Any Ideas for the Final Book?

Question:

Hello. I have written to you a couple of years ago and now I am back! I finally got my hands on your latest Alice McKinley book, and I loved it! It was another wonderful book to read for the summer and I’m so sad that I finished it in two days!  I’m even more sad that there is only two books left, I just checked out your website and I see that Aways Alice will be released in 2013..I wish 2013 could get here by tomorrow haha! I can’t wait to read the last two books, I hope whatever you do, please end the series on a GREAT note!

I started reading the Alice series after my wonderful 6th grade English teacher recommended the books to me.  At the time, Alice was just starting middle school and I happen to have started middle school, so I guess I am a little older than Alice? How ironic is that? So you can pretty much conclude that Alice and I have grown up together.  I will never ever get tired of reading the series, and even though I am excited to read the conclusion, I am just as sad because it also means that this is the end of the series.  I felt the same way when part 2 of Harry Potter came out in theaters this summer.  It’s a lot like saying good bye to a very, very good friend.  In 2013, I will be 21 years old, and I think you picked a perfect year to end the series.  I think turning 21 will be a good time to say good bye to Alice, good bye to my teen years and move on to adulthood.  I am SO lucky to have picked up your book, I get so excited when May rolls around every year because I know a new Alice book will be released.  I know I’ll feel right at home, even if I may not be exactly at home, when I’m reading your book and laughing at all the silly things Alice gets herself into. 

Thank you so writing such amazing books!  Sometimes I wonder where in the world would I be if Alice was never born? Have you started a draft for the next book? Any ideas for the final book? You probably can’t exactly answer my question but please give me a hint!!

Phyllis replied:

Thanks so much for your email.  The final two books have ALREADY been written, and are on my editor’s desk.  They will be published, as always, in May, one in 2012 and the last one in 2013.  All I can tell you is that the final book, following the big events in Alice’s life from age 18 to 60, is perhaps my favorite of the series.  A LOT happens.