beautiful people,” see? It’s very clever.

Today I’m interviewing Daisy Wright.

Also, this is very embarrassing but I actually just forgot her last name.

Clearly I need to get back to this story. What is the story, you ask?

 

The Daisy List!

It’s called The Daisy List. It’s about a girl called Daisy (duh), who finds out that her mother has terminal cancer. The family moves to England, the mother’s home country, so that she can die there. And then the Mum gives Daisy her bucket list (called a “daisy list,” after the eupehmism “pushing up daisies”) to complete. It’s a very complicated situation, because the Mum is…well, kind of horrible sometimes, but Daisy can’t hate her because she’s dying. And it’s about friendship and family and of course there’s the daisy list itself: prank calls and sleeping under the stars and unicycle riding, among other things.

So it’s about Daisy learning to be happy despite what’s happening to her mum, and realising that she’s allowed to be happy. I quite like it. I shoved it over to Cait (from Notebook Sisters) once I was finished the second draft, since she’s my CP and I did not want to look at it for a…long time. But once I’m finished Wanderland – about another month yet) I’m eager to get back to it.

 

Back to Daisy.

 

1) What does your character regret the most in their life?

I guess she regrets not getting to know her mum more. With the cancer and everything, she’s becoming less and less like herself. They’re both quite stubborn and strong-willed, and she regrets that she didn’t make as much of an effort to bond with her mum and understand her.

 

2) What is your character’s happiest memory? Most sorrowful memory?

Happy memory: this was when Daisy was a kid, and they were at a caravan park near the beach. I actually wrote about this in the novel, so here’s a short snippet that shows you a bit of the memory:

We grabbed the boogie boards and raced to where the ocean met the creek. The current carried us right around to where it met the ocean again on the other side.

                Matilda rode on Mum’s back, as Mum and Dad splashed each other, laughing.

                I splashed Liam and for once he didn’t complain about the salt water getting into his eyes. We rode again and again and again, sometimes with the boogie boards, sometimes without – those times were the best, when we lay on our backs and let the water carry us.

                If I believed in re-incarnation, I’d want to be a water droplet. Think how amazing that would be. You’d just tumble around your whole life, never having to fear injury or death. You could be part of the Niagara Falls, or a morning dew drop on a leaf, or the first spot of rain on someone’s nose.

                On that day I felt as free as a drop of water, and I couldn’t get rid of the grin. That night we cooked a barbecue and drip-dried on the beach. That night was what I’d always thought families were supposed to do. What parents were supposed to do.

Sorrowful memory: This occurs while the family is in England, when Daisy’s Mum is sick, and tired, and angry. And Daisy’s sister, Matilda, is affected really badly by what’s happening. So Matilda screams that she’s going to kill herself. This is a ten-year-old kid. And the Mum says that it’s about time.

And that’s the moment when Daisy wishes her Mum would die. Only for a few seconds before she realises it. But this is the sort of conflict she’s going through, and it just…IT’S A REALLY SAD STORY TO WRITE, OKAY? We need a gif to lighten it up.

There we go.

3) What majorly gets on your character’s nerves?

Basically just everything her mum says.

4) Do they act differently when they’re around people as opposed to being alone? If so, how?

Hmmmm. Not so much. She’s different around her friends compared to her family, though – she’s much happier around her friends, whereas she’s by turns defensive/sad around her family.

5) What are their beliefs and superstitions? (Examples: their religion or lack of one, conspiracy theories, throwing salt, fear of black cats.)

She’s not religious or anything, but I guess her biggest belief is that completing the Daisy List will mean something – that it will fix her relationship with her mum, or it’ll make her mum get better or something. That’s what she clings to.

6) What are their catchphrases, or things they say frequently?

OOOOH, this means I get to talk about Kevin.

So Kevin is the friend Daisy makes once she gets to England. And he’s lovely. ALSO HE’S NOT A LOVE INTEREST SO BOOYAH. Anyway, so his last name is Wong, because he’s half-Taiwanese. Which means that together they’re Wong and Wright. So that’s kind of their catchphrase. Plus it fits into the themes of the book nicely, how ways of dealing with grief are wrong/right.

7) Would they be more prone to facing fears or running from them?

Running from them. She doesn’t want to face the fact that her mum’s dying at ALL.

8) Do they have a good self image?

In terms of body image, she’s fine with that. But she’s constantly worrying about her reactions to things. She’s worried that she’s not reacting the right way, or thinking the right things.

9) Do they turn to people when they’re upset, or do they isolate themselves?

She definitely tries to isolate herself to begin with. But eventually she does let Kevin in a little more (and even more in the third draft, which I’ve decided just now).

10) If they were standing next to you would it make you laugh or cry?

Does that give you enough of an answer? I WANT TO HUG HER ALL THROUGH THIS BOOK. But I can’t. Because, you know, she’s FICTIONAL.

But also I think I would have a lot of fun helping her with the Daisy List. There are some cool things on that list.

 

So that’s Daisy. What do you think of her/the story? OH, and also, do your characters ever make you cry?