PROJECTDARLEY
Our Story
From Pen-pals to Co-Authors
Our story began in 2018, on Instagram of all places. Having bonded over our mutual interests in music, books and television, our friendship exceeded that of a simple online exchange. With Haley based in Minneapolis, and Daria in London, distance is a constant - but it never stopped our connection from growing. We pen-palled for years, having exchanged countless letters, stickers and photos, and have even gotten the chance to hangout in person not once, but twice. In 2019 we spent a day waltzing around London, England, and in 2022, Daria visited Haley while she studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark.
If you went back and told 16-year-old Haley and 17-year old Daria that they would write a book together, they would be shocked. While Haley has always been an avid writer, and Daria an avid reader, creating Heretics & Hearsay was something they could never have predicted.
The story of Heretics & Hearsay began in June of 2021.
It was a regular FaceTime call where we would typically catch-up, exchange stories and complain about the state of our worlds. Haley was telling Daria about a silly story idea when suddenly, out of the blue, Daria blurted: "What if it had something to do with Lilith?" Next thing we know, we spent an additional 3 hours on that call, conceptualizing the start of something much bigger than we could have ever imagined. The collaboration was instant. The dedication was immeasurable. We had signed ourselves up for the long haul - and man, has it been fun.
While this process has been far from easy, considering our time zone differences (6 hours), time in general, collisions of ideas, and the not-so-fun publishing industry, there is something to say about our dynamic and our equal devotion to the final product.
We hope you love our novel as much as we do. The story of Heretics and Hearsay is far from finished. We hope you continue to support us and our characters until the very end.
To us!