Rick Riordan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author in the fantasy and mystery genre. A few of his fabulous works are Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the Tres Navarre mysteries, the Kane Chronicles and 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones. His fan followers are of all ages from adult to kids.

Fact 1 – Born on June 5, 1964, in Texas as Richard Russell Riordan, Jr., to a teacher couple. Presently, Riordan lives with his wife Becky and his two sons, Haley and Patrick, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Fact 2 – Graduated from Alamo Heights High School in 1982 and later from the University of Texas in Austin in 1986. With his majors in English and history, Riordan taught for almost a decade in the Presidio Hill School, San Francisco, and Saint Mary’s Hall, San Antonio. In 2002, he won St. Mary’s Hall’s first Master Teacher Award. In late 1990s, he left teaching to opt as a full-time writer.

Fact 3 – Mythology was Riordan’s favorite teaching subject, which in later years inspired him to write one of his most popular series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Fact 4 – As a boy, Riordan was fond of reading on Greek and Norse mythology, fantasy, science fiction, and mysteries. Lord of the Rings was among Riordan’s favorite books.

Fact 5 – Riordan shot to fame with his Tres Navarre mystery series. The series featured Tres Navarre, a San Antonio private detective, and his thrilling adventures, which became immensely popular among adult readers. The Red Tequila in 1997 was the first of the seven novels in this series.

Fact 6 – From 2008, he published five series of Percy Jackson, which brought critical acclaim and fame to Riordan among the critics and kids’ genre. Riordan’s idea of Percy Jackson originated while he used to narrate stories to his son Haley, who has dyslexia. Haley was fond of Greek-genre mythologies. It was by his request that Riordan started writing a story about a dyslexic boy who discovers that he is a son of a Greek god. Riordan’s teaching experience helped him to evolve the various popular characters’ names like “Jackson,” “Nancy Bobofit,” and “Luke Castellan.”

Fact 7 – The immense success of Percy Jackson and the Olympians series encouraged the movie production company, Twentieth Century Fox, to purchase the film rights on Riordan’s fantasy fiction series. To date, two series are made into movies – Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters.

Fact 8 – Riordan is a multi-award winning writer and has till now 13 awards to his credit. A few of his prestigious awards are: the Shamus and Anthony Awards for Best Paperback Originals for Big Red Tequila (1998); the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original for The Widower’s Two-Step (1999); The Lightning Thief brought Riordan the Mark Twain Award in 2008; Goodreads Choice Awards Best Middle Grade & Children’s for three consecutive years (2012 to 2014) for the Heroes of Olympus series; Children’s Choice Book Awards for Author of the Year and the Milner Award for Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (2011); Indian Paintbrush Award for The Red Pyramid (2012); and the Best Fiction Book for Children in Bulgaria for The Mark of Athena (2013).

Fact 9 – He has written over thirty books. Currently about forty million copies of his famous series of Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, and Heroes of Olympus books are in print in the United States; and about thirty-seven countries have been sold their rights.

Fact 10 – Riordan is a private person. He loves to spend his free time swimming, playing guitar, playing video games with his sons, and going for family vacations. Riordan and his wife share the same birthday, June 5, and even their anniversary falls on the same day.