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Sweet Valley High, Kala and Kenzie
So I grew up surrounded by all things reading. My father loved science fiction and thrillers. My mom adored romance. Our house was filled with books—when we had one. When we would move and inevitably downsize or have to go live with relatives, leaving the books behind was always the hard part.
I always loved series. When I was a kid I loved Sweet Valley High. Like read every single one I could. Francine Pascal wrote a world I wanted to belong to. Later on, Beverly Hills 90210 took the basic premise to TV, and other teen dramas followed. I would even say a show like Buffy owes a bit to SVH.
If you’ve never read one of the 181 books chronicling the lives of teen-aged twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, you’re missing out on a soapy, gloriously messy drama that held me captivated through my teen years. Elizabeth was the good girl and Jessica the one who always caused trouble. They were cute little blondes, and their friends were their family and holy crap, I really did turn them into spies.
Sometimes these ideas linger in our heads. We’re writing something we think has grown in our imaginations but forget that every spark has its impetus. Jessica and Elizabeth were mine for Kala and Kenzie. I wanted to take that messy high school world and ask the question: what happens when those girls join the Agency and become spies?
As with all things, the inspiration is the beginning and what actually comes through is something different. My twins almost never fight. They’re halves of a whole and content with being who they are for the most part. Kala had a lot of work to do, and in March, you’ll find out Kenzie isn’t as calm and cool as she seems. In a lot of ways their drama is minor compared to all the Wakefield twins went through.
But I wonder if that spark would have been in my head had I never loved those books. Would Kenzie and Kala exist? Or would they have been inspired by something else and have taken another course? We’ll never know, but I am grateful to those books that got me through some rough years.
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