The author talks about terrible Hollywood adaptations, writing LGBTQ characters for his passionate fans, and saying goodbye to Percy Jackson After Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan had a plan. Once he’d finished The Tower of Nero, the final novel in his hugely popular 15-book arc about demigod teens descended from ancient Greek gods and goddesses, the YA author was aiming for “semi-retirement”, in the form of a Celtic mythology PhD at Harvard, just down the road from him. Then Disney came calling with a plan of their own: to adapt the Percy Jackson books for Disney+. Riordan has a particularly thorny history with adaptations. When Chris Columbus was adapting the first Jackson book, The Lightning Thief, in 2009, Riordan sent producers an excoriating and now legendary note laying out his issues with the script. In the manner of the high school teacher he once was, Riordan begins with faint praise (“there are things I like about this adaptation”) before an abrupt volte face. Continue reading...