Name Characters after Us?

 we r big fans of the alice series!! we r emailing u because we r wondering if you r going to continue the alice series when she and her friends are off at college? if you do so we were hoping that you could add 2 characters named after us.   p.s. this is random but i had a book idea that a gay boy and a lesbian girl r best friends trying to survive high school with all the bullies.

Phyllis replied:

I’ve omitted your names, but I’m flattered that you’d like me to name some characters after you and your friends.  I never do that, however, because it distorts the way these characters act in my novels.  And it’s an interesting idea to have a lesbian and a gay character become best friends and fight discrimination–so good an idea that it’s been used in a number of books.  Happy New Year to you and your friends!