Alice Blog

Was it too soon?

First off, let me say I absolutely Love that you made Alice marry Patrick at the end of the series, I had always hoped and prayed since “The Agony of Alice” that they would get married. Don’t get me wrong when I say this because I also love how they met up again after all those years, but after a day and a half of reuniting they slept together, Did Patrick want to do that with her all along, wasn’t it too soon before they slept together?

Nope.  Not in my book, it wasn’t.  Hey, she’s known him for….how many years?  They knew each other’s families.  They used to be boyfriend/girlfriend.  They experienced what it was like to be serious about other people.  And yet….they still wanted each other.  They were obviously wildly happy to see each other again.  No.  I think it was about time!

My song for Alice & Patrick

Hi, so I’m 12 almost 13 and I’ve read all 28 Alice books and I am in love with them! I recently found an old song that for some reason reminded me of Alice & Patrick’s relationship & Marriage. Have you ever heard of the song “I Just Fall In Love Again” by Anne Murray? For some reason every time I hear that song I immediately think of Alice and Patrick. It’s strange I know lol.

If they “had a song,” I’ll bet that’s what it was.  Sounds perfect!

Lester

I am a super duper big fan of yours and I especially love the Alice series! I loved the moments where you wrote about Lester and Alice’s relationship like the time Alice was terrified of Lester going mountain climbing or when she lied to Crystal about him being gay so she’d leave him alone or the most beautiful moment for me was when Patrick was on his way to the hospital when Alice was giving birth and Lester comforted her until Patrick got there. I love how even though they got on each other’s nerves and Lester even picked on her a lot that they were still there for each other. Did you have an older brother like Lester?

No, but I would have loved to.  I had a younger brother, but we weren’t especially close until we both grew up.  Now he’s my best friend.

romances between Alice and the other boys?

So, First I want to say I just finished reading the final book of the series and I was in tears of pure joy when Alice & Patrick FINALLY got married and lived happily ever after! Thank you so much for that! Well, we all know Patrick once admitted to Alice that he once thought about asking Elizabeth out but said he didn’t because he knew he’d never be able to know what she wanted. We all know Patrick’s best friend was Mark Steidmeister and I was wondering did you ever think about making Mark and Alice date or did Mark ever like Alice romantically?

An interesting thought, but the longer you live, the more friends you make of the opposite sex that are just friends, not romantic possibilities.  When you’re growing up, especially in middle school, I think, you can hardly be seen with a boy and everybody starts getting ideas of romance.  It’s nice sometimes just to have a guy you can talk to about a lot of things, see their perspective on life.  See how funny or smart or original they can be without “love” getting in the picture.

Alice’s friends from Camp

Hi I was wondering whatever happened to the girls that Alice, Elizabeth, Gwen, and Pamela befriended in Patiently Alice while they were camp counselors? They said they’d write to each other but then you never hear about them again. What happened?

I’m really sorry that I didn’t follow up on that.  My feeling is that girls that age usually get interested in other things quickly–that writing letters takes time–but it would have been nice to let Alice hear from one or two of them; I can guarantee she would have written right back!  But I do think that the younger girls benefited from their camp experience.

Favorite book in the series?

I am a ginormous fan of the Alice books and I have to be brutally honest when I say that I love the final book because that’s where Alice gets her Happily ever after and she’s really content and at peace with her life. I also feel like her greatest win was marrying Patrick and them being together forever and ever! What was your favorite book in the series? or which one did you have the most fun working on?

They all run together in my mind–one long story.  I loved writing the conversations she had with Lester–those were my favorites, and if you start at the very first book and watch Lester grow and mature, that’s interesting too.

I love Alice!

Hello! I practically live in the library and I absolutely LOVE the Alice series. I love how you didn’t make her this “Little miss perfect” and that she made a lot of mistakes during her childhood and even in adulthood because nobody is perfect and growing up is about making mistakes and learning from it, even people who were considered “The perfect child” probably made a mistake or two and probably have some regrets. I love how brutally honest and realistic you were in the series even when reality sometimes feels like a punch in the gut. I learned from reading the Alice series that growing up doesn’t end when you’re 18 or 21 or even 60, the truth is you’re always growing up and learning new things and going on new adventures. Alice for example is still growing up at the end of the series because she’s about to travel the world alongside our beloved Patrick, She’s writing a book series about her life, and she’s looking forward to retirement. Thank you so much for writing the Alice series! You helped me grow up and gave me my childhood best friend who I could look for answers to!

Your email made my day–yours and the many others that tell me the same thing.  I’m just so happy that the series meant that much to you.  I think it helped me to write about Alice too–to make sense of things I had done or said growing up, or things that happened to me or my friends.  I really appreciate your emails.

The son of Alice and Patrick

Good evening, Mrs. Naylor! I just wanted to say I Love that you showed what kind of parents Alice and Patrick were together. The funniest part of their parenting was when Alice took their son Tyler to the doctor’s and he had to pee in a cup but he irritated Alice a bit when he kept stalling and then spit in the cup and worried Alice when the doctor’s called her about it. Was that something that happened with one of your sons? I also thought it was funny when Alice messed with him about his breath when there was a girl he liked and I just absolutely loved how Patrick practiced running with him when he joined track- like father like son 🙂

Yes, but I won’t say which one, and he swears to this day that he did not spit into the cup.  (He’s also a wonderful dad).

Do Childhood Sweethearts really work out?

Hello lovely lady! Let me just tell you that I am 100% in love with the Alice books and spent my whole childhood reading them! I’m in my last year of college now and I’m going to be a biology teacher. I know Alice married Patrick who was her Childhood Sweetheart, THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES FOR MAKING THEM END UP TOGETHER! But I do have to ask you, do you really believe childhood sweethearts can get married and live happily ever after just like Alice and Patrick did? Everyone I’ve ever met says it’s impossible but you tend to be brutally realistic in the series so I just thought Id ask. Once again you did an amazing job on the series, especially the final book, i very much enjoyed them!

Anything is possible.  I know couples who were going together in high school and are still married in their 80’s.  Have they had difficulties?  Probably.  More than any other couple?   Who knows for sure?  Some just seem so compatible that they simply agree on most things.  I think they might have a better chance of staying married if they dated other people.  Maybe, like Alice and Patrick, they knew each other in grade school and were “childhood sweethearts,” but who really knows about love then?   I think it says a lot that Alice and Patrick both dated other people seriously and then, in the final analysis, realized that they’d never loved anyone else as much as they loved each other.

What does it mean?

I’ve been keeping up with the Alice blog and I just wanted to ask you what do you mean when you tell some of your fans that as readers they need to be the ones to figure out how a character really feels about a certain subject or other character? because some of the questions that have been asked like “Who did Patrick like more” about the whole Alice, Patrick and penny situation and you said the reader has to figure out how Patrick really felt about penny. Does that mean that whatever WE think that’s what the answer is? Like I think it was just like penny said in “Incredibly Alice” that she and Patrick were attracted to each other but they didn’t have anything real, would I be right if I thought Patrick was only attracted to penny but really liked Alice and that’s why the two broke up after only a few months? Could you explain it to me? Thank you.

I think you are correct.  But here’s the deal:  a story requires both an author and a reader.  And whatever each of them brings to the story can be their truth.  Haven’t  you ever disagreed with a friend about a movie?   About a book?  About a person?   So who’s right?  If a character in a book seems conceited to you because you have known someone who acted in the same way, does that mean that your friend is wrong in believing the character is really just insecure?   Could it be both?  Perhaps the author had something else entirely in mind but never managed to  make it clear on paper.   I’m getting the feeling that all these questions coming in about Patrick either means that I wasn’t clear enough that he truly loves Alice, or that nothing short of “and Patrick and Alice lived happily ever after” will comfort you.  (He really really really really loves her!)