Did you ever have one of those days where you're idly looking for some of your books on Amazon, when you suddenly spot covers for Korean editions of those books that you never knew existed?!?

I'd had a very nice day, and gone to meet a lovely guy called Padraig, who'd bought the perk on my Terrified Troll campaign allowing him to hang out with me for a couple of hours in Limerick. (If you haven't yet heard about that, do a quick search for INDIEGOGO TERRIFIED TROLL DARREN SHAN to find out all about it -- there are several other cool perks, and you can pre-order a copy of the book.)

Anyway, when I got back home, I was answering an email from Eva, the artist who will be drawing the illustrations in The Terrified Troll. A teacher at her daughter's school was trying to track down a copy of the manga edition of Cirque Du Freak, and couldn't find it in the shops, so Eva asked me if I knew where she could get her hands on a copy. I told her about the omnibus editions which were released a few years ago, and went to Amazon UK to forward on the link to her. I could only see Volumes 1, 2 and 6 (each Volume collects two books from the series), so I scrolled down a bit further, in case the others were hidden elsewhere in the listings. Which is when I spotted... THESE!!!

So, my books were officially released in Korea by a reputable publisher many years ago, and I actually visited there on tour a couple of times. I have the covers of those early, legitimate editions up on my website, along with the covers from all the other countries where my work has been printed. These appear to have been published more recently, by a publisher I've never heard of, and since no one over there told me about the new editions of the books, I'm pretty sure they didn't send me any royalties from them either!!!!

Anyone know any good lawyers over in that neck of the woods?!?

Actually, it was only as I was typing that last line that it actually struck me... I've been assuming these are from a publisher in South Korea... but maybe they actually hail from NORTH Korea!!! Might Kim Jong Un be a secret Shanster?!?!?