Author Love #8: Rick Riordan

Author Love is a meme we came up with. There are so many authors and books out there that we love so much and want the world to know about them. If you want to play along all you have to do is pick one of your favorite authors. Write what you like about them and/or their books. You can also include an author bio and synopsis of their book if you want.

My pick this week is: Rick Riordan
From his website:
Rick Riordan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the Kane Chronicles, and the Heroes of Olympus. He is also the author of the multi-award-winning Tres Navarre mystery series for adults.
For fifteen years, Rick taught English and history at public and private middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Texas. In 2002, Saint Mary’s Hall honored him with the school’s first Master Teacher Award.

While teaching full time, Riordan began writing mystery novels for grownups. His Tres Navarre series went on to win the top three national awards in the mystery genre – the Edgar, the Anthony and the Shamus. Riordan turned to children's fiction when he started The Lightning Thief as a bedtime story for his oldest son.

Today over 30 million copies of his Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, and Heroes of Olympus books are in print in the United States, and rights have been sold into more than 35 countries. Rick is also the author of The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones, another #1 New York Times bestseller. In 2011, Rick received the Children's Choice Book Award for Author of the Year.

Rick Riordan now writes full-time. He lives in San Antonio with his wife and two sons. Most frequently asked question: Rick’s last name is pronounced Ryer’-dan.

Boy does Rick Riordan have bragging rights. All his books are best sellers and award winners, everyone and their grandmother has read them or at least heard of them and on top of that they deserve all the credit they get. Despite all that he still manages to write amazing books and seems like the kind of person I would hang out with. Now since I have no problem bragging I'm going to say that last summer I got to go to a Rick Riordan event. He was so nice and funny and he read some of Son of Neptune (this was before it was out) and answered tons of questions. He had a plane ride to catch so they said that probably not everyone would get their books signed but he stayed outside in the middle of a Texas summer day until everyone got their books signed. My whole family went and we all got a book signed and were happy as can be. He's pretty much an author superhero. I've read his Percy Jackson series, his Kane Chronicles series and his Heroes of Olympus series and they are all some of my all time favorite books. I will read anything he writes.

-Marissa