Your Questions Answered

Must Finish a Series Once I Start

Question:

So I’ve been reading these books since I was in 6th grade. I have read every single one.

I am the type of person who must finish a series once I start it.I love these books- I mean I love these books- but I was pretty ready to let Alice go. So I finally got Incredibly Alice and was like “Okay, I’m done now…” Only to see that Alice’s college years are to be a series. When does it end??????

Just so you know, I really love these books. I even pretend I’m Alice sometimes. And I am forever in love with the name Patrick.

Phyllis replied:

If you’ve read “Incredibly Alice,” you have two more books to go: “Alice On Board” and “Always Alice.” They will be published in 2012 and 2013.

Posted on: July 7, 2011

It’s as if I was Alice

Question:

At my recent trip to the bookstore I spotted a book. A book that had caught my attention. The background of the book was blue. Alice was sitting on a pink and orange suit case. A butterfly, and name of three states o the suitcase. Cool! I thought. I was so excited to begin the book. It looked like a book I would 100% enjoy. I sat down. I opened the book right there in the bookstore. I flipped to the first page. I began reading. As I read I felt as if I was Alice. As if I was in the story. The book is totally fun to read and absolutely phenomenal. Then I asked my mom. “Let’s go back to the bookstore, we need more Alice books.” Not good enough. Mom said no, but I have made a list of the Alice books I hope to get. My list has seventeen Alice books.
I really want to thank you for writing an amazing book. I love Alice, she is a character many people can relate to, and I love her and the book. I have thought about being an author once. I still would love to be one. But, can you give me some advice, on how to build up my book. I want to be an author like you. Your the best, and I love your books. Enjoy the rest of your summer, and have a good fourth of July.

Phyllis replied:

You have a lot of happy reading ahead of you. I’m so glad you found the Alice books. If you are thinking about becoming a writer, I think you would enjoy my book, “How I Came to be a Writer.” Ask your librarian if she can get a copy for you.

Posted on: July 7, 2011

I loooove the alice books and I have an idea for when the series ends. Could you do a spin-off with one book from Elizabeth’s point of view, one from Pamela’s, one from Gwen’s and maybe even one from Patrick’s?

That would be really cool.

Also, in The Agony of Alice, it says Elizabeth has her ears pierced, but in All But Alice, it says she doesn’t. Later it says she does. So does she or not? Just wondering.

Thank you!

Phyllis replied:

It’s an interesting idea, but it would probably turn out to be embellishments of things that had already happened, and there are so many other kinds of books I want to write. As for all the mistakes, you’ve found one of many. We’ve discovered that birthdates have changed, body shapes changed…there are so many errors. Finally, to keep things straight, the copy-editor made an Alice “bible,” they call it, in which every detail from every book was recorded, divided into categories. For example, you can find out how many girlfriends Lester had, and what their names were; every costume Alice ever wore for a Halloween party, a description of Elizabeth’s bedroom…. I keep a copy of this–revised yearly–at my chair each time I write a new Alice book, and the copy-editor uses it too to make corrections. I asked my editor if they couldn’t publish this “bible” after the series was over, because it’s fun to leaf through, and readers can pick up details they missed in first reading the books. She said they would do better than that–they’d put it online so that everyone could read it. Great idea! But it won’t appear until the very last Alice book is published in 2013.

Posted on: June 30, 2011

Have Learned So Much from Alice

Question

just finished reading Incredibly Alice and I definitely enjoyed it. I’ve been reading the Alice books since I was around 13 in the 7th grade. I am 18 now, just graduated this past may, and am heading off to college in the fall. I find it so interesting that I just so happened to graduate the same year that Alice does in the books. Because of this I was really able to relate to the story line because I’m dealing with some of the exact same feelings, worry, nervousness, feeling like all my friends have a plan but me etc. I also found it pretty cool that my prom was on the same day as Alice’s, May 14th 😉 Anyways, I just wanted to tell you that I really appreciate all of the time and effort you’ve spent over the years working on the Alice books, I have learned so much from her and I will continue to be a loyal reader until Always Alice.

Phyllis replied:

And I’ve learned so much from my readers. Many of the things that take place in the Alice books came from ideas I got from your emails.

Posted on: June 30, 2011

The Same Experiences as Me

Question:

OK i just wanted to say i absolutely love the alice books!!!!!! i just finished Incredibley Alice and i absolutely loved it! When i first started reading them i was instantly hooked. Then my best friend read the books too and we're both like in love with alice books!!!!! To me your alice books are like totally my life....kinda. I have a group of 3 best friends but we dont live next to each but i wish we did. But we face everything together and tell each other everything!!! i have a boyfriend like patrick and will always have a special place in my heart for him. But for now he's just out. Alice helped me get through many problems that have occured in my life and am sooooooo glad you wrote them. Its nice to know that someone out in the world, even if they may be a fictional character, has had the same experiences as me. But now that ive read alice all the way through her senior year....I CANT WAIT FOR MY SENIOR YEAR!!!!! 🙂 im 13 so its a long ways from here

Phyllis replied:

You know what? They are the same experiences that even mothers and grandmothers have, under slightly different circumstances. Remember in one of the Alice books--perhaps her first year of high school--she fell down the stairs and wet her pants? That happened to my own mother back around 1914. She was one of seven children in a farm family, and wanted to go to high school so desperately that finally her parents allowed her to live with a German-speaking family in town, near the high school, to work for her board and room just so she could go to high school. She later went on to college and became a teacher. Different times, but the embarrassment is the same.

Posted on: June 30, 2011

Alice Collections

Question:

I have read the three Alice collection books,(I Like Him He Likes Her,It’s Not Like I Planned It This Way,and Please Don’t Be True).
I loved them so much,Alice is such a relate-able character and such a joy to read. The reason I have E-Mailed you is because I want
to know the next book in the series.I have looked at bookstores and online but I am often confused on which one is next. Is it Intensely
Alice or is it Incredibly Alice(cover art with her with the graduation cap on her foot)? Either way,I know I’m looking forward to reading it and
maybe it will give me ideas on what to expect on my up-coming senior year(:

Phyllis replied:

The third collection isn’t out yet and doesn’t have a title. The three books of that collection–her senior year–will be Alice in Charge, Incredibly Alice, and Alice On Board. There will be a final book in the series after that, Always Alice. That will probably come out all by itself, not as part of a collection.

Posted on: June 28, 2011

I’ve Gone through Alice’s Journey

Question:

I discovered Alice by going to a barnes and noble searching for a long book to distract me from being grounded for two weeks, I found the collection of her freshman year, I like him, he likes her, and I fell in love. I finished that first set in three days, subsequently not long enough to fill the time that I was grounded. I waited a couple months to get her sophomore year, and read that collection in three days also, I began to find similiarties in my life and Alice's, she was feeling the same things that I am, she is having the same doubts about life, and then I stumbled onto Alice's junior year. I bought that collection on Friday, it is now Sunday night and I have finished her junior year. These books have impacted me in ways that I would never expect. I found myself fully immersed into Alice's world and when her friend died I started to cry because it made me think of what would happen if one of my friends just suddenly died. Your books have made me rethink how I should carry myself onto my own junior year, and how I shouldn't take everything for granted. None of my friends will never understand how I can read a 700 page book in three days, but until they understand that a book can change you I will have to go on as the nerdy friend for a while. Alice related to my life in too many ways to count, things happened to her that had exactly happened to me, I realized that I would have acted exactly like Alice did if I were to be put in some of those situations. I cannot wait for alice's senior year to come out as it will be published the year that I graduate high school. Sort of a nice ending if you ask me. Thank you for writing these books, words can't describe how much Alice has helped me in these past couple of weeks I've gone through her journey. Thank you so so much,

Phyllis replied:

It was wonderful to read your email, and I'm happy to know that the Alice books have meant so much to you. I hope your two weeks are about over...

hyll

Posted on: June 28, 2011

Everyone is smoking pot and getting wasted

Question:

It’s been a while since I’ve written to you, but I feel like I have so many things on my mind and I just want to get them off! So I am thirteen and going into the 8th grade and…well every thing is just changing so fast. It’s so different, and soon I’ll be in high school! It’s just, well, everyone all the sudden grew up. I changed physically, every one says I just turned into a pretty girl. I got boobs, I began wearing makeup, I’m taller, and I basically care more about my image. And I know I’m pretty, but that doesn’t mean I want to look so grown up like everyone says I do. Anyway, so there’s this guy who we can call Derek, well I’ve known Derek for years since we went to the same elementary, and in sixth grade we really became friends. Anyway, when we got to seventh, we became even better friends. I considered him a very good friend. And then he also bloomed over the summer, he grew and lost all the baby fat he had. Everyone was talking about how cute he had gotten. And then he got a girlfriend a year ahead, and then a couple days ago, I hear they had sex. Not oral, not touching, actual sex. And Derek has always been a very good guy, very innocent and obedient, and his parents are like mine, they would NEVER let him have sex. Even have a girlfriend. And I didn’t believe this, and so the girl who told me, called his girlfriend who is her good friend and said, “when was the last time you and Liam had sex?” And she replied with, “why?” And then hung up. She didn’t deny it, so I believe it. And then all sudden I’m hearing that tons of people have already had sex. I haven’t even KISSED a guy. And now everyone is smoking pot and getting wasted. All I can think is, were thirteen for god sake! And I live in a nice suburban town, not some kind of ghetto. Even my best friend has smoked a couple times, and that just makes me so mad. And people think I’m high all all the time! I’ve never even seen a joint up close. Anyway, all my guy friends have smoked to, and this guy who I think is soooooo hot and who I might go out with, is a stoner! Ugh, it makes me so mad. I just don’t know what to do…popularity wise, I’m not in the highest rank but I’d say I’m doing pretty good. I don’t want to lose that. And I know deep down no one can talk me into something I don’t want to do…but sometimes I just, I just don’t get it…

Phyllis replied:

You’ve asked some very basic questions, and I think readers will be especially interested in your email. I can remember my mother saying that between seventh and eighth grade, her two daughters left their awkward periods and became pretty. Not that I ever felt pretty, but I liked my looks better than I did back in seventh grade. Yet I still felt just as awkward. But to begin, no. Not EVERYONE is getting drunk and having sex and smoking and getting wasted. What is happening is that many members of your crowd are either experimenting or saying they are experimenting with these things. Please don’t enter high school with a middle-school mentality, in which you feel your group of friends reflects the world. When you get to high school, you will be thrown in with hundreds of students from different schools, different neighborhoods, different religions and ethnic groups. There will be clubs and organizations you can join that reflect your own values. Just as small children first believe that their own parents know everything and that everyone else probably lives and believes as they do, so do elementary children and often middle-school students believe that “everyone else” is doing what the most popular kids in their own crowd are up to. When my own two sons were in high school, I was shocked when someone I’d met in a group mentioned that the school my sons attended was known as a drug school. That evening I asked my oldest son if this was true, and he answered, “Mom, if I really wanted drugs, I could find out pretty fast who was selling them, but it’s not like somebody was standing at the entrance offering drugs to everyone who passed.” Show your maturity by focusing on the wider world, not your little group of friends. When you are in college and talking with your friends about first sexual experiences, etc., you will find that most were awkward, embarrassing situations between kids who weren’t ready.

Posted on: June 28, 2011

The Time Capsule

Question:

I just wanted to write to let you know how much your Alice books mean
to me. My best friend Allison introduced me to Alice in Rapture, Sort
Of when I was ten years old, in 1994. After that book, I was hooked
and bought every new book each year it was released. I’m 26 now and
have always looked forward to spring because it means that I get
another installment of Alice. Her books are the only ones I ever
pre-order and I read them in one sitting.

I recently unpacked a bunch of old books from my parents’ house and
re-found all of the Alice books I’d had had when I was in elementary,
middle, and high school. (The ones I bought during college were
already with me.) I decided to re-read a few of Alice’s seventh-grade
adventures and couldn’t help but realize how much your books have
helped to shape my life. Alice truly is one of the best real
characters I’ve ever read and can relate to, and it’s like she’s one
of my best friends, as weird as that may sound. When I re-read those
books, I was transported back to being thirteen, too. I think it’s
amazing that you are able to tap into what it was like being that
young. And now I have to wonder… in the last book, does Alice open
that time capsule in 2040, the same one that Mr. Hensley assigned to
the 7th grade class? Do we find out what happens to Elizabeth, Pamela,
and Patrick?

Thank you so much for everything that you do. Your books mean so much
to me, and if I ever have a daughter I am saving all of my books for
her.

Phyllis replied:

Yes, in the final book, #28, Alice and the former members of her 7th grade class open the time capsule. It was not until I got so many letters from readers, asking to have that scene in a book, that I decided to end the series with a book in which Alice goes from 18 to 60. Thanks so much for writing.

Posted on: June 24, 2011

Incredibly Alice

Question:

I just finished reading Incredibly Alice about five minutes ago and I just needed to write you about it! I got the book this morning and I sat down and read it for four hours until I had finished. It did not let me down, and none of your books ever do. Alice is a great friend to me. I definitly look up to her and wish i could be more like her. She seems to experience EVERYTHING and I wish I could do that. I really loved that she was in a play because I was in the school play this year and I loved it. I just really wish Patrick was in the books more. He is definitly one of my favorite characters along with Penny and Lester and Carol and my favorite part of the books are when he comes to visit. Jill just shocks me with what happens to her and all, and I liked that I got a glimpse of another side of her in this new book. Thanks for making a story that is so true to life and so relatable. I love Alice and I’m so terribly sad the books are almost over but I cannot wait to read that last one. Thank you.

Phyllis replied:

I’m so happy you liked it. I’m beginning to think that perhaps the very last book, #28–Always Alice–may be one of my favorites. Hope you like that one too.

Posted on: June 24, 2011