An Online Interview with Rick Riordan
You were a teacher for a long time. Why did you leave the classroom?
That was a hard decision. I love teaching. I love working with kids. For many years, I taught full-time and wrote a book a year in the Tres Navarre mystery series.
When I sold the Percy Jackson books to Miramax, I realized that I’ d now have to write two books a year to keep up with my deadlines — one adult book, and one children’s book. I just didn’t think I’d be able to keep up that pace and do a good job in the classroom, so I made the reluctant decision to leave teaching.
Maybe some day I’ll go back to the classroom. I’m not ready to say it’ll never happen. But for now, the books are keeping me very busy. The good part is, I still get to work with kids as a children’s author. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get more kids interested in reading Greek mythology with Percy Jackson than I ever did as a teacher.
