Combined Books

Question:

 
Hi Phyllis! I wanted to ask if you will be doing the combined books like you did for Alice’s freshman, sophmore, and junior years for her senior year. I have the first two and pre-ordered the third. I also wanted to ask about Pamela. I relate most to her with how outgoing she can be with boys sometimes and her estranged relationship with her mom. I was just wondering if any of her experiances stemed from your own experiances. and also, I’m having a really tough time getting over and ex-boyfriend and my friends are acting like I’m being a baby about it when they do the same thing! I feel like i have nobody to listen to me about so what do I do? And I hope I’m not taking up too much of your time.

Phyllis replied:

Yes, the publisher plans to put the three books of Alice’s senior year into one big paperback also, once the three books are published separately in hardcover.  We don’t have a title for it yet.  And I’m still working on the last book of her senior year, so nothing can happen until I finish that and it comes out in hardcover.  And no, I don’t have a title yet for that either.  No, none of Pamela’s experiences were mine, but I can feel for her anyway in some of her troubles.  As for the ex-boyfriend, I guess people always feel that their sadness is greater than anyone else’s sadness, and perhaps that’s why they’d rather talk about themselves than listen to you.    There could be a number of things involved here, however.  Perhaps they feel you’re going over the same old ground again and again and they’re getting tired of hearing it.  Perhaps they’ve offered some suggestions and you haven’t tried any of them.  Whatever, some people get a lot of benefit and relief out of writing about their feelings in a journal, or just a sheet of paper you stick way back in a drawer.  Whenever you can pinpoint your feelings, whenever you can connect them to what has happened, it helps you gain perspective.  When I’m facing a difficult problem, I sometimes ask myself questions out loud, as though someone else was telling me her troubles, and I notice what questions I would ask, what suggestions I would give.  It’s worth a try.