Your Questions Answered

Do you like answering questions?

Hello, I wanted to ask you, do you personally like answering questions about your books and the characters in them? I’ve been on many author’s websites and not many have a spot where you can ask questions about the books or the author or sometimes the author gets their assistant to write back to the fans so you never really get the author’s point of view or answers from the author who actually wrote the book

I enjoy answering questions if they are not asked over and over again.  It’s always fun for me when a reader notices something different, or has a completely different question than whose asked before.  I can usually tell when a reader asks a question that they are truly curious about, not just fishing for a response.

Advice on Publishing

As an experienced author, what is your advice for a young author looking for the right publishing company and editor?

You need to examine what other kinds of books each company publishes–whether or not they specialize in one type–fiction, nonfiction, literary, popular, children, adults, outdoorsy, etc etc.  Most publishers today, unfortunately, will only consider material that comes to them through an agent, so your best bet is to start there.   Ask a reference librarian to show you the book that lists U.S. agents and what they specialize in . Then write a brief letter to the agency telling about your book and whether or not you could send an electronic copy.

The Abaguchie

I just read my twin grandchildren the Boys Against Girls book with the Abaguchie. They are hooked and keep bugging me to ask you, “Is there a second book?” I have to say, they didn’t care for the ending and want more. Please tell me there is another book, and where to find it.
Thank you so much for writing books that have them hooked.

You’re in luck.  Boys against Girls is the third book in a 12 book series.  If you read them in order the story will start with the girls’ family moving into the neighborhood.   Teachers tell me that these books are favorites among the 4th and 5th graders.  I think the hardcover books are no longer printed but you should find them in paperback.  Go to any bookstore and ask them to order them for you, or see if they aren’t carried by Amazon:   Here are the titles, in order:  The Boys Start the War, The Girls Get Even, Boys Against Girls, The Girls Revenge ,A Traitor Among the Boys, A Spy Among the Girls, The Boys Return, The
Girls  Take Over, Boys in Control, Girls Rule, Boys Rock!  Who Won the War?

Coming up with Place names

Hello!! I’m an aspiring author but I have a very rough time coming up with town names for my stories. I’m only 17 and I haven’t done a lot of traveling in my life and only know about certain states from what I’ve read in books. I like all my stories to take place in different places. As a writer, have you ever come up with your own town names? if so, how did you do it?

All the time!  No matter what town name you make up, it probably exists somewhere in the world, so don’t even worry about it.  You wouldn’t want to name a town in Kansas “Chicago,” of course, but think how many “Jonesvilles” or “New Towns” or “River Roads” there must be.

Interview with a Toucan?

Does Phyllis do any virtual events? I’d love to add her to my series of interviews that I’ve done with authors with Indiana connections. I do interviews with a toucan puppet. We’d love to interview Phyllis! Thanks! – Suzanne Walker
Indiana State Library

Please contact me again in late summer.  I have more work on my hands than I can manage right now.

Your first date?

I want to applaude you on the Alice books because I’ve read all of them and they are fantastic! My favorite is “Now I’ll Tell You Everything” but I also loved “Alice in Rapture…Sort of”. I thought it was very funny about what Alice worried about on her first date with Patrick because I had the exact same worries. Did your first date go exactly like Alice’s? Did you go to a Country club like she did?

Not quite.  In 7th grade, I was invited to have dinner at Donald Miller’s home, and I was almost sick at my stomach.  It would be worry enough to go to a movie or have a soda together, without having his whole family looking on.  I was just so uncomfortable and embarrassed, I could only eat  few bites . Everybody kept looking at me, asking me questions, trying to make me comfortable, and it only made things worse,  My second date was in 8th grade with another boy who took me to a movie.  After he walked me home, he kissed me on the porch, then left immediately  (that was the way things went then.  You kissed, then separated quickly to hide your embarrassment.)  But as soon as I got inside the house, I announced joyfully that I had just been kissed.  My parents did not seem pleased.  And for several years after that, the porch light was always on when I went out on a date.  (We simply kissed somewhere else).

Favorite film?

Hi, I know you read a lot of books and I was wondering if you go to the movies too, if so, what’s your favorite movie?

Oh, far too many to even try.  Two Women, The Sting, so many Italian films, so many British comedies…..  don’t make me choose.

Crazy Love

Dear Phyllis Naylor,
let me start by saying I work as a librarian and I recently stumbled upon your book “Crazy Love” and I really connected to it because I am in the same position that you were in. I’m 24 years old and My husband who I love is also a paranoid schizophrenic and I’ve been going through the same things you did with going from one hospital to another and having him put on medications so when I read your book it was like reading my own story but having someone write it for me. I understand you divorced your husband and married a very nice man, but how did you get the courage to do it? Sometimes I want to get away from my husband but growing up, I always said when I get married I’m going to stay with my husband through thick and thin because that’s what you do when you really love someone but right now I’m tired of this and don’t know how much more I can take. I feel guilty for thinking that. I keep remembering we both vowed to each other through sickness and health and promised to love each other and that we’d love each other forever. I guess my views on marriage are too romantic and unrealistic but that’s whats keeping me with him apart from the fact that I do love him. How do I stop feeling guilty? aren’t I breaking my vows by divorcing him?

I know exactly how you are feeling right now, and it seemed a horrible decision to make.  Like you, I vowed to stay with him and try to help him no matter what, and for three years I did.  But I was going into debt trying to pay his hospital bills, developing health problems of my own, fueled by my anxiety.  But I finally realized that if we didn’t separate I would become ill; and his remark to me one day that the high priced doctors were caring for him were in on the plot to kill him, convinced me that he was getting nothing out of being in this expensive hospital.  I know that they have far better drugs these days than they did back then, but I also realized that my husband’s suspicions of those who were trying to kill him were now turning on me, and I was afraid to sleep at night.  Once he left and went back to his parents, then called me halfway across the country to say he was coming back to me, would I meet him at the airport, I finally had the courage to say no, reminding him of the many many times he begged to live with me again, and how soon he was suspicious once again when he came back.

You never get over this but you eventually realize that if  you don’t consider your own health, two people will be sick, not just one.  I hope you have some supportive friends and family to help you through this.  I heard from several psychiatrists who read my book years later, who wrote to tell me that I made the right decision, that they had worried so, in reading the book, that I would stay.

Autobiography?

Hello, I thought I heard you wrote some autobiography or something like that at some point, is that true? Is it on audio book?

I wrote an autobiography about my first marriage that ended tragically when my husband became mentally ill–the struggle of following him to one city, one hospital to another, and finally ended in divorce.  The book title is Crazy Love and is now out of print, though there are second hand copies available.

Inspired by Alice

Hi, I love Alice more than any book series out there! You did a wonderful job! I loved it so much I got inspired to write my own coming of age series about a young girl. I just want you to know that I would NEvER want to replace Alice because really I wouldn’t stand a chance. I work at the public library in my town and always recommend people to read the Alice series because I loved them so much and I also want you to know that I would never plagiarize your books, I tend to make my series completely different from Alice but still have good lessons and morals about growing up and life, of course. I came up with this idea because I love the Alice series so much and wished there were more books like them and really, nowadays girls need them with the way our generation is going. I will continue to recommend the Alice series to people and I want to say once more that you are a wonderful author and you should never stop what you do!

Best wishes to you and for your series!