Shiloh Blog

Judd’s back story

Comment:

I loved the books that you made about Clover they are a great series. In shiloh did you ever think of telling the readers more of Judd’s back Story or even making a couple pages about him.In the first book I love all the suspense with Judd travers and Marty.When you made shiloh how long did it take to do all the writing and editing.Thankyou for writing the shiloh books.

Phyllis replied:

If you read the last three books of the Shiloh quartet, you’ll find out a lot more about Judd, and why he acted the way he did.  I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the first book so much.  It took only six weeks to write the first draft, but then I revised and edited many, many times

Shiloh book and movie

Comment:

Our fourth grade class just finished reading your wonderful book “Shiloh” and watching the movie. We LOVED both! One of our question, posed by Macy T, is: Is there anything you would change about either the book or movie now if you could go back and change something?
We hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Phyllis replied:

I’m glad you were able to see the movie so you could compare the two.  I thought the producers did a good job, though I didn’t think that the addition of a girl (with a boy’s nickname) was truly necessary.  Perhaps if I were writing the book now I would have included just a bit more of Judd’s background, so the reader would have a better understanding of why he was such a mean and miserable man.  But if I’d done that, I probably wouldn’t have written the other three books in the quartet, which tells you how things finally turned out between Judd and Marty, and most of all, for Shiloh.

Did it make you sad?

Comment:

When the big dog attacked Shiloh did it make you sad?

Phyllis replied:

Yes .  That was a very difficult scene to write, but at least I knew that Shiloh would live.

 

 

reading

way did you put the part where shiloh was attaked

why?

comment:  why did you put the part where shiloh was attacked

Phyllis replied:

Because it seemed a very likely thing that might happen, and it added suspense and conflict to the story.

Shiloh question

Comment:

how long does it take you to make shiloh the first one?

 

Phyllis replied:

I don’t remember exactly, but I was so moved by that dog that I put everything else aside to try to figure out how a boy might convince a mean man to give up his dog.  I think I wrote the first draft in four or six weeks.  Then the revising began.

Shiloh Questions from a 4th grade class

Comment:

I am a fourth grade ELA teacher in a small town in Ohio. All of our students in fourth grade just finished reading Shiloh. They loved your book and are begging to read the next books in the series. When we finished the novel, my students were shown your Shiloh blog and they have created a list of questions for you. We have selected the most commonly asked questions they would like to ask.
1. Are you going to write any more Shiloh books?
2. How is Clover doing?
3. How long did the editing process for Shiloh take? (We recently had an author visit our school and she told us 90% of her writing process is editing)
Thank you for writing such a wonderful book!

Phyllis replied:

I have written four books about Shiloh, and think I have now told the whole story.  Clover died in 2000 and was buried on the property of the people who adopted her in Shiloh, West Virginia.  I paid for a slab to go on her grave, engraved with her name.  We estimate that she was about eleven years old.  I believe she died of some kind of cancer, but she certainly had a good life once our friends took her in.  I wrote the first draft of “Shiloh” in six weeks, but am sure I put in about the same length of time on the revising and editing.  For me, the biggest part of the writing process is not the writing or the editing: it’s the thinking.  When I am working on a book, it seems as though it is on my mind constantly.  Everything I see reminds me of the story that is building in my head–what the characters are like, why they do what they do, where will they live? what kind of work does the dad do?  who are the friends?  But every writer is different.

 

Why?

Comment:

What is the purpose of writing shiloh?

Phyllis replied:

To figure out how an eleven year old boy could persuade an abusive man to give up his dog.

Another Shiloh book?

Comment:

will you write another Shiloh book?

 

Phyllis replied:

There are four Shiloh books, and they tell how the relationship goes between marty and Judd:   Shiloh,  Shiloh Season, Saving Shiloh and A Shiloh Christmas.

Question About The Shiloh Movie

Comment:

If Marty in real life was born in 1987,and the movie was filmed in 1997.How does he look so young?

Phyllis replied:

If you are trying to go by set dates, what’s the problem?  If he was born in 1987, as you say, and the movie was filmed in 1997 when he was ten years old, isn’t that about right?