Continuing on in our Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, I figured it is important to talk about the man who wrote them. I have always wanted to talk biographies for famous authors, so why not start with Rick Riordan. In the future I hope to write about maybe J.K. Rowling,which may or may not be considered controversial, and maybe Ernest Hemmingway. Be on the lookout for those sometime in the future.
The life
Richard Russle Riordan Jr. was born in San Antonio Texas, on June 5th, 1968. I could not find much about his childhood life, which to me means it was a relatively normal one. Riordan attended and graduated from Alamo Heights High School. From there, Riordan attended North Texas State University. Riordan wanted to be a musician, a guitarist more specifically. When that did not pan out, Riordan attended University of Texas where he double majored in English and History.
Riordan also received his teaching credential to teach those two subjects. Riordan taught English and social studies for a few years in San Francisco. In an interview from a publishing company, Riordan said he would’ve been happy teaching all his life. However, like most English majors, he read a lot and decided to try and write his own detective mystery book. This book titled, Big Red Tequila, was published in 1997. He went on to write more books for this series. These books are adult fiction, not young adult. This book series went on to win three different awards, the Shamus, Anthony, and Edgar awards.
In 1985 Riordan married his wife, Becky. They decided to get married on the day of their shared birthday. This definitely makes it easy to remember birthdays and anniversaries, am I right? Together, the couple raised two kids named Haley and Jackson. Riordian’s children are how he thought of the idea for Percy Jackson. For bedtime stories Riordan would tell his children stories of Greek heroes and the adventures they go on. Once Riordan had no more stories to tell, his son told him to make up some Greek hero stories. This led to the creation of Percy Jackson. A doctor diagnosed Haley with ADHD and dyslexia. This gave Riordian the idea to give his protagonists the same diagnosis.
The Works
The Lightning Thief was published in 2005 followed each year by the next book in the series. People loved the books so much Fox bought the rights and turned it into two movies. Sadly the movies were not received as well as the books. When Disney bought Fox they also acquired the filming rights to the Percy Jackson books. Disney announced a live action TV series of the books, which I am personally quite excited for. I think books tend to receive more care when in show form as opposed to movie form.
After Percy Jackson and the Olympians finished, Riordan wrote a sequel series to it, along with a book series focusing on the Egyptian pantheon. I read both and like them both, however there’s a special place in my heart for the Greek pantheon over the Egyptian. After those he wrote books focusing on the Norse gods which I have not read. The most recent series he wrote is The Trials of Apollo. These books also take place in the world of Camp Half-Blood. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time to read these either.
Riordan also helped write The 39 Clues book series where he authored the first book in the series. Aside from young adult books as mentioned above he wrote a detective series for adults called Tres Navarre, which includes Big Red Tequila. An upcoming book I’m most excited about continues Percy’s story. Percy wants to attend college but to attend he must have letters of recommendations from three gods. The book’s release intendes to hype audiences more for the new show coming out. I cannot wait for either one.
Hobbies and Conclusion
In the interview with Puffin Publishing which is now Penguin Publishing, Riordan talked about some of his interests, which I found intriguing. Riordan says his favorite book is The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. You know, only the greatest fantasy series ever written. Riordan’s favorite song is Tangled up in Blue by Bob Dylan. Riordan’s favorite film is Young Frankenstein. If you haven’t seen that movie I recommend it. It is hilarious. Lastly, Riordan’s hobbies include reading, of course, playing guitar, playing video games, and traveling.
As a teenager I loved his books. As an adult I still do just in a different way. I am excited to see the new show and read his other books, which I’ve yet to read. Thanks to Rick Riordan I acquired an interest in Greek and Roman mythology and culture. Let me know if I misstated a fact or if there’s an author you want to know more about. If you find more information I didn’t include let me know as well so I can add it.
As always, happy reading!
Here are the links I used for the information above.
Works Cited