:: Sweet Valley Unlimited: Your Source to Everything Sweet Valley

Author

The Sweet Valley series is created by Francine Pascal. Aside from Francine, there are people behind the success of the Sweet Valley books known as the "ghost authors" such as Eileen Goudge (Sweet Valley High), Wendy Loggia (SVH: Senior Year), Kimberly Morris (sweet Valley High, Sweet Valley University, The Unicorn Club), Jennifer Armstrong (Sweet Valley High, Sweet Valley Kids), Gene Hult (Sweet Valley High, Sweet Valley University) and Lizzie Skurnick (Sweet Valley University). Read more about Francine below:

Birthday: May 13, 1938
Place of Birth: Manhattan, New York
Education: New York University
Husband: John Pascal, who died from lung cancer in 1981 at the age of 48.
Parents: Kate and William Rubin
Favorite colors: beige and blue
Favorite food: Maryland crabcakes
Favorite clothes: casual — jeans
Favorite animal: dog — my German shepherd, Sophie
Hobbies: walking, movies, theatre (plays)

Novels

- The Ruling Class
- Fearless
- Sweet Valley Series
- Love and Betrayal and Hold the Mayo!
- My First Love and Other Disasters
- My Mother Was Never a Kid
- If Wishes Were Horses (aka. La Villa)
- Everything You Need to Know about on Alcoholic Parent
- Caitlin Series
- Hangin' Out With Cici
- Save Johanna!
- The Hand-Me-Down Kid

Filmography
Fearless (2004) (TV) (creator)
The Hand Me Down Kid (1983) (TV) (novel)
My Mother Was Never a Kid (1981) (TV) (novel Hangin' Out With Cici)
"Sweet Valley High" (1994) TV Series (executive producer)

Other Facts:

Her father is an auctioneer.

It wasn't her parents who encouraged her to write, but her brother.

Although Francine is a native Manhattanite, she moved with her parents to Jamaica, Queens (a neighborhood just outside of Manhattan) when she was 5 years old.

Her home was the basis for the setting of her first young-adult novel Hangin' Out with Cici (published in 1977), one of the books on the New York Public Library "Books for the Teenage List"

Francine's oldest brother Micheal Stewart is a known playright. His works include Hello, Dolly!, 42nd Street and Bye Bye Birdie.

Francine started her career writing for magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal and Cosmopolitan.

Francine met John Pascal while they were students. They got married in 1965 and together they bought up Francine's 3 girls from her former marriage.

John and Francine collaborated with Micheal Stewart on the successful musical George M! and a book called "The Stange Case of Patty Hearst.

When her husband died, Francine was heartbroken. She went to France for 9 months until she felt that she is strong. But when she returned to New York, she fell apart again and turned to writing to try to recover. It was her writing that helped her when she launched the Sweet Valley High series, which became a success.

Obviously, Francine's three daughters had provided her with the material for her books, but it is also her memories of growing up in New York that gave her the universal theme.

She had written a book revision for Jerry Herman and Micheal Stewart's Mack and Mabel which was presented at the Barrington Theater in Massachusetts.

John Pascal had worked as a journalist at The Herald Tribune, The New York Times and at Newsday where he worked there for 10 years before his death.

Awards

Best Book for Young Adults Citation- My First Love and Other Disasters (given by the American LIbrary Association)
The Hand-Me-Down Kid- Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Award (given by the Vermont Congress of Parents and Teachers), Bernard Versele Award (in Brussels) and the book was placed on the Publisher's Weekly Literary Prize List.

Interview with Francine Pascal

Where did you grow up? New York City.

Where do you live today?
New York City and the South of France.

Did you always like reading? What was your favorite book growing up?
I always loved reading. Growing up, my favorite book was A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Did you always want to be a writer?
Yes, since I was a small child, I was always writing either poems or plays. . . plays in which I had the starring part.

Have you written any books besides the Sweet Valley series?
I've written Hangin' Out with Cici (which became an ABC AfterSchool Special called "My Mother Was Never a Kid"), The Hand-Me-Down Kid (also made into an ABC AfterSchool Special), My First Love and Other Disasters, and Love and Betrayal & Hold the Mayo. I've also worked on a musical and several adult books.

How did Sweet Valley begin? I originally planned to sell the idea for a daytime drama featuring teenage characters to television networks, until a friend suggested that a book series, rather than a television series, might be the best way to fully develop the fictitious Southern California town of Sweet Valley. The rest is publishing history — and now a TV show, too!

Where do you get your ideas?
I get some of my ideas from watching my three daughters, but most of them come from my own memories of growing up. I can remember how romantic I was, not just about love, but romance in the classic sense — the romantic ideals: of honor and truth, of loyalty, sacrifice and fairness. Those were the elements that made a story satisfying to me. And that what I try to put in all my books. Plus action. Everybody likes action.

How did you come up with Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield?
I always had a fascination with twins. The trick is to think of Elizabeth and Jessica as the good and bad sides of one person.

Which is your favorite Sweet Valley book? Sweet Valley High #12, When Love Dies.

What is it like to have the characters you created come to life in the TV show, Sweet Valley High?
It's marvelous! Just the way I had pictured it. The characters have grown and the acting is good and I am very pleased.

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