Rachel Hawkins's Blog, page 8

Books That Make You Feel Feelings

Last night on Twitter, several of us got into a discussion about Shannon Hale's BOOK OF A THOUSAND DAYS, and how Extremely Brilliant it is, and I mentioned that it's one of the few books I've read as an adult that made me cry. (We also posited various theories about how Shannon Hale might be made of glitter and rainbows, but that is neither here nor there.)

Specifically, the part that gets me in BOOK OF A THOUSAND DAYS is when the heroine, Dashti, looks at the hero, "My Lord," and wishes she h...

When a Review Nearly Makes Me Cry...

but in the GOOD way! As excited as I was about my PW review, I think few things top having kids- you know, my intended audience- like HEX HALL. So when this review by 6th grader Jonah Goldenbird in Battleboro, Vermont popped up in my Google Alerts today...well, the joy, it was epic. Here's the link to the whole review, but what really got me was this line: "I read this book and then reread my favorite parts and they still had their "magic" in them."

I STILL pull out my favorite books from when...

Meet Archer!

Ooh, boy. This is an exciting one! I think just about every email I've gotten from people who've read HEX HALL mentions Archer. He's just the kind of guy that makes a big impression. ;-)

So let's talk about he came about, shall we? Like Jenna, Archer didn't exist in the 1st half of the 1st draft (which makes me think, "MAN, did that 1st draft SUCK LIKE WHOA!") I love it in stories when you don't automatically know who's going to end up with whom, and where the audience roots for characters to ...

Shameless Self-Promotion, Part The...Oh, Probably, Like, 9000th Or So

So this morning I woke up, and after I was done reading all the Golden Globes coverage (which mostly amounted to, "And it was RAINING. On CELEBRITIES. Their hair was SLIGHTLY MUSSED, and their designer dresses were VAGUELY DAMP! Quelle horreur!"), I moseyed on over to Publisher's Weekly to read this weeks children's books reviews.

And guess what was there.

Yes! A review of HEX HALL! And a POSITIVE review at that! One that called my book, "proficient!" and "entertaining!" Okay, so those exclamat...

Meet Jenna!

7 weeks until HEX HALL hits shelves! SEVEN! YAY!

It occurred to me last night that since I'm doing this whole "interview my characters" thing, I ought to use this as a chance to talk about how those characters came into being/The Writing Prooooocessssss. I didn't do that last week with Sophie, but then there's really not a lot to say about her character development. She sprang into life pretty much fully-formed. Her best friend, Jenna, was another story. In the original 1st half of the 1st dra...

In Which Reading Writing Rachel Turns 2!

And oh how times have changed since January 10, 2008!

It's so bizarre to think that two years ago today, I started this blog as a way to A) hold myself accountable IN INTERNETLANDIA, where All Things Truly Matter, Natch, and B) chronicle my attempts at writing my first book. In case you don't want to scroll back through 127 entries, here it is, my very first blog post!:

Welcome!

Hi, there! Welcome to Reading Writing Rachel! I created this blog for the same reason anyone creates a blog- to talk ...

Meet Sophie!

Well, folks, as of today, we are officially 8 weeks away from the release of HEX HALL! I'm so excited that I cannot even handle it! In celebration of this, I thought it might be kind of fun to have a weekly feature "interviewing" some of the characters from the book. And where better to start than with the leading lady herself? (Ed. note: It's notoriously hard to get pictures of Prodigium, especially those living at Hecate Hall. Where possible, I've been able to use artist renderings, but in ...

Farewell 2009, Hello 2010!

I honestly can't believe today is the last day of 2009. This time last year, I thought 2009 would draaaaaag by, what with it being the "in between year." 2008 was awesome, obviously, what with dreams coming true and all that, and 2010 is the year HEX HALL finally hits shelves, so going into 2009, I was already impatient for it to be over. "Eh," I thought. "Who needs this extra dumb year where nothing will happen??"

Um...I did. I needed this year SO BAD, y'all. When I look back at 2009, I think...

In Which I Tell A Small Small Son Story

Ah, two "In Which I" posts in a row! Little Trivia Fact: HEX HALL once had chapters that were titled like that. You know, "In Which Our Heroine Befriends a Vampire, Cries Like a Dork, And Makes Lifelong Enemies." Then I realized that while this was TERRIBLY AMUSING (to me), it in no way matched the tone of the book. So I cut them, but GUESS WHAT? Totally bringing them back on the blog.

Anyway.

I hardly ever tell random stories about Small Son anymore, but tonight, I couldn't resist. And so, a S...

In Which My Email Fails Epically, And I Haz a Sad

Okay, so for the past few months, I've been getting some requests for blog interviews, and I was, as you can imagine, all, "SCORE! I LOVE blog interviews!" But a lot of these requests were coming in during the time I was writing HEX HALL 2: HEX KITTENS (OMG, now I REALLY want to call it that! *makes note to talk to Editor Jen STAT*)

As you'll recall, the writing of that book Ate My Soul, so I was really bad about replying to emails, or I would reply but say things like, "I will so do an interv...