Roswell High – How They Started

Added by Lena

When Crashdown.com had the opportunity to interview Melinda Metz and Laura J. Burns in 2001, they discussed how they begun working together on the “Roswell High” book series.

“I was developing the “Roswell High” series for Pocket Books.” Laura J. Burns told Crashdown’s Kdberg. “Melinda, at that time, was making the jump to full-time writer. So I was able to bring her on after I had developed the characters, the story arcs and the tone of the series.”

Melinda added that Laura had already come up with the characters of Max and Liz, Michael and Maria, Alex and Isabel and Valenti and the arc for the first six books.

“It was perfect because I could hire Melinda and we could keep working together, which was great and, I think, just good timing. It was perfect for both of us.” Laura said and Melinda added “Then together we fleshed out the individual plots for the books–although Laura had all the initial stuff. But we got to do what we used to do, which is sit around and brainstorm and figure out stuff together, which is fun.”

Based on the young adults book series the weekly TV series was developed by writer-executive producer Jason Katims. Apart from the first book “The Outsider” and the pilot being almost identical, the story of “Roswell” follows a completely different plot.

Jason Katims explained to Starlog in 2002 that “The books have always lived in a parallel universe that’s different from the show. What Melinda has done with the books and what we’ve gone on to do with the show – we’ve both used the first book as the jumping-off point, but we’ve gone in different directions, so the characters, their experiences and what happens to them is different.”

After the pilot episode aired on October 6th, 1999, the books were re-released with new cover art very soon.

The “Roswell High” book series ended after ten books.

Based on the television show, two novels were released during the series’ original run, with eight additional books being released after the series ended. Being on the writing staff of the third season, Laura J. Burns penned the seventh book of the new series “Quarantine”, which was released in March 2003.

Sadly, neither the “Roswell High” nor the “Roswell” are in print anymore, but you can buy digital versions of Melinda Metz’s “Roswell High” books.

Read the full interview with Melinda Metz and Laura J. Burns.