Shiloh Blog

Why the name Shiloh?

Comment: Why did you name the dog Shiloh?

Phyllis replied: Shiloh was the name of the real community in West Virginia where I first came across the little dog that inspired the Shiloh series. I figured that if I were Marty, I’d name my dog after the place I had found it.

Did you ever know anyone like Judd Travers?

Comment: When you wrote the Shiloh books, did you ever know anyone like Judd Travers?

Phyllis replied: I didn’t know anyone like that personally, but I’d heard and read of such folks. Some people just don’t know how to care for a dog; they don’t know that chaining up a dog makes it mean, because the dog can’t defend itself if it’s attacked. Others just don’t seem to care whether an animal is happy or not, usually because the owner isn’t very happy.

Why use different actors for Marty in each of the Shiloh movies?

Comment: Our class watched the movies of the first three Shiloh books. We think that the boy who played Marty in the first movie was the best one of the three. Why didn’t they use him for all the movies?

Phyllis replied: They would have, if they could have kept him from growing. Because there were several years between each of the Shiloh movies, the child actors had grown older and taller by the time the next movie was made. It wouldn’t have affected the adult actors much at all, and for the most part, the producers kept the same adult actors for all of the first three films. But you would have seen a considerable difference among the kids.