Amy Weinland Daughters
Author of You Cannot Mess This Up and
Dear Dana
NEW BOOK
Available May 17, 2022
![Dear Dana_FINAL_CMYK[2896] - HIGHER Res Cover - Copy.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ef0144_b3a79443bf7143178ee504877431a49f~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_318,h_491,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/Dear%20Dana_FINAL_CMYK%5B2896%5D%20-%20HIGHER%20Res%20Cover%20-%20Copy.jpg)
When Amy Daughters reconnected with her old pal Dana on Facebook, she had no idea how it would change her life. Though the two women hadn’t had any contact in thirty years, it didn’t take them long to catch up—and when Amy learned that Dana’s son Parker was doing a second stint at St. Jude battling cancer, she was suddenly inspired to begin writing the pair weekly letters.
When Parker died, Amy—not knowing what else to do—continued to write Dana. Eventually, Dana wrote back, and the two became pen pals, sharing things through the mail that they had never shared before. The richness of the experience left Amy wondering something: If my life could be so changed by someone I considered “just a Facebook friend,” what would happen if I wrote all my Facebook friends a letter?
A whopping 580 handwritten letters later Amy’s life, and most of all her heart, would never, ever, be the same again. As it turned out, there were actual individuals living very real lives behind each social media profile, and she was beautifully connected to each of those extraordinary, flawed people for a specific reason. They loved her, and she loved them. And nothing—not politics, beliefs, or lifestyle—could separate them.
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You Cannot Mess This Up Photo Gallery
Praise for YOU CANNOT MESS THIS UP
Full of razor-sharp descriptions of 1970s suburbia along with witty observations that range in tone from deadpan to ebullient…overall, this is a memorable and appealingly authentic story about reconciling with one’s younger days. A refreshingly unsentimental novel of family.
KIRKUS REVIEWS
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KATHY HEPINSTALL, author of The Book of Polly
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With a fine eye for detail and dialogue and from a middle child’s perspective, Amy Weinland Daughters has written a funny, wrenching, insightful novel about what it’s like to come home . . . and the fact that you never really can come home again.
You Cannot Mess This Up explores an irresitable time travel premise...Vivacious and unique - just like little Amy - You Cannot Mess This Up is prone to oversharing in a way that is far too fearless and full of life to be awkward.
FOREWARD REVIEWS
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Amy's time-traveling visit to her ten-year-old self's world proves simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking―but always completely captivating. As she gains a better understanding of the family dynamics that shaped her life, she prompts readers to reflect upon our own. A truly fun, inspired, and enlightening read!
SHERRY STANFA-STANLEY, author of Finding My Badass Self: A Year of Truths and Dares
Hilarious and poignant, Daughters' journey through the last 40 years reveals both powerful self-awarness and meaningful discoveries about memories, reality, and what matters in life.
BOOKLIST REVIEW
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BIO
A native Houstonian and a graduate of the Texas Tech University, Amy W. Daughters has been a freelance writer for more than a decade—mostly covering college football and sometimes talking about her feelings. Her debut novel, You Cannot Mess This Up: A True Story That Never Happened (She Writes Press, 2019), was selected as the Silver Winner for Humor in the 2019 Foreword INDIES and the Overall Winner for Humor/Comedy in the 2020 Next Generation Indie Awards. An amateur historian, hack golfer, charlatan fashion model, and regular on the ribbon dancing circuit, Amy—a proud former resident of Blackwell, England, and Dayton, Ohio—currently lives in Tomball, Texas, a suburb of Houston. She is married to a foxy computer person, Willie (53), and is the lucky mother of two amazing sons, Will (23) and Matthew (15).
NEWS and EVENTS
September 2020
"You Cannot Mess This Up" is named a finalist for Fiction - Time Travel by the Reader's Favorite Book Awards
June 2020
"You Cannot Mess This Up" is selected as the Silver Winner for Humor in the 2019 Foreword INDIES
May 2020
"You Cannot Mess This Up" is selected as the Overall Winner for Humor/Comedy and as a Finalist for First Novel by the Next Generation Indie Book Awards
"You Cannot Mess This Up" is named an Eric Hoffer Book Award Category Finalist for 2020
"You Cannot Mess This Up" is awarded the Silver Medal for Popular Fiction at the 2020 IPPY awards
March 2020
Amy W. Daughters is named "Author of the Day" on ManyBooks
"You Cannot Mess This Up" is named a finalist for the Montaigne Medal
February 2020
"You Cannot Mess This Up" receives a 5-star review from Readers' Favorite