PhyllistheAuthor

Fifth graders at Pond Elementary School in Wildwood, Missouri recently finished reading Divided Loyalties in Mrs. Mariam's class. They asked such excellent questions, I thought other kids might be interested in their questions and my answers.



Dear Brendon,
Great to hear from you! I'm glad you "got" the title. We don't often think of the Revolutionary War as a civil war, but it must have been difficult for people who lived in that time to cast off their loyalty to Britain and form new loyalties.

I tried to show that Josh and Teddy went back to being friends at the end. I suggest in the Epilogue that they had gone back to their old relationship. Perhaps I should have made it stronger.

Do you have a best friend? Everyone wants a good friend, but it isn't always easy to find one and then keep one.

Hi Michael,
I'm glad you enjoyed the "necessary" incident. I enjoyed it too. Practical jokes like Teddy's seldom work the way they are intended. I hope Teddy learned to stay away from that kind of thing.

Why did I make Grum a traitor and a mean teacher? I made him a mean teacher because unlike today when most teachers are nice, in days gone by, teachers had no formal training and were often ill suited to the job.

I made Grum a traitor because I wanted to give validity to Teddy's bad feelings about the man. From the very first, Teddy can't stand Grum. Sometimes that happens to both children and adults and I think we should always trust our feelings. When a person or place doesn't feel right to us, we should avoid them. The problem Teddy faced was that he saw Grum every day.

What do you think Teddy should have done instead of trying to lock Grum in the necessary?

Good afternoon, Caitie,
I have written another book about the same period, but it is not published yet. I haven't included Teddy because the new book occurs at the same time as Divided Loyalties. If he does make an appearance, he'll have to be the same age.

How would you react if your dad wanted you to be a lawyer and you didn't want to be one? Could you talk to him?

Hi Garrett,
I'm glad you learned a lot from Divided Loyalties. Since I used to be a history teacher, I love it when people learn about history. You ask if someone in the story represents me. I tell readers that I am none of the characters and all the characters (yes, even Grum!). I relate most to Mother, however, because I am a mom.

Hi Kaylee,
You ask about mother. I based her character on the mother of President Andrew Jackson. She went to rescue her son when he was captured by the British and she was so upset by the conditions of the other prisoners, she returned to nurse them. And she got cholera and died. So that is very accurate. However, there is more to the story. I wrote the first draft of Divided Loyalties and then I became very ill myself. So I rewrote it so that Mother lived. Then when I got better, I rewrote it again, believing that it was more accurate for her to die. In the days before modern medicine people died from even minor problems such as an infected tooth.

Hi Madison,
Please see what I wrote to Kaylee about Mother dying. Once when I was in Charleston, SC in an historic cemetery I saw one grave that contain not two, but three children who all died at about the same time. I don't remember the cause, but in the eighteenth century, many children died from childhood diseases and other infections such as smallpox, cholera, and typhoid fever.

Is it always bad to feel sad? I don't think so. Often in movies and on TV people die like flies and yet there is seemingly little grief and sadness.

Hello Brandon,
I have never locked anyone in a necessary! But personal experience does figure mightily in the book. My son, Alex, was in the fife and drum corps. His best friend was an African-American fifer. I went to many marches and learned about the special bond that develops when people play music together over a long period of time. Living as I do in Williamsburg, I have visited the places in the book many times.

Greetings Kayla,
I'm glad you felt like you are in the story. Often when I am writing, I am not here in my study in Williamsburg, but back in the past. My body is here, but my mind and heart are with my characters. I'm sorry if you found it disappointing that Josh and Teddy didn't become friends again. I tried to suggest that they did by including Josh with Teddy in the Epilogue.

Good Afternoon, Andrew,
I'm glad you loved the book. You and many others have been disappointed that Teddy and Josh didn't become friends again. I tried to suggest they did in the Epilogue, but I obviously flunked. In my imagination they went back to being ALMOST like they were before. The difference is that they have both grown from coming to terms with their circumstances.

Hi Paul,
It is tough to be responsible for your actions, but we are known by what we do. If you didn't have any friends like Teddy and then found one in Josh, how would you respond to the very good possibility that he wasn't your friend after all? Teddy's reactions to Josh are partly explained by his grief over losing his mom. Today we would say he was depressed. In that situation, it didn't seem very real to me that he could come to terms easily with Josh's supposed deception.

Dear Pete,
Names are very interesting. I chose the name Teddy because if I had a second son which I don't, I would have called him Teddy. I like the name. It is an old-fashioned name now but it suggests Teddy Bears and Teddy Roosevelt and a boy of long ago. I chose Parker because it is an Anglo-Saxon name and in Virginia in the eighteenth century, that name would have fit.

Greetings James,
I'm glad you found the book exciting. All the main characters are imaginary, but bits and pieces of people I have known get worked into the characters and a lot of myself. I chose Williamsburg because I live here. I got the idea for the book when my son was a boy fifer in the Colonial Williamsburg fife and drum corps. I wrote a non-fiction book about the fife and drum corps and while researching it, I learned about the terrible trek to the battle of Camden by a group from Williamsburg.

Hi Taylor,
The battle scenes in the book are based on historical documents. The problem I had was that not all the historical sources agree. The battle looked different to participants depending on where they were and what happened to them. I chose the details that would be most likely for State Garrison Regiment. Teddy should have let Josh visit when he was sick. It is always better to face things that are bothering you. But we don't always do that, do we?

Dear Tyler,
Lots of things came together for this book. I wanted to write a book about the fifers and drummers since my son was a fifer for seven years and it was very special. I had already written Marching in Time, a nonfiction book about the fife and drum corps at Colonial Williamsburg. In that, I learned about the march to South Carolina. I live in Williamsburg, Virginia about three miles from the downtown historic area. So, colonial history is a part of my life.

I have a distant relative in Canada who sent me papers several years ago that qualified me to be a Loyalist, since some distant ancestor of mine fought in the Revolutionary War on the British side. Being an official Loyalist in Canada is a bit like being a member of the Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution in the US. I think other ancestors fought with the Patriots, but I don't have official papers.

Hi Robert,
I am working editing kids' book #4 which should appear this spring. I have written #5, #6, and #7 but so far haven't found publishers for them. I am writing books faster than they are being published. It is great fun. Especially when I hear from kids!

Dear Kristen,
I am wowed to hear my book is the best book you have ever read. I will be curious to hear what you think of Lottie's Courage. Keep reading. Readers are leaders.

Hi Hannah,
I have more ideas for books than I have time and energy. I get most of my ideas from history. If you look at the word history, you will see the word story inside it. History is full of stories. And they are special because they reflect what our ancestors went through to give us the world we have today.

Greetings Andria,
Where did I get the idea of Teddy trapping his dad in the necessary? I'm not sure. When I write, stuff just percolates up from my subconscious mind. I like to jog and I often get ideas when I am out pounding the pavement. I never recall reading anything similar. However, in olden times when people had outhouses, it was a favorite Halloween trick for older boys to push over the outhouses. So there are stories around about those incidents.

I felt bad because in many ways, Divided Loyalties is a sad book. But I wanted to accurately portray the price the Patriots paid for our freedom, and the price was heavy at Camden, on the ships, Valley Forge, and many other places. In some ways, the necessary incident is a bit of fun in a sad book.

Hi Hannah,
I am glad that you found the book to be both happy and sad. I was worried when I wrote it that the book was too sad. I spoke with the librarian, Viky Pedigo, at my son's elementary school, and she assured me that kids can handle the sad things if they are for a good purpose. And of course, at the end, all of Teddy's suffering and sacrifice allow him to choose his own career and result in American freedom.

My favorite name in the book is "Grum." It implies "grumble, grovel, and grub." When I see a good name in the newspaper or hear one, I write it in my writer's notebook. Then when I need a name for a certain type of character, I can look in my notebook. Sometimes names come easily out of no where and seem to fit and at other times, I'm not happy with the names. Then I change them. That is easily done on the computer.

Hello to Vanessa,
I am glad you learned about Williamsburg. I hope you will be able to visit here some day. If you want to make an author happy, tell her you loved her book!

Hi to Hope,
Nice to hear you found Divided Loyalties exciting! I am flattered that you want to reread the book. In this busy world, if you can find the time to read a book more than once, that is a really something.

Greetings Morgan,
Thank you for reading my book. A writer is nothing without READERS. I will be interested to see if you like Lottie as well as Teddy.

Answers to more questions:

Dear Fifth Graders who ask wonderful questions,

My son was ten when he joined the fife and drum corps. It isn't connected to school. The program is run by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. The corps is run like a military unit and the older kids teach the younger ones. They have to stand at attention and follow orders like Teddy did. Since you are interested after Christmas, I will send you a gift copy of my book Marching in Time about the Colonial Williamsburg Fife and Drum Corps.

I included dogs, because I like dogs. In fact, I have a book that is unpublished called The Dogs of DOG Street. DOG Street is the name locals call Duke of Gloucester Street, the main street in Colonial Williamsburg. In that book, I interviewed dogs on DOG Street and took their pictures. It was a "howl," but I haven't found a publisher.

During the Revolutionary War traitors were commonly hung. So when the British found out that McAllister was a turncoat, the sentence was hanging.

Porterfield had to pay for food with his own money because the Continental Congress was unable to provide the necessary food. Not only was the Congress a new government inexperienced in such things, it also didn't have the power to tax, one way governments have money for wars.

Vain probably wouldn't have shot Teddy, but when he went to the door, she didn't know if he were friend or foe. These were dangerous times with armies roaming around and loyalties often unclear.

I probably could write a sequel to Divided Loyalties, but it would be for Young Adults if I did since Teddy would be older. I have no plans now to write a sequel. One of the problems I have as a writer for kids your age is that you grow up. Once I have written a book and it is accepted for publication, it takes on average about two years for a book to come out. So, if I started a sequel today, you would probably be in high school before it was available.

Josh and Vain didn't meet again because the army was on the move. Even Teddy who was quite taken with Vain didn't have the chance to see her again. Keep in mind the limited modes of travel in the eighteenth century. Today we could drive from Virginia to South Carolina in a day, but it took the army weeks to march that far.

I have put out all my snow people for Christmas. They continue to smile even though we've not seen a single flake of snow here is Virginia. They can't be very happy since temperatures have been in the 70s. Not good temperatures for snow people!!!

Do you recognize the artist who painted the picture in the background? He is very famous. The originial of this portrait is in the National Gallery in Washington, DC. There has recently been a popular book and a movie with the artist's name in the title.

I recommend the following books that I liked.

A girl and her mom teamed up under the name of Zizou Corder to write The Lion Boy. It is a fun book, especially if you like cats: big cats, house cats, and alley cats. The only negative thing about this book was that I was unaware that it was planned to be a trilogy. As a result, when I got to the end of the book, I was disappointed that the plot wasn't resolved.

Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell is the story of a Navajo girl named Bright Morning. Slave traders capture her when she is tending her sheep and she must find a way to escape harsh treatment as a slave. Later, she takes part in the Trail of Tears in 1862-1863 when soldiers drove her people from Arizona to New Mexico.

I believe that everyone is creative, and it is not surprising that a record number of participants [79,000 people]took part in National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month.

The days of our lives speed by. We are caught up in things we must do and things we want to do. We never seem to have the time to make something new. The novel challenge spurs us to reorder our lives for one month to exercise our creativity.

Completing the challenge was not easy, it meant going to the computer and writing every day whether I felt like it or not. I tried to do 2000 words a day. And many days, I didn't make my goal. I found it exhausting, like running the half marathon, and at times I doubted the value of what I was writing.

Yet, the process was worthwhile. I have written a book in one month. You can do it too! Considering taking part in the challenge next November.