Rick Riordan

       Rick Riordan who is the author of the Percy Jackson series, is my hero because he inspired me to read and, possibly become a writer one day.

  Mr. Riordan was born on June 5th 1964, San Antonio Texas. During his childhood the first book he remembers reading for fun was Lord of the Rings.  He said that he must have read it ten times.  As a young teenager, he liked Greek and Norse Mythology.  His parents were both very creative and they were teachers.  His mom was an artist and musician.  His dad was a ceramicist (that's someone who create things out of clay.)  

         Mr. Riordan started writing when he was in middle school.  The first story he wrote was when he was 13.  Sadly it wasn't published, but on the bright side his first published works were two short stories.  They got featured in the UTSA literary magazine.   

    Mr. Riordan went to Alamo Heights High School, where he worked as the editor for the school's newspaper.  Mr. Riordan won third place in state for UIL feature writing when he was in high school.  He also got in a bit of trouble for publishing an underground newspaper.  It made fun of the school's losing football team (they later egged his car.)                       

    Mr. Riordan began collage at North Texas State.  He said that he wanted to be a guitar player, and they had the best music program.  Then, Mr. Riordan had a change of heart and transferred to the University of Texas at Austin.  He graduated with a double major in English and history.  Eventually, he got certified to teach from UTSan Antonio.  He did his student teaching in the San Antonio Independent School District.  There he taught English and history. His first full time job was teaching middle school in New Branfels , Texas.   

   When Mr. Riordan was in college he worked for three years as a music director at a summer camp called Camp Capers.  He has said this was where he got the idea for Camp Half Blood.     

     Mr. Riordan inspired me to read, not just the books he writes, but anything I could get my hands on.  I wasn't really a big reader until my friend forced me to read his books. After that I started reading more and more.  Now I have shelves overflowing with different genre books. If you don't like to read I highly recommend you do so.  It's like a movie in your brain!

 Which is part of his Percy Jackson series.  Riordan's books are like movies in your brain because he describes such vivid scenes.  Like when Percy is fighting a hideous blood thirsty monster.