{Blog Tour/Giveaway} Interviewing Hester from THE LAST EVER AFTER by Soman Chainani [School for Good and Evil Series]

July 20 - Lili's Reflections (Interview)

July 21 - Reading Teen (Guest Post)

July 22 - Seeing Double In Neverland (Interview)

July 23 - Wonderland Novels (Guest Post)

July 24 - A Backwards Story (Character Interview)

July 25 - Cover Contessa (Guest Post)

July 26 - Good Books and Good Wine (Playlist)

 

In Case You Missed It: 

I previously reviewed both 
THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL 
and
A WORLD WITHOUT PRINCES!

Soman Chainani has also stopped by A Backwards Story a few times to talk about both books:

Here's his first interview. 

His second interview includes an exclusive deleted scene!

This past spring, he did a third interview about THE LAST EVER AFTER!!!

He's also done a guest post talking about how his fans 

helped shape AWWP!

Soman Chainani's first novel, THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL, debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List, has been on ABA's National Indie Bestseller List for 11 weeks, has been translated into languages across six continents, and will soon be a major motion picture from Universal Studios. 

As a writer and film director, Soman's films have played at over 150 film festivals around the world, winning more than 30 jury and audience prizes, and his writing awards include honors from Big Bear Lake, New Draft, the CAPE Foundation, the Sun Valley Writer’s Fellowship, and the coveted Shasha Grant, awarded by a jury of international film executives. 

When he’s not telling stories or teaching in New York City, Soman is a die-hard tennis player who never lost a first-round match for ten years . . . until he started writing THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL. Now he loses all the time.

Check out Soman's website and follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr!
You can also take an epically awesome quiz to find out 
if you'll be accepted into the School For Good or the School For Evil!

An interview with Hester

from The School for Good and Evil series!

(Want to know more about Hester? Check out her bio on the SFGAE Wiki!)

Hi Hester, thanks so much for stopping by A Backwards Story!

If you expect me to thank you or offer any sort of pleasantries in return, then we’re already off on the wrong foot. I’m doing this only because if I don’t do it, you’ll interview Sophie or Tedros or (god forbid) Hort, and I’m saving your readers the pain of hearing from those goons.

For new readers who haven't met you yet, can you tell us a little bit about how you wound up at school?

I come from a long history of great witches – most Readers will be familiar with my mother, who used to lure greedy, stupid children into her gingerbread house and bake them into stews and pies. We didn’t eat these things (gross) but sold them to passing travellers, who liked them well enough to keep returning for more. That’s how my family line made a living for hundreds of years.

But every witch in my family seemed to have a fatal flaw – either they were dim-witted or too trusting or too slow on their feet… In my mother’s case, she underestimated the enemy. One day, two siblings named Hansel and Gretel came to her house. She thought she had them cornered, like all the other oafish children she’d cooked before, but these two were different. The love between Hansel and Gretel enabled them to work together and save each other – and kill my mother in the process.

All I ever wanted was to go to the School for Evil and be a better witch than my mother. I wanted to atone for her mistakes. Luckily, the School Master gave me my chance. 

Can you tell us a little bit about the origins of your demonic tattoo?

I was born with it, so I suppose I’ve just always felt like it was part of my soul. If my demon were to die, so would I. We’re one and the same.

Did you prefer being in The School for Evil or The School for Girls? What made you enjoy the one better than the other?

There is a wonderful relief to being free of boys, because they’re incessantly narcissistic, boorish, childish, and smelly. That said, you need them around to realize how much you appreciate being a girl, just like you need Evers around to appreciate how much you enjoy being a Never. So if you take away the School for Good and the School for Boys, you don’t even feel like you’re Evil or feel like a girl… You feel like nothing.

So I don’t think it’s a matter of preferring one to the other. Only that there has to be a balance between schools for the damned thing to work.

But that’s a cop out answer, so I’ll give you a clearer conclusion. I prefer whatever school Dot is not in.

What are your favorite and least favorite classes?

My favorite class is Surviving Fairy Tales, because it isn’t really supervised and if I happen to bludgeon an Ever or poison them, I can always blame it on Anadil instead and no one will know the difference. 

My least favorite class is Villain Talents, because everyone keeps wanting to see me do tricks with my demon and a) that takes a lot of energy – and more than I’m willing to give my idiotic classmates, b) my talent is so far superior to theirs that it shouldn’t be used in a classroom setting, and c) Professor Sheeks doesn’t seem to have a talent, so I’d consider her highly unqualified to teach us.

Who are your fairy tale role models?

I do love the Sea Witch who the Storian wrote about in The Little Mermaid. To take away a whiny girl’s voice as part of a contract? Love it.

Do you want to return home after you graduate and take up your mother's work, or where do you see yourself in the future?

I think the problem with villains in most fairy tales is we always end up the supporting character in the story, rather than the one driving the action. I’d like to go out into the woods and find my own adventure, rather than just waiting for some numpty Ever to wander into my house. No, I’ll definitely go after my own story, whatever that will be. 

What are your thoughts on what has been going on lately with Sophie and Agatha?

If this is your way of asking me about the third book, it’s clever. For all you know, NONE of us survive the third book – highly likely, considering the body count. I would say that their relationship is too complicated for me to really ever understand. If anyone ever made me that upset or made me feel that conflicted, I’d feed them to the nearest man-wolf.

What do you want school to be like in the future? What is your ideal learning environment?

I think we were on to something with the No-Ball after first year, which was a big Evil formal Ball that replaced the Evers’ Snow Ball. It’s time that Evil didn’t just stand in the way of Good’s traditions, but made some of its own. Too often we associate Evil with just blowing things up for no reason. But we do have values. We do have a point. Now it’s our job to prove that Evil is a worthwhile goal unto itself.  

Thanks again for stopping by, Hester! I'm so excited to see you again in July and find out what you've been up to lately!

I’m not particularly excited to see you again, but if we do manage to see each other, give me a wave and who knows… perhaps I won’t kill you.

B O O K   T R A I L E R:

YouTube Link

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O F F I C I A L   I N F O:

Title:  THE LAST EVER AFTER
Author: Soman Chainani

Release Date: July 21, 2015

Publisher: HarperCollins

SUMMARY:

In the epic conclusion to Soman Chainani’s New York Times bestselling series, The School for Good and Evil, everything old is new again as Sophie and Agatha fight the past as well as the present to find the perfect end to their story.

As A WORLD WITHOUT PRINCES closed, the end was written and former best friends Sophie and Agatha went their separate ways. Agatha was whisked back to Gavaldon with Tedros and Sophie stayed behind with the beautiful young School Master.But as they settle into their new lives, their story begs to be re-written, and this time, theirs isn’t the only one. With the girls apart, Evil has taken over and the villains of the past have come back to change their tales and turn the world of Good and Evil upside down.

Readers around the world are eagerly awaiting the third book in The School for Good and Evil series, THE LAST EVER AFTER. This extraordinary conclusion delivers more action, adventure, laughter, romance and fairy tale twists and turns than you could ever dream of!

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 ****Giveaway*****

Enter to win...

Three winners will win a 
COMPLETE set 
of all three books in the  
School for Good and Evil trilogy!!!

US Only.

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