Interview: Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro (2023)

Joining forces, authors Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro co-wrote their latest fantasy novel based in the “Percy Jackson” universe, “The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure.”

Video Content: Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro (2023)

SIDEWALKS host Lori Rosales interviews Rick Riordan (“Percy Jackson” novels) and Mark Oshiro (“Anger Is a Gift,” “Each of Us a Desert”), the co-authors of “The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure.”

Please note: This online version of the interview is slightly different than how it appeared on the TV episode.

Mini-Biographies:

Rick Riordan is the author of five #1 New York Times best-selling middle grade series with millions of copies sold throughout the world, including “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” “The Heroes of Olympus,” and the “Trials of Apollo,” all based on Greek and Roman mythology. For fifteen years, he taught English and history at public and private middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Texas. While teaching full-time, he began writing mystery novels for adults, culminating in the triple (Edgar, Anthony, and Shamus) national award-winning “Tres Navarre” series. He turned to children’s fiction when he started “The Lightning Thief,” marking the debut of Percy Jackson, as a bedtime story for his oldest son. In addition to writing, he now serves as publisher of Rick Riordan Presents, an imprint of the Disney-Hyperion Publishing family, specializing in middle grade adventures with lots of humor and action, drawing on myth or folklore. He also serves as an executive producer on the Disney+ Original series, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.” Dubbed “storyteller of the gods” by Publishers Weekly, Rick lives in the mortal world of Boston, Massachusetts, with his wife and two sons.

Mark Oshiro is the author of three young adult novels, including “Anger Is a Gift,” winner of the 2019 Schneider Family Book Award, and “Each of Us a Desert,” an NPR Best book of 2020. He has also written two middle grade books, “The Insiders,” a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, and “You Only Live Once, David Bravo.” When not writing, he is trying to achieve their life goal of petting every dog in the world. Oshiro is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

(Both biographies were supplied by the PR company with some minor editing)