American mystery writer
Phyllis Ayame Whitney (September 9, 1903 – February 8, 2008) was an American mystery writer of more than 70 novels. Born in Japan to American parents in 1903, she spent her early years in Asia.
A rarity for her genre, she wrote mysteries for both the juvenile and the adult markets, many of which feature exotic settings. Although she was often described as a Gothic novelist, a review in The New York Times even dubbing her "The Queen of the American Gothics", Whitney claimed to hate this title. She preferred to say she wrote ”romantic novels of suspense".
In 1961, her book The Mystery of the Haunted Pool won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Juvenile Novel; she duplicated the honor in 1964 for The Mystery of the Hidden Hand. In 1988, the MWA gave her a Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement. In 1990, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Romance Writers of America. Whitney died of pneumonia at age 104 on February 8, 2008.
It's hard to come up with a 'quote' about myself. Perhaps I could say that most of my writing has been concerned with understanding between people. Whether of different races, or religions, or even in the same family I tried in my books... to deal with the subject of understanding the other fellow.
I talk to myself on paper about my characters - sometimes writing in first person... I keep lists of unanswered questions that I can always turn to in order to get myself going.
Short of throwing away all television sets, I really don't know what we can do about writing.
Good stories are not written. They are rewritten.
A good book isn't written, it's rewritten.
But emotion cannot be buried by words, though it can be aroused by them.
Nobody wanted me. I just kept writing books and learning my craft. Most writers aren't very good in the beginning.
Reading has always been a major part of my life. It has broadened my world and taken me to places I would otherwise have never seen. Now that I am a hundred years old (this September) it still takes me to the outside world I can no longer visit.
There's only one good reason to be a writer-we can't help it! We'd all like to be rich, famous and successful, but if those are our goals, we're off on a wrong foot...I just wanted to earn enough money so I could work at home on my writing.
A map is not a journey.
You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning.
One of the wonderful things about being ALIVE is that it's never too late.