I've had a brilliant time in Edinburgh, as I usually do. There are so many shows on at the Fringe that it's hard choosing what to go see. Some years we have more luck than others in our choices -- there have been times when we've picked a succession of shows that have seemed fairly poor. But this year we've had a good run and been to lots of good plays and stand-ups. I posted a rating for each show on my Twitter account - http://twitter.com/darrenshan - so if you want to check out a reporting of everything I saw, that's the place to go!! In brief, the highlights for me were Wit Tank (a sketchshow group), Pajama Men (two actors who put on a surreal masterclass), Adam Riches (the most manic comic I've seen in a long time) and Sam Simmons (a close second in the manic stakes to Adam Riches). I sitll have a couple more to go to as I write this -- I'll tweet my reviews of them later.

I also did two events at the Book Festival while here. The first was a panel event with Barry Hutchison and Alexander Gordon Smith. It was a fun show, in which we talked about horror and our influences. Ideally we could have done with a bit more time, to allow for more questions from the audience, but c'est la vie. I had a nice meal and some drinks with the pair later -- it's always nice hanging out with other authors!

Then, on Sunday, I did my mammoth "Saga of Darren Shan" event, in which I told the story of all 12 books. I thought I'd be able to do it in two hours, but it took a bit longer than I anticipated and ran to 2 hours 25 minutes in the end. My apologies to any fans who had a sore bum after that!!! But the reaction was brilliant -- everyone I spoke with seemed to have really enjoyed it, even parents who had never read any of my books. This was an experiment for me -- I honestly had no idea how people would react. Given the positive response, I hope to do it again at some future events -- but only after I've edited it down a bit more to get it within that 2 hours mark!!! Thanks for everyone who came, and to the good folk of the Book Festival for letting me run over -- they would have been within their rights to call time, but they let me plough on to the very end. See you all again next year -- touch wood!!!!