In a twist on the classic interview, authors Rick Riordan and Jonathan Stroud discuss their books with each other, both acting as interviewer and interviewee.

The interview between the two authors comes via the Kindle Daily Post. Riordan is best known for his various Percy Jackson series, which include the five books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and the soon-to-be completed Heroes of Olympus series. Stroud, on the other hand, is best known for his Bartimaeus Sequence series, with a total of four books, and his Lockwood & Co. series, of which there is currently two, with the second coming out next year.

The interview is interesting in that both Riordan and Stroud play each role, answering and asking questions in turn. They praise each other’s works, flowing seamlessly from one topic to the next.

Of note, Riordan talks about the rise of the Urban Fantasy subgenre, saying it’s “one of things I love about [Stroud’s] work.” He continues, “The Bartimaeus books are set in London, and yet that familiar landscape is rendered into something much more fantastical. I’ll never look at Westminster Abbey the same way again. In your new series Lockwood & Co., we’re clearly in modern England, but then again, we’re not. Ghosts run rampant and children with rapiers patrol the haunted streets. I love the juxtaposition of familiar and strange.”

Stroud also talks about setting and a bit about his process coming up with various places he sets his books. “For me, figuring out how a new world works is one of the real highlights of the job,” he says. “It’s so crucial too: I think one of the ironies of writing good fantasy is that it has to abide by its own laws – it must make sense under its own terms.”

He goes on to say that although Lockwood & Co. is technically set in the modern age, it is “in a world without today’s zippy telecommunications (ie. no cell-phones for getting you out of a tight spot). Oh, and with a raging epidemic of ghosts. That’s enough to get me leaping out of bed in the mornings.”

It seems as thought both Riordan and Stroud have the same passion for adventure, mythology, and writing — much to their fans’ delight.

Riordan’s next book, House of Hades, is due out on October 8. Stroud’s first novel in the Lockwood & Co. series, titled The Screaming Staircase, released in August. The sequel, The Whispering Skull, is due out next year.

You can read the entire interview on the Kindle Daily Post.