Author Name:
Rick Riordan
Rick Riordan is the award-winning, bestselling author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and the creator of a new series The 39 Clues. For Rick Riordan (pronounced Ryer'-dan), a bedtime story shared with his oldest son was just the beginning of his journey into the world of children's books.
Already an award-winning author of mysteries for adults, Riordan, a former teacher, was asked by his son Haley to tell him some bedtime stories about the gods and heroes in Greek mythology.
Despite his busy schedule, Riordan managed to carve some time out of his daily routine to write the first Percy Jackson and the Olympians book, The Lightning Thief. And in deference to his son, Riordan chose to give the character of Percy certain attributes that hit close to home.
Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Riordan started writing as a young adult. He wrote short stories, unsuccessfully submitted a few of those stories for publication, and edited his high school newspaper. But he didn't take writing seriously until after he graduated from college and was teaching in San Francisco. While Riordan and his family (wife Becky and sons Haley and Patrick) enjoyed living in California, he was nostalgic for Texas. Despite his success in the adult mystery market, writing for children was never far from Riordan's mind.
Rick Riordan is famous for his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and, most recently, The Last Olympian). He also wrote the Tres Navarre series for adults and helped to edit Demigods and Monsters, a collection of essays on the topic of his Percy Jackson series.