“The creative genius begins in the idle moment, dreaming up the impossible, and later making it come true.”
― V.C. Andrews
I remember my mom’s copy of V.C. Andrews bestseller Flowers in the Attic sitting on her bookshelf. The cover intrigued me, with it’s cut out window with childrens’ face, similar to my own, staring out hopelessly. It was unusual to see a commonly popular book in her collection, as she was an avid library patron. I knew this book must be especially good.
As I researched V.C. Andrews for a post, I soon realized why it had made it to the top of the bestsellers lists. Andrews wasn’t just writing a story, she was incorporating her emotional experience of living as a disabled person inside her mother’s home. The family dynamics weren’t as dire as the characters in her book faced, but strained relationships and lies to support a facade of happiness were a part of her life and she fed those emotions into her writing.
The success of Flower in the Attic continued with more books based on characters from that novel, and after her death in 1986 the series continued through a ghostwriter in a testament to connection she made with her readers.
Find out more about this remarkable writer in an article I wrote for Chanticleer Book Reviews.
