The Edinburgh Book festival launched their 2011 programme today, so I'm now able to reveal that I will be doing two VERY special events this year!! First, on Saturday 20th, I am doing a panel event with Barry Hutchison (I loved Raggy Maggie when I read it last year) and Alexander Gordon Smith (who used to send me fanmail as a Shanster before he established himself as a top-notch author in his own right with the pulsating Furnace). We will be discussing horror books, how we developed our love of all things gory, and why we've chosen to work in such a bloodthirsty field. We'll each be reading out a scene from a horror novel that had a big impact on us, answering lots of questions, and if there's time we might even read out a short extract from our own books too! I always like doing panel events, as they generate a different dynamic to my solo stuff. I'm particulalry looking forward to this one, because apart from sharing the stage with two authors whose work I honestly admire, it marks the first time that I'll have been the senior panellists at one of these things!! Always before, I've done events with older, more established authors. This is the first time when I will be the "veteran"!!! It's a sign that I'm getting older, sure, but I quite like the idea of whipping the young bucks into shape -- I'm going to feel like The Godfather, and who knows, maybe I'll start acting like him too!!! "Barry and Gordon... they won't be writing any more horror... they're leaving the way clear for me... I made them an offer they couldn't refuse..." http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/darren-shan-barry-hutchison-alexander-gordon-smith-talk-horror

Then, on Sunday 21st, I'm going to be doing an event that I am SO psyched about!!! This will be by 12th year in a row at the Edinburgh Book Festival, and I wanted to mark the occasion with something extra special, so I've come up with a 2 hour extravaganza, focusing on the 12 books of The Saga Of Darren Shan!! I'm going to write a script between now and the Festival, summarising the series in a short, snappy, freaky kind of way, and will tell the complete story in what will hopefully be a breath-taking couple of hours!! I'll be allowing myself a maximum of 10 minutes per book (12 x 10 = 120 minutes), so it will have to be short and sweet, but I'm going to cram in as much of the story and characters as I can. This will be a bit like the one-man Star Wars and Harry Potter shows, only a bit more grisly!! Originally I had toyed with the idea of doing a 12 HOURS show, devoting an hour to each book, but while the crazy anarchist in me loves that idea, realistically this is a MUCH wiser course!! It will give me a chance to tell the whole story in one fell swoop, in a way which will hopefully be entertaining and refreshing -- without anyone suffering numb bum syndrome!! If it works the way I hope, there's a chance I might repeat it occasionally at other events down the road, but I don't expect to do it very often, because of the extra time and effort it will involve. And if it falls flat, then this will probably be the one and only time I do it!!!! Either way, this is a first for me, something I've never done before, a bit of Shan history in the making. My advice -- buy, beg or borrow to get a ticket!!!!! http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/darren-shan-1

You can find times, order tickets and find out what other great authors will be appearing at the Festival by clicking on this link for their web site: http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/