Land of the Gods, part four

Part Four: Athens and Mykonos

Athens was baking hot when we arrived, but our guide assured us it was worse the day before. They’d hit 110 degrees Fahrenheit. My editor Jennifer Besser greeted us at the hotel and we met up with Julia and her family. Very nice people! We had a fun afternoon together exploring the city. We saw the changing of the guard in the front of the Greek parliament building, which reminded me of Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks. Then we strolled through the Plaka, the old area of Athens, down Ermu Street (otherwise known as Hermes Street). As you might expect from the god of commerce, the street was full of shops, but our guide reminded us that Hermes was also the patron of thieves, so I kept my wallet close.

Finally, the high point of the day, literally: We climbed the hill of the Acropolis. You can see some pictures above. The site is truly awe-inspiring, as the Athenians meant it to be. Along the way we came across this poor dog sleeping in the shade. Our guide told us Athens is full of stray dogs. The city tags them and feeds them, but they are allowed to die when they get old. Sad there are so many. This one looked like it was about to expire, but when we saw it again on our way down it was awake and looking much better. We're told that some of the dogs have even learned to ride the Metro to find the parts of the city with the best handout scraps.

During our tour, we saw the theater of Dionysus, then climbed to the top and saw the Parthenon. I learned that the building was designed with no right angles. It looks nice and square, but the lines are all slightly curved to make the building look larger and more impressive. It works! To one side of the Parthenon was the Arachtheon, the holiest site, where according to mythology Poseidon and Athena faced off in a contest to become the patron of Athens. An olive tree still grows at the spot where Athena created the first olive tree, and inside the building are three marks representing the trident points of Poseidon. The view from the Acropolis is amazing – you can see all of Athens and the surrounding islands.

Julia’s family had several more days to spend in Athens, so we said our goodbyes and got back on the ship.

We arrived in Mykonos today. We were hoping to visit the ruins of Delos, but the winds are so strong they aren’t running the ferry. We got to walk into town, however, which is exactly what you imagine in a Greek village – blazing white stucco buildings with blue doors and windows, crooked cobblestone streets, domed churches, and lots of boats in the harbors. We had ice cream in the plaza and met the town’s mascot, Petros the pelican. We don’t know which one was Petros, actually, since we met two pelicans, but the boys pronounced this the coolest part of our trip so far. We followed the pelicans for a few blocks, and they obviously have the run of the town, as they walked straight into a tavern and the locals didn’t even lift an eyebrow.
Tonight, we sail for Katakolon, the site of ancient Olympia and the first Olympic games. Then it’s back to Venice for the long trip home. What an amazing time in the Land of the Gods. After writing about Greek mythology for so many years, it’s been incredible to literally return to the source. I’ll update you further on the homeward leg of our trip.

Land of the Gods, part three

Part Three: Croatia and Corfu

We stopped at Split, Croatia on our way down the Adriatic coast. I had no idea what to expect, but it was a fun experience. Patrick was feeling under the weather, so Becky stayed with him while Haley and I explored the country. Our tour first stopped at the Roman ruins of Salona, where we saw crypts, houses and city walls from the early to late Roman Empire. You can see a photo of Haley with the Dionysus drinking fountain above, along with a shot of the ruins. Our guide told us only 30% of the ancient city has been excavated so far. Every time they build a road, they unearth more artifacts. Salona was once the capital of the province of Dalmatia, and the hometown of emperor Diocletian, so it was an important place, with a population of 60,000 – huge for the Classical world.

Our bus then took us to the medieval town of Trogir, which sits on an island in the middle of a river, and has winding streets, a mix of ancient architecture, and some incredible stone carvings. Apparently, it had a famous stone carving school in the Middle Ages. Above you can see a street in Trogir. Haley and I had lunch at a café on the riverbank before heading back to the ship.
The next day we sailed for Corfu, our first stop in the Greek isles. It reminded me a lot of California, actually – same golden hills and flowering plants, same general climate. We spent a morning at the beach, and it was freezing cold. Patrick braved the water, but I would only go up to my waist. The swimming pool was great, though.

Next, we sailed for Athens, where we’d meet the winner of the mythology bee, Julia, and her family. More on that next . . .

The Land of the Gods, part two

Part Two: Venice

None of us had ever been here before, and we immediately fell in love with the city. It’s one of those places like San Francisco – completely overexposed, overrun with tourists, and almost cliché to love, but still, it doesn’t take long to see why it’s so popular. We caught a water taxi to our hotel, a few blocks from Saint Mark’s Square. We strolled through the narrow streets, along the canals and over bridges, doing our best to get lost. “Oh, look,” Haley would always say. “Another dark alley!” We found a pizzeria (well, naturally) and had our first gelato. We found that banana was the best flavor pretty much everywhere we went.

The next morning we got a guided tour of the city, hunting for lions – the symbol of Saint Mark. We lost count after ninety. I loved the five-hundred-year-old digital clock in the square, and taking the public transport boat to the Rialto fish market. Patrick has never been a fan of seafood, and after seeing the dead fish, I don’t think he’ll be eating fish any time soon. We saw the horsemeat shop – no lie, you can buy pony burgers and mule steak there. And we met Luna, the gelato shop dog, whom you can see above. She looks like she’s been helping to eat the ice cream, doesn’t she? That night we had dinner at a café and were entertained by the birds. Those little guys were fearless, and they were experts at mugging pigeons. We would throw down crumbs and the pigeons would pick them up, but the smaller birds would gang up on them and scare the pigeons off. Yes, we’re easily amused. Thanks for asking.

The next morning, Saturday, we took another water taxi to our cruise ship. Royal Caribbean always names their ships _______ of the Seas. This ship was Splendour of the Seas. Haley is hoping next time they christen a boat they’ll call it I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Butter of the Seas. We would definitely book a stateroom on that.
The sail out was amazing, and Haley actually saw a whale in the Adriatic Sea later that night. Our next stop: Croatia. More on that later.

The Land of the Gods, part one

Part One: London

And so we began our pilgrimage to Greece, land of the Olympian gods!

We arrived in London early Tuesday morning and checked into our hotel on Grosvenor Square. We were pretty wiped out from jet lag, but we braved the Underground to visit the British Museum. I can’t be too specific, but there are reasons I needed to see it again for my upcoming book. We spent some time perusing the Egyptian art, and came across the stone above, which I had read about. The stone is one of our primary sources for Egyptian mythology. It’s covered with hieroglyphs, but for many years no one knew its value, so it was used as a grindstone in a mill. That’s what the square hole is in the middle and the marks around it. Much of the writing was wiped out. Who knows how many stories we would have if the whole stone were intact? Anyway, we saw the Rosetta Stone and many many pictures of the gods – Bast, Sekhmet, Anubis, and the rest of the gang. Then we took a stroll along Bond Street, got some dinner, and called it an early night.

Day two, Wednesday, we took the Tube to Camden Town, which is a cool, funky area of London. It reminds me strongly of Berkeley, CA. I felt like I was walking down Telegraph Avenue again. We saw the Camden Locks, where the canal begins, then walked to the London Zoo. Our favorite exhibit was the gorilla world. One gorilla was working on making something out of bamboo – perhaps a weapon. We figured in a few thousand years, he’ll figure it out and stage a revolution.

In the afternoon, we headed to the South Bank to see the London Eye and Big Ben (which the kids knew mostly from watching Doctor Who). Haley and Patrick’s favorite part was the arcade at Namco Station, of course. You can see a picture of Becky and Patrick at the River Thames. Becky was just able to hold down Patrick long enough to take one picture.

On Thursday, we said goodbye to London and boarded our plane for Venice!

Last Chance for Road Trip Contest

The Fantasy Road Trip Contest from Listening Library ends on August 17. Check the website for details: Submit your video and you could win an iPod Touch and signed audio books. See you on the road!

Percy Jackson mythology trivia cards and more

As part of Barnes & Noble's summer reading program, they've created a special pack of mythology trivia cards. I got a sneak peek last time I was in New York, and they're pretty cool. B&N has a good online page featuring the cards, Percy books, and other assorted Greek myth books.

39 Clues in the classroom

Congratulations to Mike Bentz, who won the 2009 Inspire Award from the Classroom of the Future Foundation for his use of 39 Clues in the classroom. I always love hearing about creative things teachers are doing with the books to get kids interested in reading. You can see a presentation about his classroom here. (Does that narrator sound a little too happy to you?)

Thanks, Mr. Bentz, and well done, students of Skyline Elementary!

The Lightning Thief Movie

It was a busy day yesterday! The first trailer for the Lightning Thief movie was released online, and Fox's site for the movie is now active. I'm sure much more will be added in the coming months. The trailer will be shown before the new Harry Potter film, which opens today, so if you go see Harry, you'll see your first glimpse of PJO: The Lightning Thief on the big screen. Several people have already reported they saw the trailer when they went to the midnight opening.

A few people have asked, "Was that scene in the book?" No, I don't think it's supposed to be a scene from the book *or* the movie. To the best of my knowledge, it's a special scene they created exclusively for the trailer to get your attention. I think it looks pretty amazing and even my kids, who are tough critics, thought it looked good.

I will issue my usual caveat: I am not directly involved with making the movie, so if you have questions, I can't answer them! Please don't deluge the website with questions, comments, advice, or whatever. I just write the books, guys. The movie is not my department! Check the FAQ page for the very little that I can tell you.

Will the movie be exactly like the book? Well to start with, I have never seen a movie that was exactly like the book it came from, so I think it's safe to say no. Movies are a totally different medium. What you'll be seeing is not the Lightning Thief book copied page for page onto the screen. What you'll be seeing is Chris Columbus's interpretation of the Lightning Thief story.

How will it compare to the book? That's a much harder question, and one I can't really answer! Being an author, obviously, I always like the book version. That's because a book allows you to create your own mental images of the characters and settings. Those images are always the most vivid and most real. As soon as someone shows you a picture of a character, many of you will probably say, "But that's not what he looks like!" This is why we never show Percy's face on the covers of the books. We want you to have your own image of what he looks like. The picture in your mind is always the best. Case in point: I got very annoyed when I tried to read the seventh Harry Potter book, because by then I'd seen the movie versions and I couldn't stop seeing Daniel Radcliffe in my head. No offense to Radcliffe, who's a great actor, but I had my own image of Harry Potter before the movies came along, and I liked my version better!

So doubtless, some things in the Lightning Thief movie version may be not exactly the same as you (or I) imagined them. Some story elements may be altered to make the movie work as a movie. I think it's safest to go into the movie with that assumption. Let the movie be the movie, and the books be the books, and try to enjoy the story without getting too worked up about any differences.

I had an interesting conversation with my son Haley about this recently. We were talking about Alex Daddario, who plays Annabeth, and how some people were confused because Alex is a brunette and Annabeth in the book is a blonde.

Haley laughed. "What's the big deal? In the original story you told me, Annabeth was a brunette."

I stared at him. "She was?"

"Yeah. I always saw her as brunette."

I have no recollection of this, but I never argue with Haley's memory. He can remember things he did when he was two years old with absolute clarity, so I'm sure he's right. Haley was the original audience for the Lightning Thief, as you may have heard, and so there you have it from the ultimate source: Annabeth was originally brunette. He also reminded me that I changed many, many details from the original story when I wrote it down as a novel.

So I guess I can't get too upset if some details change from the book to the movie. After all, this is Greek mythology we're dealing with. The stories were told (and changed) hundreds of times as they were passed along through the generations. It's just part of the storytelling tradition. It's also something I like about Greek myth. There is no "right" version. Each myth has dozens of variations, and you can pick and choose the one you like best.

Anyway, the first trailer is very promising. Chris Columbus offers up some amazing imagery. We'll just have to wait to see what is revealed next.

In other news, I'm wrapping up the first draft of my Egyptian mythology book. So much fun to write! We've also been enjoying our new house. The other night we discover that we have a colony of bats living close by. At sunset, we can sit in our pool and watch the bats fly right over our house. Pretty cool. Giant cicadas have also invaded the neighborhood. These guys are huge and noisy! Becky found an article about them here.

Very soon, we're off to Greece. I'll post more from the road (or cruise ship).

The Black Circle

One month exactly until 39 Clues #5: THE BLACK CIRCLE by Patrick Carman is released. I can't wait for this one. The cover is a mystery for now. Can you guess where the story will take Amy and Dan? Of course I know, but I can't tell you or I'd be abducted by Cahill secret operatives. Be sure to check it out on Aug. 11. My older son Haley is a big fan of Patrick Carman's Atherton series, and I know the Black Circle will rock.

I also found the cover for 39 Clues #6 recently posted on line -- it's very cool! Jude Watson, who got fantastic reviews for book #4, Beyond the Grave, will be up to bat again for IN TOO DEEP. That one will be out in November, and get ready for some incredible twists to the story.

Too Funny...

Great blog in PW Shelftalker about the (horrifyingly bad) idea of adding advertisements to e-books on the Kindle. The title "Kindle at Poseidon's Gate" naturally got my attention. I love Kenny Brechner's suggestions for hyper-linked text from the classics. Virginia Woolf promoting Nordstrom's, E.R. Eddison selling Pottery Barn, Homer pushing Pearl Vision -- too funny. It may be meant as satire, but I think he's onto the Next Big Thing. I mean, if we can do Pride & Prejudice w/ Zombies, why not? Full disclosure: I have a Kindle and I love it, but a) it will never take the place of good old-fashioned books, and b) I don't want to read advertisements with my Charles Dickens, thank you very much.

National Book Festival

As just announced, the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. will be held Sept. 26, and I will be one of the many authors attending. 2009-2010 will be a 'no event' school year for me because of my writing deadlines, but I decided to make an exception for this since I've never done it before. If you live in the D.C. area, come on by. I understand it's quite an event. No further details have been released, but as soon as event times are posted, I will add them to my web calendar.

News from Zeus House

Happy July! Here in San Antonio, we're going on four straight weeks of 100+ temperatures and two months without rain, so I hope it's cooler where you are.

The Riordan family just spent its first week in our new house, which has come to be called Zeus House because we painted it in Sherwin-Williams 'Zeus' color, and also, of course, because of Percy and friends. When we first moved in, we found a metal silhouette of a Greek goddess in the atrium, so we knew we were meant to be here. We're keeping cool by spending a lot of time at the pool. Never had a swimming pool before, and the boys are loving it. We're also near a creek, so there is a lot more wildlife -- ducks, hawks, raccoons, bats, toads, pelicans (weird but true) and a group of vultures who sit on the roof of the house next door and look an awful lot like harpies. We've named the leader Steve.

The move, as you can imagine, has kept us very busy, but most of my time has been spent buried in the manuscript of my new book. The boys are getting impatient, because they know I'm near the end and they'll get to hear the story first. I announced the subject matter when I was on tour. If you haven't heard, the book is a modern-day fantasy about Egyptian mythology, and I am having so much fun with it! I can't give out any more details yet, but it is completely separate from the Camp Half-Blood series (the Greeks and Egyptians wouldn't play well together). Never fear, I'm still working on the next Camp Half-Blood series for release in late 2010, but the Egyptian book is an idea I've wanted to do for a long time. It will be released next spring, assuming all goes according to plan.

I'm under a time crunch too, because I want to finish the manuscript before we leave for the Mythology Bee trip to meet the grand prize winner Julia and her family in Greece. The Riordans will be making a short stop in London, then on to a Mediterranean cruise. Yeah, I know. Life is tough. I've never been to Greece before, so it seems ironic that I finally get to do it now that the Percy series has concluded. We'll sail into Athens for a day and spend the afternoon touring the Parthenon with Julia's family. They told me I don't have to be the tour guide, which is good, since I would probably lead us off a cliff or something. I will try to blog during the trip and let you know how things are going.

Despite all that's happening, I have had some time to read. Some of my favorite recent finds:

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley. This is an adult mystery which David at Murder by the Book in Houston recommended. When David recommends something, I take notice. At first I wasn't sure what to make of the title. It sounded like something Oprah and Alexander McCall Smith would come up with over tea. But the book is just fabulous. Set in England in the 1950s, it evokes the time and place with eerie precision -- if you've seen Mad Men on AMC, that's the sort of precise recreation I mean. The main character is eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, who is so precocious she makes Mozart look like a slow learner. Flavia delights in studying the chemistry of poisons and torturing her older sisters (who of course torture her back). When Flavia finds a dying man in her garden, she pronounces it the most wonderful thing that has ever happened at Buckshaw Manor. She predicts, rightly, that it is the beginning of a fascinating mystery, which of course only Flavia can solve. She is an absolutely wonderful first person narrator with a strong will, a contrary streak, and a wicked sense of humor. This is one of those books where you know from chapter one you are in the hands of a master writer. You can sit back, relax, and enjoy the marvelous ride. I highly recommend it, and I hope we'll see more of Flavia in the future.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, by Trenton Lee Stewart. I usually only get to read the first book in a series, but I'm glad I had a chance to read the second volume of the Benedict Society's adventures. It was every bit as good as the first. This is a kinder, gentler sort of adventure novel which relies less on explosions and action and more on intrigue and puzzle-solving, and it works very well. I enjoyed the way the characters developed, especially Constance, and I'll be looking forward to their next adventure.

Un Lun Dun, by China Mieville. Okay, so it's another title that tripped me up, but the premise intrigued me. Un Lun Dun is another spelling for UnLondon, a shadowy mirror image of London. Zanna and Deeba fall into this alternate world, only to find that Zanna is the Schwazzy (the chosen one) and will save unLondon, according to a prophecy. Yes, I know, at this point you are rolling your eyes and thinking this sounds like every children's fantasy you've ever read, but keep reading. Mieville quickly turns the plot on its head and defies your expectations. Mieville's brand of fantasy has been described as "weird fiction," and certainly he is a literary descendant of Lewis Carroll. Un Lun Dun is every bit as fantastical, odd, and unpredictable as "Through the Looking Glass." The wonders almost become mind-numbing after a while, but Mieville keeps his wild menagerie of creations under control and creates a world I would love to visit. My favorite characters: Margarita the Extreme Librarian (has Mieville been visiting the Texas Library Association, perhaps?), Obaday Fing, who tailors suits out of books, and Curdle the friendly milk carton. This is Mieville's first book for young readers, and I'll definitely be checking out his adult work.

Well, that's it from Zeus House. Now it's back to the world of Egypt. When we last left our heroes . . . oh wait, can't tell you yet. Wait for spring 2010!

Another Great Picture

Thanks to several people who alerted me to this picture from last week's news story about the Obamas doing community service. As I mentioned in my previous post, the First Family was helping load 15,000 backpacks with back-t0-school goodies (including The Lightning Thief) for the children of military families. In this picture, you can actually tell it's The Lightning Thief that President Obama and Malia are putting in the backpack. Woohoo! Okay, I'll stop acting like a fanboy now. Back to writing...