Former Fallsburg Teacher Behind V.C. Andrews And The Devil’s Advocate Turns The Page

Andrew Neiderman has spent much of his life writing stories.

Long before he became known as the longtime writer behind the V.C. Andrews novels, before The Devil’s Advocate became a major Hollywood film, and before his books helped carry one of the most recognizable franchises in American publishing, Neiderman was teaching English at Fallsburg High School in Sullivan County.

For 23 years, he taught at the same school he once attended.

“I came back to the school I graduated from,” Neiderman said. “I taught with the teachers who taught me. That was a wonderful experience.”

During his time at Fallsburg, Neiderman became chair of the English Department, directed dramatics, coached wrestling, created an audiovisual division and served as an assistant principal for several years.

But even then, writing was not a side project.

“I was always writing even when I was teaching,” Neiderman said. “In fact, I published 18 novels while I was teaching.”

Neiderman said he first realized storytelling was part of him when he was still a child. In kindergarten, he recalled, his teacher asked students to stop listening to stories and start telling them.

Most of the children were nervous. Neiderman was not.

“I got up and I started telling my stories,” he said. “After a while, the kids would yell my name.”

That continued through junior high and high school, where he wrote poetry and articles for the school newspaper. By the time he became a teacher, writing was already a permanent part of his life.

“I knew it was going to be part of my life forever,” he said.

Neiderman eventually left the classroom when his writing career began to take off. He said a contract with G.P. Putnam’s Sons, along with a movie project in Hollywood, made it feel like the right time to fully commit.

“I thought it’s time for us to shift to the next gear,” he said.

That next gear would take him to California in 1987, where he continued writing novels, working on film projects and eventually becoming the ghostwriter for V.C. Andrews after her death.

Neiderman said he had not read Andrews’ work before the opportunity came up, though his wife had. His agent told him he might be asked to finish a V.C. Andrews novel. Not long after moving to Hollywood, he was called back to meet with an editor.

What started as one assignment became a decades-long role.

“It started with that and frankly never stopped,” Neiderman said. “It’s been over 37 years for me.”

Neiderman said he had to study Andrews’ style carefully before taking on the role. His background as a creative writing teacher helped him understand what to look for, especially when it came to voice.

“I had to spend time learning her style,” he said. “The thing is I taught creative writing, so I had a little bit of a head start.”

The work became enormously successful. Neiderman said the first 10, 15 and 20 books he wrote under the V.C. Andrews name reached No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list.

At the same time, he continued writing under his own name. His own thrillers include The Devil’s Advocate, which was adapted into the 1997 film starring Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino and Charlize Theron.

Neiderman said seeing his book become a film was “wonderful,” but he also understood that books and movies are different forms. Because he had taught film studies, he said he was comfortable with that process and was welcomed on set.

“I knew the difference between a book and a screenplay,” he said.

Over the years, Neiderman has worked across novels, screenplays, stage adaptations and television. He also served as a consultant as V.C. Andrews stories were adapted for the screen, reviewing scripts and helping keep the projects close to the tone of the books.

“They wanted to keep close to V.C. Andrews novels,” he said. “They wanted to keep it with that feeling.”

After decades of writing in that world, Neiderman is now stepping away from ghostwriting for V.C. Andrews. He said Bird Lane Island is the final V.C. Andrews novel he wrote.

The decision, he said, came as the franchise shifted after A+E Studios became involved and the future of publishing new novels became less clear.

“It ran pretty good,” Neiderman said. “Over 45 years, I figured, okay, maybe this is the time.”

But Neiderman said retirement from ghostwriting does not mean he is done creating.

“I’m not leaving the process,” he said. “It’s just trying to figure out new ways to do it.”

He is now working on a story he describes as part V.C. Andrews and part Neiderman, bringing together the gothic family drama that longtime Andrews readers know with the thriller side of his own work.

Even after more than 140 full-length novels, Neiderman still talks about writing as something active and alive. He said his process usually begins with a character and a “what if” question.

A believable character, he said, can carry the story forward.

“Usually a character writes the story,” Neiderman said. “Once you create the character, a character will always do what it does.”

For Neiderman, writing has never been just a career. It was there in kindergarten, in the school newspaper, in the Fallsburg classroom, on the page, on the screen and across decades of books read by millions.

“It just became our life,” he said. “Truthfully.”