Like any epic novel, The Great Gatsby leaves the reader with much to ponder. "In any case, it was only personal." Jay Gatsby makes this statement leaving readers to wonder what would The Great Gatsby be like if it were told through the eyes of his golden girl, Daisy Fay Buchanan. What insight would she have that we want to know? What did Jay write in that letter, the infamous letter that turned to snow, leaving Daisy with nothing but the pearls purchased by Tom Buchanan? Written in the first person perspective of Daisy Fay Buchanan, Daisy's Diary answers the questions that F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece left trailing behind like the wake in The Long Island Sound. Starting in her girlhood in Louisville and continuing on to East and West Egg, Daisy tells her thoughts and secrets about the mysteries of love, loss and Jay Gatsby. With Jordan Baker by her side, she lets us glimpse into her high society life and see a new side to F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece.     From The Author      To attempt to write a novel related to The Great Gatsby brings with it a sense of awe that resonates in my heart.  F. Scott Fitzgerald touches me each time I read his words. The very first time I read The Great Gatsby, I was a senior in high school. Our teacher, Sister Nancy Burkhart, CSJ, now long deceased, looked at us and asked what we found important about Gatsby's beautiful car that gleamed with gold.       I remember turning my head around the room, wanting to answer so badly, but I said nothing. Being cool is not accomplished with an in-depth discussion of literature in the bureaucracy of high school.  I was a beautiful little fool, for sure. I let it slip through my fingers like the sand of West Egg  that final time Nick sat and pondered  Gatsby's life.   I let what I wanted to say stay silent.      What was I going to say, you ask? Well.  Well.  It wasn't until the car killed Myrtle Wilson that it became yellow.  In doing so, Fitzgerald had forever sentenced it to cowardice, hiding in its garage, the gilded gold smudged forever like grease paint.  I wish I could have told Fitzgerald that I saw the symbolism.  I think he would be pleased.        Instead, I said nothing.  Years went by and I taught The Great Gatsby. I myself was now the teacher. One thing I learned during my thirty year teaching career is that there is always at least one child in front of you who wants to bare his or her soul, but that hierarchy of high school will keep them silenced.  Until one day, one special day, they find their voices.      So I write this book in part for them; the ones who want to be heard, should be heard, but are not.   They are the other "shy girls" with wisdom beyond their years. (Much like my co-conspirator, Kara Harniman, as we earned our teaching degrees together.) They are a kindred spirit with not only me, but Fitzgerald himself.  He always felt as if he was not enough, as if he had to prove himself in order to gain the graces of the Golden Girl.       If somehow, we could arrange for a time machine of sorts to allow a young Scott Fitzgerald to sit on the front porch with a young Cindy Dite, we would have understood one another so well.  Dreamers and writers recognize the soul of another's. I recognized these traits in myself long ago. My other books are filled with vignettes and poems and observations.  This is my first full-length novel.       Teaching taught me many things.  I learned to listen.  I have also learned that I still have much to learn.  My parents, Gerard and Norma Testani Dite taught me this.  Never be afraid to keep learning.  So, I not only acknowledge them, and Fitzgerald himself, but my siblings, Patricia Keeney, Richard Dite and Pamela  Donnelly, who know what I'm talking about.  This is also the advice that I shared with my own daughters, Christiana and Jacqueline, and hope to continue to teach to my grandchildren, Jackson, Adeline and Michael.     I want to acknowledge my dear friend and co-teacher, Deborah Danti Smaldon.  In almost all of the moments of teaching The Great Gatsby , she was at my side.  I hope, dear reader, that when you read the lines, "Is it hot enough for you?  Hot!?  Hot.  Hot?? Are you hot??" Divine Intervention enabled you to hear it as through her voice....as I do every time I read it again.        Finally, for Michael, who has been my champion, my sounding board and my soul mate on this journey.  You are the one.  There aren't any more words to say than that.  I wrote this book with grateful humility and thanksgiving to God.  "Neglect not the gift that is in thee."            I have loved these characters as if they were my own family, because in truth, they are. I can only hope that F. Scott Fitzgerald would approve.   - Cynthia Dite Sirni Cynthia Dite Sirni was born in New York City and spent summers on the Long Island Sound, not far from the fictitious West Egg and East Egg. A retired New York State teacher, she resides w