A release date has been confirmed for The Lost Hero of Oct, 12th! So mark that day on your calendar and be ready to delve back into the land of Chiron, The American Mt. Olympus and much more!

Here is the book description given on Mr. Riordan’s blog:

After saving Olympus from the evil Titan lord, Kronos, Percy and friends have rebuilt their beloved Camp Half-Blood, where the next generation of demigods must now prepare for a chilling prophecy of their own:

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

Now, in a brand-new series from blockbuster best-selling author Rick Riordan, fans return to the world of Camp Half-Blood. Here, a new group of heroes will inherit a quest. But to survive the journey, they’ll need the help of some familiar demigods.

The photo is obviously just a mockup, we’ll post the actual book cover when it’s released!

Again, you can pre-order it here on amazon.com to ensure you get your hands on one of the first books hot off the printer!

[Source: Rick Riordan]

Anyways, check out to see if he’s in your U.S city, he’s also going to Toronto!

Tuesday, May 4
Symphony Space
New York, NY
This event is sold out!
………………………….

Wednesday, May 5
Children’s Book World
17 Haverford Station Rd.
Haverford, PA 19041
Phone: (610) 642-6274
…………………………….

Thursday, May 6
Politics and Prose
5015 Connecticut Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC 20008
(202) 364-1919
………………………………..

Friday, May 7
Little Shop of Stories
133 East Court Square
Decatur, GA 30030-2561
(404) 373-6300
……………………..

Saturday, May 8
Borders #290
4475 Roswell Rd Ave E Cobb
Marietta, GA 30062
(770) 565-0947
………………………..

Sunday, May 9
Indigo
Toronto, Canada
No details on the store location yet – stay tuned.
……………………………………………

Monday, May 10
BookCase
607 Lake Street East
Wayzata, MN 55391-1776
(952) 473-8341
……………………………..

Tuesday, May 11
Anderson’s Bookshop
123 West Jefferson Avenue
Naperville, IL 60540-5310
(630) 355-2665
……………………………………

Thursday, May 13
Barnes & Noble # 2241
Southlake Town Square
1430 Plaza Place, Southlake, TX 76092
(817) 442-0207
………………………………..

Friday, May 14
BookPeople
603 North Lamar Boulevard
Austin, TX 78703
(512) 472-5050
……………………………….

Saturday, May 15
Barnes & Noble #2353
15900 La Cantera Parkway Bldg 27
San Antonio, TX 78256
(210) 558-2078
……………………………….

Well there you go! As usual, (I think) He is ending his tour in his hometown of San Antonio! Here is what he had to say on his tour dates on his blog Myth and Mystery:

The tour is a nice mix of new places and return visits. I’m always happy to visit my friends in Decatur and Austin, and of course I love wrapping up the tour with a hometown event in San Antonio. It’s been quite a while since I got to visit the wonderful folks at Children’s Book World in Haverford.

All you folks that were asking for a Philadelphia area signing, that’s you! And of course, I love the fans in Chicagoland. Hope to see you guys at Anderson’s.

My readers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area have been asking me to come up that way for a long time. It’s been over three years since I last did a public signing there. The event at the Southlake Barnes & Noble is for you guys. I hope to see you there!

It will be my first visit to Toronto. I’ve been getting a ton of mail from my Canadian readers for years asking me to come up that way, and finally I get to. I don’t have details on which Indigo location we’ll be using, but stay tuned for that. It’ll also be my first visit to Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., a store I’ve heard so much about. I still feel bad about the folks who came to see me in rain at the National Book Festival last fall and didn’t make it through the signing line (Honestly, guys, I would have stayed and signed for another two hours, but they wouldn’t let me).

Hopefully this will be a second chance for you D.C.-area readers to come by and get those books signed. I owe you! I’m also looking forward to my second visit to Minnesota. The Bookcase is near the St. Paul/Minneapolis area, so I hope you fans up there can join us!

Of course, the hardest part of any tour is all the places I can’t go. You will notice the West Coast is not on this tour, but we haven’t forgotten about you. Remember, I’ll be touring again when the new Camp Half-Blood series starts in the fall, so there’s a good chance I’ll have more events in your part of the country, plus I hope some of the other great places we weren’t able to fit in to the May tour.

And if you aren’t able to make an event, most of the host stores are very happy to take orders for signed books. Contact them before the event, I’ll sign the books when I’m there, and the store will ship them to you.

[Source: Rick Riordan]

First, it’s set to be released October 12th, the same day as The Lightning Thief graphic novel. It’s page length is 384 pages. Please note that that is set to change, as too is the title until it’s confirmed by Rick Riordan. Anyways, without further ado……….

The Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero

What do you think? It’s weird that “Hero” is in both the book and series title. Plus, what happened to the “Name and the Olympians” naming convention? Anyways, it’s pretty cool, but again all of this is circumstantial until Mr. Riordan confirms this. Anyways, you can pre-order The Lost Hero at amazon.com at this link for just about $12!

Ok, you have waited patiently long enough – GO CHECK IT OUT ON AMAZON!

We look forward to The Red Pyramid, and as always wish Mr. Riordan continued success. Here’s a quick update from his blog:

In case you missed it, Publishers Weekly ran a nice article last week about my upcoming projects.

One month exactly until The Red Pyramid is released. I’m getting really excited! The first review just came out from Shelf Awareness, and I couldn’t ask for better:

“Rick Riordan will launch a new middle-grade series on May 4. For anyone who was afraid he couldn’t top his Percy Jackson series or his initial title in the 39 Clues, fear no more. Readers will be clamoring for the next installment.”

I hope you all agree when it comes out! Be sure to check out the cover and first chapter on Disney’s Kane Chronicles website.

The first book in the Camp Half-Blood series is with my editor now. And speaking of that, this is her last day at Disney. Jennifer Besser has been with me since The Lightning Thief. As I’ve mentioned before, she was instrumental in the success of the series, so it’s hard to see her go, but she’s going on to great things. She’ll be the v.p. and publisher at Penguin Putnam now, and I wish her all the best! I know she’s only begun to make her mark on the publishing industry. Good luck, Jen. Thanks for everything, and you’ll always have a guest room at Camp Half-Blood anytime you want to visit.

The wonderful Stephanie Lurie will now be editing the Kane Chronicles and the new Camp Half-Blood series at Disney, so I know the books are in good hands. I still remember when Stephanie took over as editorial director at Disney. My friend Neal Shusterman pulled me aside at the Bologna Book Fair and told me how lucky we were to be getting Stephanie. Neal was definitely right!

As for the Kane Chronicles, I’m getting really excited about the release. The first finished copies of The Red Pyramid arrived today, and they look great. The book will be in stores May 4. The launch event will be at Symphony Space in New York, and I understand tickets are almost sold out already, so if you’d like to join us, you might want to book soon. More events will be announced shortly. I’ll be on the road for two weeks, and can’t wait to get out and meet some of you guys. I also just found out that my friends at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA are doing a ‘Camp Kane’ this summer based on my Egyptian series and their own wildly popular Camp Half-Blood. Guess what? Camp Kane is already sold out! Thanks to Diane and the gang at Little Shop for all their incredible support. I hope the kids have a great time going Egyptian this summer.

It looks like the new Camp Half-Blood series will launch in October, but when I have more details I’ll let you know. As you can imagine, I was nervous about how this new book would work after the success of Percy Jackson. Would people accept a return to that world in a slightly different form? To my surprise, everyone who’s read it so far, from my agent to my editors to my own kids, has said they like it even better. Wow – fingers crossed you agree.

Now, I’ve moved on to the second Kane Chronicles book. I’m just in the planning stages, but I have a good sense where the series is going and Carter and Sadie are in for quite a ride!

In other news, I just got my first peek at the fully colored pages for the Lightning Thief graphic novel. It’s looking very sharp. As soon as I have a definite release date for that, I’ll let you know. The Percy Jackson series continues to steam along on the New York Times bestseller list, and I have you guys to thank for that! I appreciate you reading and recommending the books to your friends. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about the Percy Jackson Ultimate Guide, too. So glad you’ve enjoyed it.

[Source: Rick Riordan Blog]

I’m pretty excited! He again says that the book will be published this fall! Woo hoo! Anyways, you can read his blog post below.

We had a nice week in the Riordan house as I finished up the manuscript for the first book in the new Camp Half-Blood series. It’s always quite a relief to wrap up a manuscript, even though I know there are months of revisions ahead of me before it’s ready for publication in the fall. Still, the majority of the work is done.

The story is in place. And best of all, I got to read it to my kids! Haley and Patrick are always my first editors. Reading it aloud to them, I can quickly tell whether it’s going to work for kids, which parts need tightening, which parts might be confusing. Becky was reading the manuscript at the same time, and we all finished it yesterday.

Their verdict? Becky gave it thumbs up. Her first comment, “Wow, the fans are going to be so pleased.” I can’t tell you why, of course, but she had good reasons for saying that. When I put Patrick to bed last night, he said, “Thanks for writing a masterpiece, Dad.” LOL. You’ve got to cherish feedback like that.

Haley told me jokingly that I had gone from being his third favorite author to his second favorite. Woohoo! I’m not sure if I displaced Derek Landy or Suzanne Collins, but either way it’s quite a compliment. Both boys wanted to know when the next volume of the series will be ready. They’ve decided this book is one of my best, and I hope they’re right — and of course, I hope you agree when it’s published in the fall. Now it goes off to my editor.

No hints on the plot — sorry! Title? Nope, can’t tell you that yet either. But I can promise you many surprises, and you will get to catch up with old friends as well as meet a cool new cast of demigods. As soon as I can say more — probably late in the spring — I will post on my website.

In the meantime, I’m gearing up for The Red Pyramid, which comes out in May. I can’t wait to share that story with you, too! I’ll be in New York for an event at the Met next weekend — which I understand is sold out. If you can’t attend, I’ll blog about it afterwards and let you know how it went.

Have a good week, everyone!

[Source: Rick Riordan]

Nearly a year since the last one came out….. and estimating 8 months to go. All well, I’m just excited that he’s continuing with the more Camp Half Blood books. Too bad that the characters we know won’t really be in the new series.

Tired author alert! I’ve been absolutely absorbed in the world of Camp Half-Blood for the past two weeks. I am working long days and long nights to finish revisions on the first volume in the new series, which I hope to have wrapped up and to my editor in about three weeks.

The novel (fingers crossed) should be published this fall, because remember the editing process takes a long time. Exact information about the pub date will be made available when we’ve nailed it down. The name of the series, and the title for the first book, will not be announced for a while.

I’m pretty sure I know, but I always finish the manuscript before naming it. Well . . . almost always. I already know the title for the second Camp Half-Blood book, strangely enough, which is only in the planning stages. I wish I could tell you why that is, but I can’t yet.

So what can I tell you? Not much yet! I can only say that I’m having a blast with the series, blending the new characters with the old, and injecting a totally new spin into the world of Percy Jackson & the Olympians. I’m smiling a lot, even though I’m tired, and my sons are getting anxious to read the manuscript. As always, they are my first test group!

As I’ve mentioned, the first book in the Kane Chronicles, The Red Pyramid, will be released May 4, and the publisher has some exciting plans in the works. I will tell you more when I can, but I hope you enjoy my modern take on the Ancient Egyptian gods. Carter and Sadie quickly won my heart. They’re just such fun main characters to write about.

[Source: Rick Riordan Blog]

These books have something for everyone, and if you’re on this site just looking up Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and wondering if you should read these books, I think that the numbers speak for themselves! All five books in USA Today’s Top 10 books. Quite an impressive feat. Anyways, you can read the excerpt on PJO below!

Rick Riordan’s series reaches Olympian heights; Charles Pellegrino gets a Hiroshima history lesson; and a big buzz surrounds ‘Little Bee.’
‘Lightning’ strikes: Sales of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson novels are reaching Olympian heights. All five books in the kids’ series are in USA TODAY’s top 10. It’s the first time that has happened, and sales are being driven by the movie version of the first book. (In its first two weeks, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief has earned $58.7 million.)

Accounting for half of the top 10 is impressive, but Riordan has a long way to go to break Stephenie Meyer’s record. The four books in her Twilight series have been in the top 10 a total of 66 weeks. J.K. Rowling had six of the seven Harry Potter titles in the top 10 just one week in 2007.

But rankings on the list don’t tell the whole story. Numbers in print in the USA for Rowling, 143 million; Meyer, 45 million; Riordan, 12 million.

[Source: USAToday]

His publisher Disney Hyperion has released the first chapter of the first book The Red Pyramid due for release in May! I was able to read it, and it’s going to be amazing! While it’s somewhat similar to Percy Jackson, (which is to be expected since it’s the same writer!) it still has it’s own sense of originality.

I’m very excited for this book! Until then, check out the excerpt on Disney Hyperion’s website for an exclusive peek at the first chapter!! Go read it here >

We thought it would be cool to see just how hot the books and movie are right now in Twitterville, so we put together this really cool Percy Jackson “Twitter Wall”. The wall is made up of the actual twitter avatars of all the people tweeting about Percy Jackson right now. You may have seen this before, but we’ve kept our eye on the activity on the wall, and things look like they are really picking up.

If you post an update to twitter, and then head over the the Twitter Wall, you just might see yourself among your friends and other fans! Here’s a snapshot of the wall below… click it and head on over. By the way, you can see what they are saying about the books and movie when you move your mouse over each avatar.