Shiloh Blog

Shiloh questions

Comment:

I was reading Shiloh, and it was a good and a sad book. When I got to the part when Shiloh got shot in the leg, I felt sadness in me. And when dad said to Marty was,’’ When the dog is alive, we are going to take it back to Judd’’, and that was sad for me .I can stop reading the book, I want to find out. I like how you tell the story from your life when you found a dog .

I was wondering, what age did you find the dog ? Did you get to keep the dog ? What kind of dog is it ? How old is the dog ?

Phyllis replied:

The vet estimated that the dog was about two years old when we found her.  (She was female).  She had the coloring of a beagle, but was a mixed breed.  Our friends in West Virginia adopted her and she lived to be about 12 years old.

Shiloh Christmas Movie

Comment:

Will there be a movie for A Shiloh Christmas? I really loved your Shiloh series. By the way, I live in Bethesda, you are near by me!

 

Phyllis replied:

I’m so happy that you loved my book.  I don’t know whether the producers will be making a separate movie of “A Shiloh Christmas” or not, but I know they have been thinking about it.  I do have a question for you, however, and could use your help.  When I went to my website to check on incoming mail, I found that you had repeated your question to me 13 or 14 times, each in a separate email, one right after the other. Because this happens frequently on this website, and it takes up a lot of my time just deleting all of these repeated questions, I wonder if you could figure out what a reader might be doing on the computer, by accident, that repeats his email a dozen or more times.  Or whether my own computer program is going a little bit nuts. It would be a great help to me and other readers if you could be the detective on this case!

shiloh question

Comment:

was the dog you found a dog like shiloh or not

 

Phyllis replied:

It had the same coloring as a beagle, but I’m sure it was a mixed breed.  Also, the dog I found was female, but I made it male in the book

Letter from student

Comment:

I’m an elementary school teacher. I taught 4th grade ELA last year and during literature circles, I had a group reading Shiloh and they absolutely loved it! One of my students wrote you a letter that I thought you might want to see.

Dear Phyllis Reynolds Naylor,  I really like your book Shiloh. I think you’re a great author. I see the gold circle on the book I hear that means the publishers really liked it. I wondered if you can send Shiloh and some other books that you wrote and movies based on the books you wrote that will mean so much to me. I live at Wikersham Lane Country Club Creek. Thank you

Phyllis replied:

It would be nice if books were free and writers didn’t have to get paid.  But writing is my job, just the way plumbers or airline pilots or carpenters get paid for the work they do.  Almost all of my books are available on Amazon, however, and you can find many of them in your school or local library.

Next book?

Comment:

What is going to be your next book?

 

Phyllis replied:

I’m currently working on a long novel for adults.  But a book for kids just came out, “Roxie and the Hooligans at Buzzard’s Roost,” and I have a lot more ideas for children’s books.

How did you get all the names?

Comment:

How did you get all the names like Marty,Ray Preston ma Daralynn and Becky and last Judd travers? P.S My class loves you books 😉

 

Phyllis replied:

I just choose names–just the sound of it sometimes gives me a clue, or I look up names in a book called “What to Name the Baby.”   I like to know what the name means, perhaps the nationality of where it originated, whether I’m looking for a single or double or triple syllable name, historic or modern, for a young or older person….. so very many things go into the choosing of character names.

Do your hands hurt?

Comment:

How do you write so much I mean like how does all the typing not make your hands hurt, how did you come up with shiloh for the name of the books! I like the shiloh book because it has a lot of expression and a lot of dramatic chapters and even funny ones, you are a really good author!

 

Phyllis replied:

Sometimes my hands DO hurt, but I still like to write.  I called the book and the dog Shiloh because I really did find such a dog in the little community of Shiloh, West Virginia.

Favorite Book

Comment:

What is your favorites book?

 

Phyllis replied:

I imagine you’re asking which of my own books is my favorite.  That’s sort of like asking a mother which of her children she likes best.  I like all of them for different reasons, but if I had to choose one children’s book, I would probably pick Shiloh.   If it was one of my books for adults, it would be Unexpected Pleasures.

The Shiloh movie

Comment:

In the movie did you use a real dog because I have not seen the movie . Also how did you come up with the Shiloh?

 

Phyllis replied:

Actually, two dogs were used for the movie.   They looked almost exactly alike, and when one got tired on the movie set, they simply took him out and put in the other.  They were well trained to do everything that Shiloh did in the book.  I wrote the book because I had seen such a dog in West Virginia.

question

Comment:

How does Shiloh keeps on escaping Judd Travers ?

 

Phyllis replied:

Runs away when taken out hunting, goes out the gate if it’s opened….dogs have a way….