I come to writing the same way I come to teaching, which is that my goal is always to create life-long readers.
I get letters from college kids who have read Percy Jackson when they were younger who tell me, ‘I just passed my Classics exam.’ The books are accurate enough that they can serve as a gateway to Homer and Virgil.
I like to have a simple workplace.
It’s not easy. I got lots of rejections when I first started out. If you want to write, you have to believe in yourself and not give up. You have to do your best to practice and get better.
All of my characters tend to be montages of different people I’ve met: little bits and pieces of their personalities put together.
I always love it when I hear back from kids who say they discovered Percy Jackson and now wear their learning difference as a badge of honour.
I can’t promise that every child with learning differences will become a novelist, but I do think all children can become lifelong readers.
I don’t think about being famous, really. Being an author, I don’t generally get stopped as I walk down the street. It’s not like being a movie star.
I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the level of success I’ve had. I was just writing stories for my own sons.
I have to be careful. My readers are very detail-oriented, and if I make a mistake they’ll call me on it.
I love Norse mythology – Thor and Odin and Loki – amazing characters.
I think kids will read more good books than we can possibly produce.
I think that kids have a greater capacity for processing things than we give them credit for.
I wrote for 10 years before I even started the ‘Percy Jackson’ series.
I’ve always found the second book in a series is the hardest to write.
I’ve always liked the idea that writing is a form of travel. And I started my writing career as a mystery novelist for adults.
Turkey, Australia, and Japan are three of my top destinations.
When I write, I’m still imagining a kid reading it on paper. I read e-books when I travel, but in general I still prefer holding an old-fashioned book in my hands. There’s a special, tactile experience.
Back when I taught middle school and wrote adult mysteries, my students often asked me why I wasn’t writing for kids. I never had a good answer for them. It took me a long time to realize they were right.
I like both Greek and Egyptian. More Greek stories have survived, so we know more about them. They’ve always been my favorite. On the other hand, I like the Egyptian stories because they’re not as commonly known and they have an exotic flavour.