Your Questions Answered

The First to Make Me Cry

Question:

I was wondering when you were going to put up an excerpt from Incredibly Alice? Soon I hope:)
I love you’re book’s, their what got me to read more. I used to hate reading until my sister-in-law gave me one of the Alice book’s (Alice In-between) Now I’ve red them all, which I did in a few months. 🙂 Also you’re books are the first to make me cry, and I mean really full-out cry, Which is one of the things I love about them. I like it when I can read a book and feel so in tune with the Characters that I cry when they cry. I can’t wait for the new one to come out!!! 

Phyllis replied:

I’m pleased to know they affected you so much.  I’ll ask my editor to please put an excerpt up on the Alice website.

Please Don’t Be True

Question:

Hi! I LOVE these books! I’ve read the three large ones in order, and love how real Alice seems. I was really upset when I finished the last page of “Please don’t be true”. I noticed under your list of books that there were a lot more Alice books. I want to read them, but I love how the books became put together into the one book. Are you ever going to publish the old Alice books into a few large books, like you did with the most recent ones? It would really be great if you did. Thanks!

Phyllis replied:

I don’t know exactly what the publisher will do.  I know that the sales of these big 3-book paperbacks, of each of Alice’s years in high school, are selling very well.  Soon there will be a whole new paperback series of the old Alice books, all designed by the same artist.  For now, I think, in addition to the hardcover copies of each Alice book, and then the paperback, the publisher plans to put the last remaining books of her senior year into one big paperback (don’t know the title yet) and market the new paperback series of all the younger books.  But it wouldn’t surprise me if they eventually decide to put all the books about Alice in seventh grade together into one big book, all the books of her eighth grade together, and so on.  I guess we’ll have to wait and be surprised.

My Friend Alice

Question:

This morning I was talking to my friend Paige and she was telling me about something that happened to her over the weekend and I found myself saying “Oh, that happened to my friend Alice.” and I didn’t even think anything of it until she was like “Alice who?”.

Phyllis replied:

Oh, that’s funny.  But I find myself doing the same thing!

Comfort for Homesickness

Question:

Phyllis replied:

It’s letters like yours that keep me going.  Thanks so much for writing to me.  I love knowing you enjoy the books wherever you are! 

Love How You Didn’t Make Alice Perfect

Like a Real Person

Married Now, but the Alice books still take me back….

Question:

I read my first Alice book when I was in 5th grade and never felt such a connection to a character before that.  You had my nose in a book for weeks until I had gone through all the books in the series…  only 3 at the time!  I am turning 30 this year and every couple of years I buy the latest few books and catch up on Alice and the rest of the gang.  Although I am older and married now and have different problems and concerns now than I did when I was Alice’s age, the books still bring me right back to high school and make me remember vividly what I went through.  What a treat!  I find almost nothing more enjoyable than getting my hands on an Alice book I have not read before and diving in to see what happens next.  For a while I was younger than Alice and thought that maybe I was being influenced by her decisions and situations since I felt so similar to Alice.  However as I have gone on to age (much!) faster than Alice, and still seeing our experieces being so similar, I realize that you have just managed to completely capture adolescence.  I didn’t lose my mother or have a step parent, didn’t have the same types of experiences with friends or boys that Alice did or career goals or anything like that.  However, I still felt she was me.  I don’t know how you do it but I am sure the younger generation in your life is very fortunate to have someone like you around with all the wisdom of experience, but the ability to remember and know exactly what it was like to go through everything for the very first time.  I hope they appreciate you.  I am so sad that my time with Alice will be ending soon, but thank you for making sure we all get to find out just exactly what happens throughout her life!  I read everything I can get my hands on, but my favorites are still about Alice.

Phyllis replied:

And what a treat for me to know that after all these years, you are still following the Alice books.  I wrote my last paragraph of the last book the other day, and I will miss Alice too.  Thanks so much for writing to me out of your own busy life!

Alice’s Senior Year

Question:

i was wondering if there would be a book coming
out that has the whole year of alice's senior year coming out like "please dont
be true" and "it's not like i planned it this way" and "i like him he likes
her".....

Phyllis replied:

Yes, there will be.  But I’m still working on the last book that will appear in that big paperback, so it hasn’t been published yet and I don’t know what the title will be.  For those of you who wonder what this is all about, the three books about Alice’s freshman year in high school have been published in a big fat paperbook called “I Like Him, He Likes Her.”  The three books of Alice’s sophomore life have been published in another big fat paperbook titled, “It’s Not Like I Planned it this Way;”  and the three books of her junior year are in a paperback titled, “Please Don’t Be True.”   Those of you who are collecting all the Alice books can easily get a record of her high school years, all 12 books, in these paperbacks, the 4th one still not published yet.

A Real Person with Real Problems

Question:

Omigod your books are the greatest!! I could live with only two things: an Alice book and a comfy chair! Your books are so real its shocking! I find a lot of the time I am thinking about the book and picturing me in the book, or thinking what would Alice do right know or even pretending I am Alice if you know what I mean. The thing I love about Alice is that she is like a real person with real problems. Not like all those fairy tale books were everyones life is perfect! Now i do have some questions for you that I would love if you could answer!  How long does it take to right an alice book? do you have to edit them a couple times? where do you come up with the ideas for your books? Is it some thing that randomly pops into your brain or do you have to think about it for a couple days? And one more question: What was the age group intended for the books? I am 12 and I love all the books from start to end! Please please please reply and never stop wrighting! The Alice books are truly the best books in history!

Question:

Wow!  The best books in history?  I’m delighted you love them so much.  The Alice books are read by people of all ages, even grandmothers, even guys, but are probably most popular among girls 12 to 17.  Still, I get mail from college girls who take the whole series to college with them.  I get ideas from my own experiences, things that happen to other people, that I read about, but mostly out of my imagination.   It takes about six months to write an Alice book, a shorter time period than for most of my novels, because I know Alice and the setting so well.  I revise them about six or seven times before they become final.

Collection Not complete

Phyllis replied:

The Alice books are fiction, but a few incidents happened to me when I was growing up, or are things that happened to friends, or that I read about, but most are just from my imagination.  If you can’t find the whole series in a bookstore, I hope you will be able to get them from your library.  If you live in the USA, ask your librarian to get the ones you don’t have by ordering them on interlibrary loan.