"Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday dear Darren! Happy birthday to me!!!" ������

Yup, today is my birthday... but it's not any average old birthday, because today I turn... 50 years old!!! ������ Inside my head, I find it hard to comprehend that I'm half a century old. I was discussing this with a couple of my friends, who are the same age as me, and they both felt the same thing. When we were kids, 50 was ANCIENT!! 50 year olds were PROPER grown-ups, different to us in every way imaginable. Yet we still feel young (even though we know we're not) and foolish (even though we... are!!). We're still figuring out this being an adult lark, learning all the time. We don't have all the answers. We don't feel radically different to how we did when we were 20 or 30 -- we still like the same kinds of music, the same kinds of movies, the same kinds of books...

But, no matter how we might feel, the facts don't lie, and today I AM 50, whether I like it or not! I'm away from home at the moment, so I had a little house party last weekend to celebrate, with just some close family members and friends. Mrs Shan took some pictures, as she always does, which allows me to share some of the night with a lot of my other close friends -- you guys!!!!

That's me posing with a pair of balloons in the first photo -- rub it in, why don't you?!?

I have a little cuddle with my favourite young lady in the second.

The third features a couch full of women (and a girl) who've played a huge role in my writing -- that's Babcia (Mrs Shan's mother) on the left, after whom I named the character of Urszula in the second Archibald Lox book. My daughter Gaia is next to her, and a character in the Archie books is named after her too. My aunt Maureen is sitting next to her -- it was while babysitting one of her five children more than a quarter of a century ago that I had the idea of Cirque Du Freak, so without her it almost certainly would never have existed. And without the woman on the right, Darren Shan would never have existed, because that's my mum!! ��

In the fourth photo... many years ago, before I hooked up with Mrs Shan, I had rather dubious fashion sense! I used to wear lots of colourful Versace silk shirts, which just didn't look right on me. I've held on to some of them, and I pulled them out of the bag for my 40th birthday party 10 years ago. Someone remembered that last weekend, so... out they came again!!!

Now, I'm not going to look for a present from any of you, but if you WOULD like to do something nice for me today, to help ease the pain of turning 50, I'd love it if you could have a quick read of my monthly online newsletter, where you'll find all my latest news and updates: https://darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly

And if you REALLY want to make me smile, I'd be absolutely over the moon if you signed up to my email list -- I never bombard my followers with emails, and only contact you guys when there's something truly notable to report. https://darrenshan.com/news/subscribe

Right -- roll on the next 50 years!!!!