Your Questions Answered
Question:
this year i went to a new school everything went fine talking to my old friends from the school i wen to last year a guy that went to my school last year started talking to me on facebook today and i didnt think anything of it at firsti soon relized that we had been talking for an hour and a halfand that he was asking if i wuz dating any one to me it didnt seem weird d/c we had been friends last year but nothen more he wanted to know about my ex-boy why we broke up and then we were talking and he wought i love you to i didnt know wat he ment by that so i kinda just ignored that well basically my porpose for this e-mail is that he is a really really nice guy and he asked me out and i dont want to go out with him i just want to have him as a friend but he is the type of guy that is all or none at my new school i have met alot of guys that i like more than him but i just dont know wat to do i know that u cant make this choose for me that it is my choose to make but if u have a chance could u just maybe give some advice
P.S. I LOVE THE ALICE BOOKS THEY R THE BEST AND SOO R U=]
Phyllis replied:
You need to be up-front with him from the get-go. A guy who tells you he loves you after talking to you on Facebook is a red flag, in my book. And especially your sentence, “the type of guy that it is all or none.” Tell him frankly, without hedging, that you’re not looking for a boyfriend right now, you just want to meet a lot of people, then stick to it. Keep your Facebook conversations short. If he deserves to be a friend, he’ll respect your feelings.
Posted on: September 26, 2009
Question:
Whenevr I read an Alice book, its like a movie in my head. I can make different voices in my head for each character, and I already have the McKinley’s house set up in my mind. Its so cool! I hope someday, Alice and Patrick get engaged, or alice does something real wild, like go really far with a boy. Whenever I myself am in a diffucult situation, i think, “What would Alice do if she was real?” I always think that, because she has been through soo much. To me, she is like a good, good friend who I can depend on. Sometimes I get choked up because its just a series and the characherts aren’t real. I really love your writing, you, alice, patrick, and lester!!!:)
Phyllis replied:
Well, Alice doesn’t always choose the wisest thing, but she gives it a try. Sometimes when we’re faced with a decision, we make the best choice we can at the moment, and only later discover it should have been something else. Other times, we choose something we know is riskier, and then we have to be prepared for however it turns out.
Posted on: September 26, 2009
Question:
I just finished Intensley Alice. WOW. That was the greatest book out of the whole series, to me. All I could do was cry at the end. When Patrick said, “Wish you were here. We’ll miss you.” I just stared. It was so intense and surreal. I live in Virginia, so Its cool to live sort of close to Silver Springs. I love all the Alice Books, and i thought the person who posed for patrick was cute. I love your books and writing because your so real and get into character. I can relate to everything, and I don’t want the series to end, but i know it has to. Your books are the ones I know I can read over and over again, so i’m not worried. I know there is another book coming out in 2010, and I was wondering, if your still writing, could you mention my name in the book?
Phyllis replied:
I get a lot of requests to mention a reader’s name, or to name a character after somebody, but I’m sorry that I can’t. It just doesn’t work to know that a real person is behind a character, when I have my own very special idea about that character. But I’m flattered that there are readers who wish they were in the story right beside Alice.
Posted on: September 25, 2009
Question:
How do you write your books? Do you type them on the computer or hand write them, or record them and have someone else write them, or even use a type writer?
Phyllis replied:
I write on a clipboard, sitting in a really comfortable chair. After I hand-write the first chapter, I immediately go back and rewrite it by hand, so that I can still read it the next day. The first draft is pretty sloppy. After I’ve written it twice, I type it on the computer, changing again as I go. I print it out, edit it some more, print it again, have my husband read it and criticize it, rewrite it again, print it out, and finally, when I’m satisfied it’s the best I can do, I send it to the editor, who will ask for more changes and revisions. I think the most revisions I ever did on a manuscript was for my book ICE–18 revisions.
Posted on: September 25, 2009
Question:
I came across The Official Alice Blog and spent some time reading it in my lunch hour at work. I am 23, coming up for 24 years old. I read my first Alice book when I was 12. I believe it was ‘Reluctantly, Alice.’ For a long time, it was my favourite book and I branched out to ‘The Agony of Alice,’ ‘All but Alice,’ ‘Alice in April’ and ‘Alice in Rapture, Sort of.’ I never saw any of the others in the bookshops and that was where my Alice reading stopped. I turned into quite the Amazon fan when I was 18 and invested in a few more of the books. Ever since then, on and off I have been buying them when I need a bit of comfort and a pick me up. Perhaps I am too old to still be reading about Alice, but she feels like a dependable friend and someone you can rely on at the end of a bad day.
‘Intensely Alice’ made me cry and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I’ve laughed with Alice, cried with Alice and in a way, grown up with Alice. I come from the era of Sweet Valley and The Babysitters Club and it’s so refreshing that whilst these series have dwindled away, Alice remains as fresh as ever.
Please keep doing what you’re doing – or at least until she opens her time capsule! You’ve got this twenty-something through some very stressful periods!
Phyllis replied:
Thank you so much for your letter. Readers will be delighted to know that older fans are still reading Alice. Actually, Alice is like a dependable friend to me also. When it’s time to write another Alice book, I settle down with my clipboard on my lap and “become” Alice for a while, wondering what’s going to happen to her next. I know her so well that the next episode in her life seems very natural to me. Yes, in the very last book, she opens the time capsule. So many readers have asked for that!
Posted on: September 24, 2009
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Question:
I know this is sort of random – but i was reading the Facts about Phyllis, and I noticed you have grandkids. Just curious, how old are they? And if they are old enough, do they read your books? I hope they know how lucky they are to have such a cool grandma 🙂
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Phyllis replied:
The two girls in one family are 13 and 17. The two boys in the other family are 3 and 6.
Posted on: September 24, 2009
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Question:
I really love your books so much, and I have two questions. First, how did you come up with the Alice series? What inspired you?
Second, how come there are different models for Alice on th covers of different books. In Simply Alice the mode was different from Patently Alice, and on Alice in Between.
Thanks, and you rock!
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Phyllis replied:
Thank you. When I wrote the first Alice book, I didn’t know it was going to be a series. I just wanted to write about a motherless girl who is looking for a role model, and has to ask her dad and older brother all her questions. Just wanting to do something is all the inspiration I need. As for book jackets, each time a new book comes out, the editor and art department think of a new way to present the book. When photographs of models are used, the art department rarely uses the same ones from book to book. Models get older much faster than Alice does in the Alice books, you realize. I write three books, coming out in three years, of only one year of Alice’s life. So Alice is aging only a third as fast as real people.
Posted on: September 24, 2009
Question:
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Hi! I love your Alice books so much that my mom says I’m obseesed. I have read every book at least five times each and your last few books (Dangerously Alice, Alice on her Way, Intensly Alice) I have read more than seven times! When ever I’m bored I just pick up one of the Alice books and read. I never get tired of Alice, and when I read I feel so cose to her, like i actully know her. I think having —– die was brilliant. I loved that charicter so much, but it just made me feel so much closerto all the charcters. I have to say one of my favorite charicters is Lester. I was laughing so hard one time when i was reading you book in class, people turned and stared. He is just so funny. Thank you for writing. I want to be a famous author and your books inspire me every day. When I was youngr i read the Boy’s Start the War series. I loved those too! You are a genius. Thank you so much!
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Phyllis replied:
I’m not a genius, I assure you, but I do love writing the Alice books. Lester makes me laugh out loud too. I’ll tell you one of my favorite lines of Lester’s, but I won’t tell you what book it’s in: “With a glue gun.” Have you read that one?
Posted on: September 24, 2009
Question:
Ok first off I love your books,Alice is like one of my best friends.But I have a problem at school.Its my first year at the middle school and Im in 7th grade.I have a fair amount of friends and Im not too worried about that because Im new here.But there is this boy in my 4th period,lets call him Daniel,that I went out with for about 3 days.I just met him this year and he asked me out and I said yes because he is just a goofball like me.But I broke up with him because I cant get over my last boyfriend,plus nobody wanted to hang out with me because I hung out with Daniel,and he was extremely clingy and wouldnt leave me alone.I told him that I would sit by him at lunch sometimes but I was gonna sit by other people too.But he KEEPS sitting by me and he keeps telling me that he still likes me and I still like him but whats the point?Middle school relationships suck and they never last.I wish he would just leave me alone so I could make some other friends as well but no one really wants to hang out with me because Im friends with Daniel.What should I say to nicely let him know I’d like some space??
Phyllis replied:
Sometimes, unfortunately, “nicely” just doesn’t work. It may be that you’re going to have to tell him, in private, that you don’t want to sit with him any longer, that it’s time you both hung out with different people. Or, if you really still like him, you might say that you don’t want to sit with him more than once a week. But with some people, it’s “all or nothing,” and he might find it easier, though more painful, not to hang out with you at all than limit it to once a week. And because you’re still kind to him, obviously, and trying not to hurt him, he may not believe that you need space, that it is a compliment to you that he always wants to sit with you, which, of course, it is, but a clingy boyfriend is hard to take. (Alice experienced that, as you know, with Sam). I’m afraid you’ll have to be more direct and to the point, and I hope it works.
Posted on: September 24, 2009
Question:
Wow! I loved Intensely Alice! Its a great book!
And I now that the Alice serious cant go on forever
but there such great books I cant help but
ask if you are writing the next one?
And I hope you will be!
Phyllis replied:
Yes, I just finished writing “Alice in Charge” and I’m working on revising it. It will come out next June.
Posted on: September 24, 2009
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