I tell aspiring writers that you have to find what you must write. When you find it, you will know, because the subject matter wonโt let you go. Itโs not enough to write simply because you think it would be neat to be published. You have to be compelled to write. If youโre not, nothing else that you do matters.
Rick RiordanHe'd changed since the last summer. Instead of Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt, he wore a button-down shirt, khaki pants, and leather loafers. His sandy hair, which used to be so unruly, was now clipped short. He look like an evil male model, showing off what the fashionable college-age villain was wearing to Harvard this year.
Rick RiordanShe led him past the engine room, which looked like a very dangerous, mechanized jungle gym, with pipes and pistons and tubes jutting from a central bronze sphere. Cables resembling giant metal noodles snaked across the floor and ran up the walls. โHow does that thing even work?โ Percy asked. โNo idea,โ Annabeth said. โAnd Iโm the only one besides Leo who can operate it.โ โThatโs reassuring.โ โIt should be fine. Itโs only threatened to blow up once.โ โYouโre kidding, I hope.โ She smiled. โCome on.
Rick RiordanI turned and found Dionysus standing there, still in his black suit. Walk with me,โ he said. Where to?โ I asked suspiciously. Just to the campfire,โ he said. โI was beginning to feel better, so I thought I would talk with you a bit. You always manage to annoy me.โ Uh, thanks.
Rick RiordanTo all my librarian friends, champions of books, true magicians in the House of Life. Without you, this writer would be lost in the Dust.
Rick RiordanThen there were the shabti, magical figurines that were supposed to come to life when summoned. A few months ago, Iโd fallen for a girl named Zia Rashid, whoโd turned out to be a shabti. Falling in love for the first time had been hard enough. But when the girl you like turns out to be ceramic and cracks to pieces before your eyesโwell, it gives โbreaking your heartโ a new meaning.
Rick Riordan