Last week, I asked any artistic Shansters who might be thinking of drawing any of my characters in the near future if they could possibly display them wearing masks, as I think we're all going to have to get used to that as we move forward through these troubled times, and it might help if we see people we admire -- whether real or fictional -- leading the way and setting the trend.

A fan called Maisie was first off the mark, with drawings of Mr Crepsley and Vancha, which I shared last Friday or Saturday, But another fan called Emma wasn't far behind, with this wonderful drawing of Grubbs, Kernel and Bec from my Demonata series, all wearing beautifully personalised masks -- the attention to detail here is exquisite, so make sure you study the masks closely. I know that in Ireland you can certainly get fun (but every bit as effective) masks like this -- Mrs Shan got a few for us, and mine features some cheery Halloween pumpkins, as you can see in photo #2 -- and they're not very expensive. We've all got to do what we must to get through this pandemic as best we can, and it's going to be a hard and probably a lengthy slog, but hey, that doesn't mean we can't fight the good fight with a devilish grin and a cheeky little wink!!! :-)

I'll be posting lots more mask drawings next week -- in fact, I'm going to try to make it an entire week of them, and post at least one every day, assuming the Shansters come through in spades -- I'm sure they will... :-)

Thankfully, you don't need to wear a mask to read the July issue of the Shanville Monthly (well, unless you're reading it on a phone or tablet when you're out and about in public), which went live a couple of days ago and features one of the coolest competitions I think I've ever run. Click here to find out more: https://www.darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly