Camp Half-Blood Crossover! Liv and Genn of AHFG Chat with Rick Riordan and Annabelle Oh

That's right, you read it correctly. It's only taken 9.25 years but Liv has listened to your pleas and is finally here with not just ANY Percy Jackson Universe content... No, she teamed up with Genn McMenemy of Ancient History Fangirl to interview the co-authors of a BRAND NEW CAMP HALF BLOOD BOOK... Camp Half-Blood: the Wild Zone https://rickriordan.com/book/the-wild-zone/! Rick Riordan and Annabelle Oh share their mythical inspirations, what's going on at Camp Half Blood in the new series, and more. Video version is available on YouTube https://youtu.be/VclOalL9IGI or ad-free on Patreon http://patreon.com/mythsbaby. AVAILABLE NOW! The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. https://geni.us/TheOdysseyBook Submit your question for the next Q&A via email http://mythsbaby.com/questions or a voice note https://www.speakpipe.com/LTAMB. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby http://patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter ourhttps://www.mythsbaby.com/contactpodcast guest https://www.mythsbaby.com/contact form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest! CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events. Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here:http://mythsbaby.com/sources-attributionsmythsbaby.com/sources-attributions http://mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions. Learn more about Liv's next group trips https://travelbugxlivalbert.my.canva.site/ to GREECE! Application deadline is November 30 (Subject to change due to demand). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Liv Albert?

  Hey nerds, really quick note from me. I want to tell you that we now have the applications open for the next set of listener group trips. This is us going back to the original, the trips that we have held in the past that have been so much fun, so successful, and pretty affordable in terms of wandering around Greece with a bunch of nerds. So check out the details and get your applications in at mythsbaby.com/grouptrip.

• 0:42Liv Albert?

  Ever notice how every new AI tool asks you to explain your business to it all over again? Google Workspace with Gemini skips that. You get Google's AI built right into the premium versions of Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and more. No new tools, no extra logins, just one subscription that gives you personalized AI right inside your actual workflow. Make work less work. Try Google Workspace with Gemini at g o o dot g l e slash Workspace with Gemini.

• 1:39Liv Albert?

  Thank you both so much for speaking with me and Jen McMenamy. So to the listeners, we're doing a kind of joint podcast situation, Ancient History Fangirl and Let's Talk Myth Baby, because we were both so excited for the opportunity to talk to Rick Riordan and Annabelle Oh. And did I pronounce your name right? I realize I've said it.

• 2:01Speaker 01

  Oh, no, it's fine. I say Riordan, but at this point, anything I'll take.

• 2:05Liv Albert?

  Great. I realize I've been saying it for like a decade, but I'm not entirely confident. But that does lead kind of directly into the introduction I wanted to give, which is that I'm so excited for this. I have been doing this podcast for 10 years, which says a little bit about my age. And so I didn't necessarily grow up with your books, but oh my gosh, the kids that, or I guess usually teenagers and later, but that listen to my podcast, the things I have heard. So you are a very big deal in my listenership and I am so excited.

• 2:37Speaker 01

  Awesome.

• 2:38Liv Albert?

  Yeah, it's been so fun. And Annabelle, I'm so, it's so exciting to see like collaborative writers being involved. I love that idea of being able to, especially when, you know, the world is so already kind of pre-made for you. It's so cool. So I am very focused on myth. So apologies for my questions will kind of hinge towards there. And then Jen is quite familiar with the series and everything. So collectively, it's going to be very fun.

• 3:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm just gonna interrupt you, Liv. I actually, back in London, have a proof of the first Percy Jackson book, because when it came out, my really good friend was a bookseller at the now, now lost to us Borders. And she sent it to me and she's like, you have to read this book. And once I read that book, I was like, I didn't know you could write a book like this. I am so in love. I love everything about it. I also grew up on Long Island and live in the beach, so I'm in the city. And I'm dyslexic and I have ADHD. I'm like, maybe, maybe.

• 3:39Speaker 03

  Maybe you could be a demigod.

• 3:41Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 3:42Speaker 01

  That's awesome.

• 3:43Speaker 02

  So I just wanted to say, so yeah, and I've read, I think, all of your series at this point. I love them all.

• 3:49Speaker 01

  Well, thank you.

• 3:51Liv Albert?

  Just why? It was a perfect combination to not just me on this call. But yeah, I mean, I, I'm so fascinated by how you've used mythology for, you know, ever now. I think Jen put the number of years into question, which I'm not looking at, so she'll, she'll name that later.

• 4:08Speaker 02

  I think it's 21 years since.

• 4:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's right.

• 4:13Liv Albert?

  That's so cool. Yeah. Well, so as someone who's done it for half the time, but has heard of at least 20 years worth of compliments towards your work, I'm just so curious how, you know, it started with the mythology of it. So like, what's your kind of Hawaii Greek mythology, I guess, for you, Rick? And then Annabelle, I would love to know like what your connection is to mythology as well. I also have to say, and I just, I know I'm getting it, or I'm fairly certain I'm getting it right, but your name being Annabelle and then the character name being Annabelle is really throwing me. So I do apologize in advance.

• 4:47Speaker 03

  It's okay if you call me Annabelle.

• 4:48Liv Albert?

  Okay, it will be not on purpose, but that's where it's coming from.

• 4:53Liv Albert?

  But yeah, I guess I just would love to know about like both of your connections to the mythology itself and like why, why that's something that, you know, you wanted to be writing.

• 5:02Speaker 01

  You know, Greek mythology for me was very much part of my childhood. It was one of the first things that I read on my own and that was read to me. Other mythologies as well. I love all kinds of world mythology, but Greek mythology in particular is something that, once you're familiar with it, you see it everywhere. It's, it's in our architecture, it's in our art, it's in our literature. It's, I mean, it's just everywhere. It has pervaded the culture, sort of the common collective culture that, that, that I anyway grew up with. And so it made sense to me to keep exploring that. It's also in our school system. And I was a school

• 5:46Speaker 01

  teacher. I taught sixth grade for many years. And that is where folklore and mythology is usually taught, one of the places. So I had taught it with my own students and I knew I loved it. It was something that could fire the imagination very easily. And it was something I knew that my own students at age 11 or 12 really latched on to and loved, always their favorite unit of the year. So why? I mean, it just made sense to me. It has been such a big part of my life. It has been so important to me, to my son, who I told the story of Percy Jackson to initially as a bedtime story, to my own students. I just had been living and breathing mythology for, for

• 6:31Speaker 01

  that long, that it seemed like something that I really could and, and should contribute to.

• 6:38Liv Albert?

  Sounds like very much how I got into this. I like to hear. And also, I wish that I had been just a handful of years younger, because I was the same in school and your book was not available yet. And I think I would have loved it. And, you know, obviously, it's also great for all ages. But, you know, when you're in that age, those things come to you. Just, it's so spot on. Annabelle, what about you?

• 7:01Speaker 03

  I found it horrifying, mythology. No.

• 7:05Liv Albert?

  I mean, there are a lot of horrifying things that happen in mythology.

• 7:08Speaker 03

  Absolutely. Well, and my, my first exposure was Clash of the Titans. So I saw it.

• 7:13Liv Albert?

  Very true to myth. Which one?

• 7:17Speaker 03

  This is, yeah. So the one that I saw was the OG one. That's how old I am. But this is the one with Dame Maggie Smith and she's a big Greek statue and her head falls off and it's on the ground. And then suddenly her eyes open and she starts talking. And it was like the creepiest thing I've ever seen in my life. And that and Medusa. And then the eyeball thing where the,

• 7:40Speaker 02

  Is it the gray eye?

• 7:42Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah. And, but I mean, it was all, and like my mom's just doodly doo, sitting there watching it even pop. It was like, we were at home, but I'm like, oh my gosh, this is also scary. But you cannot look away, right? Because Pegasus is also there and the cool, you know, owl, the mechanical owl is also there. So you're like, those things are cool, but that other stuff was terrifying. And then I actually also had, it reminded me from an earlier talk we had with someone else, in Mary Poppins, like the P.L. Travers novel, there, one of the, the Pleiades comes down to earth and like is just going around with Mary Poppins like they're best buddies.

• 8:17Liv Albert?

  Really?

• 8:17Speaker 03

  And, yeah. And it was just, and so it was my first knowledge of, and it was like, oh, it can also be fun and nice and light and wonderful. Because she was just talking, telling all these stories about, you know, how Orion is always chasing the girls and that kind of stuff. And it was like, you know, Cassiopeia and all the other, you know, all that stuff. And I was like, oh, this is fun, too. So it was for me, it was initially terrifying. And then it has kind of, it's gotten better since then. Like I started at the bottom, now I'm here, you know.

• 8:43Liv Albert?

  That's what makes myth so fun, isn't it? That it is both, like, it can be lovely and beautiful and just happy. And then also, like, some of the absolute most horrific stories exist in Greek myth. Yeah.

• 8:57Liv Albert?

  Jen, do you want to ask another one? You can take turns?

• 9:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:03Speaker 02

  So what has it been like having Annabelle and other writers joining the Percy Jackson universe? What's the, you know, what's the most exciting thing for you about the experience and about what they bring to the storytelling?

• 9:19Speaker 01

  Oh, it's so much fun. I mean, it's still a lot of work because we're writing books and, you know, that's never easy, but it's so much more fun to collaborate, I have found. Really, I would not have done the series if I couldn't have done it with these four co-authors. It was, it was essential to me that that was part of the, part of the way, the method that we would do this in. The idea of bringing in four authors, each one tackling a main character, one per book, is, as far as I know, unique. I don't, I can't think of any other series that's been written that way. And it's fascinating to have them

• 10:02Speaker 01

  sort of do a relay race through the story and, you know, pass the baton. Okay, now it's your turn. Let's hear your part of the story. And I learned a great deal from all four of the other authors about adding things to the world, about the way that characters interact, about the way they do dialogue and pacing. It's just been incredible, both as a learning experience, but also just as a chance to freshen the world with new voices. And it made it seem new to me again, the Percy Jackson world. So that was great.

• 10:36Liv Albert?

  That's so nice, too. Like, it just seems like a great series for that. Also, that you have these like kind of gaps in between the stories. So why not expand in this, you know, thing that is already so ready to be expanded. And so having other authors there to, to be involved sounds like such a, yeah, fun and, and also like a great way of expanding that story and expanding the people that it reaches, too.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure.

• 11:02Speaker 02

  What's it been like for you joining Annabelle?

• 11:05Speaker 03

  Um, yeah, it was an amazing experience because we had this, this huge playground open to us. It's kind of like just, you know, we're going to open a theme park and you can just like, here's, here's a list of the, you know, and main attractions, but you can just throw in whatever rides you want, whatever characters you want. Just have fun. And it's like, are you sure? You know?

• 11:23Speaker 02

  I'm very jealous.

• 11:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:25Speaker 02

  What an exciting thing.

• 11:27Speaker 03

  And Rick is very, very trusting. He was very trusting of us as, I mean, he'd seen samples of our work, but it was still like a lot of, a lot of faith put in us. And so it's just like, okay. And so of course, we checked in with him as we're working on the stuff because he came up with an, an outline of what he thought the, the overarching story should be. And then we all wanted to put our own little individual spins on it based off of the characters because of course, every character's personality is going to kind of shape how they see this world and how they affect the world as well. So we would check in with him and be like, okay, has this, can we, is this okay? Are you okay if we change this? And he was, I mean, he was, yeah, he was very welcoming and very encouraging and very approving of just kind of letting us cook, as the kids say. I don't

• 12:10Speaker 03

  know if they still say that, but as the kids say, let us cook.

• 12:15Liv Albert?

  That's, that's, yeah, that just sounds like such a great experience overall. And like, writing a book is, is, you know, one thing, but having somebody else like with you in it is such a fun way of doing it. Like, yeah, feels like you would feel a lot less alone, too.

• 12:32Speaker 01

  Oh, completely, yeah.

• 12:34Liv Albert?

  Yeah.

• 12:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, it, it's really neat. I, I was, um, we were talking to someone else earlier today and they brought so many, the other authors brought so many great ideas that I, they're my favorite parts of the series, I think. And this reviewer was saying, you know, I, I love this book. Here are like the five things I like the best about it. All things that Annabelle added, every single one of them. And I'm going like, yes.

• 13:02Speaker 03

  You created the world for all of it to exist in.

• 13:07Speaker 01

  But I love that. I love that.

• 13:09Liv Albert?

  That's good. I mean, yeah, it's a good thing. And so it's also, I'm, I'm sure there are some set of authors who like might not, but I also agree that like that, that is the best way of doing it. Like that just feels like such a more, I also think it, it, it opens it up to other people being able to, to appreciate it more, right? Because you are bringing in multiple voices. So being able to let go and be like, you can do what you want to do is probably going to result in like a much better work than somebody who might be like really micromanaging. Like, that's not a very good collaborative experience.

• 13:41Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 13:55Liv Albert?

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• 14:37Liv Albert?

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• 15:22Liv Albert?

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• 17:39Liv Albert?

  I rarely just have like questions, so excuse you.

• 17:42Speaker 02

  Do you want, do you want me to go through more of these?

• 17:44Liv Albert?

  Or? Uh, yeah, if you're, if you're.

• 17:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:47Liv Albert?

  Yeah, yeah, no, I've got mine up too, but go ahead.

• 17:49Speaker 02

  So what's, so I was talking a little about this before we started. One of the things I love about you and your books is the mythological deep cuts and the history deep cuts. So what is your favorite mythological deep cut that you either got to put into this book or just the series overall? And that's for both of you.

• 18:07Speaker 01

  Oh, boy, there's so many.

• 18:09Speaker 02

  I know.

• 18:09Speaker 01

  That's the neat thing about mythology. The more you explore, the deeper it gets. It really is.

• 18:16Liv Albert?

  Very true.

• 18:17Speaker 01

  Like an ocean, you know, so you can go as deep as you, as you want.

• 18:23Speaker 01

  I don't know that I have a single favorite. There are a few in the wild zone. There are some cursed items that, that play a big part in this, and I don't want to do any spoilers, but I think, let me just say, when, when Katie finds a ring in, in the story, it's pretty important. It's a deep cut. That's going to cause all kinds of mischief and chaos.

• 18:51Speaker 03

  I was gonna say, I was gonna say the same thing. I was gonna say the ring is probably also my deep cut.

• 18:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, which funnily enough, we independently came up with that idea. I was already planning on using this particular mythological ring. And when I read Annabelle's sample that she did sort of as her audition, she used the same magic item and like, okay, well, clearly.

• 19:15Speaker 02

  Same ring.

• 19:18Liv Albert?

  That's very cool, but now you've got me like desperately trying to think up a ring.

• 19:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:25Speaker 01

  Oh, it'll, it'll come to you.

• 19:26Liv Albert?

  Oh, yeah. Well, so actually that does kind of lead to another question. I, is this primarily, I know you work in like a lot of mythologies across the series, but like, is, is this meant to be explicitly one mythology? Or is there kind of like shared between different cultures?

• 19:45Speaker 01

  Well, in this series, we're, we're based at Camp Half-Blood and most of, I think everything we're drawing from is Greek and Roman, like in the original Percy Jackson series. I think that's true. That's not to say that other mythologies don't exist or interact with one another. Of course they do, just as they did in ancient times. We were talking about earlier with, with another interviewer about how sort of syncretism was the, the norm back in ancient times.

• 20:13Liv Albert?

  Absolutely.

• 20:14Speaker 01

  Rather than saying, well, my gods exist or my god exist and yours are just made up. That was, that would have been, I think, to most ancients, a very alien idea. What do you mean? Why don't you just worship them all? You know, worship the ones that work. If, you know, if ISIS is doing it for you, why not? That we can build a temple in Rome. That's not a big deal.

• 20:33Liv Albert?

  And they did, so many.

• 20:35Speaker 01

  And they did. And Mithras, you know, and yeah, Artemis of, you know, Ephesus was a different Artemis than the Artemis of the Greek Isles and, you know, on and on and on. And so I, I think there's room for many mythologies, but the short answer is yeah, we're, we're just focusing still on the Greek and Roman.

• 20:54Liv Albert?

  Well, I'm glad to hear the long answer though, because that's something I talk about constantly all the time on my show, and I think it's something that is still quite like, not even misunderstood, but just like not known at all in the wider kind of public knowledge of mythology. And I think that really does a disservice to.

• 21:12Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 21:12Liv Albert?

  The ancient Mediterranean, the ancient world more generally. So glad to hear that's at least like something that you're openly, you know, talking about because it's so true. And it really reminds us all how interconnected, particularly the ancient Mediterranean was, like just so unbelievably, you know, shaped, like connected and sharing all of their, their stuff. Clearly, I just want to talk about the ancient world. Apologies, I'm like, oh, I just go on and on. Well, sort of continuing on that a little bit, I am a big nerd for ancient sources. Perhaps too big sometimes I have a lot of time, I have trouble letting them go. Do you have, do either of you have, I don't know if you tend to work with ancient sources or more like secondary, but do you have like favorite places that you go to for inspiration

• 21:57Liv Albert?

  or like story ideas?

• 22:00Speaker 03

  Museums, I would say. I'm a huge fan, like of the British Museum.

• 22:04Liv Albert?

  Yeah.

• 22:04Speaker 03

  Love it.

• 22:05Liv Albert?

  Gosh.

• 22:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:05Liv Albert?

  Though if they would just give that carry a tid back, my god.

• 22:11Speaker 03

  Yeah. And so, yeah, and a lot of time when I'm doing research, like if I'm, you know, Googling something, I will always make sure that I'm, as I'm doing a search for something, I also just put add the tag museum, because it's just like any, I mean, the internet is like, there's so much, people just make up stuff, you know, or like.

• 22:26Liv Albert?

  Especially now.

• 22:27Speaker 03

  Yeah. Right, especially now. Yeah, they can make up whatever they want. It's like, okay, well, let me just add museum and that way it comes from like a, like some sort of trusted source. It's like, okay, it's from an actual piece of art or some sort of, you know, statuary or something. And I'm like, okay. And then it, you know, it's just the description of it. I'm like, okay, that, I can believe that this is a good cited source. And sometimes just also going in person to view, it's like, you, it's like, there's something about seeing it in person and it just fills you with a different, like a deeper connection to the past. Like, and that's why I love museums is because like someone actually, one, once upon a time had these coins in their pocket, you know? Or once upon a time someone laid flowers at the feet of the statue.

• 23:09Liv Albert?

  I, I love a Greek regional museum. I don't know how much or if you've been to Greece, but my gosh, because they have them everywhere and they always just have like the wildest, most incredible stuff.

• 23:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, and the stories are different as you move around Greece.

• 23:22Liv Albert?

  Absolutely.

• 23:22Speaker 01

  The, the local versions that have existed and survived in oral form as folklore, as storytelling, it's just, it's really incredible how much variety and color there is in, in the Greek world. Yes, I agree. Museums are a fantastic place, especially for those deep cuts, to look at the art, to look at the representations and see how people saw the divine back, back so long ago. In terms of primary sources, yeah, I mean, I, I love them all. I've read much of it. I think one that is maybe a deeper cut that is, that, that is not used quite as much is Nonus is Dionysiac.

• 24:07Liv Albert?

  Yeah.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  Which is sort of Byzantine, so late, late antiquity. But the stories there, by that time, they had become so wild and so interesting that I, I love that, that text.

• 24:23Speaker 02

  That's when he's got the retinue of like main ads and also Amazons.

• 24:27Liv Albert?

  Elephants or stuff too.

• 24:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:30Liv Albert?

  Yeah.

• 24:30Speaker 02

  Dionysus is my, that's my, my jam, my.

• 24:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:34Speaker 02

  My one day pet thing I will write.

• 24:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, pretty, pretty incredible text.

• 24:37Liv Albert?

  Yeah.

• 24:37Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 24:38Liv Albert?

  Yeah, I think about Nonus probably more than I should, but I also want like a better translation. I think about that a lot. Or like a more recent. In any case, I love the Nonus reference. That is a deep cut and I'm here for it.

• 24:51Liv Albert?

  Jen, do you have a question you want to go to?

• 24:53Speaker 02

  I do. So, um.

• 24:59Speaker 02

  This is purely for me, but as I mentioned, I'm a history nerd and just finishing a series on Augustan Rome, and it made me think back to the trials of Apollo. And it made me think about the, the antagonists in that series, who are Commodus, Nero and Caligula, who are all not child friendly at all in any way, shape or form. And when I was doing, on our podcast, we swear, and we do get into some of the things about Commodus, which I won't say because maybe children are listening, but it, when the things are off, I'll tell you about my Commodus thing, then I'm just like, why? Why? But anyway, um, so I was just wondering how, how you, when I read them, I was like,

• 25:43Speaker 02

  how you depicted them as very much how they are in the ancient sources? How did you choose how to represent them and how to like shape them into characters who would also work for children? Bearing in mind, children like a lot of like, you know, not suitable things.

• 25:59Speaker 01

  Well, sure. I mean, that's, that's always a balancing act that I'm looking at, both back when I was a teacher in middle school and taught mythology and had to make it appropriate, not too horrifying, but horrifying enough to be interesting. And as a writer, I, I have to walk that line. How much can I say and still be faithful to the story, but make sure that I'm not giving my, my kids nightmares?

• 26:25Speaker 01

  With the emperors, yes, that's particularly difficult because they are real life characters.

• 26:32Speaker 01

  I read biographies of each of the, the emperors in question. I relied a lot on primary sources. Keeping in mind, of course, that the primary sources that we have for all of those emperors are incredibly biased and all have very, very specific axes to grind. And so you have to keep that in mind. Who was writing this about the emperor? And how, you know, how much of this is, shall we say, fake news? And how much is really what happened? But with that in mind, yeah, the stories are lurid and very unfriendly, not family viewing at all.

• 27:12Speaker 01

  But there's enough there that is ghastly without being over the top, that I could just rely on that to give you an idea.

• 27:21Liv Albert?

  I mean, those Roman, I don't typically talk about Rome, but that's what I leave to ancient three fangirl, thankfully, but they're really wild.

• 27:31Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, in particular, the three you picked, I was like, if I was gonna pick three of the worst, like they, they would be up there. I mean.

• 27:38Speaker 01

  They're up there.

• 27:39Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, yeah.

• 27:42Liv Albert?

  Before you guys jumped on the call, we were just talking about how both of us have Joaquin Phoenix tied to Commodus for the rest of our lives.

• 27:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:49Liv Albert?

  I can't kind of separate that.

• 27:51Speaker 02

  Even though nothing alike.

• 27:54Liv Albert?

  That's the thing I saw when I was too young. Well, we've, you know, focused so much on, on the mythology, just because that's my, I won't even say pet obsession, it's my entire life. But, uh, you know, obviously this is a, you're talking about this very specific book in this new series. So do you want to just tell the listeners a bit too about the wild zone? Camp Half Blood specifically?

• 28:17Speaker 01

  Sure. I mean, I guess I can talk about the series and then you can tell us about the first book and Katie. The series is basically set between the first two Percy Jackson books. It happens between the action of the Lightning Thief and the Sea of Monsters during that fall term at Camp Half Blood, when Percy and Annabelle and the other main characters are not there. They're off in school. And it started with a question, what happens at camp when the spotlight is off and those main characters you know, aren't there anymore? What goes on? And so we have a group of five newbies that all arrive at the same time at camp and have

• 28:58Speaker 01

  to discover about themselves and how to work as a team and how to get oriented to camp. But while they're in the process of this, they get in trouble, they do something wrong, they're assigned kitchen patrol together. They're not, they don't like each other very much at first. I kind of comp it to like the Breakfast Club, except at Camp Half Blood. And there's a mystery that they have to solve. Something is wrong in the woods. Some curse has been unleashed. Nobody believes them, of course. They have to figure out how to solve it themselves. And the first of our four heroes that we hear from is Katie Kim.

• 29:34Speaker 03

  Yeah. And so Katie Kim is kind of coming from a past where she's constantly being overshadowed by an older sibling who's just great at everything. And then a mother who was great at, very, very great at something. She's an Olympic gold medalist in sharpshooting. And so Katie is kind of a little bit lacking in any sort of special, she doesn't have any particular set of skills at all, if you will. So it's kind of her trying to come into this thing as like, I'm supposed to be this demigod, this really powerful person, and I'm not even good at being a regular person. So how do I, how do I survive in this new world? How do I survive in this new environment?

• 30:17Speaker 03

  And how do I not only survive, but how do I thrive? And so it's kind of that, and it just, then by the end of the first book, it's kind of, you get like a twist to it that makes me like, oh, okay. So you, you're, you are in some stuff. It's, you're in deep and okay, so you're actually going through a lot more than you say you are going through. And then it just kind of builds from there. And each of the characters, I think, has a little bit more to them that they're not letting on. So each, within the mystery, there are more mysteries.

• 30:46Liv Albert?

  That's pretty, I mean, that sounds, sorry, I was like caught up in a breath or something. Anyway, that sounds great. And I love the, the little ending there, the very, basically, I ruined it with my inability to respond is what I'm saying, but you sounded wonderful. I, I'm just so in awe of how many books are in this series and how, as somebody who's just has been experiencing it from my listeners for all of these years and how much they learned about myth through your books. And even I, I actually, it's being shown off kind of everywhere, but I'm the author of a recent children's adaptation of The Odyssey. And I've actually been going to, there's a local bookshop here in Toronto who's doing a little, little reading group with nine to 12 year olds.

• 31:31Liv Albert?

  And I went to the introduction the other day and they were all asked what the, the most recent book they read was. And I think almost half of them, if not half, named one of your books or another. And it was, it was very cute watching them. They were all so excited and they all knew. And then I got to tell them, oh, I'm talking to him on Tuesday. Like, so it was, it was very nice. And just generally, you know, I've had such a great experience learning about your work through all of my listeners who come in and they're like, Percy Jackson taught me myth. Now I want to learn everything. Though I will say, before we sign off, that I did have one of my most unforgettable bad reviews of my life on the podcast. And it was a person who said, don't listen, it's just a copy of Percy Jackson.

• 32:19Liv Albert?

  I had to go, I have some news for you. I have some news. So you've done a lot of impact into the mythological world, I think mostly for the good, other than that person who maybe needs a history lesson.

• 32:32Speaker 01

  There's your tagline for the book. It's just a copy of Percy Jackson.

• 32:36Liv Albert?

  Rip off Percy Jackson, I'm sorry. That's, you can blame the ancient Greeks, they copied Percy Jackson first. But I think we have to let you guys go in like a minute. So, but thank you so much for doing this. It's a thrill. And I know both of our listeners are going to be like so.

• 32:52Speaker 03

  They're going to be so excited.

• 32:54Speaker 01

  Thank you so much. Great talking with you, brother.

• 32:56Liv Albert?

  Thank you and congrats on the new book.

• 32:58Speaker 01

  Thanks.

• 32:59Liv Albert?

  Thank you. Bye.

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