Rick Riordan (Rye-ore-dun)

Two months ago I found out Rick Riordan was going to be at the county library and I have felt like the Lady Who Loves Surprises on SNL ever since.  Rick Riordan is one of Harrison's favorite authors and I knew that going to the event would blow my son's mind.  Jeff bought the tickets a month ago (they sold out in three hours), but we waited to tell Harrison until an hour before the event.  He was one happy kid!  He agreed to write a post all about it.

 

         Last night Mom and I went to the library to see one of my favorite authors ever! It wasn't how it was like for Chloe with Shannon Hale, because Rick Riordan is a lot more famous so there were more people. We got there and saw a huge line going all the way outside. So we just waited and talked when finally we got inside. We got to have a signed copy of The House of Hades and walked to get seats. There were at least sixty copies of all the books he's ever written and they were all signed!

Well they said they were signed when really he drew a squiggly line on each title page.

 So we sat down about an hour early while some lady at the podium blabbed on and on about how you have to stay in your seats afterward (she doesn't seem to trust kids).

When the guy finally came on stage to enormous applause, I finally got my dream. The problem was the tallest man in the history of ever was sitting directly in front of us.

Rick had a PowerPoint Presentation going and every time he showed a picture everyone would laugh. I wanted a piece of the action so I stood up in the corner the whole time. There had to be at least two hundred people there to see him so there were cheers after every sentence.

        
           So he started off by talking about him in his childhood. He had a picture of his school yearbook owned by his wife. There was a picture of a guy where his wife, Becky had written "foxy".  It wasn't him unfortunately. He showed some pictures of him in high school with crazy long hair. Then in college his hair was down to his elbows and he had a big bushy mustache.
            He told everyone about his son who was dyslexic and ADHD and how he created a bonfire in the living room by shoving cheerios into the furnace. When his son was about six, he told him about the Greek gods in modern times, fighting titans and saving the world. That's how Percy Jackson was born! When Rick first came out with the book, a Hollywood producer called and asked him if they could make a movie out of it. He accepted and let them do their work. When they let him see the script he said: "I don't think this is anything like the book". But the producers didn't care and they made the movies anyway. Rick Riordan has never watched them in his life.
            When he finished the fifth book he decided he wanted to go farther into the series so he made The Heroes of Olympus books. I thought it was really cool how he showed us his stories and am very thankful to dad for buying the tickets. [And to my mother for taking me.  I'm sure he meant to include that.]