Greek Monsters (and an American Author) invade Malta!

When my British publisher first told me about an invitation to visit Malta, I’ll admit I had to consult a map. I didn’t remember where the country was, and I used to be a geography teacher. Shame on me!

For those who are curious, Malta is a tiny set of islands in the Mediterranean Sea, near Sicily. See the map below.

Merlin Library, an independent bookseller and publishing house in Malta, had gotten hold of an uncorrected proof for The Lightning Thief. They loved the book and invited me to do a week of school events and book signings. It sounded fun and exotic to me. How often do I get to visit the Mediterranean, the original “sea of monsters” in Greek mythology? I said yes! Little did I know what an amazing whirlwind of a trip it would be.

After much planning and scheduling, we finally set a date: March 19-26. I had just finished a couple of events in Bristol, England, and took the National Express through freezing temperatures to Gatwick Airport in London. From there, a three-hour flight brought me to the Malta International Airport on a chilly, foggy night.

The chill didn’t last long, however. The weather turned into sunny, mild Mediterranean days, and my Maltese hosts were incredibly friendly and welcoming.

I spent all my time on the main island of Malta. The other island, Gozo, is slightly to the north and is supposed to be very beautiful as well. Among other things, Gozo boasts the original cave of Calypso mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey. How’s that for a Greek mythology tie-in?

The island of Malta is composed of many towns and villages that have grown into each other, so the majority of the island is one large, colorful city with limestone buildings, beautiful waterfronts, narrow side-streets, citrus trees and cactus, and lots of traffic! Malta also has 365 churches, one for every day of the year. Apparently in the old days, villages used to compete to see who could build the largest, fanciest church, so the architecture and decoration are amazing.

People in Malta are almost all multilingual. They speak Maltese, which is related to Hebrew and Arabic. (There are only about 400,000 native speakers of Maltese in the world.) But they also speak English, since Malta was part of the British Empire for over a century. This was fortunate for me, since I only speak English. The school children of Malta didn’t seem to have any trouble understanding me despite my American accent!

I spent most of my time visiting schools (which was a lot of fun!) but I also got out for a bit of sightseeing. The old capital city of Mdina is amazing, especially at night. It is eerily quiet, with narrow medieval streets (no cars allowed) and beautiful old buildings, all surrounded by fortifications that look out of the sea. It’s sometimes called the Silent City. Valletta, the present capital, also has beautiful architecture, and a great shopping district. The cathedral in Valletta is a work of art in itself, with intricately carved walls and floors made out of colorful marble tombstones. I also got to visit the Hypogeum, a burial tomb which was found under a modern block of apartments. Supposedly, 7000 people were buried there. How would you like that in your basement?

The Events

I’ve lost track of how many groups I spoke to. We saw about ten schools in five days and I signed over two thousand books. I was told that this makes Percy Jackson the fastest-selling children’s series ever in Malta after Harry Potter. The students were great — bright and enthusiastic with lots of good questions. There are a lot of fast readers in Malta, too! I had quite a few kids who told me they had read the Percy Jackson books in a single evening. If only I could write them that fast!

During the week, I appeared twice on live Maltese national television. Now there’s a challenge, sitting on stage trying to look intelligent as everyone around you is talking in Maltese. (They did ask me my questions in English, thankfully!) It was great fun. The book was also featured on radio and in numerous newspaper and magazine articles.

The finale of the week was a Saturday event at St. James Cavalier Center for Creativity, a beautiful theater in-the-round that’s a renovated British munitions building in the capital of Valletta. Patrick Vella’s theater troupe CurtainRaiser created an awesome performance activity with half-bloods and monsters competing on a chess board. The audience, divided into four teams of Athena, Ares, Poseidon and Zeus, competed to get their half-blood hero safely across the board. I told stories and acted as game master. The whole audience also helped me do a reader’s theater rendition of the Medusa scene from The Lightning Thief.

Home Again!

After a week in Malta, I flew home to Texas tired but elated from a great trip. I made many new friends and met thousands of terrific students. I ate way too much Maltese food and saw some amazing sites. The children of Malta even offered some great suggestions for Percy Jackson’s future adventures! Thanks to Merlin Library for sponsoring the trip, and to the people of Malta for welcoming me so warmly. Or as they say in Maltese, grazzi hafna!