Among many titles bestowed upon Rachel Hawkins, Auburn and Plainsman alumna and New York Times’ best-selling author are two.
Rachel, a graduate in English, has written two young adult book series, the “Hex Hall” series and the “Rebel Belle” trilogy, the third installment of which will be released in 2016.
“Demonglass,” the second book in the Hex Hall series, was number five on the NYT’s best-seller list under the Children’s Chapter Books category in 2011.
Hawkins has a third book series set to be released in 2016, which will be middle-grade.
Rachel describes it as “a supernatural adventure set in the highlands of Scotland.”
Rachel completed part of the research for these books while in Scotland on a trip with her husband, John Hawkins, professor in geology.
The couple met at Auburn through Rachel’s roommate who was in the Auburn University Marching Band with John.
“Last summer … we were both over in Scotland researching projects.,” Rachel said. “He was looking for places to take kids to look at rocks, and I was researching this book.”
John, who said he has always been supportive of Rachel’s writing career, said he enjoys acting as a sounding board for Rachel’s projects.
“It is interesting because we will just be driving and we might see a weird thing on the side of the road, and we will just start talking about it and laughing about it and that will find its way into a book,” John said.
With her unreleased middle-grade series set in Scotland and her first series, “Hex Hall”, set in England, “Rebel Belle” hits closer to home.
In fact, Rachel recently posted a picture on Tumblr of the Lee County Flea Market, which inspired a set piece in the final book of the “Rebel Belle” trilogy.
Rachel said part of her motivation to write a book set in the South was to portray it more realistically from a southern point of view, since Rachel is a native of Dauphin Island.
“I feel like a lot of times in books we see a version of the South that doesn’t actually exist,” Rachel said. “We see a lot of people living in giant mansions, and it’s all a little cutesy and that’s fine. I’ve got certainly a little bit of that in my books, too, but I wanted to write a book that reflected the South more as I saw it.”
However, her accurate portrayal of the South is where the realism ends, as the book’s main character, Harper, is endowed with super powers after killing her history teacher.
“‘Rebel Belle’ is the story [of] a southern debutante who gets super powers and has to defend a boy who can see the future,” Rachel said.
She said she liked flipping expectations by giving the female character superhuman powers.
“I always wanted to write a book about a very girly, feminine girl who was very tough, but still maintained being very girly,” Rachel said. “I like the idea of a girl having to protect a boy. I thought that was a nice inversion of tropes, where she is very much the knight, and he is kind of the delicate flower.”
“Rebel Belle” can be found at Books-a-Million as the Books-a-Million Teen Book Club pick.
A manager of the Books-a-Million in Opelika said, “I can tell you that we are super excited about having it as pick.”
Rachel’s writing can also be found in The Auburn Plainsman, where she wrote one article in 1998, and the Auburn Circle, where at least one story was published.
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