Rick Riordan's Blog, page 5

Another fantastic trip for the Riordans! We just returned from a week in Ireland, where we spent three days in Dublin and then four days in Cork, retracing the Riordan heritage to its ancestral home (and also having a great deal of fun). We made the mistake of over-scheduling ourselves, so we packed in way more than we probably should have, but it was all good stuff! The weather for the entire week was amazing. All the Irish we talked to told us that this was NOT normal. Sunshine, mild temperatures, no rain. We loved it. Upon arriving, we checked into our hotel in the up-and-coming district of Dublin known as the Docklands. Not only were we in time to catch the tall ships festival, but the roof deck of the hotel had a panoramic view of Dublin and the surrounding countryside:

Strolling through the streets of the city center, we found lots of pubs, flower boxes, colorful buildings, and happy locals and tourists enjoying the summer. Dublin, like Boston, is a great city to walk in:

Everything was in bloom — roses, wildflowers, trees. Achoo! Here I am in front of a random yellow explosion of garden color.

Several times we crossed the Samuel Becket Bridge, which is shaped like a harp. I could imagine a giant playing a nice tune on those suspension chords. Hmm . . . book idea . . .

We had a great stroll through Saint Stephen’s Green in the center of town. It reminded us very much of the Public Garden in Boston, except with fewer ducks and more seagulls. Patrick assured me, however, that the picture below is not of seagulls, but of “alternative ducks.”

We even stumbled across a road that apparently leads to Asgard. Since Dublin started out as a Viking settlement, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised!

This helpful diving bell gave directions to all points beyond, letting us know how long it would take us to row back to the States, or to Australia . . .

Speaking of giants, I ran across this fellow on the playground of Merrion Square. He was nice enough to offer me a place to sit:

In the same park, we found Oscar Wilde manspreading on this rock, peering across the road at his old house. Why he is holding a stuffed bear, I can’t tell you. Wilde’s gonna Wilde.

We visited Trinity College, a beautiful campus downtown which has the Book of Kells as one of its centerpiece treasures. The exhibit was great, but we took more pictures of the Long Room, a massive old library with an impressive collection of books and dead white guys:

Patrick saw this bust of Francis Bacon and asked why the library had a statue of Colonel Mustard from Clue:

Later we got to visit the Dublin Zoo, which is a huge, beautiful park with a few animals in it. After walking a long, long way we actually managed to spot some!

Monkey!

Okapi!

Mama and Baby Elephant!

This guy!

Patrick actually snapped this lovely portrait which really captures my inner . . . something. New profile pic? I think so!

While in Dublin, we also had some excellent meals, visited the emigration museum, and saw The Last Ship, a musical by Sting which played on Broadway last year. We happened to be there for opening night, and Sting made a surprise appearance on stage for the curtain call. Turns out he was staying in our hotel. That was very cool! Becky and I also celebrated our mutual 54th birthday and 33rd wedding anniversary, and I can’t imagine a nicer place to do that than Dublin!

Midweek, we took Irish Rail through the beautiful rolling green countryside and arrived in the City of Cork, where my ancestors are from.

Two forks of the River Lee wind right through the middle of the city, which means lots of bridges and lovely views:

Flowers were blooming everywhere. On the riverbanks:

On the stone walls:

On the buildings:

One of our first stops was St. Finbarr’s Cathedral, an Anglican church where my great great grandfather and grandmother were married in 1851:

Me standing in front of the church, wondering if I am in the right place . . .

Becky took a great detail shot of the front door:

And inside, which is quite impressive.

Turns out the present cathedral is a lot grander than the previous one, which existed in my great great grandparents’ day. This is what the place looked like back in the 1850s, when they got married:

My ancestors were Catholic, so it was a bit weird that they got married in the local Anglican cathedral. After a lot of research, it looks like they chose to get married there because my great great grandfather was in the British military at the time, and he was about to be deployed, so they didn’t have enough time to get married in the Catholic church, which required several weeks to read the bans, etc.

Shortly after my great greats Michael and Honora got married in 1851, Michael shipped out with the 17th Regiment of Foot (Leicester Regiment). He was first stationed at Belfast, then Gibraltar, then fought at the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War before finally getting garrisoned in Quebec, which is how my branch of the Riordans ended up in Canada.

Anyway, the grounds of the cathedral were a beautiful place to walk:

We spent several days exploring Cork on foot. I loved the old mailboxes, left over from the long British rule of the island, which are now painted green instead of red!

We climbed the ramparts of Fort Elizabeth, which dates back to the 1600s. Here I am saying, “Come on up! We won’t put your heads on pikes! Honest!”

Actually, I lied:

We passed by the Red Abbey Tower, a medieval fortification just kind of hanging out in a modern residential neighborhood:

Here is Jesus in a school parking lot warning you not to even THINK about parking here:

We even did some shopping at the local TK Maxx, which is like TJ Maxx except one letter more advanced:

And meals, so many tasty meals. Cork is quite an impressive foodie city. This is the Mexican burger at the Liberty Grill:

Why did I get a Mexican burger in Cork? Hey, it’s green. That makes it automatically Irish cuisine, right? Sure.

One of my favorite stops was getting to hear some traditional Irish tunes at the Sin E pub, which has been a local jam spot for traditional Irish folk since the 1950s. These guys were good! I learned that the musicians sit at a table facing each other, not on a stage and not facing the audience, because they would consider that disrespectful to the music. It’s a very casual, friendly scene, with families chatting, babies wandering around, and lots of conversation among strangers and neighbors alike.

As the ridiculously good weather continued, we explored Fitzgerald Park, one of Cork’s most beautiful green spaces:

We crossed the footbridge known as the “shaky bridge” because, well, it shakes a lot. And creaks and sways. Fun for the whole family, as long as you don’t mind contemplating your imminent plunge into the river below:

More beautiful greenery:

And riverbanks:

And flowers:

Etc., etc., beautiful, etc.:

From Fitzgerald Park, we walked to University College Cork, which one enters across this lovely bridge:

This is the main quadrangle, which is definitely in the running for “Muggle School Most Like Hogwarts.”

The corridor you see in the front has an impressive collection of Ogam stones, ancient markers collected from around the country, inscribed with a very early form of Irish writing called Ogam:

Here is a key to the language, in case you want to write your friends secret messages in Ogam:

And here is a decorative detail from one of the stones:

On our final day, I stopped by St. Finbarr’s Church (South), the oldest Catholic church in the city, which is where my great great grandfather Michael was baptized in 1820. This marks the farthest point back I’ve been able to trace the Riordans so far, so it seemed like a good place to end the trip!

Obviously, the interior has changed in the last 200-or-so years, but the shell of the building is still the same. I left a donation and lit a candle for Michael Patrick Riordan and wound up my trip in Cork feeling a bit closer to my roots!

Now we’re back in Boston and I’m back to work on Trials of Apollo 4, but it was an invigorating, fascinating week! Whatever your summer plans, I hope you enjoy them, and I hope they include lots of good books!

Since I told you about LA a few weeks ago, I figured I’d balance things out by telling you about the other coast this week!

First, publication week for The Burning Maze was a lot of fun, though it was quiet, relaxed fun since I did not do a tour for this book. (We’ve not been touring for Apollo since we toured for Magnus, and one tour a year was a lot for me!) Thanks to everyone who has already read and shared about the book, and thanks especially to those who have avoided posting spoilers! There are quite a few surprises in this volume. Hypable did a nice interview with me (non-spoilery) on the release.

So on to the weekend! My older son Haley and I spent Friday through Monday at our family apartment in Manhattan, which has become a fun father-son tradition for us. It’s so convenient to take the train down to the city and see some shows, eat some good food, visit museums, etc. We are lucky to live where we do and be able to travel back and forth so much! To give you a sense, on Friday we arrived and saw “Lobby Hero” in the Theater District. The play stars Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim), Chris Evans (Captain America), Bel Powley (Diary of Teenage Girl) and Brian Tyree Henry (Paper Boi), so as you can imagine, the acting was phenomenal.

Saturday we saw two plays — in the afternoon Travesties, which is a bizarre revival about Vladimir Lenin, James Joyce and Tristan Tzara the founder of Dadaism running into each other in a library in Geneva during the First World War, based on real events, all told from the point of view of an English diplomat whose memory is fading. It was a pretty wild ride.

Then, in the evening, we headed down to the East Village and had some good vegan Mexican food at Bar Verde (we’re not vegan, but vegan food is yummy) then saw Light Shining in Buckingham at the New York Theatre Workshop. NYTW has been very reliable for us as a place for good solid stage productions in a smaller off-Broadway setting. A couple of years ago Patrick and I got to see Othello with Daniel Craig there. This time, Haley and I saw this revival of Caryl Churchill’s play based on the English Civil War around 1650. If that sounds dry, it was not. The cast was fabulous, and the issues were timeless — idealism, heartbreak, disillusionment, betrayal, faith, you name it. Plus it tied in nicely to a graduate history course I’ve been taking at Harvard on early modern Europe (you know, in my spare time) so that was cool!

Sunday, we headed down to Greenwich Village for lunch, then walked around the Village before our afternoon show. Washington Square Park was in full spring bloom:

We should have stopped here for pizza, I guess, but I didn’t know!

It was fun walking down Bleecker Street past all the old folk singer haunts and pretending I was Bob Dylan for about twenty seconds.  Then we headed over to the theater to see Harry Clarke, a one-man show by Billy Crudup:

I’ve never seen someone so creepily fantastic at changing characters. It’s the story of a chameleon-con man who changes identities and fools his way into the hearts of a rich East Coast family with his persona Harry Clarke. He switches from British accents to American accents flawlessly, and goes from channeling Jack Nicholson’s most bone-chilling murderer smile to play a coy young twenty-something woman with equal ease. Really incredible show, our favorite of the weekend. You feel like you’ve watched an entire cast perform, and the 1 hour 20 minute run time flew by. It did leave me with bad dreams, though!

Monday morning we headed back to Boston — tired but happy!

Now I am back to writing and enjoying the beautiful spring weather which has arrived in Boston at last. Thanks again to everyone who has supported The Burning Maze, and if you haven’t read it yet, I hope you’ll like it when you do!

I’ve just returned from the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, where I got to meet hundreds of really wonderful readers and fans. Thanks to everyone who came out and waited so patiently! It’s quite a rare event that I go to LA, so it was a treat to see some readers, now in college, that I last saw when they were in middle school!

My son Patrick came with me, so we took time to explore downtown. On Friday night, we went to the Grand Central Market, which is an amazing collection of food shops and restaurants. Calling it a food court would be selling it short, but you can get pretty much anything there. I enjoyed the spicy pizza from Olio:

And we both loved the ice cream from McConnell’s.

Afterwards we took Angels Flight, the world’s shortest railroad, to the top of Bunker Hill (the LA hill, obviously. We have the original Bunker Hill here in MA.) It was a slice of old LA history. I am an fan of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch novels, one of which features a murder on Angels Flight. It was a bit unsettling to see an ad for the Bosch TV show, featuring the murder, while I sat in the very seat where it happened, but hey, it’s just fiction, right? (nervous eye twitch)

We strolled up to the Broad Museum, where we got to see the Jasper Johns exhibit.

That’s the Broad building on the left, with the LA Philharmonic Walt Disney Auditorium on the right. Johns was known for his American flag paintings, like the one above, but he also did many other things.

Here’s a special commission he did for the archery course at Camp Half-Blood:

And some nice abstracts:

We also visited the permanent collection, where the Jeffrey Koons giant balloon dog greets you, daring you to poke it with a giant safety pin:

Patrick, a manga/anime aficionado, especially liked the giant modern Japanese mural:

Once done with the museum, we strolled back to our hotel, passing the lovely central public library building. I liked the artwork at the top of the building, and the inscription chiseled on the side:

Saturday was book festival day — a nice sunny afternoon at the USC campus. I had a great time at our sold-out event, chatting with Robert Graves and Roshani Chokshi about the launch of the Rick Riordan Presents imprint and the huge success of Rosh’s book, Aru Shah and the End of Time. 

And doing interviews with Rosh, Rich Fahle and Caden Sage:

My favorite part, of course, was meeting so many excited fans in the signing line. I don’t get to do signing lines much anymore because it just gets too crazy and we never have enough time, but it was tw0 hours very well spent to meet all the super-fans who came out to say hi, get selfies, get books signed, and share stories about what the books meant to them. Such an honor to be part of your lives!

After the festival, Patrick and I went out for Italian food, then got to see the LA Philharmonic perform at the Walt Disney concert hall, which is a very cool space:

Yesterday, Sunday, we traveled back to the East Coast. You really get an appreciation for how huge the country is when you travel across it like that. It takes less time to get to Italy from Boston than it does to get to LA! Now I’m back home and back at work, but a huge thank you to everybody who came to see us at the festival. If you haven’t picked up Rosh Chokshi’s fabulous book Aru Shah yet, do so, and you’ll see what the fuss is about! If you want the lowdown on Rick Riordan Presents, and the other great titles coming soon, check my earlier blog post!

Happiest of Book Birthdays to Roshani Chokski! Her marvelous adventure Aru Shah and the End of Time is officially published today, the first title in Disney’s new imprint Rick Riordan Presents!

What’s the deal with the imprint? You can read the whole story here. Basically, my goal is to find ‘own voices’ authors who are writing fantastic, hilarious, page-turning middle grade novels inspired by their own mythology, folklore and culture, to publish those novels, and to promote the Hades out of them! This means I did not write this book, I did not tell Roshani what to write, and it’s not connected to my books in any way, BUT if you like my books, I’m betting ALL my Oreos that you’ll love Aru Shah. Roshani does Hindu mythology-based adventure better than I ever could.

But, wait, some of you say, it’s published today? I bought it two weeks ago at the Scholastic Book Fair!

You have good taste! It’s true, the Scholastic Book Fairs got an early exclusive to sell Aru Shah before the official publication date. And by the way, Aru Shah blew past all expectations for sales! But today is the first day it is officially available at bookstores in North America and from e-retailers.

I’m not the only one who loves it! The New York Times today gave it a fantastic review, and it got a starred review from Publishers Weekly!

The best news of all? The End of Time is the beginning of a four-book series, so there’s plenty more Aru Shah amazingness yet to come. Get your copy now, so you can tell your friends in a few years, “Yeah, I’ve been a fan since day one!”

As I may have mentioned, I am a fortunate guy. When I’m not writing books — a job I love — I get to take cool trips to places I love to recharge my creative batteries. For instance, my oldest son Haley and I have just returned from a fabulous week in Florence, where I took a week-long intensive course in Italian with the great folks at La Scuola Toscana! Now my Italian readers will be thinking: “You went there and you didn’t tell me???” Mi dispiace. I apologize, but this was an under-the-radar trip for vacation only. I didn’t do any public events while in Italy — just six hours a day of Italian language, which is my idea of a relaxing vacation! (Yes, I’m nuts. Thanks for asking). Above is a view of the Arno River at sunset — stunning.

Becky and Patrick decided to stay in Boston for this trip, since I was going to be out-of-pocket for most of each day while in Florence, but Haley had work of his own to do for graduate school, so he worked at the hotel during the day while I was taking class, and in the afternoons/evenings we explored the city. It worked out very well! (In case you’re wondering, Haley is getting a masters degree in higher education with a specialization in learning accommodations. My ADHD/dyslexic kiddo, who inspired Percy Jackson, is now devoting himself to helping others with learning differences, which I find awesome.)

This was my first time in Florence, birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, so I finally got see the place I’ve been reading about for years. This is the hometown of Dante, who wrote The Divine Comedy, and Machiavelli, who wrote The Prince. So many Italian artists also lived here: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Gentileschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Petrarch . . . back in the day, you couldn’t swing a cat in this town without hitting an artistic genius. We visited the medieval Baptistery of Saint John, where Dante was baptized, the Leonardo Museum which features mock-ups of some of da Vinci’s greatest ideas like the diving suit, the armored tank, the hang-glider and the chariot with rotating knives (as featured in the movie Baahubali).  We saw the statue of David in the Accademia Museum, which was just as awesome as promised. It’s hard to appreciate how enormous and detailed the statue is until you’re standing next to it:

We also saw a whole slew of amazing masterpieces at the Uffizi Galleries, including the famous Birth of Venus:

I have seen this painting in reproduction numerous times but didn’t realize that the goddess on the right is Flora, the goddess of flowers, welcoming Venus to the shore with a lovely mantle. Flora is associated with Florence, “flowering.” Thus, Botticelli was writing the city of Florence into Greek myth, retroactively making it part of the story. One of my teachers from Scuola Toscana, Maria, gave Haley and me a guided tour. Maria is an expert on art history but doesn’t speak English, so I got to act as translator for Haley, which was really good practice! Hopefully I did not mangle everything she told me. Pretty sure she said something about the paintings being real good . . .

And the food in Florence . . . Did I mention the food? It’s incredible. We ate most of it. Let me just give special shout-outs to Ristorante Parione, where we had the best steak and cheesecake we have ever had. As Haley said, the cheesecake was so good it made us want to return to the US and burn down the nearest Cheesecake Factory. (That’s a joke. We do not actually endorse burning down Cheesecake Factories.) The gelato at La Carraia was also insanely good — so good we wanted to go around slapping non-La Carraia gelato cones out of tourists’ hands to save them from their bad choices. (That is a joke. We do not actually endorse slapping gelato cones out of tourists’ hands.)  We ate way too much and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

The weather was cool and rainy for the most part, but we did get some sunny hours where we could enjoy this view from our hotel room terrace:

As we were flying into the city, Haley looked out at the countryside and the red-tiled roofs of the city and said, “Are you sure you aren’t taking me to San Antonio?” He was right about the similarities. Tuscany does look a lot like certain parts of Texas, which explains why so many Texans are obsessed with Tuscan-style homes. Haley liked Florence a lot, but between the landscape, the building style, the great steaks, and the throngs of people speaking English in the streets, he’s still half-convinced Tuscany is secretly part of Texas. My favorite comment from him, as he surveyed the vista from our hotel room: “After the rain, everything is so green! Even the roofs!” He wasn’t wrong. A lot of moss grows on those terra-cotta tiles.

The Italian language classes were great for me. I have been studying Italian since 2014, and though I am still not fully fluent, I’m finally getting to the point where I feel like I can carry on a conversation pretty well.

This was the view from one of the classrooms:

Brunelleschi’s dome for the cathedral looms in the distance — the largest brick dome ever constructed. All my teachers were great and taught me a lot. The conversation practice was really helpful. The best lesson: Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. When you are learning a new language, you will continually make mistakes, which is tough if you’re a perfectionist, but you just have to preserve. In this sense, acquiring a new language is a lot of like writing a book. Your first efforts, your first drafts will be trash, each and every time, but you can’t let that stop you. You can always go back later, revise and improve.

To illustrate that point, and maybe make you feel better about making errors, I thought I would share with you some of my own “greatest hits” of flubbing the Italian language since I began learning. When I say something wrong, I usually only realize it much later. Is it embarrassing? You bet. But I keep trying and I keep getting better.

My son is seventeen.

What I actually said:

My son is seventy.

No wonder she responded, He looks good for his age.

2. What I meant to ask the waiter:

May I have the check please?

What I actually said:

Can you give me a song, please?

The waiter did not oblige.

3. What I meant to tell the driver:

I am here to take an immersion course in Italian.

What I actually said:

I am here to teach a course in scuba diving.

No wonder he looked so confused.

And my all time favorite:

4. What I meant to tell the waiter:

May I have the spicy pizza, please?

What I actually said:

May I have the pizza that makes you fly?

I am still waiting for that pizza.

Now we are back home, and I am turning my attention to Spanish, which I am also in the process of learning, though I have a lot farther to go with my Spanish lessons. Hint: learning Spanish and Italian concurrently is a TERRIBLE idea. The languages are so similar and yet so different it is enormously confusing. But that’s kind of why I’m doing it. I enjoy a challenge. The main reason I am studying both languages is to work my mind. I genuinely love learning, and I believe the old Czech proverb: When you learn a new language, you gain a new soul. 

Whatever adventures you are having this spring, I hope they are enjoyable and nourish your soul, too!

Happy official launch day to Queer Books for Teens, a new website that provides a comprehensive database of LGBTQ+ young adult literature from 2000-2017! Kudos to the tireless team of librarians who has put this together and continues to add new titles. It’s an amazing resource for anyone looking for YA books with LGBTQ+ content. You can search for different kinds of representation, different settings, different genres, and ‘own voices’ authors. I know I learned a lot browsing the lists!

To celebrate the launch, I thought I would offer three reviews of books I found using the Queer Books for Teens website. I searched for ‘own voices’ authors, and voila! Three fabulous reads:

Adaptation, by Malinda Lo

YA sci-fi thriller.

When birds start to mysteriously fall out of the sky, Reese is in Arizona with her debate partner David and her debate coach. Soon, it becomes clear that something disastrous has happened all across the continent. Flocks of birds are going crazy everywhere. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of airplanes have crashed. Reese is stranded at the airport, and whatever the true nature of the disaster, the US government seems to be covering it up. Reese, David and her coach grab the last rental car available and start a dangerous cross-country trip to get home to the Bay Area, while all around them the social order begins to break down. Mobs raid stores. Military convoys and panicked refugees clog the highways. Soon Reese finds herself heading straight toward that most mysterious of places: Area 52. Then disaster strikes.

And this is only the first few chapters of the book!

In the aftermath of the national disaster, which comes to be known as the “June Incident,” Reese struggles to put her life back together. Something very strange has happened to David and her – something she does not understand and has been forbidden to talk about by shadowy federal agents. Reese is sure the government is watching her. She finds a surveillance device in her bedroom. Her best friend is running an investigation of government conspiracies for an underground website, whispering about secret programs and even . . . yes, aliens. The stranger her life becomes, the more Reese is tempted to believe his wildest wild theories.

All of this would be crazy enough, but during the summer, Reese also meets the beautiful Amber Gray. Reese has been nursing a long-time crush for her debate partner David, though Reese also has told herself she has no interest in getting physical with anyone at this point in her life. Meeting Amber, Reese begins to question everything she has assumed about herself and her sexuality. But can she trust Amber? Can she trust anyone?

Part love story, part thriller, part sci fi, Adaptation is a great young adult page-turner that keeps you guessing and packs a lot of excitement!

Dreadnought, by April Daniels.

YA superhero adventure.

April Daniels’ superhero story really packs a wallop! Fifteen-year-old Danny Tozer has always known that she is a girl, even though she was designated male at birth. Then one day, by being in the wrong place at the right time, she inherits the powers of the world’s greatest superhero: Dreadnought. At the same time, she gets her greatest wish: a female body that matches her identity. But which challenge will be tougher: taking on the job of superhero, or finding acceptance from her friends and family who are suddenly confronted with her true, female self?

In Danny’s home of New Port (an alternate Seattle) metahumans are everywhere, dividing themselves into white capes, gray capes, and black capes, but that doesn’t always mean you can tell the heroes from the villains. Does Danny step into the shoes of the great Dreadnought and become a white cape, or does her destiny lie elsewhere? As she tries to master her powers and explain to her friends and her parents how and why she has suddenly become the female she always knew she was inside, Danny gets pulled in many different directions by those who wish to influence her decisions. The white capes in their gleaming downtown tower offer unlimited resources and government support, but some seem reluctant to accept a transgender Dreadnought. The gray cape Calamity tries to teach Danny that crime-solving isn’t always a matter of black and white, but are her methods too violent and gray for Danny? And lurking in the background is the shadowy figure of a new super-villain, a black cape that somehow managed to kill the last Dreadnought, leading Danny to inherit his powers. Danny has to find this villain and discover how she managed to kill the supposedly invincible Dreadnought, so Danny won’t be next on the hitlist.

This is a page-turning adventure that also explores identity and acceptance in a poignant, lovely way. Danny’s struggles ring true on every level, and any teen will relate. Fortunately, Dreadnought is the first of a series. I’m dying to read the rest!

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.

YA realistic fiction.

This book has won so many awards I could barely see the cover under all the stickers! After reading it, I understood why it gets so much praise. Sáenz tells the story of two young men, Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza and Dante Quintana growing up in El Paso, Texas during the 1980s. We follow their lives from age fifteen to seventeen, watching their relationship slowly grow, change and strengthen. Told from Ari’s point of view, the novel is crafted in short, lyrical chapters. The prose sings. The dialogue is pitch-perfect. The story is quiet and gentle, but it pulls the reader through the narrative beautifully.

Ari has loving parents, though his father silently bears the traumas of the Vietnam War, keeping him distant from his son. Ari’s sisters are a generation older, making him feel like the family mascot rather than an equal sibling. Most troubling of all, the family has erased all traces of Ari’s older brother, whom he barely remembers, who went to prison for a violent crime. Ari longs to know more and feels betrayed by his parents’ silence. Overall, Ari feels like his life “is a story written by someone else,” a sentiment I suspect many teens can relate to.

Ari has no real friends, nor does he want any, but in the summer of his fifteen year he meets Dante at the swimming pool, and Dante offers to teach him how to swim. They bond initially over their unusual names, but soon they are spending the bulk of their time together. We follow them through funny episodes, horrific accidents and tragic losses, watching their awkward and tentative friendship turn into the sort of bond that will challenge what Ari believes about himself and his capacity for love.

I won’t give away the ending, but I kept thinking about it long after I finished the book. It didn’t end the way I expected it to, perhaps because of my own point-of-view and life experience, but I now see it ended the only way it could, as Ari learns how to reject the story others have written for him and write his life himself. This would be a great book club choice to spur discussions about identity and acceptance. Highly recommended.

There are many more books cataloged on the Queer Books for Teens site, along with curated ‘best of’ lists, so check it out! And thanks again to the great group of librarians/contributors who put this together. It’s a wonderful service to YA readers!

Anne Ursu’s recent article on sexual harassment in children’s literature has generated a much-needed conversation which I wanted to address briefly. The collection of victims’ experiences she has compiled is a difficult read. I had to stop several times and take deep breaths before I managed to get all the way through. I’m not surprised these things happen in the children’s publishing industry, but hearing what the victims of harassment have had to deal with in the world of kidlit makes me angry and disgusted. It also leaves me soul-searching, wondering how and when I could have done more, in my position of power and privilege, to make sure I was part of the solution and not the problem.

My wife Becky and I take these issues very personally. Becky has been the recipient of sexual harassment both in the workplace and in our personal lives, by those who should have been mentors, protectors and role models, but instead used positions of power and trust to be predators. I did not always support her as I should have, and thus was complicit in rationalizing and protecting abuse. We have spent decades together working through this and dealing with the impact of those experiences. We have seen firsthand the lengths to which people will go to deny and deflect, to gaslight a victim rather than believe and support her. Harassment undermines a person’s self-worth. It leaves lasting scars. It’s a corrosive agent that should never be minimized or rationalized. It definitely has no place in the world of children’s literature.

After sitting with these thoughts all weekend and talking with Becky, I decided I wanted to speak out on the subject, if only briefly, to say to the victims of harassment: I believe you. I hear you. I pledge to be part of the solution and not the problem. I never again want to fail in my duty to support victims of harassment. Going forward, I will endeavor to be more mindful of my own behavior and comments, to make sure I am self-monitoring at all times, and do all I can to make sure I don’t make those around me uncomfortable. I will endeavor to be more mindful of what others are doing around me, as well, to speak out and act promptly as necessary. Those who know me well know that I am an introvert who prefers to avoid social situations. I tend to be quiet and reserved, but I pledge not to be quiet or reserved on this issue.

Further, I wholeheartedly agree with the initiative created by Gwenda Bond, drawing on John Scalzi’s harassment policy pledge, to make sure any events I attend have a clear and vigorous anti-harassment plan in place. These things are only a beginning, I realize, but it’s important that we address this problem as a community, as an industry. My pledge: I won’t be that person. I won’t tolerate that person. I won’t hire, work with, empower or enable that person.

The January 29 issue of Publishers Weekly features this beautiful full-page ad for the Rick Riordan Presents imprint!

Did you miss the news?

Are you wondering what the imprint is all about?

Here is a recap!

I’m so confused! What’s going on?? What IS an imprint?

An imprint is like a brand, a subdivision within a publishing company that specialized in one particular kind of book. If we were talking about movie studios, for instance, you could describe Disney as the publisher, with various “imprints” under their umbrella – Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, Disney Animation, etc., each making a different kind of film, but all part of Disney.

With publishing, Disney Worldwide Publishing is the main company I work with. They have published all my various mythology-based books. Rick Riordan Presents will be a small branch of that very large publishing house.

Our goal is to publish about four books a year under the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, two books every fall and two every spring. All these will be books that my editor Steph Lurie and I feel will appeal to kids who like my books. In other words, they will probably be some type of middle grade fantasy, with lots of humor and action, and probably draw on myth or folklore in some way.

But why are you making a ‘Rick Riordan’ imprint and what does that mean?

Basically, our goal is to publish great books by middle grade authors from underrepresented cultures and backgrounds, to let them tell their own stories inspired by the mythology and folklore of their own heritage. Over the years, I’ve gotten so many questions from my fans: “Will you ever write about Hindu mythology? What about Native American? What about Chinese?” I saw that there was a lot of interest in reading fantasy adventures based on different world mythologies, but I also knew I wasn’t the best person to write them. Much better, I thought, to use my experience and my platform at Disney to put the spotlight on other great writers who are actually from those cultures and know the mythologies better than I do. Let them tell their own stories, and I would do whatever I could to help those books find a wide audience.

Are you writing all these books for the imprint? Are they connected to Percy Jackson’s world?

No and no! My job is to help edit the books where it seems appropriate, to offer advice and guidance where I can, and to promote the great books we will publish, but I am not writing the books and I don’t tell the authors what to write. This is not like using a ghost writer or ‘assistant writer’ to write my ideas. These are original stories generated by the authors – their intellectual property, told their way, with their characters and their sense of humor. The worlds they create are their own. They are not extensions of Percy Jackson’s world.

The authors (and their agents) who choose to submit their works to the imprint negotiate a publishing deal with Disney the same as they would with any publisher. I’m not directly involved in those negotiations. Steph Lurie just shows me samples of the different works that are submitted and I let her know which ones I’m the most excited about. The three books we will publish in 2018 are the first batch, and I am stoked about each of them!

*Suspicious Sideways Glance* So what’s in it for you?

Disney is paying me a nominal fee to write an introduction for each book, help edit and promote it, etc., but that’s the limit of my monetary involvement. As I said above, the authors own their own intellectual property and negotiate contracts with Disney as they would with any publishing deal. I am not doing this for money.

Honestly, for me this is a way to give back for my success. I’ve been very lucky in my career. I want to use my platform to help other writers get a wider audience. I also want to help kids have a wider variety of great books to choose from, especially those that deal with world mythology, and for all kinds of young readers to see themselves reflected in the books that they read.

Will you keep writing your own books, though?

Oh, yes! The imprint won’t affect my own projects at all. I’ll keep writing my own books. Not to worry.

So how do you choose which books to publish for Rick Riordan Presents?

My editor and I look for books that I could enthusiastically recommend to my own fans. If you like Percy Jackson, if you like Magnus Chase and all my other stuff, then I believe you will probably like these books too. That’s not to say the imprint’s titles are exactly like my stuff. These authors all have their own unique voices, senses of humor, plots, characters, etc. But the books are all great, highly accessible reads with lots of fun fantasy and mythology elements. And, as I said, we try to pick books about cultures you don’t hear enough about in middle grade books, by authors who know their mythology and folklore from the inside in a way I never could.

Okay, so what books is the imprint publishing?

*Rubs hands eagerly* So many beautiful shiny books!

First up this March is Aru Shah and the End of Time, by Roshani Chokshi.

 Roshani Chokshi

You guys have been asking about a Percy Jackson-esque take on Hindu mythology, and let me tell you, Rosh does it better than I ever could. Aru Shah is a smart and salty middle school girl who just wants to impress her snooty private school friends. She takes them on a tour of the Indian-American Museum her mom curates, where her friends dare her to do the one thing she is forbidden to do: light an ancient lamp that will supposedly start the end of the world. The book has been described as Percy Jackson meets Sailor Moon. Yup. This is going to be great!

Visit Rosh’s website: http://www.roshanichokshi.com

And follow her on Twitter! @NotRashKnee

Next up in September 2018:

Storm Runner by Jennifer Cervantes. (Book cover coming soon!)

Zane is a lonely 13-year-old boy in New Mexico whose physical disability makes him feel even more like everyone at his middle school is watching him. But as he soon learns, his physical differences are merely the first clue to a family history that connects him to the Mayan gods–and puts him in mortal danger. As an ancient Mayan prophecy begins to unravel, Zane has to find the hero within himself. Great premise, wonderful main character, and some seriously awesome mythology!

Visit Jennifer’s website: http://www.jennifercervantes.com/home...

And follow her on Twitter! @jencerv

In January 2019:

The Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee. (Cover coming soon!)

 Yoon Ha Lee

Yoon Ha Lee’s debut novel was an adult sci fi book called Ninefox Gambit, which I absolutely loved. You can read my review here.

My elevator pitch for The Dragon Pearl is simple: Korean fox spirits in space! (Echo: space, space, space.)  It’s a mix of sci fi opera and Korean mythology. This is not something you’re going to see every day, and no one could pull it off like Yoon Ha Lee does.

Our main character is Min, a teenaged fox spirit whose brother disappears, supposedly deserting the Thousand Worlds Space Forces to search for the legendary artifact the Dragon Pearl, which may have the power to save their struggling home colony.

Yoon Ha Lee has already been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and I anticipate Yoon will be seeing a lot more accolades when people get to read Dragon Pearl!

Here’s Yoon’s website: http://www.yoonhalee.com

And follow Yoon on Twitter! @motomaratai ‏

In March 2019:

Sal & Gabi Break the Universe, by Carlos Hernandez

 Carlos Hernandez

I fell in love with Carlos Hernandez’s debut collection of short stories, The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria, which reads like a really cool collection of Cuban-inspired scripts for Black Mirror. In Sal & Gabi Break the Universe, Carlos brings his crazy wonderful blend of fantasy and humor to middle grade fiction. Can you imagine The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with Cuban folklore set in a Miami middle school? Buckle up, kids. This is going to be AWESOME.

Follow Carlos on Twitter: @WriteTeachPlay

In September 2019:

Race to the Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse

 Rebecca Roanhorse.

So. Much. Excitement!  Race to the Sun is about a seventh-grade girl named Nizhoni Begay and her brother who, aided by various Navajo gods disguised as relatives, must stay one step ahead of a shape-shifting monster as they follow in the footsteps of the legendary Hero Twins to save their family. Rebecca’s debut adult fantasy, TRAIL OF LIGHTNING, releases in summer 2018 from Saga/ Simon & Schuster. Daniel José Older calls Trail of Lightning “fun, terrifying, hilarious, and brilliant.” I can’t wait for Race to the Sun!

Follow Rebecca on Twitter: @RoanhorseBex ‏

Check out her website: https://rebeccaroanhorse.com. 

And these are only the titles I can tell you about right now. Many more are in the works and haven’t been announced yet, so stay tuned!

¡He estado practicando mi español! Aquí hay dos breves escritos míos.

El Rio Frio: Un Recuento

Cuando niño, vivía in Tejas con mi madre y mi padrastro. Yo crecí en una pequeña casa sin aire acondicionado central, y podíamos usar los aparatos en las ventanas solo cuando teníamos huéspedes a causa del costo. Los veranos eran miserables.

Para escapar del calor, manejábamos con frecuencia al Rio Frio en la región conocida del país de colinas de Tejas. El rio allí estaba muchas fuentes naturales, y por lo tanto el agua era siempre muy fría, como el nombre. Me gustaba nadar y explorar el bosque cerca de nuestra cabina.

Una vez, cuando caminaba por la cerca de alambre de púas, vi una serpiente de cascabel muerta a la cerca, disparado de un ranchero. La serpiente era cinco pies de largo. No me gustó esa culebra. También, en el rio vivían muchas culebras acuáticas llamada bocas de algodón. A éstas les gustaba navegar cerca de las orillas con sus cabezas encime de la línea del agua como pequeños dedos de plata. Nunca me mordieron, pero yo sabía que eran muy venenosas, y yo tenía siempre miedo.

No obstante, tengo buenos recuerdos de estas semanas al rio con mi familia. Hacía mucho más fresco que en San Antonio, aunque todavía no me gustan las serpientes y hoy en día, tengo aire acondicionado central.

Un ensayo de “Serenata senza Nome,” una novela de Maurizio de Giovanni.

(Leí esta novela en italiano.  Lo discuto en español.)

La novela ‘Serenata Senza Nome’ de Mauricio de Giovanni tiene lugar en Nápoles durante la década de 1930s. El personaje central es Luigi Ricciardi, un comisario de la policía y también un miembro menor de la nobleza italiana. A Ricciardi no le gusta la vida social de la nobleza. Además, no le gusta el régimen fascista de Mussolini. Pero, trabaja de detective para resolver los homicidios. Por si fuera poco, Ricciardi viene de una familia con una historia de locura. Ricciardi puede ver las fantasmas de los asesinados y oír sus voces. Obviamente, Ricciardi no lo puede decir a nadie.

En este caso, un hombre que se llama Vincenzo se enamoró de una mujer llamada Cettina. Vincenzo salió para los estados unidos para encontrar trabajo, pero antes de salir, prometió a Cettina que regresaría. Sin embargo, Cettina no le prometió que esperaría. Después de muchos años, Vincenzo se volvió boxeador muy famosos en América y ganaba mucho dinero. Regresó a Nápoles, pero descubrió que Cettina estaba casada con otro hombre, el Señor Irace.

En público, Vincenzo se enfrentó a Irace y Cettina. Vincenzo amenazó con matar a Irace. Al día siguiente, Irace es descubierto asesinado en un callejón, golpeado con un gancho de izquierda, la firma famosa de Vincenzo el boxeador . . .

Me gusta el libro por los personajes diversos y la atmósfera del lugar. Fue muy interesante leer una novela que tenía lugar durante el tiempo de Mussolini porque pude ver como vivía la gente bajo la dominación fascista. Estuve confundido porque este fue parte de una serie. Por lo tanto, no conocía muchos de los personajes recurrentes. Además, el argumento cambiaba entre narradores diferentes, y de vez en cuando me perdía. A pesar de todo, es un cuento único que me hizo pensar.

Hey, guys! I’m already getting a lot questions about the Disney-Fox merger and what it might mean for Percy Jackson. I have NO inside information of any kind, but here are my thoughts.

First, some background. Disney has always been my children’s book publisher, ever since The Lightning Thief novel came out in 2005. The books were first published under the imprints “Miramax-Hyperion” or “Disney-Hyperion,” but those were just different brands within the Disney empire.

Disney was NEVER involved in the Percy Jackson movies. In early 2004, before the first book was published, Disney movie studios passed on the movie rights, which is how Percy Jackson ended up at Fox. Fox was responsible for both Percy Jackson movies.

Now it appears that many assets from the Fox movie studio will be bought by Disney, assuming regulators let the deal go through. I imagine that includes Percy, which means Percy Jackson, in a way, is “coming home” to Disney. I’m very happy about that. Disney (the publishing side) has been very good to me and a wonderful partner for many years, which is why I keep publishing with them!

Realize, though, that Disney studios are a completely different branch of the corporation from Disney publishing. I don’t know anyone at the studios. I have no relationship with the film side. The merger does not mean that I, personally, am getting back the movie rights. It means they will be owned by a different media conglomeration. The merger also does not mean that I will have any more control or influence over what Disney decides to do or not do with those rights than I did with Fox. That’s simply the nature of how it works when an author sells their movie rights, no matter which author, no matter which studio. (One more time for the folks in the back: THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK DOES NOT CONTROL THE MOVIE. EVER.)

This merger would certainly give Disney a lot of new material and resources, which is exciting, but Percy Jackson is a tiny, tiny grain of sand in a mountain of larger franchises.

Would it be cool if Disney decided to do a Percy reboot of some sort, and if they did a good job, and if it did well? Absolutely! Is that going to happen? I have no earthly idea, nor am I going to assume that the odds are better at Disney than they were at Fox simply because Disney publishes my books. We’ll just have to see.

So what has changed?

Yesterday, Fox owned the movie rights and I had no information, influence or control over what Fox might do with them.

Today, it appears Disney might be acquiring the rights, and I have no information, influence or control over what Disney might do with them.

But hey, it’s Disney. I will be rooting for the merger to go through, because I think it’ll be awesome for generating cool new content, whether or not that includes Percy.

For more details comments about the movies, check my FAQ.