Shiloh Blog

charecters

are any of the characters or dogs other than shiloh based of of real life for example Judds dog or doc Wallace. i love your books by the way

No, all of the characters were born in my own head.  I had to ask myself a lot of questions:  what kind of man would the father be, so reluctant to let Marty have  a dog?  What  is his marriage like, as he seems to want his wife to be submissive.  What gives Marty the courage to defy his parents because he feels that the greater good is saving a dog’s life?  What would Judd Travers be like, to have been treated so badly as a child?   Answering all these questions in my mind helped me decide how each character would walk and talk and look and act.

Was the event’s based on real events

Were the events in the original movie Shiloh based on real events

Only that my husband and I came across such a dog when we were visiting friends in West Virginia.  Eventually our friends adopted this dog.

Thank you

Thank you for writing the Shiloh series. I remember reading it in grade school and loving it thoroughly. This book holds a special place in my heart. 🙂

Thanks so much for letting me know.

shiloh

how old is shiloh

In the book, Shiloh is about two years old.  In real life, the dog lived to be about twelve years old.

More books

i was wondering if you are going to right anymore books

The Shiloh series is complete–Shiloh, Shiloh Season, Saving Shiloh, A Shiloh Christmas.

Book order

We just finished reading Shiloh and look forward to reading your other books. Being that is is close to the Christmas season, would it be “ok” to read the Christmas book out of order?

You wouldn’t go to jail or anything if you did.  Ideally it would be best to read them in order, because the last book might give away things that happened in the second and third books.  But you’d still enjoy them all if you read them out of order, and reading “A Shiloh Christmas” at Christmas time would be fine.

SHILOH

I am a 8th grade teacher we love your book if you can send us a poster my class will love that and i heard about clover think you

Posters are sent by U.S. mail, so I would need your complete school address in order to send a Shiloh poster.

A couple class questions

We are a class of 5th graders starting to read Shiloh. We are very excited, and one of our assignments was to look up more information about the author! As a class we have many questions, but just a couple are: Where did you get the idea to write Shiloh and the rest of the series? What is your favorite book or short story you’ve ever written? What has been your favorite country to visit? Did you ever have a dog like Shiloh?

I’m sure you can find the answers to many of your questions if you just explore my blog.  But to answer the ones you sent, I got the idea to write Shiloh after finding such a dog in Shiloh, West Virginia, and this book is probably my most favorite.  I’m not sure I have a favorite country, but I enjoyed Italy very much–also Spain, and I got a lot of information from visiting England when I wrote The York Trilogy.  I grew up with a Springer Spaniel.

How was your life with marty

I like you

Thank you for telling me that.  I enjoy hearing that people like my books.

character questions

We just finished reading Shiloh, my 4th graders loved the book! After reading the back story of how Clover inspired you to write Shiloh, they came up with some questions.
How did you create the other characters like Judd, Becky, and Dara Lynn?
Which is your favorite book in the Shiloh series?
How long did it take you to write the Shiloh Series?
How did it feel to win the Newberry Medal?

To create characters, I just have to “become” them for awhile.  First I have to get them into a scene in the book, and then imagine how they would walk, talk, think, laugh, look, react….  I guess the first Shiloh book is my favorite–it set the stage for all the others.  I was so upset over the little dog I found in West Virginia that when I started writing the first draft of the first book, I put everything else aside and wrote fast.  I think I did the first draft in six weeks.  Then, of course, I went over it again and again–changing and adding–making every word count.  Later, after the book was published,  I got the phone call from the Newbery Committee around 8:45 in the morning while I was eating my shredded wheat; I was absolutely shocked.  Afterwards I wondered if I had just imagined it all. Then the phone started ringing again–my editor, my agent, the newspaper, and as the morning went on, flowers began arriving, telegrams, champagne and my husband and I had to hurry and pack to go to New York so I could make a two-minute appearance on the Today Show, which is what they did then.  I wish every writer could experience the Newbery Award once in their life.