If you are a woman of a certain age--that is, in your thirties--Sweet Valley High was a part of your life. The successful young adult book series from the eighties introduced us to the blond-haired, aqua-marine-eyed, perfect-sized-six Wakefield twins and their friends. The Wakefield twins lived in the southern Californian town of Sweet Valley, where the sun always shines, the school dances are every week, and the beautiful and wealthy roam the streets (or drive in their Porches, in the case of Bruce Patman). Sweet Valley High is the creation of author Francine Pascal who, to the delight of fans everywhere, has written a follow-up series, revisiting the Sweet Valley gang as adults. It's every fangirl's wish fulfillment to have an epilogue for their favorite characters. Last year, Pascal wrote Sweet Valley Confidential, and this year she will release six novellas as e-books, called The Sweet Life. The first two installments have already given us lots of drama in the twins' lives, including false accusations of crime, a love triangle, fighting and breaking up with boyfriends (now husbands!), all a typical day in the world of Sweet Valley. We were lucky enough to have an opportunity to talk to the author and legend, Francine Pascal.
The Sweet Valley world is near and dear to many women's hearts and was a big influence on them growing up. What sort of impact do you hope it has had on your readers?
I hope it has helped to make readers out of non-readers. And it has. Fully 25 percent of my mail years ago started with "I used to hate to read...."
When the original series was happening, did you ever imagine that you would write a sequel series? Did you always know this is where the characters would be in ten years?
No. I never thought I would ever revisit Sweet Valley. And I certainly never gave any thought to how the characters would mature. That was one of the best parts of ageing them. I hope I stayed true to their characters while changing them just enough so that you still knew them.
As more Sweet Valley series were produced, I understand that ghost writers were used to write the stories. How did you choose ghost writers? What sort of information were they given before writing a book?
Ghost writers did not write stories. I wrote all the stories for every Sweet Valley book in every series. I also created the characters. Those elements were given to the writers who had to follow almost like paint by numbers.
