I absolutely LOVE this drawing of loads of the characters from my Cirque Du Freak / Saga of Darren Shan series. It was drawn by a fan called Akatsuki Mine back in January, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of the first Cirque Du Freak book in the UK in January 2000. And in case you haven't read the books in a while, the artist also very thoughtfully provided a second picture, with the colours faded and all the names inked in -- but see if you can name them all by yourself before you look!!!

The reason I held the drawing back until now is that, having come too late to be used to highlight the January celebrations, I wanted to save it for the 20th anniversary of the Shanville Monthly that I knew was coming up. Yes, this month my monthly newsletter celebrates 20 years of virtually uninterrupted business, and along with the usual roundup of news and updates, I'm running a competition featuring some extraordinarily rare posters and T-shirts -- I think it's safe to say that the five winners will end up with a collection of Darren Shan memorobilia which nobody else in the world will be able to match. Well, except for ME, of course!!!

You can find out more, and how to enter, by clicking here: https://www.darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly

p.s. Happy Independence Day to all my fans in the USA!! But remember -- you might have shaken free of the shackles of the British, but you'll never shake free of the shackles of Desmond Tiny!!!! :-) :-) :-)