Demigod of the Week

One of the highlights of my recent event at BookPeople was meeting Grey, son of Topher and Ceci! Topher, as you may know, is the mastermind behind Camp Half-Blood, Austin, and has been a friend and supporter since the early days of Percy Jackson. This summer, right after the last session of camp, Grey was born! He was six weeks old when I saw him at BookPeople, and was already big enough to wear the 'demigod in training' onesie Becky and I sent his proud parents. He totally looks strong enough to strangle snakes in his cradle the way Hercules did, but we won't test that theory. Congrats, Topher and Ceci, and hooray for Grey, the youngest demigod of the week ever!

Sunday in England

I'm writing from the Waldorf Hotel in London on a sunny afternoon.

Yesterday I arrived at Heathrow and took a car service to Bath. I hadn't been to the city in several years, but it was just as beautiful as I recall (see above) -- green hills lined with golden Georgian buildings. The streets were bustling with the Children's Literature Festival crowd and the usual tourist traffic. I hear Darth Vader and some storm troopers even put in an appearance at the festival, followed today by Spot and Bob the Builder. It's a good thing those visits happened on separate days, as I imagine an epic battle between Bob and Darth, in which Bob gets turned to the dark side. Not a pretty thought.

At any rate, I slept off my jet lag last night and woke to a cold foggy morning (quite a change from Orlando). I walked from the Francis Hotel on Queen Square down to Caffe Nero for some coffee, then met Adele and Amanda from Puffin Books for my festival event at the Guildhall. We had a full house! I signed many books -- British edition Percy Jacksons, but also quite a few 39 Clues and a fair number of American Percy Jackson editions. A lot of British fans told me they'd gotten books shipped from friends in the States because they couldn't wait for the British versions. Fortunately that won't be a problem for THE LAST OLYMPIAN, as it will come out in May in both the US and UK. Favorite question from the audience: "If I could be anyone in the movie version of Lightning Thief, who would I be?" Answer: Chiron, although a) the director would know better than to cast me in the movie, and b) even if he did, with my luck I'd end up playing Dionysus or Smelly Gabe. No thanks!

After my event, I caught the train back to London, which leaves me the afternoon free to explore the city. I'll probably take a stroll through Charing Cross, as that's one of my favorite parts of London. Tomorrow I'm off to the Redhill area for two school events, followed by dinner with the Puffin staff and booksellers. I'll keep you posted!

Greetings from Orlando

I'm wrapping up a week in Orlando, Florida, and never once saw Mickey Mouse. Ah, well. I never went to Disney Land or Disney World as a child, and my sons want nothing to do with the idea (which is ironic, since Disney publishes my books), so I guess a visit will have to wait a little longer!

The picture above is from my hotel, the Gaylord Palms, where the Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME) is holding their conference. The resort has an enormous covered atrium so large it contains a sailing ship and a castle. I feel like I'm back in Las Vegas.

On Tuesday I did a public evening event for the Winter Park Library. Thanks to everyone who came out. Admission was by lottery, and I got to meet hundreds of kids, teachers and parents. Some of the kids had made their own Percy Jackson T-shirts which were way cooler than mine!

Wednesday morning I visited Evans Elementary in Oviedo. The kids were very enthusiastic and had even done a blog about the Lightning Thief prior to my arrival.

The last two days I attended the FAME conference. I sat in on a panel with five other great authors, chatting about censorship, school author visits, and writing for kids versus writing for adults. Yesterday, I was honored with the Sunshine State Young Readers Award, grades 6-8, for The Lightning Thief. The award was an L-shaped wedge of crystal, and I rushed down to the business office to ship it back home to San Antonio. Later, the committee chair asked me where the award was, because she had the other half. "The other half?" I asked. It turns out the award is a set of bookends, so the two halves will be arriving in Texas in separate boxes. Oops!

It was great meeting so many librarians (er, media specialists) and hearing their stories. One specialist said, "You must get tired of hearing how your books turned a nonreader into a reader." I said, "Are you kidding? That never gets old!"

Today I'm off to the airport for my trip to the UK. Sunday I'll be presenting at the Bath Festival of Children's Literature, followed by a week of visits to schools. The public events are listed on my web calendar.

I'll try to post again from England. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Pictures from the Road

Above are some pictures from last week's 39 Clues tour -- from Portland, Denver and Austin. Thanks again to everyone who came to an event! Right now I'm in Orlando, Florida -- a full report on that tomorrow.

39 Clues Wrap-up

I’m back home for the weekend after a whirlwind tour for 39 Clues. Next week it’s off to Florida for some Percy Jackson craziness, followed by a week in the UK.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the Maze of Bones events. Monday we had a huge crowd at A Children’s Place Bookstore in Portland. It was hotter in Portland than it was in San Antonio, which was weird, and the store was packed wall-to-wall with kids, but everyone was very patient and in good spirits moving through the signing line. Thanks to the staff for running things so smoothly. It was great meeting a lot of fans for the first time, since this was my first Portland event. I’ll be back in October for the Multnomah Library in case you missed this event. Hopefully the weather will have cooled off by then!

After that we flew to Denver, another one of my favorite cities. I addressed a group of teachers and librarians for Scholastic Book Fairs (about half of the audience was kids who got release time from school to see me – which was cool!). Then we drove down to Colorado Springs for dinner with the Mountains and Plains children’s booksellers. We passed the Garden of the Gods – a major setting in Battle of the Labyrinth – and I couldn’t help looking for demigods flying around with bronze wings. No luck, but maybe the Mist was just playing tricks on my eyes.

Yesterday I had an afternoon event at BookPeople in Austin. As usual, BookPeople threw an incredible party. The kids were divided into the four branches of the Cahill family, then did various challenges and events to earn beads for their branch. They had mazes, puzzles, and even a bungie cord pull. The Lucians won, but all the other branches gave it a good effort. Thanks to the hundreds of people who came out and braved a hot afternoon to be with us, and to the tireless BookPeople staff who worked so hard to make the event a success.

I understand Maze of Bones is off to a great start. It debuts at #1 on the New York Times children’s hardcover list next week, and we’ve heard from a lot of kids, teachers and parents who are enjoying the books and the game. I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to play the game past the registration, so don’t ask me any questions about it. You know more than I do! I’m especially happy to hear the book has gone over well with teachers and their students. It’s a fun way to teach history, and I’m told Scholastic is working on some teacher support materials right now, so stay tuned for that.

I will post more from the road. Until then, have a good weekend and keep reading, everyone!

Percy Jackson Mythology Bee

Calling all teachers and librarians: Exciting news just announced! Disney-Hyperion will be sponsoring a Percy Jackson mythology bee this fall. Any school with students ages 10-15 can participate. Each school holds a bee (as I understand it, this can be done school-wide or with a single grade or classroom), using an activity booklet provided by the publisher. One winner from each school will be entered into a national sweepstakes. The grand prize for the winner of the sweepstakes: A trip for four to Greece where you will meet me and my family! Together, we will get to explore the islands where Greek mythology began. One first prize winner will receive a trip to Camp Half-Blood in Austin, Texas for four! This is going to be very cool.

For more details, visit the publisher's Percy Jackson site where you can order a free mythology bee packet with full rules and regulations. Please note: you can't enter the mythology bee as an individual. You have to get your school or library to sponsor a bee event! The bee is designed to be very quick and easy to run, however. Everything is spelled out in the packet, and it can be done in a single classroom period. Not only that, but the questions were designed by the real Mr. Brunner, middle school Latin teacher extraordinaire, who was the inspiration for Mr. Brunner (a.k.a. Chiron) in The Lightning Thief!

Good luck, everybody. Maybe I'll see you in Greece next summer!

Brightspirit Auction

I recently got an email from Erin Hunter of Warriors fame about a wonderful charity called Brightspirit Relief Fund. I had the pleasure of meeting Erin at the LA Times Book Festival, and when she told me the story of Brightspirit I knew I wanted to donate some items to their auction. Click the link above and read about the fund, and I'm sure you'll see why. The charity is holding their online auction September 20 through October 4, so check it out if you'd like to donate or bid on some cool items, including signed books by Erin Hunter, Brandon Mull, and me. It's for a good cause, too!

On the Today Show

Greetings from New York! I'm writing from Scholastic Books headquarters, having just returned from the Today Show. Above, me on the set with Ann Curry. You can watch the video segment here. Now I'm off for more media interviews. 39 Clues comes out tomorrow!

Countdown to Clues

Pictured above: Me at the New York Historical Society with my friend Ben.

I’m excited about the launch of 39 Clues on Tuesday! All the media attention has been pretty incredible, what with the New York Times, AP News, Publisher's Weekly, and USA Today, plus forthcoming articles in the Daily Telegraph Australia, the Times of London, Time Magazine, and many more. Whoopi Goldberg even gave the book a recommendation. Thanks, Whoopi! This Sunday I’m off to New York to prepare for a Monday morning appearance on the Today Show.

Biggest concern as usual: Will kids like the book? It sounds obvious, but I still worry about this every time I publish a novel, though my sons have given it the thumbs up, as have the other young readers who got early looks at the story. I'm also glad to hear that booksellers and librarians have enjoyed the ARC.

Most curious about: the online game. I haven't seen the final version yet, and I'm anxious to try it!

Fingers crossed for: A sudden surge in school book reports about Benjamin Franklin, who is the main historical figure in The Maze of Bones. Even as a longtime history teacher, I learned stuff from researching this book that really surprised me! Ben was a fascinating guy, and kids will discover some of his cooler secrets in the book.

Fondest wish: That no one else tries to call the series "the next Harry Potter," or even worse, "a replacement for Harry Potter." I know, I know, Scholastic published Harry Potter, so from a business point of view comparisons are inevitable, but I can't say this often enough: there is no such thing as a 'next Harry Potter.' Certainly there is no replacement. Aside from the fact that the content of 39 Clues is nothing like Harry Potter, we all know phenomena like HP cannot be manufactured. They happen grassroots, word-of-mouth, because of readers. To their credit, no one at Scholastic ever said to me, "We want this to be our next Harry Potter." Sure, they are pushing the series with all their marketing might, but be assured, if I do hear anyone promoting 39 Clues as a Harry Potter 'replacement,' I will rap his or her knuckles with my 'prim schoolteacher' ruler! The best a writer can do is write the most interesting book he or she can, and hope people like it. If kids enjoy the series, then I will be happy.

The biggest challenge for 39 Clues: As I see it, this has nothing to do with replacing/upstaging Potter. It has to do with the multimedia platform, and how this will play out with kids. Again, I give Scholastic credit for taking a huge risk. As the author of book one and the general story arc, I had very little involvement with the online game or the cards. My big concern was making sure the books worked as books -- to make sure you can read the series, even if you never go online or never pick up a trading card, and have a fun, satisfying experience. However, I do hope a lot of kids will be interested in becoming part of the story by making their own Cahill identities through the game, and this might even bring some reluctant readers (like my sons) into the books.

Is it such a stretch that multimedia can be used to interest kids in books? Is this selling out our principles? I'm not so sure. I think about my conversations with librarians, who are our greatest champions of books. Invariably, when I talk to librarians about my own books, the first question I get asked isn't about the books at all. They want to know: "When is the movie?" If you subscribe to the electronic edition of School Library Journal as I do, more often than not the lead story is about a movie tie-in to a book. Why? Simple. Librarians are pragmatic. They know that movie versions always increase interest in the books, and while we all know the movie is never as good as the book, if a movie version attract kids to reading, then it serves a positive purpose. Can an online game do the same thing? We'll find out while we wait for Mr. Spielberg and Jeff Nathanson to do the movie version!

In the meantime, happy reading, and I'll hope to see some of you on the road in September as I do my tour!

The Last Olympian

I'm pleased to announce that the title for Percy Jackson 5 will be THE LAST OLYMPIAN. The publication date has been officially set for May 5. (That's the U.S. date, but the U.K. date should be the same.) The news broke this morning in USA Today.

I've known the title for months, and as I mentioned earlier I didn't think we'd be announcing it until October, but I'm happy that Disney/Hyperion decided the time was right to share the information with the media, booksellers, and most importantly fans! Stay tuned for more information. It will be a few more weeks at least before we have a cover to show you. The picture above is not the cover -- it's just a placeholder until we get the real thing!

In the meantime, what does the title mean? Who is the Last Olympian? I leave that for you to ponder.

The Perils of Internet Information

The Internet is the coolest thing ever. I'm not sure how I ever got along without it. On the other hand, it's amazingly effective at disseminating bad information. It's kind of like the old game of telephone where you sit in a circle and whisper a message in your neighbor's ear. Then you see how badly the message is garbled by the time it gets back to you.

I'm constantly finding bizarre (and wrong) facts about the Percy Jackson series online. To clarify some big mistakes that I've seen recently:

1) "The Sword of Hades" is NOT the title of Percy Jackson book five.

As mentioned earlier on the blog, "Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades" is a short story about fifty pages long that I wrote for World Book Day in the UK. It will be published in the spring. It takes place between book four and book five, but it has nothing to do with book five. It is certainly not the title for book five. I guess somebody read that blog entry not very carefully, got overexcited, and suddenly several websites have posted "Sword of Hades" as Percy Jackson 5. Wrong. The title of book five has not been announced yet. It won't be announced until October at the earliest.

2) Steven Spielberg is NOT directing "The Lightning Thief."

This is an example of people mashing several unrelated facts together. Fox 2000 is making "The Lightning Thief" movie with Chris Columbus directing. The film rights for 39 Clues, a completely separate series, have been sold to DreamWorks, and Steven Spielberg is considering directing that movie. Two totally different films based on different books, with different directors. Spielberg is not involved in "The Lightning Thief" project.

3) Spoilers and inside tips about Percy Jackson book five.

There aren't any. I've seen lots of these posted on the Internet, and they all profess to be true, but believe me, nobody has read the book except me, my immediate family, my agent, and my editor. No one else has any idea what will happen in the book. The details will be a tightly guarded secret until it is published in May. Anything else you read on the Internet about what happens in book five is a complete guess with absolutely no basis in fact.


I hope that helps! As I used to warn my students when they were doing research reports: Remember, anyone can post anything on the Internet. That doesn't make it true!