Title: Happily Ever After High School
Author: Savannah Ostler
Genre: Epic Fantasy/Clean Teen
Length: 355 pages
Release Date: January 16, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1507513156
SYNOPSIS:
Seventeen year old Albany French wants nothing more than to find her very own happily ever after. She dreams of finding her fairy godmother, going to the ball, and being swept away by a Prince. Much to her dismay, her life is no fairy tale. Albany is just a typical, all American girl who attends an overly crowded public high school.
An untimely tragedy leaves Albany desperate for a new life.
She seeks comfort in her eccentric grandmother, Greta. Not only does Greta welcome Albany into her home with open arms, but she transfers Albany to a new school.
But... this new school is not your average high school. This is... Happily Ever After High, the enchanting high school that hosts hundreds of magical, fairytale students.
Albany is about to begin the journey of a lifetime… as she discovers who she really is, where her family came from, falls in love for the first time, and embarks on a quest to fulfill a prophecy that has been passed on for ages.
Welcome to Happily Ever After High
INTERVIEW WITH ALBANY
Interviewer: Hi Albany, welcome. Thanks for joining us.
Albany: Sure! You're welcome. Honestly, I heard that there's great food here, so that's a big reason why I'm here.
Interviewer: The food is quite excellent. (laughs)
Albany: (laughs)
Interviewer: So tell me, Albany. Where do you go to school?
Albany: Happily Ever After High!
Interviewer: That certainly doesn't sound like your typical school.
Albany: (smiles) Happily Ever After High is like a dream. It's anything like typical.
Interviewer: It sounds magical!
Albany: If by magical you mean princesses, fairies, knights, witches, and spells, then yes! It is the very definition of magic.
Interviewer: What does the school look like?
Albany: So, get this. Are you ready? It's gonna blow your mind!
Interviewer: I must say, I am getting excited.
Albany: It's a castle. A legit, full-blown castle!
Interviewer: Wow!
Albany: Right?! It looks like the perfect castle that you would imagine Cinderella living in.
Interviewer: Speaking of... does Cinderella live there?
Albany: Well, the great, great, great, great, great granddaughter of Cinderella attends school there. No one actually lives there. At least, not to my knowledge. For all I know, someone could live there. Who knows, maybe the warden lives there.
Interviewer: Who is the warden?
Albany: Sorry- he's the headmaster. He's been the headmaster for like, hundreds of years.
Interviewer: I assume "hundreds" is an exaggeration.
Albany: (laughs) You would think that I'm kidding, but I'm totally not. This guy is like, legit OLD. 827 years old, to be exact.
Interviewer: 827?! I have more to learn about the fairytale world than I thought.
Albany: (laughs) Don't worry, I was just as shocked as you were at first. I still have to pinch myself sometimes while at school. I'll be in class, and my book will open by itself, and I'm like, "What? Oh, yeah... this is Happily Ever After High."
Interviewer: One last question Albany, and then we'll wrap things up. When I was in high school, I remember having a crush. Several crushes, in fact. Is there a certain someone that you have your eye on?
Albany: (blushes)
Interviewer: There is!
Albany: Maybe...
Interviewer: You can tell us!
Albany: I don't know... I'm really not one to kiss and tell.
Interviewer: (gasps) So there's kissing!
Albany: Yeah, and I think our time is up! Yay! Thank you SO much for the interview. (nervously laughs)
Interviewer: (smiles) Thank you, Albany.
.
AUTHOR INFORMATION & LINKS
Savannah Ostler was born in a small town in the state of Utah. She has always enjoyed many different forms of the arts. It was from her love of the stage that she decided to attend East Hollywood High, a film school in Salt Lake City.
In addition to acting, Savannah is also a singer, having produced and released three original pop singles, as well as performing at the world famous House of Blues in West Hollywood.
Although Savannah has a passion for performing, her first love is, and has always been writing. She has been writing ever since she learned how to read and write. She enjoys many different forms of writing; poetry, lyrics,fiction, and screenplays. Savannah finds inspiration for her stories from many different outlets, including her own personal life experiences.
Miss Ostler can be classified as a determined day dreamer. When she is not buried in her laptop writing, Savannah can be found at Disneyland, living out all of her fairytale dreams.
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two mixed chihuahua pups.
Guest Post: Savannah Ostler Hello fellow bloggers!
My name is Savannah Ostler, and I am the author of the YA novel "Happily Ever After High School". The book follows a seventeen year old girl named Albany French, a day-dreaming young woman who wants nothing more than to find her own happily ever after. She has always been obsessed with fairytales- but to her disappointment, her life isn't anything like one... at least not yet.
An untimely tragedy leaves Albany desperate for a new life. She seeks comfort in her eccentric grandmother, Greta, who transfers Albany to a new high school. But... this new school is not your average high school. This is Happily Ever After High, the enchanting high school that hosts hundreds of magical, fairytale students. Albany is about to discover the fairytale world that she has always dreamed of. The world that she once only visited in books will now become her reality... and so much more.
I started writing this story in 2010, and it actually started as a screenplay. I was inspired by my own personal love of fairytales, and I thought, "How awesome would a fairytale high school be?"
The entire story stemmed from that idea. Next, came my main character, Albany. I wanted to come up with a unique name that you don't hear everyday, and I wanted it to somehow be a little personal to me. Since my name is Savannah and I am named after a city, I looked up different city names in the US, and Albany stuck out to me.
Albany is definitely not your typical high school girl. She is independent, determined, unique, creative, and she is definitely a day dreamer. She absolutely hates public school, because she feels that she doesn't belong there. Albany doesn't really have any friends, as the students at her school find her... well, odd.
Despite being an outcast, Albany finds contentment in her books- especially fairytales. She holds onto the hope that one day she will escape her mundane, everyday life and be rescued by her very own handsome prince.
I finished writing the screenplay in 2011, and started revising the screenplay. It was my original intent to make it a movie, but I thought that I should first pursue it as a book, since the film would cost a lot to produce, having so many special effects and such. So, I began the journey of writing my very first novel. I used the screenplay as a skeleton for my novel, and went from there. A lot of ideas and new inspiration came to me while I was "in the zone".
I love the character of Albany, because I could definitely relate to her. In all honesty, she is pretty much me in high school. She is a dreamer, she is smart, she is optimistic, she hates math, and she is not afraid to create her own path and get what she wants.
That isn't to say that Albany doesn't have her fair share of character flaws, though. Albany is a mess, she can never keep her room, or anything for that matter- clean. She is extremely stubborn. She has a very witty sense of humor, but she often uses sarcasm to her advantage, especially in times of conflict. For those who don't understand her, her stubbornness could be a turn off. In reality, she just likes to stick to her gut and is not afraid to diverge from the herd. In fact, that's what she does best. She's a girl who knows what she wants, and she won't stop until she gets it. She doesn't have many friends, but if someone does befriend her, she is their friend for life.
I loved really getting inside of Albany's head while writing the novel. It was so easy for me to relate to her, because we are very similar. The entire experience of writing the novel was a blast! I loved listening to music while writing it, music really inspired me and kept me going. I have listed several key songs that I listened to a lot during the writing process. A lot of these songs I could really see Albany enjoying, as well.
You'll notice that a lot of this playlist contains songs by Avril Lavigne. I found myself listening to a lot of Avril Lavigne while writing this book! I think it's because that I listened to her a lot while I was in high school, so it served nostalgic for me, and also, the lyrics to her songs remind me so much of things Albany would say.
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