Andrews was born in
Portsmouth, Virginia, the youngest child and only daughter of Lillian Lilnora (Parker), a telephone operator, and William Henry Andrews, a
tool-and-die maker. She had two older brothers, William Jr. and Eugene. Andrews grew up attending
Southern Baptist and
Methodist churches. As a teenager, Andrews suffered a fall from a school stairwell, resulting in severe back injuries. The subsequent surgery to correct these injuries resulted in Andrews' suffering from crippling
arthritis that required her to use crutches and a
wheelchair for much of her life. Later in life, Andrews turned to writing. Her first novel, written in 1972 and titled
Gods of Green Mountain, was a
science fiction effort that remained unpublished during her lifetime but was eventually released as an
e-book in 2004. In 1975, Andrews completed a manuscript for a novel she called
Flowers in the Attic. "I wrote it in two weeks," Andrews said. The novel was returned with the suggestion that she "spice up" and expand the story. In later interviews, Andrews claims to have made the necessary revisions in a single night. The novel, published in 1979, was an instant popular success, reaching the top of the bestseller lists in only two weeks. Every year thereafter until her death, Andrews published a new novel, each publication earning Andrews larger advances and a growing popular readership. By 1982, her horror novels had sold more than 11 million copies. "I think I tell a whopping good story. And I don't drift away from it a great deal into descriptive material," she stated in
Faces of Fear in 1985. "When I read, if a book doesn't hold my interest in what's going to happen next, I put it down and don't finish it. So I'm not going to let anybody put one of my books down and not finish it. My stuff is a very fast read." In an interview for Twilight Magazine in 1983, Andrews was questioned about the critics' response to her work. She answered, "I don't care what the critics say. I used to, until I found out that most critics are would-be writers who are just jealous because I'm getting published and they aren't. I also don't think that anybody cares about what they say. Nor should they care." After her death, her family hired a
ghostwriter,
Andrew Neiderman, to finish the manuscripts she had started. He would complete the next two novels,
Garden of Shadows and
Fallen Hearts, and they were published soon after. These two novels are considered the last to bear the "V. C. Andrews" name and to be almost completely written by Andrews herself. ==Fiction==