Letters About Literature!

Here is the essay-in-letter-form that I wrote for the Letters About Literature contest I entered. It wasn't nearly as good as I had hoped, but I was already late in turning it in.... I don't think I even did it right, as they said it shouldn't be a fan letter, but I really couldn't help it! I'm a fan!!

Dear Mr. Riordan,

I have always loved reading, but it wasn't until I started writing more on my own that I began to appreciate how difficult it is to come up with original ideas. That is why I really enjoyed reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Your writing is original and creative. I really like how you are able to retell classic myths with a modern-day twist, and I absolutely love your sense of humor.

I have started hundreds of stories within the past few years. I have never finished any of them because I realize halfway through my story that it's almost exactly the same as other books I've read. This has been very demoralizing for me. When I heard about your series, I was amazed. I could not believe that there was such a great idea that no one had written about before. It gave me hope for my own writing, especially after reading them and seeing how well written they were. Everything was obviously well thought through, and written with amazing imagination. I has encouraged me to realize there are lots of new ideas out there if I just keep working at it.

Probably one of my favorite things about your books is how accurate they are to the original myths. We just finished our unit in mythology in my english class, and I understood so much more after reading your series. I had a lot of fun talking about the myths in class because in the back of my mind I could see each of the characters in your books. We read parts of the Odyssey in class, and one of my favorite parts was reading about Circe and seeing the guinea pigs from her island spa in the Sea of Monsters. The way you picked up on the gods' characteristics and placed them in a modern world was absolute genius. Poseidon in Bermuda shorts and sandals, Zeus in the expensive pinstripe suit, and Ares in the black leather biker clothes. It was hilarious to picture the gods as you had described them, and it was surprisingly easy. It was so believable!

So many of the situations in your stories are completely unrealistic (like time stopping in the Lotus Hotel), yet you put the characters in situations that we can relate to and make them believable. How many kids completely lose track of time while playing video games? The ideas that the ADHD trait in kids is really their battle reflex, and dyslexia comes from having a brain "wired for ancient Greek" was genius. I loved the irony of the main characters being the underdogs in their normal life at school and home, but that they were really the ones saving the world. It gives us normal people something to work for! We may not be the best at sports or the smartest in school, but who knows? Maybe one day we'll be the ones saving the world!

All of the creativity and humor in your books made me want to be a better writer. I want to give others the same pleasure that I had reading them, so I decided to take the Creative Writing class taught at my school. I know that if I had not read your books I would not be so dedicated and enthusiastic about writing as I now am!

Thank you for all of your hard work! Keep it up!