I normally post Shan family photos on a Sunday, but there's a lot of fan art and other bits of pieces stacking up on my desktop, mostly because I've been posting so much about my new Archibald Lox books -- I probably should say sorry, but hellfire, truth be told, I don't regret a thing!!!

Ahem.

Anyway, I decided to do a little bit of catching up today, so here we go with a trilogy of Demonata-themed items.

First up, a fan called Faith made a brilliant Lord Loss doll and sent it to me, which was incredibly generous of her. I know it looks like he's wearing glasses, but that's just the way the photo came out! I've added this to the shelves in my office (close to the doll of Artery that another fan made for me a long time back -- you can see it at the edge of the photo), so I see it every day, reminding me of what wonderful fans I have, and how lucky a demonic little monster I am!

Next, there's a drawing of the aforementioned Artery by a fan called Roseanne. I think we sometimes forget what a horrible little beat Artery actually was -- a lot of fans tend to draw him a bit cuter than he was described in the books -- but Roseanne nicely capture the true horror of Lord Loss' friendly little helper!

Finally, a fan called Danny wrote to me with a theory that my Demonata and vampire books are linked, and also perhaps my Zom-B series. WARNING: the following lines, and the photo of Danny's theory, contain SPOILERS for all three series!!! Don't read on, or look at the phot, unless you're up to speed with all things Shan!!!

Right, assuming you're still with me... A lot of fans have wondered this over the years -- well, at least if The Demonata and Cirque Du Freak are connected. (The possible Zom-B link doesn't get mentioned too often.) The answer is... NO. I did briefly consider, early on, linking my demon and vampire books, and having Desmond Tiny play a role in the developing tales about Lord Loss that I was stringing together. I felt he'd get on well with the eight-armed sentinal of sorrow! But the two stories are very different in tone and style, and I just felt it would be gimmicky. The monsters mentioned in Sons of Destiny are NOT the demons from The Demonata. So... sorry, Danny, it's a very good theory, and in an alternate universe, maybe another Darren Shan DID link the variouys universes together, Marvel and DC style, to create a.... shall we say... Shaniverse. But in our dimension I preferred to let the stories play out independently of one another -- except, of course, in the Christmas short story that I post on my site every year for about a week, when they DO all merge and collide -- but that's very much tongue in cheek, and never meant to be regarded as gosple. :-)