Ancient Grains Archive

Interview with Ann Patty, Editor of Flowers in the Attic

I was twelve years old and three books into the Dollanganger quartet when I discovered that the author—who was still “writing” new books, as she continues doing to this day—had died four years earlier. Already a committed V.C. Andrews fan for life, I took this as such a personal tragedy that when ...Read More

Planting Flowers With V.C. Andrews

In the spring of 1978, I landed a job as a senior editor at Pocket Books, though I was hardly qualified for the position. The publisher at the time, Peter Mayer, was committed to hiring bright young people on the cheap. Though I’d never before acquired a book, I was now able ...Read More

Fan Art: A Map to Flowers in the Attic

Rachael Schafer draws us a map to her first experience of reading Flowers in the Attic. ...Read More

Let Us Explain “VC Andrews Day” to You

As Mallory announced on Thursday, today will be devoted to the study and discussion of V.C. Andrews, the author of Flowers in the Attic. For those of you who aren't terrifyingly and intimately familiar with her work, Andrews was, for a time, the Stephen King of ...Read More

Eat Me: Fear of Baking

Jessica Valenti's "Eat Me" column appears every other Friday at 3pm. Previous installments can be found here. To be fair, I probably shouldn’t have started with scones. They’re not the easiest thing to bake - I can never get the dough right - but somehow breakfast baking seemed like less of a ...Read More

Cocktail Hour

Oh, my toasties. Can I call you that? Yeah? Thanks. It's been a rough week. Bed bugs, canceled flights, antibiotics, weird bosses, sneaky licorice (All licorice is sneaky. - Ed). (Licorice is terrible. Twizzlers forever. - Other Ed). ...Read More

What Are Your Weird Reading Habits?

Jaya Saxena: "Oooh, I love romance novels, always on planes or while traveling. And most of the time halfway through I'll just start skipping to the sex scenes. I also often leave them on planes/in hotels for other people to find and enjoy, because I do not need those taking up space. I am also ...Read More

The Witch Hammer

“It is argued that a firm belief in witches is not a Catholic doctrine,” begins Heinrich Kramer in the Malleus Maleficarum, or The Witch Hammer. This defensive crouch reflects the fact that his contemporaries were hardly 100% sold on his vision of witchcraft in the world. (I say Kramer, although the book is ...Read More