It's Shanta's 20th anniversary -- and I didn't even know!!!

Last weekend, a fan called Logan asked me when I posted the first ever issue of my annual Shanta Claus story. I thought it was in 2001 or 2002, but I went and checked the Shanville Monthly archives, and it actually first saw the light of day all the way back in December 2000! That was the year that Shanmania started -- Cirque Du Freak came out in January, and The Vampire's Assistant and Tunnels Of Blood were also released before the end of the year. I also launched my website that year, and started doing a monthly newsletter in August. And, just before Christmas, I wrote a short story, set after the events of the first three books, and I've revised and updated that over the last two decades, until it's almost as long as some of my shorter books!!

I added quite a lot of new material to the story this year, and tweaked it in several places too. I'm sure a lot of you have already read it, but in case you missed my post last week, it'll be live for a few more days, and you can access it (and a whole load of other free extra stuff too) by clicking on the following link:

https://www.darrenshan.com/extras

Plus, if you want to have a look at the December 2000 newsletter, which is where I found proof of its first appearance, the link for that is just below -- it's worth a quick glimpse, if you're a Harry Potter fan, because it includes a short post about my visit to the film set while they were making the first film...

https://www.darrenshan.com/news/shanville-archives/2000/12/