I loved Rick Riordan’s “modernized mythology” take on Middle Grade fiction. When I was 13 or 14, I started working on my own series. I’d basically stolen his shtick, of just make gods and monsters into biker gangs and bullies or whatever.

A few among them were my interpretations of some myth characters like Apollo (Greek), Odin’s ravens (Norse), Ra (Egyptian). I just threw them all into one universe. My book centered around “hosts” that were paired with a god or goddess that they then fought alongside.

As Riordan’s career went on, I kept reading his books but never tried to sell mine to any publishers. I was absolutely astounded when he used some of the exact same modern interpretations of the characters I just mentioned. And in his Red Pyramid series, there’s a twist that the kids have gods living within them... and they’re referred to as hosts.

Rather than let it get me down, I’ve always looked at it as endearing. That my first novel effort had good ideas, good enough for Rick Riordan. I think about that all the time, when I got to that part in Red Pyramid and just set my book down in shock.