It's that time of year again, when I catch the scent of Edinburgh and take off!! I first visited the city in August 2000, to make my first appearance at the Book festival. I didn't stay for long that time, but I've been back every August since then, sometimes for up to a week, usually for at least 3 or 4 days. While there, I always do an event or two at the Book Festival, but I squeeze in lots of other shows too -- book events, theatre, comedy and more. At my peak, I sometimes went to 7 or 8 shows a day!! These times I go a little slower and try to keep it down to "just" 5 or so. I love trying all sorts of different shows, squeezing in as many different experiences as I can. Most don't make much of a lasting impression, but usuall,y if Im lucky, I'll find one or two that linger in my memory long after I've headed back across the waters to home.

I normally try to do something special in Edinburgh. I've often premiered extracts there -- in fact sometimes I've written material just for my Edinburgh appearances. This year I'm doing a couple of extra special events. First, on Saturday 20th, at 1.30pm, I'm doing a panel event with Barry Hutchison (Invisible Fiends) and Alexander Gordon Smith (Furnace), in which we'll be talking about our love of horror -- expect readings from some of our favourite horror novels, a bit of our own material, and plenty of time for questions and answers. It should be great, grisly fun! You can book tickets by CLICKING HERE.

Then, on Sunday 21st, at 10.30am, I'm unleashing The Saga Of Darren Shan REDUX (I just came up with that title!! stolen from Apocalypse Now Redux, of course!) on the world. Since this is my 12th appearance in a row at the Festival, I thought I would re-tell the whole, twelve-book story of The Saga Of Darren Shan. In two hours!!! I'm allowing myself 10 minutes per book, and it was hell to reduce each novel down to that running time!! But I love a challenge, and I think I've pulled it off -- a tight, taut narrative that captures a lot of the flavour of the books, but works in its own right too. If you want to come along and re-live the entire story of Darren Shan's vampiric life in two hours, then you can buy tickets by CLICKING HERE. The Guardian listed it as one of the ten best family shows to look forward to at the Festival (including the other festivals too), so I've a lot to live up to!! Come and see me soar high like a vampire bat... or fall flat on my face like a vampire clown!!!!!!