30 Most Important Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Rick Riordan

27 February 2019, 8:24 pm EST By Ruby Karnick

Rick Riordan, famous for his "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series, has had his books translated into 42 languages, with more than 30 million copies sold in the United States. Here are some really interesting facts about the American author:

The first two books of his "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series, have been adapted as part of a series of films by 20th Century Fox.
He was the recipient of the Milner Award, for his popular "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series, in the year 2011.
His first book in the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series, titled "The Lightning Thief," earned him the Mark Twain Award as well as the Rebecca Caudill Award in the years 2008 and 2009 respectively.
He was honored with the Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel as well as the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original for his very first novel published "Big Red Tequila," the first book in the "Tres Navarre" series, in the year 1998.
Riordan was the recipient of the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original in the year 1999 for his work "The Widower's Two-Step," the second book in the “Tres Navarre” series.
His first book in the "The Kane Chronicles" series, titled "The Red Pyramid," published in 2010, earned him the "School Library Journal's Best Book" award the same year, and the "2011 Children's Choice Book Awards: Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year" award. In 2012, he also received the "Indian Paintbrush Award" for the book.
Riordan was awarded with the "Children's Choice Book Awards: Author of the Year" award in the year 2011.
The second book in the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series titled "The Sea of Monsters" earned him another Mark Twain Award in 2009, while the fifth and final book titled "The Last Olympian" earned him the 2011 Wyoming Soaring Eagle Book Award.
He also received the Best Fiction Book for Children award in Bulgaria for his work "The Mark of Athena," the third book in "The Heroes of Olympus" series, which is a spin-off of the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series.
He was recipient of the Stonewall Book Award for Children's Literature in the year 2017 for his work "The Hammer of Thor," the second book in the "Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard" series.

Richard Russell Riordan Jr., was born on June 5, 1964 in San Antonio, Texas, to Rick Riordan Sr., and Lyn Belisle.
He attended the Alamo Heights High School, before being transferred to the University of Texas in Austin, to study English and History.
As a kid, he had aspired to be a guitarist and even went to the music program at North Texas State.
After receiving his teaching certification in English and History, he had taught English and Social Studies for eight years at Presidio Hill School in San Francisco.
He initially worked full-time as a teacher and wrote one book a year in the "Tres Navarre" series. He never talked much about his writing career with his students, and has frequently used names of his former students for his characters.
He married Becky Riordan in the year 1985, on June 5th, which is the couple's shared birthday. The duo have two sons, Haley and Patrick, and they currently reside in Boston, Massachusetts.
Before "Percy Jackson" series, whenever his students from middle school asked him if they could read his adult mysteries, he always told them "No, wait until you are older." Still, many kids had taken it as a challenge and immediately went to the bookstore.
However, he had to quit teaching when he sold his Percy Jackson series to Disney Book Group, in an effort to keep up with his deadline of two books a year - one adult book and one children's book.
He got the idea of Percy Jackson, he made up stories for his first son Haley, who was getting bored with the Greek myths and asked him to make up something new with the same characters.
It took him around three nights to complete the whole story of Percy Jackson and his quest to recover the Zeus' lightning bolt in modern day America.

It was his son Haley, who suggested Riordan to write the story as a book, after he completed the story. Over the next year, he wrote the first Percy Jackson book.
Before publishing the first Percy Jackson book, he picked a few of his students from sixth, seventh and eighth grade and asked them if they would "test drive" the novel, and as it turned out, they really loved the book.
His students reportedly helped him pick the best title for the book, refine the way Percy's sword Anaklusmos worked, along with many other good suggestions.
While he was writing Percy Jackson, his son Haley was being tested for learning differences, and that's when he started reading a lot about dyslexia and ADHD. He learnt that the dyslexic/ADHD kids are "outside-the-box thinkers and creative. He made the character of Percy - ADHA/dyslexic, in a way to honor the potential of all the kids who have those conditions.
He claims the character of Percy to have his sense of humor, and is based on many students he has taught in the past. Percy is also partly based on his son Haley's own struggle with ADHD/dyslexia.
After multiple rejections, the book was sold to Miramax Books for enough money that he could quit his job to focus on writing, in the year 2004.
He got the idea for his most popular series "The Kane Chronicles," after he realized that the only ancient history subject more popular than Ancient Greece was Ancient Egypt. The titular characters in the series Carter and Sadie Kane were said to be inspired by two siblings that he taught.
He wrote the introduction to the Puffin Classics edition of Roger Lancelyn "Green's Tales of the Greek Heroes." He states in the intro that the book has been of great influence to him to write his Greek mythology series.
In collaboration with Disney-Hyperion, he launched "Rick Riordan Presents" in March 2018, headed by Riordan's editor, Stephanie Owens Lurie., which will be a "platform for Riordan to bring other great writers to the attention of his vast and loyal audience."
His book "The Maze of Bones," the first novel of "The 39 Clues" series, entered the Children's Books New York Times Best Seller list at number one on September 28, 2008, a position it held for 24 weeks.