June 16, 2006
I was just over at Rick Riordan's blog (http://rickriordan.blogspot.com). Rick writes P.I. novels featuring Tres Navarre and young adult books featuring Percy Jackson, a demigod (his dad is Neptune). Anyway, he posted an interview he did for a British magazine for 9-12 year olds, and I thought I'd try to answer some of the questions, which are pretty interesting. So here goes:

What inspires you?

"Paychecks and Visa bills, which are both strongly related."

What’s your favourite phrase?

"Mark, we'd like to offer you a six-figure contract." I'll let you know when I hear it. I'm kind of fond of: "Let's go out to dinner."


Name five cool things that begin with the letter “K”.

Weird even by my standards. Hmmm...

1. Kilimanjaro

2. Knight

3. Kismet

4. Karma

5. Kimche (I don't known if that starts with a K; I'll have to ask a Korean)

If you were a Greek God what would you be the God of?

"I'd probably be the God of Dog walking."

If you had godlike powers what one feat would you perform?

"There are about 108,000 U.S. troops in Iraq that I'd like to send home immediately."

On Mount Olympus, who throws the biggest tantrums?

"Hera, from what I can tell. That bitch has been having menopause for a couple thousand years now."

What’s tastier, ambrosia or triple mint chocolate chip sundae with toffee sauce and extra chocolate?

"I'm told ambrosia can taste like anything you like only better, so I guess ambrosia. Although, you know, a triple mint chocolate chip sundae with toffee sauce and extra chocolate sounds pretty good."

If you met a maniacal minotaur in a dark alley how would you frighten him off?

"I could read my article about high-efficiency toilets that I wrote for Lowe's for Pros. But you know, he might be interested in that."

Best,
Mark Terry