The Flaming Toilets of Norwood (and other stories)

Got your attention with that title? I had a very nice two-day visit in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The kids at all four schools were great.

At Landon School, I got a tour of the gardens (see above). They have an azalea festival each spring and the school grounds really are beautiful. The school was having spirit week, as well, so a lot of the boys were dressed up in togas for Greek mythology day in honor of my visit. Many bed sheets gave their lives to make this occasion possible. Thanks Suman the librarian for hosting me.

I then went the Norwood School in the afternoon. Sue the librarian told me I had to see the boys’ restroom. I told her I didn’t really need to use the restroom, but she said, “You need to see it anyway.” Um . . . okay. It turns out the kids had a restroom decorating project a while back. The girls decorated the boys’ restroom and vice versa. Sure enough, the restroom is a travel destination. It is decorated with skateboard ramps and danger signs and (yes) flame designs around the urinals. I almost took pictures, but I thought that would be too weird. You’ll just have to take my word for it. As far as school bathrooms go, this one was pretty cool. The presentations again were great. Very enthusiastic kids.

After the school day, I got in my rental car and drove to Bucks County, north of Philadelphia. Long drive, but the weather was nice and the countryside was pretty with all the trees in bloom.

Wednesday morning I visited Holicong Middle School. The kids had made some amazing projects and decorations in honor of my visit. I got to meet a lot of the classes individually as they came through the library, and they had great questions. One teacher had done a class project with similes and other literary devices from the Lightning Thief, which they displayed on paper lightning bolts on sticks. During my presentation, the kids would cause a thunderstorm and shake their lightning whenever they applauded. Pretty neat! Thanks to Liz for coordinating the visit. Here's an article about the visit from the local newspaper.

I ended my visit at Unami Middle School. The kids there had also done some amazing artwork. They had held a contest to design t-shirts for each Camp Half-Blood cabin, so I saw quite a lot of demigods walking around. It turns out orange is also the school color, so that worked out nicely. You can see the artwork above. Thanks to Holly for providing me a flash disk with the pictures.

I have many more cool pictures I'd like to share as soon as I get a chance to scan them, so stay tuned for that.

Now I’m home for a day before I head right back to Pennsylvania for a librarians’ convention. Yes, that wasn’t good planning on my part, was it? But honestly, at this point every day I get to spend at home is priceless.

Next week, the tour begins! Remember that tour details can be found on my web calendar. Hope to see some of you on the road.

Good Morning from D.C.

I'm writing from Bethesda, MD today. I flew in yesterday afternoon, and the plane passed right by the White House and Washington Memorial. I was surprised planes could even fly that close! What a great view. It was a beautiful afternoon, and the cherry blossoms are in bloom, so my drive up the Potomac into Bethesda was a great experience.

Today I visit two schools in Maryland. Then tonight I drive to Chalfont, outside of Philadelphia, where I will do two more visits tomorrow. This trip actually marks my last privately booked school visits for the foreseeable future. I am not doing any visits next year (except for what the publisher arranges during my book tour) so I can catch up on my writing and be at home for my family. The last four years have been a blur of travel, and while I will miss visiting so many schools, it's time for me to take a breather!

I'll let you know how the visits go. Hard to believe it's almost May already!

Welcome, Chico!

Okay, this is completely off topic, but my mom just adopted a new kitten, Chico, and I had to introduce him. Patrick and I went over to meet him a couple of days ago. Somebody dropped Chico and his two siblings in a box on the side of the highway when they were not even old enough to open their eyes (Oo, Hades has a special place in the Fields of Punishment for people who do that). A good Samaritan rescued them, and all found loving homes, including Chico! As you can see, he's a rascal and raring to fight. He and Patrick are now fast friends.

More Casting News

The latest casting choices have been made public for The Lightning Thief movie: Jake Abel will play the part of Luke, and Catherine Keener will play Sally Jackson, Percy's mom. I think both of these are excellent choices. Abel fits my picture of Luke almost perfectly, and that's not easy to do. And Keener will make a great Sally.

More news as it becomes available. Filming is underway in Vancouver and I'm hoping to visit the set when I'm there for my signing on May 7.

Two, Two Twains

I just returned from the Missouri Association of School Librarians conference. What a nice bunch of folks. This is not a surprise, as librarians are some of my favorite people, and when they get together they usually throw a party of dangerous proportions. Some of you who read The 39 Clues have commented on the shout-outs to librarians embedded in The Maze of Bones, and what I loved is that the other authors in the series picked up on this entirely of their own volition so it has become a theme throughout the series. After all, authors couldn’t get very far without the help of librarians.

At any rate, the conference was a lot of fun. I did a workshop presentation in the afternoon and two book signings. So many librarians told me stories of kids who had turned into readers because of Percy Jackson. They would usually preface their comments with, “You must get tired of hearing this, but –”. Ah, how could I ever get tired of hearing that my books helped a child become a reader?

In the evening, I attended the banquet to receive the 2008 Mark Twain Award for The Lightning Thief. The award is voted on by 4th-6th grade readers throughout the state, and as I always say, these are the awards that mean the most to me, because they are decided by the people who matter the most – the young readers themselves. The big surprise, though, was the announcement of the 2009 award winners. I was stunned to learn that The Sea of Monsters won the Mark Twain Award for 2009! The award has been given for 37 years, but the organizers told me that this is the first time any author has won two years in a row. Wow, what an honor. Thanks to the young readers of Missouri – I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed the Percy Jackson series!

Special appreciation to Marlys and Becky, who were my hosts during the conference and chaired the 2008 and 2009 committees, and to the two student presenters, Morgan (7th grade) and Kara (6th grade) who drove to the conference with their families, introduced me, and had better prepared comments than I did! The girls were very composed and professional speaking in front of 1000+ librarians. I couldn’t have done that in middle school!

If you’d like to see a video from the conference, here is a link to Mrs. Matzat’s site.
Hope you don’t mind, Mrs. Matzat! You can thank my mom, who is often on ‘web patrol’ and sends me various mentions that she finds.

So I came home yesterday and greatly confused the TSA screener at the Springfield airport. I had my two awards in my carry-on bag, and the guy could not figure out what they were. “Are those beer tap handles?” he asked. “No,” I said casually, “they’re busts of Mark Twain.” He looked at me pretty strange, but he let me go.

Well, really, if you’re going to carry an author around in your bag, it might as well be Twain. He’s always been one of my heroes, and he’s the perfect icon for a readers’ choice award. Twain was always a populist writer with little patience for literary pretension. Just this morning I found a previously unpublished essay by Twain on BN.com. Twain talks about how the general public views a book versus how literary critics view it. He says he can determine how well his book will be received by running it past an assortment of ordinary people with different temperaments.

“But the man whom I most depend upon -- the man whom I watch with the deepest solicitude -- the man who does most toward deciding me as to whether I shall publish the book or burn it, is the man who always goes to sleep. If he drops off within fifteen minutes, I burn the book; if he keeps awake three-quarters of an hour, I publish -- and I publish with the greatest confidence, too. For the intent of my works is to entertain; and by making this man comfortable on a sofa and timing him, I can tell within a shade or two what degree of success I am going to achieve.”

This really resonated for me, because when I wrote the Lightning Thief, I imagined reading it aloud to my own middle school English classes. I wanted it to be a book that would never put them to sleep or lose their attention. I still read the manuscripts to my sons for the same reason. If their attention wanders, I change the slow parts. “For the intent of my works is to entertain.”

Thanks to the librarians of MASL and the young readers of Missouri for making me so welcome in your state. And a special apology to the librarians of Oklahoma, who had their conference on the same weekend, so I could not attend, but I was equally honored to learn that Lightning Thief won the Oklahoma Sequoyah Award.

Someone at MASL asked me how many state awards the Lightning Thief has now won, and I wasn’t able to answer. Honestly, the last year has been a whirlwind, and I’ve been overwhelmed and so thankful for the votes of confidence Percy Jackson has received from young readers across the country. In case you’re curious, I went back and checked. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten any, but here’s a list of state awards The Lightning Thief has won:

Beehive Award (Utah)
Mark Twain Award (Missouri)
Sunshine State Readers Award (Florida)
Virginia Readers Choice Award (Virginia)
Maine Student Book Award (Maine)
Nene Award (Hawaii)
Sequoyah Award (Oklahoma)
Nutmeg Award (Connecticut)
Golden Sower Award (Nebraska)
Grand Canyon Readers Award (Arizona)
Rebecca Caudill Award (Illinois)
Massachusetts Children’s Book Award (Massachusetts)
Louisiana Young Readers Choice Award (Louisiana)
Pacific Northwest Young Readers Choice Award (Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Alaska)
Pennsylvania Young Readers Choice Award (Pennsylvania)
South Carolina Junior Book Award (South Carolina)

The Middle of Missouri

I'm writing from the Lake of the Ozarks in the middle of Missouri. Here for a librarians' conference because The Lightning Thief won the state's Mark Twain Award last year. Tonight the librarians and a seventh grade presenter will give me the award. A great honor, especially named after Twain, who is my literary hero. One of my favorite quotes: "A classic is a book everyone wants to have read, but no one wants to read." I hope the award is not a life-sized replica of Huck's raft. I have a small suitcase.

At any rate, the state librarians' association booked this enormous room for me. Seriously, it's more square footage than my house. It has a balcony looking over the lake, so there are worse places to spend a morning writing. Today I'll do a couple of signings, a workshop, and the banquet. Then tomorrow it's back home (for a short time) before heading to D.C. and PA. More on that later.

The tour for The Last Olympian begins in two weeks. It probably would've been smart for me to stay home and rest before my marathon, but oh well! Working on my new book as time allows, and having a huge amount of fun with it. Bursting to tell you what it's about, but I can't yet. Stay tuned.

I finished Robert Muchamore's The Recruit and enjoyed it a lot. Fast read with plenty of action and interesting characters, a la Alex Rider. It is labeled "Not Suitable for Younger Readers" on the back. It does have some underage drinking, gritty situations, a little cursing (but not much) and of course violence appropriate to a spy novel. Certainly it's nothing that would shock the average middle schooler. I'd recommend it for grades 7-9.

Now I'm on to Brandon Mull's Fablehaven. Again, I'm late to the party on this, since book four just came out, but it's great stuff. The story moves right along. He does a masterful job building suspense, unfolding mysteries and making the reader care about the characters. The housekeeper is a particularly great character, but I won't spoil it for you by saying more. Anyway, check it out if you haven't yet.

And now, back to watching the sun come up over the lake. It's a tough job, but somebody... etc.

Vancouver goes Olympian

It must be the day for Vancouver! Three different people contacted me today with news about what Kidsbooks Vancouver is doing to promote my May 7 appearance. I got the picture above early this morning, before I'd had my coffee, and I wasn't sure what I was looking at. First I thought it was a bookshelf display. Then realized it wasn't a bookshelf. It was the entire front of the store. Holy Hera's Cow! Thanks to Kidsbooks for the fantastic display. If you're interested in attending the event, you can contact the store for details, or check my website calendar.

In other news, Haley and I successfully completed our secret research mission today. Once at our destination, we rented a car from Hertz and were joking about how many times their GPS system has gotten us lost. We decided instead of Hertz Neverlost, it should be labeled "It Hertz, Don't It?" You can use that slogan for free, Hertz. No consultant's fee necessary.

Also today, percyjacksonbooks.com was updated. The countdown timer was corrected. (Only 18 days until The Last Olympian!) A new video section was added, and this week's sneak peek is now available. Most exciting, Disney-Hyperion has added a forum section where fans can leave comments, questions, etc. Feel free to check in out. Just be sure to use only your first name if you post. For privacy reasons, the moderator has to delete any posts that give your full name.

Last Poster Winner and Other News

Congratulations to Joella Peterson at the Tumwater Timberland Library, Tumwater, WA, who is our fourth and final UK Percy Jackson poster winner. The contest is now closed, but we are sending out all the extra posters we have left, so if you are a librarian or teacher who asked for one over the last few weeks, there's still a chance one might arrive in the mail. (Though today being tax day at the post office, don't expect them to arrive immediately!)

In other news, The Last Olympian's release date is drawing near! Three weeks from today, all your questions will be answered at long last. Check Twitter, the Disney-Hyperion site, and this blog for the most recent news, and check the web calendar for my schedule of appearances.

I've been at home writing the last two weeks, which has been an incredible luxury, but I'll soon be packing my suitcases again. I'm off to Missouri for a library conference this weekend. This event is just for librarians, but if you live in Missouri and would like to meet me, never fear. I'll be back in Saint Louis in May for the Last Olympian tour.

Tomorrow my older son Haley and I are off on a top secret research trip for my next book. I can't tell you where we're going, as that would give away the book's subject matter, but I'm excited!

What we're reading: We just received the third Skulduggery Pleasant book, The Faceless Ones, from the UK, and we had to buy two copies because Patrick and Haley (and my wife Becky!) all wanted to start it at the same time. Derek Landy's series is not yet as well known on this side of the Atlantic, but it's well worth checking out and is very popular in the Riordan household. I'm also reading a book of poetry by Hafiz, a medieval Persian poet (how's that for random?) and The Recruit, the first of the Cherub series by Robert Muchamore. This is another series many British school children have recommended to me during my travels. It isn't well-known in the US (as far as I can tell) but extremely popular in the UK. Looking for good reads while you're waiting for Percy 5? I keep a list of my favorite recommendations (and my sons' favorites) on my website here.

Three More Weeks of Tweets

Fourteen hints about The Last Olympian have now been posted via Twitter, and more will be tweeted over the next few weeks, up to the release of The Last Olympian on May 5. You can sign up to follow me if you'd like the latest news!

Also, be sure to check the Disney-Hyperion website for Percy Jackson, as new video previews are being posted each Tuesday. The "Are You the Last Olympian" sweepstakes is also under way!

Third Percy Jackson Poster Winner

Congratulations to Lee Anne Rowicki of Centennial Middle School, Dade City, FL, our third UK Percy poster winner! Your poster is on the way.

Four New Events Added

I'm pleased to announce four new public events for the Last Olympian tour! Long Island gets added, South Florida gets an extra appearance, Mesa, Arizona will be coming up in June, and Brentwood, TN in August!

As always, check my website's calendar for my full schedule, and for details on a particular event, contact the host store.

May 11
Time: 6:00 PM
Barnes & Noble #2589
380 Walt Whitman Road
Huntington, NY 11746
(631) 421-9886

May 17
TIME: 1:00 PM
Borders
12171 W. Sunrise Blvd
Plantation, FL 33323
Phone: 954-723-9595

Friday, June 19
TIME: 6:00 PM
Barnes & Noble #2143
1758 South Val Vista Drive
Mesa, AZ 85204
Phone: 480-545-8507

Saturday, August 29
TIME: 2:00 PM
Barnes & Noble Store #2701
1701 Mallory Lane
Brentwood, TN 37027
Phone: 615-377-9979

"Are You the Last Olympian?" Sweepstakes Announced

Ready to journey into Poseidon's realm? Check Disney-Hyperion's Percy Jackson website for information on the new sweepstakes: "Are You the Last Olympian?" Answer three questions about Percy Jackson, get your Greek Council code, and send in your form. You could win a Disney cruise vacation for four!

Also coming soon: more video previews of book five. Here's a YouTube video of me reading from The Last Olympian, chapter one. Less than a month to go until May 5, when the book is released. Very exciting!

Second Poster Winner

Congratulations to Mary Ann Scheuer from Redwood Day School in Oakland, CA (my former hometown while we lived in the Bay Area!). She's our second UK poster winner. Redwood Day is a good school, too. I visited many years ago, before I was a children's author. The poster is on its way!

A Welcome to Amazon and Other News

Hello, Amazon.com! This blog, Myth & Mystery, is now syndicated to Amazon's website and appears on my product pages as well as the Rick Riordan author store. (My own author store? Cool! Can Rick Riordan action figures be far behind?)

In other news, the "Are You the Last Olympian?" sweepstakes will be announced on Disney-Hyperion's Percy Jackson website Tuesday, April 7. Be sure to check it out, because the prize is going to be very cool.

Also on Tuesday, that website will post the first of several video previews of The Last Olympian, in which I reveal information from book five. Check back each week for new videos, and of course remember that The Last Olympian will be published in just over a month: May 5!