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Dating Daisy by Daisy Mae
I'm delighted to take part in the blog tour for this rather unusual book
About the book
What do you do when you're a newly divorced 52 year old mother, keen for a second chance of romance?
Why internet dating of course!
Daisy Mae_224 embarks on the internet dating process with trepidation. Having not been on the dating scene for nearly 30 years, and with fairly rudimentary computer skills, she finds herself embroiled in a series of haphazard and hilarious situations. Daisy keeps a diary of her internet dating life and reveals detail by detail, the ups and downs of her midlife dating extravaganza. Soon after starting out, Daisy realises her true mission. With no past experience and no-one/nothing to guide her, she needs to produce - Internet Dating lessons.
Read on to find out about PLONKERS, muppets and MAWDs, and a whole host of amusing anecdotes, tips and ideas. Working by day as a Sexual Health doctor, the story as it unfolds contains accounts of Daisy's clinical experiences with patients in the Sexual Health clinic. She also reflects on her past life with Voldemort (the dreadful ex-husband). With advice and encouragement from Imogen, her 17 year old daughter, her surrogate parents known as the Amigos, with a big house and swanky swimming pool, her friend Pinkie and from Jeannie, her nonagenarian friend from the Nursing Home, Daisy resiliently persists in her quest to find a long term partner.
This is a heartfelt story that will ring bells with anyone who has ended a long term relationship and now wants to find somebody new. It is humorously written, full of emails, poems, limericks, and even a recipe! Daisy can't resist her pages of advice on topics like "Kissing" and "Anti-Snoring."
It is a unique and highly amusing book, which will make you laugh out loud! So read on and see. Will Dating Daisy find her "prairie vole?" Or will the whole process end in disaster?
About the author:
Living in the South of England Daisy_234 shares many similar professional, life, and dating, experiences as her protagonist; for this reason she has chosen to write under a pen name.
Here's what the author has to say about writing her book:
Experiences of Writing Dating Daisy and whether I would do anything differently next time?
Hi Lilac & Readers,
Thank you for your interest in my book Dating Daisy. Firstly I love the name of your blog. One of my current catch phrases is that “my new life is in technicolour and my old life was in black and white.” So colours are very evocative for me – and” lilac” seems a perfect reading colour. It’s calm, warm, thought provoking and alluring.
My experiences of writing Dating Daisy are multitudinous! Any fellow writers out there will know that the hardest part is getting started. Although I have always loved writing, it took me five decades to finish a manuscript! Why? Because life events like marriage, a degree and career in medicine and having children got in the way.
In truth it was the shock of the end of my marriage after 27 years, followed swiftly by the death of both of my parents, which jolted me into reality. I did not want to be alone. This was now a blue light emergency. I needed to find a soul mate, and fast.
I’ve heard people say that those who internet date are “desperate”. Always easy to criticise if you are on the other side of the fence! But you know what – I wasn’t desperate. I was just very in tune with my biological self. Some people may love their own company, but I do not. I wanted someone to do things with, to have dinner with every night, go on holiday with, play scrabble with!, to go ballroom dancing with. (Ballroom dancing is my passion in my sparetime!) I needed a best friend. I love to be loved. Time was ticking by. In my inner self I knew I couldn’t just sit on the sofa! It had to be done! – So I started the whole caboodle of Internet Dating, aged 52.
I wrote the book initially to keep myself company. It seemed I was sharing my stories with a friend. I made myself laugh as I wrote them down. Everything in the book has been changed, names, dates, times, places .. .to preserve anonymity. And of course I embroidered and altered the events, added a sub plot, exaggerated my characters. I loved it. However it could be frustrating. Sometimes it took an agonising 48 hours, just to come up with one suitable, new, fictitious, internet dating name!
I wrote at all hours, as I didn’t sleep. If I did sleep, I would suddenly jolt awake up with an idea and write it down on the pad next to me. My friends and family were very curious about the book. I sent various chapters to various people, including the chalet maids my son was working for in a ski company! -and they loved it. Everyone wanted more. So I continued to write.
I loved writing Dating Daisy, it was not onerous at all. I did have practical problems, such as the fact I had to move out of my big family house, I had to change internet provider, have a new computer. I had had to go back to work fulltime, so after a while I was fitting the writing around my day job. In the first year of writing my mother died horrifically from bowel cancer. In the third year my father followed suit with pancreatic cancer. I was completely devastated. I stopped writing for about a year.
However, writing is in my blood. The manuscript had grown so fat, even I could not find my way around it! I felt this urge to continue to tell my story. If there is a message in the book, I would like women over 50 to realise there is a big world out there. Even when things go horribly wrong, you can pick yourself up and start again. All that’s required is a positive attitude and a little sprinkling of courage!
There were some knockbacks along the way. It was a common disappointment to agree to a date, having emailed a prospective partner for some time, and full of anticipation, but then know the minute I actually set eyes on them, that they were not for me. Sometimes I cried all the way home. But I soon realised, the best way to deal with this is to treat the dating as a game. It’s more fun going off on a date than sitting in front of the TV with a packet of biscuits! Try not to see every date as a possible Mr Perfect. Before you meet a handsome prince you have to kiss a lot of frogs! Just take it for what it is, a game, and if, and only ever if, it works out, well wouldn’t that be an amazing bonus!
I took inspiration from things around me. I think the name Daisy came from a beautiful picture that had hung in our hall since we were first married. It’s called A Breeze of Daisies by Malcolm Thompson. The day I knew we would be going through a divorce, I rushed home, took the picture down and stored it at a friend’s house. It was the only item I wanted from the marital home. It hangs next to the front door in our new house, and reminds me very day when I cross the threshold that this is my new life and my new home, forever. However I didn’t think about all this until much later. The name Daisy just flew into my head at the beginning. Then I started to wonder where it had come from. And I think this must have been the case!
I didn’t read any other books about Internet Dating before, during or after I wrote the book. I don’t know why. I decided one theme of the book was to use my experiences to guide others new to internet dating. So Daisy, compiles Internet dating lessons. I think I wanted to find it all out for myself. But perhaps I should have done some research about the psychology of dating and been a bit more scientific in my approach? I don’t know.
I put icons in the book, as it seemed quirky at the time. Little pictures of mobile phones, computers and cameras, to signify phone calls, emails and photos. Plus there is a little daisy icon for every date. We were unsure if this was good or bad when we came to produce the final copy, but anyway, they are still there. They do lend the book a comical feel, which is very appropriate for a humorous book.
So back to the colours, I am now enjoying a ruby red existence! I wake up every day and can’t believe the new life I have for myself. I can breathe, and sleep now. Life in technicolour.
I hope Dating Daisy will entertain, and inspire others who find themselves in a similar predicament! There is someone out there for everyone.
Happy Reading!
Kind regards,
Daisy
