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Q&A Session with Michael Grant

Posted on 15 December 201719 January 2020

I plucked up my courage and finally sent Michael Grant (@MichaelGrantBks) a private message to ask him about his experience writing Sweet Valley with his wife Katherine Applegate (@Kaaauthor).

Shortly after, I got a response, answering my questions in full. I’m just going to be bouncing off the walls a bit here.

If you are not familiar with these lovely writers (known on this site collectively as #BestJamieSuzanne), I suggest you run out and buy all 28 of the Making Out series released under Katherine Applegate’s name, but co-written between them (or at least the first eight, thereafter ghosties happen) and the Gone series by Michael Grant, together with the new book, Monster.

So, would you like some insight on the Sweet Valley process?

How did you both get into ghosting for Sweet Valley? Did you specifically choose Twins, rather than High, or was that decided by the powers that be?

Katherine saw an ad, if we recall correctly, in something like Publishers Weekly. She sent away for the guidelines from the packager (then Dan Weiss Associates, now morphed into Alloy Entertainment). I think they wanted sample chapters so we popped those out and we were given a book to do.

Did you meet/speak to other Sweet Valley ghosts, or were you working independently of the others?

We tried hard not to even speak to editors, we had no contact with other writers.

What was the process like? Did they send exact outlines listing A and B plots, or was it more of a guideline like “Elizabeth gets her period, Jessica doesn’t” (to summarise an old favourite) and you had free rein to fill in the rest?

They send you an outline. Of sorts. Katherine is more of a rule follower than I am, so it usually fell to me to say, ‘This outline is crap, it’s half a story.’ (I was arrogant early, long before I had reason to be.) So we’d take the outline, draw lines where we thought the chapter lines might be, and then just basically make up a better outline. #39, our first, was more or less to their plan, but as we progressed we started ignoring everything but the title.

You mentioned that you were told to reference classic movies, and you prefer to reference real contemporary music/TV/movies in your own books, is there anything else you found constricting about the process? Or was it quite liberating to have to work to exacting specifications?

Referencing made-up bands and so on always irked us. I think the idea was that it would make the text timeless. It was no big strain to us, but when we started to build our own YA series we used real-world references. Which, incidentally, annoyed some people because they thought a reference to McDonalds, say, was product placement. But you can’t be realistic and exclude brand names, it’s absurd. And we wanted more realism.

How quick was the turnaround? I remember there seemed to be a new book every month back in the day.

Yep, a book-a-month. We weren’t writing all of them, of course, but still the editors needed a one month turnaround. Great training for Animorphs.

There is legend of a “Sweet Valley Bible” – a binder full of outlines from Francine, character notes, reference guides, and so forth. Is this true or internet urban legend?

The ‘bible’ for SVT was absolute crap. We wanted useful data, not past plots. We wanted to know where the phone was in the Wakefield house. (Remember: pre-cellphone.) We wanted to know where the bathrooms were and what color the walls were. In fact, when we started BOYFRIENDS/GIRLFRIENDS (renamed MAKING OUT) we created a bible that was almost absurdly detailed. The characters lived on an island, so we made up a ferry schedule and stuck to it. We had house plans for all eight major characters. One of the characters was blind, so we knew how many steps and what turns he had to take to get to every point on the island. That was a serious damn bible, the SVT bible was a waste of paper.

How did you tackle continuity in the series? It seems that the main series doesn’t reference anything in the special editions (Jessica the Rock Star makes no mention of her soloing in the choir in Super Edition 2: Holiday Mischief). With so many books, released at speed, how much importance was placed on this by the publisher?

Honestly I don’t think we thought about it.

Which was your favourite Sweet Valley book to write?

We did a couple of long-forms, a Christmas spin-off, and IIRC a scary one. Those we did without their outlines, so that was a bit more fun.

Are you #TeamJessica or #TeamElizabeth?

Katherine is team Elizabeth. I’m team Jessica.

Dove

I am Dove. I am: Team Jessica (Sweet Valley); Team Bad Guy (Point Horror);  Team Geiger (Making Out); Team Nina/Lucas (Making Out); and I am the voice of a claymation cow named Daisy, and I was in an advert for Fairy Liquid in the 80s.

7 thoughts on “Q&A Session with Michael Grant”

  1. Pingback: Making Out #1: Zoey Fools Around by Katherine Applegate (and Michael Grant)
  2. Pingback: The Katherine Applegate/Michael Grant Books of Sweet Valley Twins – Sweet Valley Online
  3. Kenny says:
    20 December 2020 at 12:06 am

    I wonder who wrote ‘The Carnival Ghost.’ That was a fabulous book. If I were to own one single copy out of the whole series it would be that book. Too bad mine was left in another country.

    Reply
    1. Dove says:
      20 December 2020 at 1:59 pm

      Michael Grant tweeted me a picture of the books he and Katherine Applegate worked on and The Carnival Ghost is on there. I’m going to attempt to embed the tweet, let’s hope it works here:

      I think there was one more but this is what I can find of the @kaaauthor @MichaelGrantBks Sweet Valleys. pic.twitter.com/WszzT7tmhk

      — Michael Grant (@MichaelGrantBks) April 25, 2019

      Reply
      1. Kenny says:
        21 December 2020 at 5:11 pm

        Thanks. In lieu of reading the actual books, I’ve been reading your recaps, instead. I think I will purchase my own copy of ‘The Carnival Ghost’ at some point, though.

        Reply
  4. Liz is a Fat Virgin says:
    5 January 2021 at 2:19 am

    Ooh they wrote way more than they thought! I remember commenting how the series picked up for an excellent stretch around the 60s. That explains a lot! And I am not surprised in the slightest that they are to credit for my favorite book: The Unicorns Go Hawaiian

    Everyone’s favorites are there, except Raven’s, presuming he’s sticking by The Older Boy

    Reply
    1. Dove says:
      5 January 2021 at 11:14 pm

      True, but Raven fell deeply in love with Jessica the Nerd, so maybe that can be his Grapplegate favourite?

      Reply

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Evil twins, Wing and Dove, trade Point Horror for Sweet Valley. And they have a secret triplet, Raven, joining them for a dude’s point of view.

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