Monday, December 7, 2009

RH+UK=<3

First off, thank you SO MUCH for all the nice comments/blog mentions/emails about HEX HALL's cover! I'm so glad to see so many other people digging it as much as I do, and I really, really appreciate it! And now that it's finally out there in the world, I get to show y'all ANOTHER cover that also fills me with joy! Huzzah!

Little trivia fact about yours truly: I am a total Anglophile.

I regularly watch BBC America. I occasionally add extra "u"s to words (Flavour! Glamour!), and I almost always spell theater as "theatre." My concentration in college was British Lit, and consequently, about 85% of the books on my shelves are set in England or written by British authors. My laptop wallpaper is a picture of Big Ben. And, oh yeah, I set pretty much all of HEX HALL 2: HEXY TIMES (still not the real name) in England. London is without a doubt my favorite city on Earth (Although I will admit that when I visited, A) it was Christmas time, and therefore all "Love, Actually"-ed, and B)we were lucky enough to stay in a very nice section of London that probably in no way reflected the city as a whole.)


I'm sure that it's the books I read as a kid that started this obsession with All Things British. The Secret Garden, anything by Roald Dahl, the Narnia books... all HUGE parts of my childhood, and all so veddy, veddy British. And of course, nearly all of those Scandalous Romance Novels I read growing up were set in England, too, and then there were the Bronte sisters, and Austen, and Thomas Hardy, and...oh, forget it!

So you can imagine how psyched I was when the Hex Hall books sold in the UK last year! (I was also psyched because, as I have mentioned, my agent in the UK is named Caspian, and this makes me giggle every time I get emails from him.)

The UK version of HEX HALL has actually had a cover out there in Internetlandia for awhile, but I wanted to wait until the US one before I posted it here just to prevent any confusion. So here it is, in all its British-y Glory!



Isn't it fab?! It's very different from the US one- well, except for the schoolgirl uniform!-, but I love how it captures a whole other aspect of the book. HEX HALL is very much about Girls Who Are Awesome, and these ladies have that going on in SPADES! Also, I love that they gave "Jenna"- the blonde one- a pink streak in her bangs. That's a little character detail in the book, and it thrilled me to no end to see it on the cover!

If you're itching for even more UK Goodness, check out this post at The Book Smugglers by Simon & Schuster UK Publicity Diva, Kat McKenna. She talks about 6 books coming out in 2010 from S&SUK, including HEX HALL, and I have to say, every single one looks AMAZING! Also, you can enter to win stuff over there, and you know how I love Winning Stuff.

And when you're done over there, you can now become a fan of the Hex Hall books on Facebook! There's, um, not much there right now, but once January gets here, there will be all kinds of goodness happening, like giveaways, and t-shirts. So please go check that out!

6 comments:

Myra McEntire said...

OH YAY! There is mucho Hexy Goodness in this post. Love BOTH covers. Also had a concentration in British Lit. Two words. Lord. Byron. Congrats, you!

Frankie Diane Mallis said...

I LOVE the Secret Garden and the BBC too! Do you watch Absolutely Fabulous? Totally with you on that. Unforuntately, the only time I ever got to spend in London was in the airport-changing planes to fly to Scotland(which is AWESOME too) but you know, I'm dying to spend time in England. Very very cool. Happy Monday!

Rachel Hawkins said...

Myra: I LOVE Lord Byron, too! When I taught English, the kids always used to mock me for making excuses for his...um...less-than-savory behavior! ;-) In fact, I loved him SO much that I put him in HEX HALL!

Frankie: YES!! Love AbFab! And ooh, Scotland! I've always wanted to go; was supposed to go this summer with The Husband, but couldn't get the timing worked out. Sad day!

JESSJORDAN said...

Neat! I love how they are all dressed the same, but styled so differently. Breaks up the uniformity and gives the girls a little personality. WTG on all the cover goodies!

Melinda Skye said...

Love the UK too, although I'm probably more of a Francophile - since I lived in Paris. But I just signed with a London agent and immediately started thinking about how I could go visit :)

Have you watched Top Gear on BBC? It's a car show, but it's amazing even if you don't love cars!

GreenBeanTeenQueen said...

I love both covers-they both are beautiful!