Hi there, wordnerdigans, and welcome to All By My Shelf, a podcast and blog about reading and
writing middle grade and young adult literature. You can be a supporter or member of this
podcast for $5 at BuyMeACoffee.com/jmtuckerman. Supporters and members currently get to
ask my author guests a question, so don’t miss out on your chance to ask these amazing writers
about their craft.
I’m joined today by Soman Chainani, New York Times bestselling author of The School for Good and Evil series as well as the upcoming Beasts and Beauty. As always, you can purchase this book and others through the Bookshop link in the show notes.
BUY BEASTS & BEAUTY: DANGEROUS TALES FROM BOOKSHOP.ORG
What I’m loving most about Beasts and Beauty is that these fairy tale characters finally don’t feel like victims. They have autonomy and they learn their lessons without having to die for it (looking at you Snow White), so my question is how did you decide how these characters would use that independence and intelligence?
I love the updated lessons happening in these stories and how they went beyond “don’t talk to strangers” and “listen to your parents,” and transformed into lessons about self-love and perseverance. What was it like to draft these stories with modern morals in mind?
I think everyone can see themselves in these stories. How did you juggle writing these beautiful stories in a way that appeals to the child reader and the adult critic?
GAME #1 MAD BLURBS
In a previous interview, you mentioned that as you write there are “no outlines, no story maps, [and] no cerebral sense of where [you’re] going.” My question is a very exacerbated HOOOOOOOOOOOOW?
One of my favorite things about writing is the research involved, and fairy tales have been told and changed and altered ever so slightly with each retelling, it’d be hard to find a telling of Red Riding Hood now where she isn’t rescued or a copy of Cinderella where the stepsisters get their eyes pecked out. What sort of research went into Beasts and Beauty and what would you say was the weirdest thing that came up?
What is the best part about being a storyteller?
GAME #2 Never Have I Ever Spoiled My Own Book
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers and authors?
Which story from Beasts and Beauty was your favorite to explore?
Which was the first story you thought of and how did you know that Beasts and Beauty was a collection worth exploring?