Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
AUTHOR

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Kids

I guess I've been writing for about as long as I can remember. Telling stories, anyway, if not writing them down. I had my first short story published when I was sixteen, and wrote stories to help put myself through college, planning to become a clinical psychologist. By the time I graduated with a BA degree, however, I decided that writing was really my first love, so I gave up plans for graduate school and began writing full time.

I'm not happy unless I spend some time writing every day. It's as though pressure builds up inside me, and writing even a little helps to release it. On a hard-writing day, I write about six hours. Tending to other writing business, answering mail, and just thinking about a book takes another four hours. I spend from three months to a year on a children's book, depending on how well I know the characters before I begin and how much research I need to do. A novel for adults, because it's longer, takes a year or more. When my work is going well, I wake early in the mornings, hoping it's time to get up. When the writing is hard and the words are flat, I'm not very pleasant to be around.

Getting an idea for a book is the easy part. Keeping other ideas away while I'm working on one story is what's difficult. My books are based on things that have happened to me, things I have heard or read about, all mixed up with imaginings. The best part about writing is the moment a character comes alive on paper, or when a place that existed only in my head becomes real. There are no bands playing at this moment, no audience applauding--a very solitary time, actually--but it's what I like most. I've now had more than 120 books published, and about 2000 short stories, articles and poems.

I live in Bethesda, Maryland, with my husband, Rex, a speech pathologist, who's the first person to read my manuscripts when they're finished. Our sons, Jeff and Michael, are grown now, but along with their wives and children, we often enjoy vacations together in the mountains or at the ocean. When I'm not writing, I like to hike, swim, play the piano and attend the theater.

I'm lucky to have my family, because they have contributed a great deal to my books. But I'm also lucky to have the troop of noisy, chattering characters who travel with me inside my head. As long as they are poking, prodding, demanding a place in a book, I have things to do and stories to tell.

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Best Sellers

    • Shiloh

    • By: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
    • Narrated by: Peter MacNicol
    • Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4.5 out of 5 stars 375
    • Performance
      4.5 out of 5 stars 274
    • Story
      4.5 out of 5 stars 278

    From Phyllis Reynolds Naylor comes this unabridged recording of her Newbery Award-winning tale of adventure, courage and love, the timeless and moving story of a dog in trouble...

    • 5 out of 5 stars

    • Epic! ( An eleven yr olds review)

    • By Cyndi on 02-20-12

    Regular price: $14.60

    Free with 30-day Trial

    • Saving Shiloh

    • By: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
    • Narrated by: Henry Leyva
    • Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4.5 out of 5 stars 34
    • Performance
      4.5 out of 5 stars 24
    • Story
      5 out of 5 stars 24

    Judd Travers is physically on the mend from the truck accident that nearly took his life in Shiloh Season. But is he healing inside too?...

    • 5 out of 5 stars

    • Awesome

    • By Patricia Hebert on 03-23-18

    Regular price: $14.60

    Free with 30-day Trial

    • Shiloh Season

    • By: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
    • Narrated by: Michael Moriarty
    • Length: 2 hrs and 42 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4.5 out of 5 stars 46
    • Performance
      4.5 out of 5 stars 34
    • Story
      5 out of 5 stars 32

    Marty Preston worked so hard to earn his dog Shiloh, and he had hoped that his troubles with Judd Travers were over. He could not rescue all the dogs that Judd mistreated,...

    • 5 out of 5 stars

    • Review by 8 year old

    • By Monique on 06-04-15

    Regular price: $14.60

    Free with 30-day Trial

    • The Fear Place

    • By: Phyllis Naylor
    • Narrated by: Ed Sala
    • Length: 3 hrs and 25 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      3.5 out of 5 stars 2
    • Performance
      3 out of 5 stars 2
    • Story
      3 out of 5 stars 2

    When the boys’ parents are called away by a family emergency, Doug and his older brother, Gordon, are left on their own in their Rocky Mountain campsite....

    Regular price: $13.99

    Free with 30-day Trial

    • A Shiloh Christmas

    • By: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
    • Narrated by: Keith Nobbs
    • Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4.5 out of 5 stars 44
    • Performance
      5 out of 5 stars 38
    • Story
      4.5 out of 5 stars 38

    Christmas is coming and Marty and his rescued pup, Shiloh, are sure glad about that - for their town is low on love and understanding....

    • 5 out of 5 stars

    • Shiloh

    • By D. Oliver on 01-07-19

    Regular price: $13.99

    Free with 30-day Trial

    • Faith, Hope, and Ivy June

    • By: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
    • Narrated by: Karen White
    • Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4 out of 5 stars 15
    • Performance
      4 out of 5 stars 14
    • Story
      4 out of 5 stars 14

    Ivy June Mosely and Catherine Combs, two girls from different parts of Kentucky, are participating in the first seventh-grade student exchange program between their schools....

    Regular price: $27.93

    Free with 30-day Trial

    • Emily's Fortune

    • By: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
    • Narrated by: Lee Adams
    • Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4.5 out of 5 stars 5
    • Performance
      4.5 out of 5 stars 4
    • Story
      5 out of 5 stars 4

    From Newbery Award winner Phyllis Reynolds Naylor comes a witty tale of the Wild West filled with comical cliffhangers and featuring a cast of plucky orphans and dastardly villains....

    Regular price: $15.93

    Free with 30-day Trial

    • Alice the Brave

    • By: Phyllis Naylor
    • Narrated by: Christina Moore
    • Length: 3 hrs and 32 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      2.5 out of 5 stars 2
    • Performance
      3 out of 5 stars 1
    • Story
      3 out of 5 stars 2

    Alice is ready for eighth grade, but she isn’t ready for this summer. All her friends are spending their days swimming in the neighborhood pool....

    Regular price: $13.99

    Free with 30-day Trial

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