TXBF Saturday session #3

After my hearty lunch of peanut butter-and-whole wheat bagel, lemonade, and Ghirardelli caramel squares, I walked over to the Methodist Family Life Center to hear Rick Riordan talk about his Greek-mythology-inspired series. What I didn't know was that this was a children's series; my only clue being the crowds of said children as I looked for a seat (most of the YA/kids sessions were duly noted on the program--this one wasn't). I stayed on, though, as there are times when reading a good children's book is time better spent than with a poorly written adult novel. Riordan has won 3 different mystery awards for earlier adult books, and he told the audience at one point that his first book was rejected 13 times (this was in response to someone who asked Riordan's advice for aspiring authors)--his point being to not give up easily on something you truly believe to be worth doing. One realization that convinced him to become an author was that books aren't only written by dead people.

Riordan's publisher is releasing the fourth installment (Battle of the Labyrinth) in this series soon, and the author read us a chapter from it (not that the kids in the room had to be convinced to pester their parents for a copy). He took several questions from the audience afterwards, but I refrained from asking him if he was inspired by the late Fred Saberhagen's Masks of the Gods series (I didn't want to run the risk of putting a too-young child on a search for those books). When asked if this series was going to be made into movies, he replied that the first installment (The Lightning Thief) was in development, and that Chris Columbus (who directed the first few Harry Potter films, if I'm not mistaken) has signed on to direct. So, I'll be keeping an eye out for that release.

The last session of the day, Literary Criticism, was probably the most disappointing of all, even though it was the most thought-provoking. I managed to take about 3 index cards worth of notes, which, honestly, look quite daunting to write up at this hour. So, even though I really wanted to be done with these before now, I'm now going to shoot for the end of this week, and hope that I can start meeting some reading deadlines, work on more of my challenge books (I'm about halfway through one for the Armchair Traveler challenge), do a Booking Through Thursday meme, and get back to schmoozing on other's blogs. I need readership if I'm going to have a chance at getting paid work!