Alice Blog

How Can I get Him to Talk?

Question:

Uhh, well, to start off, there’s this guy. I met him through a friend of mine,
and ever since, we’ve been really good friends. I bet your thinking, “what’s the
problem, ur friends with him!” Well, I use to like him, well u can say I still
do. Its just that, he says he doesn’t like me, but he says nice stuff like “I
miss you” or “I really wanna hang out, just the two of us”. I’ve never had a guy
tell me that before. So, yeah, I’m new to this stuff. But, if he says he doent
like me, then why bother to hang out with me alone? Why bother to say I miss
you?
I’m black. And he’s white.
Sometimes I think most guy like me, that are white, its just that it seems like
their scared to say “I like a black girl” I mean, what so wrong about that? I
understand that their probably new to dating a gurl that’s different, but he’s
my best guy friend, we tell each other everything, I mean, EVERYTHING!
Now, its like, he barley talks to me?! How can I get him to talk?
Could you give me some advice?
Thanks so much, and I LOVE your books!!(:

Phyllis replied:

I wish I could see into his head and tell you what he’s really thinking.  And obviously, he doesn’t tell you EVERYTHING or you’d already know what’s up.  When he says he doesn’t like you, is that to you?  He tells others?  He means he does like you romantically?  It’s possible that he used to like you but is moving on.  It’s possible that when he says he misses you, he’s trying to let you down slowly.  It’s possible that he really does like you, but the race thing bothers him, and he’s not grown up enough to handle it.  But if he rarely talks to you anymore, I’d give him space and not spend too much energy worrying about it.  What I would NOT do is try to get him to talk.  He may not even know himself exactly how he feels.  You have other friends, you have other interests, get involved in other things.  To try to force someone to put his feelings into words may make him say things he doesn’t really mean.

More Alice Movies!

Question:

I LOVE your alice books I can relate to them so well, you make it seem like alice is one of my friends. I think that you should make more of the alice books into movies, because I loved the one that is a movie iv watched it like 10 times. I think that you should write some more alice books about her friends and her in collage! My boyfriend and patrick i think are exactly alike and that makes it even funner to read your books.
 

Phyllis replied:

There are more Alice books coming, but no movies that I know of.  I’m glad you enjoyed the movie “Alice Upside Down.”   Your boyfriend must be quite a guy!

Want to be a Writer

Question

I’ve been reading your “Alice” books and absolutely love them! I hope you know that they are a great insight into a teenage girl’s life. (I just started high school, so I feel like I can relate to them a little bit) I wanted to know how you got started as a writer, how did you get your first book published? I myself am aspiring to be an author someday, and I write stories constantly. Write on!

Phyllis replied:

You would enjoy my book “How I Came to be a Writer.”  It will tell you much more than I can here.  I always loved to make  little “books” as a child, and when I was 16, I had my first short story published in a church magazine.  I wrote short stories and sent them out to magazines for 15 years before I ever got up the nerve to write a novel.  If you want the details, please do read the book I mentioned.    Wishing you the best of luck!  

Wish You Would Never Stop

Keep Writing the Alice Books

Boy Problem

She Thinks I Shouldn’t Read the Books

Question:

I really love your books. Me and two of my friends are just like 
Alice, Pamela, and Elizabeth. I’m probably Alice. Haha. But to get to 
the point… so I love the Alice books but I’m only 13 and my mom is 
sort is behind on what teens these days read. She thinks I shouldn’t 
read the books cause they have sex in them. I don’t care that they do 
cause it ads character to the stories, but my mom always says that, 
“Alice is growing up very fast.” hint hint. I don’t know what to say 
to her. Then we don’t talk for hours cause it gets really awkward 
between us. Please help me!

Phyllis replied:

Well, timewise, Alice is growing up very slowly, because I write three for each year of her life.  So it takes her three times as long to get from 13 to 14.  On the other hand, I started writing these books many years ago, and if you are reading one right after the other, then yes, Alice is growing older as fast as you can read about her.  Why don’t you suggest that your mom read the books too, either together with you, or separately, and then you can talk about them afterwards.  And she can give you her take on what Alice and her friends do.  Would that work?

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!

Was He using Me?

Lester

Question:

I was just wondering how you get Lester’s hilarious comments like does your son’s help you?

Phyllis replied:

I don’t know, they just come to me.  Alice seems to set Lester up, and then he delivers.  My grown sons probably influence me more than I know..they both have a very dry sense of humor that I like a lot.