Wow! Saturday in Budapest was a crazy, fabulous day!! I've had some epic signings in Hungary in the past, and this was certainly one to add to the list!

The day started at 10am, when I met with a small group of fans who had signed up for a pre-event event (if that makes sense!). This was a nice, relaxed start to the day -- I was able to take my time singing their books, answered lots of questions, and hung out with them for a while.

There was a 45 minutes delay after that, while the organisers got everything lined up. Then I did a Q&A (I posted a video of that yesterday) and started signing for the BIG crowd shortly before 1pm... and, with only a very short 15 minutes to so break for lunch, I stayed signing until just after 9pm!!! Yup, eight hours in total, furiously signing books, answering questions as swiftly as I could, and of course strangling fans in their photos with me!!!

I know the whole signing session took a few hours longer than anticipated, and some people weren't able to stay to get their books signed, but it's always very difficult with a crowd this large. We could have just rushed everyone through -- a quick signature in just one book per person -- but I always like to give everyone at least a minute when they come up to meet me, write a message for them, sign as many of my books as they've chosen to bring along, and then have fun taking the photo. It's a big deal for a lot of fans, and some travel a long way -- at this event I had people come from Serbia and Austria!!! We could have capped the numbers, of course, and only allowed in 100 or 200 people, but I don't get to Hungary very often (it had been 10 years since my previous visit), and I wanted to give as many people as possible the chance to meet me. In an ideal world, we would have staged the event over two days, but I could only commit to a single day because of travel limitations (there aren't very many flights between my local airport at Budapest).

Anyway, while I know lots of you waited a VERY long time in the line, I hope it comes as some small comfort that *I* waited longer than anyone!!! People kept commenting on how cheerful I seemed to be, even after five and six and seven hours, when my hand and back and neck were hurting -- but in all honesty, I WAS truly cheerful. I had a brilliant day. For me, a busy event is a great event. I love to meet as many of you guys as I can when I travel, and I was thrilled that so many of you went out of your way to come meet me. I would have stayed until midnight if I'd had to, though it was probably best that it didn't run quite that late -- the venue turned into a night club later, which would have been something of a rather big challenge!!!

I hope to get back to Budapest again in the not too distant future, and next time we'll have another look at the organisational side of things, to try and make it a little bit smoother and easier for those who come. But for now, those of you who DID come and WERE able to stay in line for hours to get your books signed, will be able to say in years to come that you didn't just ATTEND a Darren Shan event... you SURVIVED it!!!!!

Finally, an extra big THANK YOU to Carmen and her team of volunteers who worked so hard to make this happen, and who stuck with me all the way to the end. You guys went above and beyond the call of duty, and it's truly appreciated.

Until next time -- CHEERS!!!!