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What Passes for a Quiet Week


It’s been great to be home, although I’ve certainly been busy for a “down” week. Sunday I went up to Austin for a signing at Barnes & Noble Arboretum, where my friend Caren Creech is now CRM. As you can see from the pictures above, we had a large enthusiastic crowd, with kids looking on from every direction including the second floor balcony.
Last night, I had a signing at the Twig Bookstore here in San Antonio. We filled up the store with another crowd of over a hundred. Thanks to my friend and fellow local writer Jay Brandon for coming out, along with a lot of my old colleagues from Saint Mary’s Hall, including the real-life Mrs. Dodds (and no, she did not turn into a Fury. She said she is retired now.)
My favorite event of the week, however, was visiting my son Patrick’s second grade class. A lot of his classmates knew me, and they’d been reading the Lightning Thief together with their teacher, but it was the first time I’d actually visited the class as an author. I showed them all the different translations of the Percy books and told them the myth of Perseus and Medusa. We had a fabulous time! Patrick was a very good host. I’m lucky to have such a great kid!
This evening my editor called with the news that Percy Jackson will be spending a third week at #1 on the New York Times children’s series bestseller list. Unbelievable.
A couple more days at home to write and do a few local interviews, and then I’m off to Edinburgh, Scotland on Saturday. I’ll do my best to blog from the road (the high road, naturally.)

Rick Riordan