Always Makes Me Happy

Question:

I’d like to first say thank you.  Reading a new book of yours always makes me happy.

I’m a nearly-thirty year-old guy, and I have been reading your Alice books since I first discovered them when I was 12.  It hit me yesterday on my day off that there should be a new one out now, and I took time to stop by the bookstore and get myself a copy of Intensely Alice.  Once I started I couldn’t put it down, just like usual.  I wanted to let you know that I also had a very strong emotional reaction to the ending of the book and ended up crying for a while afterwards.  It made me remember how much I cried over Denise when I first read Alice in April.  That doesn’t happen often or easily for me, but as I read about the one and remembered the other, you hit a tender spot in my heart.  Thank you.  The books I feel expected to read now as an adult often bore me, and rarely touch me, the way yours do.  Thank you again for reminding me why I love reading.  When my niece is old enough I hope to share these books with her as well, because they’re very moving, and funny, and educational all at once.

Phyllis replied:

A lot of guys like the Alice books, and for the same reasons that you do.  I must admit that I cried a lot when I wrote a couple of those chapters, and tears come to my eyes whenever I reread one particular scene.  I do get very involved with Alice, since I’ve known her now for 25 years!  I’m delighted that you follow her adventures, and very much appreciate your writing to me.