-She was born on June 6th 1923
-She was born in Portsmouth, Virginia
-She had two older brothers
-Her father, Henry Andrews, was a member of the navy
who later opened his own tool and die business
-Her mother, Lillian Lilnora Parker Andrews, was a
telephone operator
-When she was a teenager she fell down a set of stairs at
school and suffered injuries that left her in a wheelchair
for the remainder of her life
-She once lived in New York
-She once underwent a four year at-home
correspondence art class
-She was an excellent student
-She lost her father in the late 1960's
-After her father died, her mother relocated the family to
Manchester, Missouri
-VCA later excelled in art, portrait painting, and fashion
illustrating
-She used her income to help support her family
-VCA first started writing in secret
-Would you believe that her first manuscript was an
autobiography? She later destroyed it to keep her
personal life a secret
-Her first completed novel was titled "The Gods of Green
Moutain, which is available as an e-book on
SimonSays.com
-The Gods of Green Mountain is actually a science fiction
book
-She wrote 9 novels
-She wrote 20 short stories
-Only one short story was ever published, it was titled "I
Slept With My Uncle on my Wedding Night," and it was
published in a confession magazine
-The short story seems to have disappeared because no
one has been able to find it
-Her first submission to a publisher was a 290,000 word
novel titled "The Obsessed"
-The publishers asked her to spice the title of the book
up so she ended up calling it "Flowers In The Attic"
-"Flowers In The Attic" earned her $7,500
-"Flowers In The Attic" showed up on the best-seller list
for two weeks after the paperback publication in 1979
-The book was published by Pocket Books
-"Petals on the Wind" was published one year after
"Flowers in the Attic"
-"Petals on the Wind" earned VCA $35,000 and stayed on
the bestselling list for 19 weeks
-"If There be Thorns" was released in 1981 and earned
VCA $75,000 and earned the #2 on best seller lists within
two weeks
-"My Sweet Audrina" was published in 1982
-In 1984 "Seeds of Yesterday" was released and earned
the title of the best selling fiction paperback of the year
-In 1984 she was named the "Professional Woman of the
Year" by Norfolk, Virgina
-VCA's second series began with Heaven, which began
in 1985
-"Dark Angel was released in 1986 and shot straight to #1
on the bestsellers list
-In 1986 VCA was named "Number One Best Selling
Author" of popular horror and occult paperbacks by the
American Bookseller's Association, beating even
Stephen King
-VCA was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1986
-She died on December 19th, 1986 at the age of 62
-VC Andrews is buried in Olive Branch Cemetary in
Portsmouth, Virginia
-By the time she passed away she had sold over 24
million books
-Her books have been translated into Dutch, German,
Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese,
Swedish, and Turkish
-Her estate estimated $8 million
-In 1987 the movie of her book "Flowers in the Attic" was
released by Entertainment/New World Pictures
-VCA actually appeared in the movie as a window
scrubbing maid
-After her death, two more of her books were published:
Garden of Shadows and Fallen Hearts
-After her death the Andrews family stated that more of
her books would be published
-Five years before her death VCA told the Washington
Post that she had created synopsis for sixty-three other
stories, not including those that were already published
-Later on a public letter, written by the Andrews family,
was printed in the novels and revealed the family was
working closely with a selected writer to "expand and
continue" V.C. Andrews's stories
-The identity of the writer was kept in secret from the
public at the family's request
-Recently the ghost writer has been identified as Andrew
Neiderman, who has written many of his own books,
some inspiring movies