Rick Riordan, creator of the Percy Jackson series, believes ‘Everyone, anyone, can be a hero’
Rick Riordan guesses it’s been about a decade since his last Boston Book Festival appearance — and what a decade it’s been.
The award-winning, New York Times-best-selling author/creator of the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” empire has, in the past 10 years:
Moved to Boston. Launched his own imprint with Disney-Hyperion, “Rick Riordan Presents.” Published a five-book series, “The Trials of Apollo.” And created “Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard,” likely the most Boston-centric middle-grade fantasy trilogy ever.
Riordan also wrote “The Kane Chronicles,” based on Egyptian mythology. But if you know one of his characters, it’s likely boy-hero Percy Jackson.
Based on Greek and Roman myths, Riordan’s middle-grade series has lived on The New York Times bestsellers list for years, and launched an empire, including two movies. While Riordan has been a vocal critic of those adaptations, a new Percy TV series hits Disney+ Dec. 20.
To time with the show, Riordan just released a sixth Percy Jackson book, “The Chalice of the Gods,” 14 years after his last installment.
Ahead of his Boston Book Fest appearance on Saturday, Riordan Zoomed with the Globe from his home in Boston.
Q. You moved to Boston 10 years ago. How do you like it?
A. We love it. It’s a great home-base. Our sons went to college here and are now adults. The whole family’s in the area. We’re often walking around the city with our dog, out in the parks, the Emerald Necklace.
Q. You just released a new Percy book, returning to that series after 14 years. A. [The new Disney+ series and the book] are very much related. Talking to Disney, I said, If you’ll let me help make a TV adaptation, I could go back and write a new Percy book to promote it. Turned out I didn’t really need to do that — they approved the show anyway. But by the time they did, I’d sketched out ideas. I thought it would be fun if — after saving the world who knows how many times — Percy’s big death-defying quest was getting into college.
Q. [laughs] Right. So you were a middle school teacher, and have said you write to an imaginary classroom. I know you started telling “Percy” as a bedtime story for your son — but how much did your class influence the way you wrote?
A. My years in the classroom taught me the middle school sensibility, what that age-group finds engaging.
Then my son struggling with ADHD and dyslexia presented me with the opportunity to take what I’d learned and make a story. When my son told me to write it down, that’s when it became a book. All the elements of my life, in retrospect, were leading up to that moment. At the time, I didn’t see it.
I have a lot of empathy for that age. It’s such a hard time. Everything is in flux. They’re changing physically, emotionally, mentally, socially.
It’s also critical that to get a kid to be a reader, it has to happen then. If you give a young reader a good experience with a book, that’s going to carry on, hopefully, for the rest of their lives.
Q. Your books are popular with middle-school boys — that can be a hard demographic to hook.
A. Very difficult. I hear that a lot from parents: “My son won’t read, what can I do?” Having raised two boys — and having been a reluctant reader myself — I get that. It’s tough. It’s just a matter of finding the right book.
Q. Your Magnus Chase series, with Norse gods, is set in Boston. How did the city inspire that?
A. As I was moving here, I thought it would be fun to set a series in Boston. It gave me a reason to explore the city. I learned about connections between the Vikings and Boston that I wouldn’t have thought were there. Like the Leif Erickson statue on the Commonwealth Mall. I mean: Why? But there was this fascination around the Vikings, and a popular idea in the 1800s that the Vikings had settled as far as Boston. Most of that was just pie-in-the-sky. But people were fascinated, they put up monuments. I took that idea and ran with it.
Q. Aside from the new book and TV series, what else is going on?
A. We’re working on adapting “The Daughter of the Deep,” a standalone novel I wrote based on “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” We were just turning in the feature film script for that before the WGA went on strike. That’s with Disney+.
We’re also adapting “The Kane Chronicles,” with Netflix. And I’m doing a project with a production company in Dublin about the great Irish mythological hero, Finn McCool.
Q. Do you think the Boston series would ever get adapted?
A. We’d love to do that. We’re just waiting to see how this Disney+ series does. If it does well, I think there might be an interest, of “What else you got?”
‘I thought it would be fun if — after saving the world who knows how many times — Percy’s big deathdefying quest was getting into college.’
RICK RIORDAN
Q. You have your own imprint.
A. For years, readers asked for other mythologies — Chinese, Indian, Aztec. I felt uncomfortable because the mythologies I grew up with, I’m fairly well-versed in. But to write about West African mythology, I’m just not the right person. I didn’t grow up with those myths. I don’t come from that background. I couldn’t do it justice.
So I went to Disney-Hyperion, and said: Surely there are wonderful authors from these cultures out there — why don’t I give them the spotlight? My name is not on the books other than just as a promoter. These are books written by authors from those cultures, talking about their own mythology, their own traditions.
It’s so gratifying to be able to say if you like Korean mythology, Yoon Ha Lee does a fantastic job. Or Roshani Chokshi does wonderful take on Hindu mythology. It’s powerful enough for a young reader to see a hero on the cover that looks like them — it’s even more powerful to look on the back and see the author also looks like them.
Q. You also just co-wrote “The Sun and the Star,” with Mark Oshiro. That tells the story of Nico, your character from the Percy universe who’s gay.
A. That was the first time I’d collaborated on a book, writing 50/50 with Marc Oshiro, a great queer author. We melded styles and came up with a story about Nico and his boyfriend Will. It was important to me to have that authenticity, to make sure it was representing an experience that I personally do not have, but that is so important to so many kids.
Q. True. Wider representation is your goal with your imprint.
A. Absolutely. It’s a powerful experience — not just for the kids represented but for a broader readership — to see that everyone, anyone, can be a hero.