Thanks to everyone who came out for my reading at the Texas Book Festival. We certainly got the attention of the fire marshal. The room was so full they had to close admission. I was told we packed 140 into the tiny committee room, including kids sitting behind me in the committee chairs, and still had sizeable crowd outside that couldn’t get in. I brought Becky and the kids along with me (a rare event) and they came too late to get seats! Oh well, they can hear me anytime, I suppose. Thanks to all the adults who gave up their seats so more kids could attend. That was really a nice gesture.
I used the crowd as my guinea pigs for the first public reading of The Titan’s Curse. It went very well. The kids, as usual, asked great questions. Many Camp Half-Blood T-shirts were given out in the quiz game. The best part was that Topher Bradfield and Toni Davis got to attend, Toni all the way from England. Topher and Toni are amazing booksellers, great people and wonderful friends. They have both championed the series with unbelievable enthusiasm since day one, and The Titan’s Curse is dedicated to them so it is fitting that they could be there.
At the signing afterwards, I met so many great people – librarians, kids, teachers, parents. I’m just sorry I couldn’t talk with people longer, but the line was immense. I came with an enormous bag of blue candy and it was all gone by the end of the signing.
The most memorable moment of the day happened as we were heading back to our car. We got into the parking garage elevator with another family. The little girl looked at Patrick in his Camp Half-Blood T-shirt and asked, “Have you read The Lightning Thief?”
Patrick looked at her like she was crazy and said, “No way!” (Patrick, for the record, has no interest in reading his dad’s books). The girl looked puzzled and asked Haley if he had read The Lightning Thief or the Sea of Monsters. Haley said, “Of course, those are my dad’s books.” By this point, the poor girl was seriously confused, so I introduced myself. Her jaw dropped, and it stayed dropped as the elevator opened and she headed to the car with her parents, muttering, “That was – That was –” See, this is what happens when you step into the elevator with the Riordan family. You leave in a state of complete confusion.