Rick Riordan (edit name/settings)

Rick Riordan is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for children and the multi-award-winning Tres Navarre mystery series for adults. For fifteen years, Rick taught English and history at public and private middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Texas. In 2002, Saint Mary’s Hall honored him with the school’s first Master Teacher Award. His adult fiction has won the top three national awards in the mystery genre – the Edgar, the Anthony and the Shamus. His short fiction has appeared in Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. His Percy Jackson series features a twelve-year-old dyslexic boy who discovers he is the modern-day son of a Greek god. The Lightning Thief was a New York Times Notable Book for 2005. Film rights have been purchased by Twentieth Century Fox and a feature film is in development. The Sea of Monsters was a Child Magazine Best Book for Children for 2006 and a Publishers Weekly and BookSense national bestseller. The third title, The Titan’s Curse, made the series a #1 New York Times bestseller, and the fourth title, The Battle of the Labyrinth, had a first printing of one million copies. The series concluded with The Last Olympian, which was also a major national bestseller with a first printing of 1.2 million. Rick is also the author of The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones,and the black book of burried secrets, also #1 New York Times bestseller. Film rights for The 39 Clues have been purchased by Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks! Rick Riordan now writes full-time. He lives in San Antonio with his wife and two sons.

Information from rickriordan.com

Education: Attended Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio. Worked as an editor for the school newspaper and won third place in state for UIL feature writing. Also got in trouble for publishing an underground newspaper that made fun of the school, especially the losing football team. (The football team later egged my car). Began college at North Texas State (because I thought I wanted to be a guitar player and they had the best music program), but then transferred to the University of Texas at Austin. Graduated with a double major in English and History. Got certified to teach English and history from UT San Antonio. Did my student teaching in the San Antonio Independent School District.

Childhood influences: The first book I remember reading for fun was the Lord of the Rings. I probably read it ten times. I also liked Greek and Norse mythology since I was in middle school. I read mostly fantasy and science fiction in high school, then got interested in mysteries when I got to college. My parents were both teachers. My mom was a musician and an artist, too. My dad was a ceramicist (he made stuff out of clay), so I grew up in a very artistic family. I started writing when I was in middle school. The first story I submitted for publication was when I was 13. It wasn’t published. My first published works were two short stories in the UTSA literary magazine.

Work experience: When I was in college, I worked for three years as the music director at a summer camp, Camp Capers. This is where I got the idea for Camp Half-Blood. My first full-time job was teaching middle school in New Braunfels, Texas. After that, my wife and I moved to San Francisco. We lived there for eight years and I taught at Presidio Hill School. Then we had our two sons, Haley and Patrick, and we moved back home to San Antonio. I taught at Saint Mary’s Hall (English and Social Studies, grades 6-8) for six years, then stopped teaching to become a full-time writer. I taught Mythology almost every year that I was a teacher. It was always my favorite thing, and the students always liked it, too!

Family: I live with my wife and two sons, Haley and Patrick.

Pets: one dog (a Golden Labrador mix) and two black cats.

Favorite book I wrote: That’s a hard question for a writer. It’s like asking which of your children is your favorite. I like them all for different reasons.

Favorite character in my books: Also hard to answer! Probably Grover or Tyson because they’re so much fun to write about.

In my spare time: I like to read, swim, play guitar, and travel with my family. I also play video games with my kids (World of Warcraft or games on the Wii).

More information can be found at http://rickriordan.blogspot.com/