What was your inspiration for BECOMING MY SISTER? Either from true crimes or from modern celebrity culture?
I live in Palm Springs and have been at events and people’s homes and estates in what is the setting for this novel, The Movie Colony. So first, I thought of it as a perfect V.C. Andrews location, meaning the setting plays a dramatic role in the story. In our culture now especially, celebrity is almost a religious thing. People apply to celebrities what they apply to icons of film and television. Being in their presence is truly an almost spiritual event, even just seeing someone in person. To take that concept and apply it to the mother of two adolescents was a natural V.C. thought for me. The girls are not so much in rivalry with themselves as they are with the ghosts of old movie stars. How can they compete? What does their mother demand of them in relation to this? How have the learned to deal with it and how does it make them more independent. Their father is almost oblivious to it all. Gish, our man character, named after Lillian Gish, looks to her sister Gloria for guidance because Gloria is so mature, such a good student and talented artistically. The competition is subtle, but the end result is a real V.C. conclusion built out of love and fear and finally hope.
With family relationships, a disappearance, and celebrity in this story, would you consider this a psychological thriller? Does the sister bond ratchet up the tension an extra notch?
It is a psychological thriller, the terror coming from the reality rather than anything supernatural. The closeness of the sisters makes the climax and tension stronger and more intense. Gish is conflicted. With her sister gone, she feels more important, but guilty, too. It’s the pursuit of what really happened that makes it a spiraling conflict and drives the third act, the conclusion both internally for Gish and externally because of the potential tragedy.
Are there a few twists over the course of the book, or is it a steady build until the final reveal?
There are constant surprises because Gish realizes that her sister is good at hiding truth, both from her and their mother. Characters who seem potentially dangerous or threatening turn into different people from those whom we anticipate. Is that a bad guy or not? We won’t really know until the end.
Other than this new book, if you could only recommend one V.C. Andrews book to a reader unfamiliar with the collection, which book would you recommend? And why?
Forbidden Sisters and Roxy’s Story because it’s quite contemporary and glamorous set in the world of New York escorts and taking us through the development of both Roxy and her sister into independent women.
Several authors I’ve interviewed have said that what they read is different than what they write. What do you enjoy reading?
My favorite modern author is James Lee Burke who writes violent, Cajun detective action pieces, quite different from V.C. Andrews, but closer to my own works. Mine are more psychological terror, but also filled with action. His work is poetic at times…he’s a writer’s writer.
What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on what will be the new “Flowers in the Attic,” the first book in a series that follows the structure of Flowers but is more contemporary. I think it will be the biggest work I’ve done as V.C. Andrews. That’s as much as I can tell about it right now. I am also working on developing the stage play of Flowers in the Attic and hopefully will have news on that this year.
Thanks for interviewing me, Andrew Neiderman
Thriller Psychological | Suspense [Gallery, On Sale: March 15, 2022, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781982156305 / eISBN: 9781982156336]
Cleo Virginia Andrews (June 6, 1923 – December 19, 1986), better known as V. C. Andrews or Virginia C. Andrews, was an American novelist. She was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. Andrews died of breast cancer at the age of 63.
Andrews' novels combine Gothic horror and family saga, revolving around family secrets and forbidden love (frequently involving themes of consensual incest, most often between siblings), and they often include a rags-to-riches story. Her best-known novel is the infamous bestseller Flowers in the Attic (1979), a tale of four children locked in the attic of a wealthy Virginia family for over three years by their estranged pious grandmother.
Her novels were so successful that after her death her estate hired a ghost writer, Andrew Neiderman, to write more stories to be published under her name.
Her novels have been translated into Czech, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Greek, Finnish, Hungarian, Swedish, Polish, Portuguese, Lithuanian and Hebrew .
Ms. Andrews died in 1986 and subsequent books have been ghost written by horror author, Andrew Neiderman
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