What We Can Learn From Our Idols (Part 4)

     Another author that I admire is Rick Riordan. I am amazed that some writers can create books that appeal to kids and adults. There may be many others that can do this, but I suspect most of them are in the fantasy genre and except for JKR, I don't know many. Outside of fantasy I can only think of Ann Brashears Traveling Pants series; I know many girls and women who have loved them.
     Riordan's books weave a complicated plot and engaging characters with authentic myths as well as facts, history and geography.  As a fan, this is a bonus for me because I love myth, history and geography, but don't like to do research.
     I am not interested in being able to write fiction for the 9-99 age group.  What I would like to do as well as Riordan is write books for more than one series that are so different, you wouldn't guess they had the same author.  The Percy Jackson books are written in the first person. His Heroes of Olympus Series is written in the third person from the perspective of different characters and they all have a distinct voice. His Kane Chronicles are written in the first person from two seperate points of view, again succesfully narrated from two very different personalities. 
     I have two series of books, one written in third person and one in first person.I also have a series of short stories to accompany my books and I write them in either first or third person and from the perspective of diffferent characters. I like to think my main characters are not exactly alike. Or even kind of alike. But I know this is an area of my writing that I can improve and will work toward that.
     Now that I'm thinking about it, Riordan wrote several books in the first person, then a couple of books in the first person narrated by two different characters, then a book or two in the 3rd person from various points of view. This looks like a case of practice and you will improve; with lots of practice you will improve a lot. Well, nothing new there I guess.

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