A fan of my Saga Of Darren Shan / Cirque Du Freak books recently asked me about the dates that are listed at the end of the final book, Sons Of Destiny. What did they mean? Well, there's no great mystery -- at the end of a series, or a stand-alone novel, I like to list the date that I started work on the series/book and the date that I did my final piece of editing work on it. It's something that Stephen King does in his work, and I always liked that and thought it was a good idea, so I do it too. These days I usually make it clearer, e.g. I say "Written between..." but in the past I assumed people would automatically know what the dates referred to. But as the old saying goes, "To assume makes an ass of u and me," and it wasn't too long before I realised that just because it was clear to me, didn't mean it was clear to everybody else! :-)

With that in mind, to avoid any shadow of a doubt, let me state very clearly that the October issue of the Shanville Monthly, the Darren Shan newsletter that I issue at the start of each new month, went live a few days ago, with all the latest Shan-related news and updates. There's also a pretty cool competition. To check it out, click on this nice, clear link: https://www.darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly/