Your Questions Answered

How to balance writing time

Hello there! I know you have children of your own and just a side note, you’re my most favorite author in the world ever since I was a little kid! Anyway, I’m a mother of 2 children and I’m trying to write a novel that I’ve spent 2 years on, How did you find time to write a book while having children? How did you find time to spend time with your family and work on a book? Once again, You are remarkable and I hope you are doing well and are happy and in good health!

Here’s how, and I remember it well.  My boys were born 3 and a half years apart.  The minute my baby went down for a nap, I stopped all housework, cooking, etc. and wrote.  When the baby woke up, I stopped.  If my husband had things to do in the evening that didn’t involve me (he was a chess player) I wrote after the baby was in bed.  When  the second baby came along it was more difficult to find writing time, but when the older child was in nursery school and the baby was sleeping, I wrote.  Finally, when both boys were in  grade school, I remember that morning well.  I walked my youngest as far as the patrol boy,  then walked home singing that “the day is mine!!!!”    I wrote all day.  The minute the boys came home, I stopped and devoted much of the evening to family.  I wrote in dentist’s offices, waiting my turn.  I wrote on trains when I was on speaking tours.  I carried a notebook with me wherever I went, and wrote in beauty parlors under the dryer, in train stations, in restaurants, doctor’s offices, hotel lobbies, hospital rooms.  When I broke my ankle two years ago, I moved copies of my manuscript into my hospital room along with research books and extra pens and paper, etc.  In other words, you MAKE time.  Whenever you are alone and there is nothing on the stove or in the playpen that needs attention, you write, write, write.  And when you’re not writing, you try your best to make your family come first.

 

Boy narrators

Hi, Mrs. Reynolds-Naylor!
Have you ever written a book where a boy narrates it? if so, how hard was it and how did you do it? I’m a writer who is female and wants to write a book in a boy’s point of view because I want both boys and girls to read my novels.

I’d have to go over my whole library to see how many, but I know that I wrote a picture book with a boy narrator, All Because I’m Older;  the four books of my Shiloh Series–about a middle-school boy, and a book narrated by a high school boy The Year of the Gopher.   You simply have to morph into the sex you’re writing about–think and feel and talk and walk and act the way your character would act.  Think of yourself as an actor onstage.  Acting and writing are so similar.

Your first book?

Hello there! I was wondering, what was the first book you ever wrote and published? How long did it take to write it? what inspired you to write it?

The first book was titled “The Galloping Goat and Other Stories.”   It was actually nine short stories all bound together to make a book.  Each story took place in a different country.  My first novel, however, was  “What the Gulls Were Singing.” I don’ t remember how long it took to write it.  That was a long time ago.  Our family went to the ocean each year, so it was about a family at the ocean.

 

 

Your book titles

Hi I just want to say I am a really big fan of yours! I have to be honest I always thought your books were awesome, especially Alice. I always loved the covers of all your books and especially your titles because I feel deeply about a lot of things and your titles along with the covers always spoke to me. Do you choose your book titles or do your publisher or editor pick them, if you choose them, how do you come up with such cool and great titles for your books? Once again, I love your writing and hope there’s more to read soon!

I chose most of the titles, but my editors probably chose the ones you liked best.  They also kept up with what was popular.  I usually chose short titles.  But then it seemed that books with long odd titles were selling very well, so it was my editor who thought of titles like “It’s Not That I Planned it This Way,” though “Now I’ll Tell You Everything” was my idea.  It was the same with the covers.  I usually pictured a scene of some sort, and I wasn’t all that enthused about covers that featured just a part of a body–a girl from the neck down or a girl’s foot in the foreground.  But just like fashions in clothes, books go through styles as well.

How long is too long for writing a book?

Hi! First off, let me tell you that I am an enormous fan of yours and I grew up reading the Alice books, They’re fantastic! I’m 17 years old and all my life I wanted to be an author. Right now I’m working on 3 books at the same time so I don’t get burned out. I’ve been working on one of the books for almost 3 years! I thought I would be done with it by now but I kept getting writer’s block, life got busy, and at 15 I felt the story and some of the topics were too mature and too I guess big for me at the time so I decided to take a break from it for a while to get a little wiser so I knew what I was talking about because it’s a coming of age/romance book. I started writing it again but I feel a little embarrassed or ashamed that I’ve been working on it this long. Is it normal to work on a story this long? should I feel embarassed? Have you ever worked on a book this long?

I have now been working on the novel I’m currently writing for three and a half years, and I’m not done yet.

Boy-Girl Battle Series Error

Hi, I’m reading the 4th book in your Boy-Girl Battle Series- The Girls’ Revenge, and I noticed an error on page 62, in the sentence that said, “Wallace, Joshua, and Joseph! Get in here! Now!” There’s nobody named Joseph in the book, and I think you should change that sentence.

 

You have a good eye!  Perhaps you will be a proof-reader some day for a publishing company.  It’s hard to see how I and my editor and the copy-editor could all have missed this.  In the story, the father is calling each boy by his birth name, not their nicknames.   Wally is short for Wallace, Josh is short for Joshua, and Jake would be short for Jacob.  If the book goes though another printing, it certainly should be changed.

Teacher in Indiana?

Hello,

Did you happen to teach special education 3rd grade in Indianapolis?

No.  But I taught third grade in Hazelcrest, Illinois for awhile.

littrey assay

could you give me an idea of a reason shilohs mom and dad should give him a chance and what would be some reasons for that i am righting a littry assay

I believe you want some reasons why Marty’s parents might say it’s OK for him to keep the dog.  No, I can’t, because the dog is owned by someone else.  If you mean some reasons why they might ask Judd if they could buy the dog, they might feel the pain that Marty is feeling and wonder if they could talk Judd into it.  They might feel that if they squeezed their budget a bit  tighter, even though they were paying high medical costs for grandma’s care, they might be able to afford the expenses of keeping a dog.  But they don’t like dealing with Judd any more than Marty does.

Boy/Girl series as a movie?

Hi Ms Naylor,
I just want you to know that your Boy/Girl series is fantastic. When I read the book with my son many years back, I thought it was so funny and creative. I kept thinking “why hasn’t this been turned into a movie?”
Has anyone approached you about creating movies from the series?
When my kids were younger, I was always looking for something that we could watch together that wasn’t a cartoon or didn’t involve profanity/nudity/violence/sex. Personally, I enjoy having family movie night and watching series on Netflix/Amazon/HULU with my kids who are now 15 and 17. If your boy/girl series was turned into a series, I would definitely watch it and highly recommend it to everyone I know when they ask “what are you watching on Netflix?” which as you know was something I heard frequently during COVID quarantine. I recently recommended the series on goodreads to my sister for my 3rd grade nephew who is an avid reader. I believe this series, which includes endearing characters and laugh out loud comedy, should continue to be read and would also make a great series for all ages.
I would love to hear your thoughts.

I’m so glad you enjoyed those books so much.  I have almost no control over what books of mine make the movies or TV, but I have sent a copy of your email to the two producers of my Shiloh movies.  Perhaps they will take a look.  Yes, I agree that this set of twelve books could easily make a continuing comedy series for TV.

crazy fans?

Hi, what i’m about to ask you may be a weird question, but I heard a lot of authors tend to get crazy fans or stalkers because of their work. I figured an author as great as you might have had that problem before. Have you ever had to deal with stalkers or fans that got a little crazy or obsessed with you or your books?

Not really.  I’ve had a couple of mothers furious at me for telling their daughters too much about sex in some of the Alice books, but nobody threatened me.  What is difficult to put up with sometimes is a fan who will write letter after letter to me..one right after the other…email after email…while I have dozens of emails waiting from other people whom I haven’t answered yet.