Just What Kind Of Woman Was V.C. Andrews??????????????????

                                              The kind who would make a fascinating biopic, though much would have to be fictionalized, when the questions I ponder within this post are considered.

                                                About this photo--isn't it creepy?  Doesn't it suggest Bette Davis as Baby Jane?

                                                 She was born Cleo Virginia Andrews, but used V.C. as a pseudonym.  She was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, on June 6, 1923.  But she was no Plantation Princess.  Her mother, Lillian Linora (Parker) was a telephone operator, and her father, William Henry Andrews, a tool and die maker. Hmmmm......There were two younger brothers, William, Jr. and Eugene.  They had a Southern Baptist and Methodist upbringing, which provides enough Gothic horror there already. Along with, of course, being born and raised in the South. She died, at age 63 on December 19, 1986.

                                                     The turning point for Andrews was an accident she had in high school, where she fell down a stairwell, having to endure several back surgeries, which left her with crippling arthritis, and confinement to crutches and a wheelchair for life.  While it did not stop her from being a prolific author, I think there came a time when she had to dictate her writing to someone else.  

                                                        It is not surprising to me that, with this background, for writing material, she would turn to horror or morbid topics.  But whence came this pre-occupation, overly so, with incest and sexual abuse?  I read the trilogy--"Flowers In The Attic," "Petals On The Wind," and "If There Be Thorns," and by the last found it all so distasteful I avoided her works intentionally.

                                                          What drove her to focus on such rather tasteless topics? And yet they sold????????  There is the fiction, and what is behind it needs to be explored in a biopic; hey, the one on Shirley Jackson was largely fictitious, compensated greatly by the strong performance of Elizabeth Moss, as Shirley.  Were Angela Lansbury just ten years younger, she might have made a great choice as Andrews.  Hey, since she was in the franchise, how about Louise Fletcher, as V.C. Andrews?

                                                              Oh, my God!  I have just handed Ryan Murphy his next project!

                                                               Meanwhile, I hope this does not portend a morbid month.  

                                                                Rest assured, girls, I will throw in some humor and designers!