About Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over twenty novels for young readers, including the Percy Jackson series, the Kane Chronicles, the Magnus Chase series and the Trials of Apollo. 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. While teaching in San Antonio, 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 one hundred million copies of his books are in print in the United States alone, and rights have been sold into more than 37 countries.

Rick Riordan now writes full-time. He lives in Boston with his wife and two sons. (Becky, Haley, Patrick)

More Info About Rick

BORN:

June 5, 1964

PLACE OF BIRTH:

San Antonio, TX

EDUCATION:

Rick Riordan attended Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio, Texas. He worked as an editor for his school's newspaper and he won 3rd place in Texas for UIL Feature Writing. He started college at North Texas State but then he transferred to the University of Texas at Austin. He was certified to teach English and History from UT San Antonio. 

CHILDHOOD INFLUENCES:

The first book Rick remembered reading for fun was The Lord of The Rings. In addition to that he liked Greek and Norse mythology since middle school. In high school, Rick mostly read fantasy and science fiction. Then in college, he became interested in mysteries. Rick's mom was a musician and an artist while his dad was a ceramicist (someone who made things out of clay). Rick then started writing when he was in middle school. Rick's first story he submitted to be published was 13. The book wasn't published. The first work he did were two short stories for the magazine UTSA literary.

WORK EXPERIENCE:

When Rick was in college in worked as a music director at a summer camp, Camp Capers. His first full-time job was as a teacher at a middle school in New Braunfels, Texas. Later he and Becky moved to San Francisco. He lived there for another eight years and taught at Presidio Hill. When he had his two sons, Haley and Patrick, they moved back to San Antonio. He then taught at Saint Mary's Hall (English and Social Studies for Grades 6-8) for another six years. After that, he stopped teaching and became a full-time writer. Almost every year he taught mythology that he was a teacher. He liked it and his students liked it as well!

FAMILY:

He lives with his wife Becky and two sons, Haley and Patrick.

PETS:

One dog Speedy (a Basenji/terrier mix) and three black cats.

FAVORITE BOOK I WROTE:

Rick Riordan stated on his website that "That’s a hard question for him as a writer. It’s like asking which of your children is your favorite. He likes them all for different reasons.

FAVORITE CHARACTER IN MY BOOKS:

Rick says that this question is also hard question but he probably likes Grover, Bes, or Tyson because they are characters that are fun to write about.

IN MY SPARE TIME:

Rick likes to read books, swim, play the guitar, and travel with his family.

Information from https://rickriordan.com/ 

All information is paraphrased.