silly_g0o0se asked Rick Riordan:

Hello Mr. Riordan! I know you have spoken about how some of your former students inspired you to make certain characters, but have any of these former students made that connection and talked to you about it?

Rick Riordan Oh, sure, they know! I was still working as a teacher when I wrote The Lightning Thief, so I thought it would be fun to name some demigods after my students. As I recall, the Stoll family won a charity auction item for the school where I offered to name a character in a book, so Travis and Connor were immortalized. They were both great kids who grew up to become doctors. (Seems appropriate for Hermes kids!) Charles Beckendorf's mom lost out of the bidding, and told me, "But, but... we support the school too!" I said, "Okay, fine." And Charles Beckendorf entered Camp Half-Blood. I recently learned that another student C.C. (who is credited as a beta-reader in the acknowledgements of Lightning Thief, and whose name gave me the idea for Circe's nickname in Sea of Monsters) just had her first child. By strange coincidence, she is married to a cousin of one of our TV executives at Disney+! It's so fun to see former students grow up and become amazing adults. I am incredibly proud of them.

flag