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 incest. You can’t begin to imagine the level of success she reached in her lifetime. Whatever number of books you think are required to move in order to merit bestseller status, triple it. You know how everyone is supposed to eat at least seven spiders in their sleep in their lifetime? V.C. Andrews is like those sleep spiders. You’ve read her, even if you think you haven’t.

Andrews died in 1986, but the ghostwriter her family hired to carry on her work, Andrew Neiderman, is still publishing under her name. If you haven’t read one of her books, your older sister did, or your cousin, or your mother. Someone in your family found a copy in the library, or had a “bad” friend lend them theirs to read after everyone else in the house fell asleep. V.C. Andrews books find their way from woman to woman the way the Twilight Barking chain travels from dog to dog in 101 Dalmations.

So what will today look like?

Well, here’s our itinerary. At ten, we have some fan artwork courtesy of Rachael Schafer (of Five San Francisco Locals fame). At eleven, we have an incredible piece by Ann Patty, the editor responsible for unleashing Flowers and its sequels and prequels on the world, followed by an interview with Ann at noon by Robin Wasserman, young adult novelist to the stars.

Mallory will weigh in at two, and Nicole has what she describes as a “really weird thing about the past and future of illicit adolescent reading” at three.

And, in the middle, we’re leaving space if you want to email us any pictures or thoughts to share about V.C. Andrews and her role in your life.

Well, let’s see how this goes!