Gail Carson Levine's Blog about Writing

When I was in New York two weeks ago I had the pleasure of seeing Gail Carson Levine. She told me she'd just started a blog, and if you haven't checked it out yet, you should.

Like most authors, I get a lot of email from aspiring writers, both kids and adults, looking for advice. This is understandable. Writing can be a frustrating endeavor and the publishing world can be bewildering. While I offer advice on my own website, I also frequently recommend Gail's book Writing Magic. It's full of practical advice and journaling exercises to hone your skills -- much better than anything I could come up with! Gail is also a generous mentor to the young writers she meets. I shared a school visit with her a few years ago and she went out of her way to read students' work at lunch, then seek them out so she could offer advice and encouragement one-on-one. Her blog is an extension of this good work. The blog is only a few weeks old and she's already got quite a lively dialogue going with her readers about what makes good writing. Aspiring writers, take note. This is a blog to follow!

Demigods of the Week

Two great emails this week deserve special attention.

The first was from Chester. I get hundreds of emails each week and it's very rare that someone asks a question I've never had before, but Chester did it. He's interested in inventing a new English word, hoddle, a verb meaning 'to twitch,' and wanted to know if I'd use it in my next book so eventually Webster's Dictionary would include it as a word in common usage. Very creative, Chester! I probably can't put it in a book, as that would drive my copy editor crazy, but I've mentioned it in this blog, and we'll see if it catches on! I have a lot of respect for invented words. Shakespeare added several words to our vocabulary, and Lewis Carroll was also a master of invention. Will Chester's word catch on? We'll be hoddling with anticipation to find out.

Our second demigod of the week is Jeremy from Ohio, whose dad wrote to tell me about a Percy Jackson Club that Jeremy is forming. He's already written his own by-laws as follows:

I, Jeremy, President of the Percy Jackson Club (PJC) make the following laws;

1. No "real" fighting
2. Capture the flag is to be played fairly
3. No bad words
4. Respect others
5. Obey orders first time given

Jeremy, by the way, is eight years old. I'm thinking he's a born leader! It sounds like his club is off to a great start.

Thanks to our two demigods of the week, and to everyone else who's been writing. Remember, read the contact information page first if you'd like to send me an email as a lot of questions are answered there in advance, as well as some things I will not respond to.

Have a great holiday, everyone.

From New York to NASA (and Beyond)

What a week! I’ve been avoiding travel to focus on my writing deadlines, which will be coming fast and furious now that I’m working on two series at once – Kane Chronicles and Camp Half-Blood. However, this week I made an exception and headed to New York City on Tuesday.

There were no public events, so don’t feel like you missed me if you live in the area. However, I did visit Books of Wonder to sign stock while I was in town, so if you are looking for a signed Percy book for a holiday present, I would definitely contact them, as they have plenty in stock and ready to ship. While there, I got my first look at the deluxe hardcover edition of The Lightning Thief, with John Rocco’s full-color illustrations. It’s beautiful! I also did some promotional videos at Disney headquarters for the Kane Chronicles, which I’m sure you’ll be seeing on the web as the release date, May 4, gets closer. I stayed overnight at the Standard, a new hotel in the Meat Packing District, and my room had a great view of the Empire State Building. Yes, I did wave to the gods.

The main purpose of my trip was a meet-and-greet for Disney. We had a very nice mixer on Wednesday night with a lot of people from the film division and book division. Disney, as you might imagine, is a huge company, so it’s good to have a chance for everyone to meet each other and put names to faces. My editor Jennifer Besser and agent Nancy Gallt were there, and it’s always good to see them. It was also a chance to catch up with some of my Disney author friends. Eoin Colfer had flown in from Ireland and told me a new Artemis Fowl book is on the way – woohoo! Jonathan Stroud had come from England, so I got to tell him how much Becky had enjoyed the Bartimaeus trilogy (and how much she cried at the ending). Ridley Pearson and I got to talk about the wild world of Twitter. He’s been kind enough to tweet me several times, and was the first person to report seeing a Lightning Thief movie billboard. His Excellency Jon Scieszka was in the house, as were Mo Willems, Cinda Chima, Sharon Flake, Melissa de la Cruz, Ally Carter, and a whole host of other talented folk. The evening was a lot of fun, with much talk about movies and books. The book group had dinner afterwards, though I had to leave a bit early to catch some sleep before my 5AM flight.

Interesting side note: I’ve gotten many emails asking why the last two books in the Percy Jackson series were published by Disney. Many people wanted to know if I’d changed publishers. This is because Battle of the Labyrinth and Last Olympian say “Disney” on the spine, but the first three books do not. There was no change. Hyperion Books for Children has been part of Disney for a long time. The only difference is they started to put their name on the books as Disney-Hyperion, but it’s the same publisher.

At any rate, it was a quick but productive trip, and Thursday I flew to Houston and rented a car to meet up with my son Patrick’s fifth grade field trip to NASA. I got to do this trip when Haley was in 5^th grade, and it’s always fun. We got to visit the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, which was a rare treat because the astronauts were actually working in the huge pool. We got to see them come out, surrounded by divers, and get hoisted from the water in their 275-pound suits. Pretty amazing. After that we went to Space Center Houston for a number of activities. Patrick’s favorite part was the tour through the displays, where we saw Skylab, a Mercury capsule, a lunar lander and many other cool exhibits. The kids made rockets out of balloons and robotic arms out of sticks and string. Then we all headed back to the hotel and crashed hard. I’d been up since three in the morning, but I think the kids were even more exhausted than I was.

The next day it began snowing. No kidding – a freak snowstorm in Houston. We decided to cancel the day’s activities and head back to San Antonio, which was a wise choice. Patrick and I got home safely and we’ve enjoyed a chilly weekend at home since then.

Over the weekend I had two nice presents. The Christian Science Monitor named Last Olympian one of the best children’s books of 2009, and just this morning, the New York Times named Last Olympian a Notable Children’s Book for 2009. What an honor!

Next week, it will be back to writing for me. I have finished work on the Red Pyramid and am now turning my attention to Camp Half-Blood. Oh, man, I’m having so much fun with the new series, and everything is just clicking into place, but I can’t share any details with you yet!

Happy holidays, everyone. Stay warm and keep reading!

Percy Jackson Day in Brazil

Judging from the many emails and tweets I get, and the news from my publisher, Percy Jackson is becoming very popular in Brazil. In fact, my Brazilian publisher Intrinseca has named December 21 as Percy Jackson Day! Summer holidays start in Brazil next week (being the southern hemisphere, and all) and the publisher will be hosting a whole day of virtual contests on their blog. You can also follow Intrinseca on Twitter.

December 21 is of course the Solstice, the day Percy was supposed to return the lightning bolt to Mount Olympus, so the timing couldn't be more perfect.

The Brazilian edition of The Titan's Curse came out in October, and The Battle of the Labyrinth comes out in January.

Thanks to all the Brazilian readers who have supported the series! I wish I could visit you in person, but alas I have to keep writing the next book. I will be following along virtually, though, to see how the contests go. Enjoy Percy Jackson Day!

Camp Half-Blood Austin and other news

I've been in full writing mode the last few weeks, working on the final tweaks for The Red Pyramid, first of the Kane Chronicles out May 4, and also the first draft of the Camp Half-Blood series, book one, which will come out next fall. One thing I had to blog about, however, was the incredible response to BookPeople's Camp Half-Blood.

Every year, Topher Bradfield and his crew put on an amazing camp in Austin, Texas. This coming summer, 2010, they will be holding four week-long sessions, and registration started on Saturday. Becky reminded me that morning that I should blog to remind people, because the camps tend to fill up quickly. But before I could even blog about it, Topher wrote to say that all four sessions had sold out in an hour and a half! The store opened at 9 AM. By 10:30, all spots were gone. Apparently some people had started lining up at 5 AM. Now that is dedication. No doubt there will be some disappointed half-bloods out there who missed the registration, but it goes to show you what an incredible program BookPeople has created. Amazing what a great community bookstore can do, isn't it? The camps there have created an experience those kids will always remember. And just a reminder, I can't take credit for any of this! I'm not directly involved with the camps, so if you have questions about the program, I'm not the guy to ask. All the credit, all the hard work, all the cool amazing memories -- that's all brought to you by BookPeople.

In other news, all is well at the Riordan household. In a few weeks, I'll be chaperoning a school trip to NASA in Houston with Patrick's fifth grade class. I got to do this same trip with Haley when he was in fifth grade, and I'm looking forward to it. Patrick is finishing up Syren, the latest Angie Sage book, and then plans to read the last volume of Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles. Haley is working on writing two different novels -- the kid is so prolific he makes me feel guilty! He says one is up to 60,000 words and another is at 80,000. Hmm... think it may be time to subcontract some work to him? Becky is reading one of my all-time favorites, the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. I just finished Wolf Hall, Hillary Mantel's novel about Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII's court. Brilliant stuff, plus I'm a sucker for good historical fiction. Now I'm reading The Summer Knight in Jim Butcher's series about wizard Harry Dresden. I read several more recent books in the series first, then decided it would make sense to start at the beginning, so I'm working my way through. Poor Harry Dresden! This guy gets beat up so much it's a wonder he lives through each chapter, much less each book. Great sense of humor in the series, and Dresden is a narrator you can't help but like, and feel sorry for!

Percy Jackson news: Just last week I saw the first pages for the Lightning Thief graphic novel. They were black and white, but they already looked awesome. Once they are rendered in full color they will look stunning. The hardcover boxed set has been released and is sitting proudly on my bookshelf. It's so cool to see all five volumes together. The Lightning Thief deluxe edition with new illustrations by John Rocco will be out next month. And finally, Disney-Hyperion will be releasing Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide, in February. I just got my first copy, hot off the presses, and it looks so cool! The cover has this fun holographic band of pictures that change as you move the book. Inside, there is a guide to the gods, camp, monsters, the labyrinth, and much more, all illustrated in full color. Beautiful stuff. My favorite pictures are probably the Manticore and Daedalus's Workshop.

Well, that's it for now. Back to work on the books!

The Red Pyramid

The news broke in Entertainment Weekly this weekend, and I announced it live at the Texas Book Festival on Saturday: my Egyptian mythology series will be called the Kane Chronicles, and the first book's title is The Red Pyramid. The series follows brother and sister Carter and Sadie Kane, who accidentally help unleash the Egyptian gods into the modern world, and then discover they are the only ones who can set things right. I read the first page at the Texas Book Festival, and the response was incredible! I can't wait to share more with you. The book will be released on May 4, 2010. What you see above is not the actual cover of the book. John Rocco, who designed the Percy book cover art, is hard at work on an amazing cover, but more on that will be revealed later. For now, it remains secret. What Egyptian gods will you meet? What powers do Carter and Sadie have that will allow them to combat immortal gods? You'll have to stay tuned to find out!

Texas Book Festival was great fun, as usual. I had the pleasure of sharing a stage with Peter Lerangis, fellow 39 Clues author, who gave a hilarious Powerpoint presentation. Thanks to all the kids and parents who attended and shared part of Halloween with us. And speaking of 39 Clues, today I will be participating in a live webcast with four of my fellow authors and Whoopi Goldberg. I hear that thousands of classrooms have already RSVPed to tune in. Hope you can join us!

The LT billboard goes electric?

An interesting press release just came across the wire concerning a Hollywood billboard for the Lightning Thief movie and a meet-the-cast event.