How Do You Think It All UP?

Question:

Omg. It is so weird to be writing to the best author EVER!!!! I know you get thousands of emails like these each day, but I sincerely mean it from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WRITING THESE ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE BOOKS!!! They’ve made my life easier.
     Pam’s parents are going through a rocky divorce same as mine are, in the grooming of Alice somebody died (I’m not saying who in case someone hasn’t read it yet) same as someone close to me did, I’ve had to move, I’ve had embarassing expierences, etc. Some embarassing stuff has been answered too (questions everyone has about sex and bodies and life.)
     I completely see myself in all the characters in the book. Parents tend to think that kids in junior high (in Canada where I’m from it’s grade 7 8 9 not 6 7 8) are so innocent and they still have so much to live for. We are not as innocent as people think. Yes, we have tonnes to live for, but seriously….we experience SO MUCH of it in jr. high.
     Now for the question part lol!! How do you keep all the events in the books in order? I get confused just reading them sometimes haha!!! But seriously…I think that you are the best author ever. I know that you base a lot of what happens in these books on your own experiences, but the rest of it…how do you think it all up?? And how do you know so much about bodies and everything? I know tha tyou probably took sex ed in school and that you’re a married woman….I guess my real question is, how do you write so well about it without making it seem that Pam Al and Liz aren’t hormonal crazed , minds-only-on-sex girls?
     I know you won’t have time to answer all these questions but if you read this, thank you so much. I feel very priveledged to be able to email you like this. I love how you encorporate technology in the books too. I can’t say one bad thing about these books!! Oh btw why do some of the earlier Alice books say ages 14 up and then some say ages 12 and up? e.g. Alice on her way and Alice in the know. Just wondering. Thanks Mrs. Nayor!!

Phyllis replied:

I guess all I can say is that the things I write about come naturally to me, and I have a really good memory of what I was thinking about and worrying about all through my teen years.  (And every other year).  I’ve been in enough gym classes to know that girls’ body parts can be quite different, girl to girl, and I’ve read enough books and articles to know just how much girls worry about these differences.  And, having been married for 49 years to one man (and five years before that to another), I guess you could say I know a bit about sex. 

As for your other questions, the publisher decides what age level to put on the inside of the dust jacket.  And sometimes, in a new edition of a book, they decide the book is meant for older teens, and they change it from 12 – 14  to 14 and up.  As for keeping things straight from book to book, that is a constant problem for me and especially for the copy editor.  Finally the publisher asked the copy editor to make a “book,” or “bible,” as the editor calls it, listing all the characters, what they look like, what their houses look like, their parents’ first names, their love lives, what gifts they received and from whom, what they wore each Halloween, their religion, as well as listing major events in each book, and–in a special section–all the mistakes I’ve made from one book to another and which will probably never be corrected.  (I think I’ve given Alice three different birth dates).  Each year the Alice “bible,” as we call this book, is reprinted with new information in it.  Only my editors and I have copies of it, but it’s the only thing that keeps the stories “somewhat” straight.  I keep telling my editor that they should officially publish this “bible” after the series ends, but nobody’s said anything about that yet.