Heh heh -- I caught out SO MANY of you with my April Fool's Day post yesterday!! It was so ludicrous, I was sure nobody would fall for it -- I almost stopped, as I was typing, as I felt that I was wasting my time, and that this year I had jumped the shark. But, no, loads of you WERE prepared to believe that a Big Screen crossover between Sesame Street and Cirque Du Freak was just around the corner! That's emboldened me to take things even further next year -- although, in truth, this one's going to be a very hard one to top!!! :-)

I mentioned the April issue of my monthly online newsletter yesterday -- you can check it out here: https://darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly -- but there wasn't room to squeeze in a mention for the birthday boy... Mr Crepsley!!!

As I made clear in a post some months back, there's no "official" birthday date for Mr Crepsley. It's not something he would have even known himself, as poor people in his part of the world tended not to mark births the way we do these days. He'd have had a rough idea of his age, but nothing more than that. BUT some years ago, as a joke, when somebody asked, I said that his birthday fell on April Fool's Day. I actually forgot about that afterwards, but enough of you remembered for it to become KIND OF "a thing," so, yeah, let's run with the joke and all raise a mug of ale in his honour, and chant, "Happy Birthday, Mr Crepsley... wherever you are!!!!"

Let's also celebrate with four drawings of the old orange-haired grouch, by four very talented Shansters. The first, in which Larten is holding a pair of sunglasses, is by Liv. The second, in which Larten struggles with his ABC's (this made me chuckle so much!!) is by Noel. The third, by Elizabeth, was made on Hero Forge (some type of video game, I assume...). And the fourth, in which he's wearing an apron (either serving time as a waiter, or trying out for a role in an AmDram production of Sweeny Todd...) is by Keroromo.

Mr Crepsley is a very lucky man to be cared for by so many people, and on his behalf, I thank you all.

"That's not a tear in my eye," he told me to tell you. "Vampires do not cry!!! I must simply be allergic to... something..."

"Happiness," I whispered evilly in reply.

"Shut your mouth, boy!!" he roared back.

Ah yes -- THERE's the Mr Crepsley we all know and... love???