OK folks, this is a mixed news post -- potentially good long-term news, but mixed in with some short-term bum notes!!

So, I was planning to surprise you all in October with a new Darren Shan book. It's a short horror novel that I wrote several years ago. My agent at the time presented it to my publishers, but they weren't interested in it, so I put it aside for a while, before returning to it this year to polish it up and get it ready for self-publication -- I felt there'd been a long enough wait since the end of my Archibald Lox series, and decided this would be a good one to follow it up with, as I still have a soft spot for the book, regardless of what the publishers thought. My plan was to get it ready, then drop the news on you guys at the last minute, shortly before I went ahead and released it.

As I worked on pushing ahead with the book, I sent the latest draft to my new agent. I always run my self-published work by her ahead of releasing it, to keep her in the loop, and also to give her the chance to step in and take it to traditional publishers if she feels there might be a market for it. I fully expected her to knock this one straight back, since it had been rejected previously, but to my surprise and delight she came back with some very thoughtful comments and suggestions for a rewrite. (For the first time in my long career, I've had someone ask me to make a story darker instead of tone it down!!!)

There's absolutely no guarantee that the rewrite will go well, or that we'll be able to land a publishing deal for it. I may very well end up pushing ahead with my original plan, and self-publish the book next year. But I'm going to give it a go, as there's no doubt that it stand a much better chance of finding a wider audience if it goes through a traditional publisher -- I'm not very good at the publishing side of things and taking my self-published work to a larger readership.

The rewrite will take time (I'll probably have to go through it a few times before I'm happy with it), and then it will have to go to my agent, and then -- if she likes it and thinks it has a shot -- it will have to be sent to a few publishers. So there's absolutely no way it's going to see print this year.

I'd like to put out a Darren Dash book instead, to plug the gap, but unfortunately I don't have one ready to go, as I was concentrating on the YA book. I'm going to start working on one as soon as I can, and might even work on it at the same time as I'm rewriting the Darren Shan book, but I think it's VERY unlikely that I'll be able to get it all lined up before the end of the year. I'm not ruling the possibility out completely, but it's an extreme long shot, and I imagine it will be spring 2025, or even later, before it will be ready for release.

So, this look like being a VERY rare year, with no new book from me on either the YA or adult front. But hopefully I'll make up for it in 2025, with a new Darren Dash book, plus a new Darren Shan YA book, PLUS of course my first ever picture book, The Terrified Troll. Keep those fingers crossed!! And while you're doing that, I'll keep working hard on things at my end, to bring the books to you as swiftly as I can. 2024 might prove to be a bust, but 2025 could end up being one of my most productive years ever!!!!