"Who the hell is Pasta O'Malley?!?"

That was a question posed by a fan over on Twitter a few days ago. They'd re-read the series, spotted his name in the final book, and couldn't recall him ever being mentioned in it before. What was going on?!?

The answer was to be found on the Darren Shan Wiki page, which gave a full run-down on the two brief mentions of Pasta -- and I have to be totally honest here -- I had to look that up to find out! I'd completely forgotten about the character!!

To be fair to myself, Pasta in the books has the most fleeting of fleeting appearances. He's mentioned very briefly in book 8, but doesn't actually appear in it, and then is seen very briefly in book 12, but he's dead. Not much action for poor old Pasta, I'm afraid!!

I forget a lot about a book and a series when I move on, especially when a good chunk of time has passed, but when I'm creating, I'm fully immersed in that world, taking care to put a polish on even the finest of details -- which is how an obscure, minor character like Pasta, who was only name-checked once before, can pop up (albeit dead) in a crucial scene in the final book. I try to make the worlds of my books as real as possible, and in real life, not everyone is a star. We're surrounded in our day to day lives by Pasta O'Malleys, people with full and rich histories of their own, but who only briefly register in the stories of OUR lives -- just as we only briefly register in the stories of THEIR lives.

I've always liked books that give nice little moments to far-fringe characters -- David Eddings did it in his lovely Belgariad series, where a pair of guys are met fleetingly in one of the books, then turn up again unexpectedly in a tiny but poignant moment much later in the story line -- and that's why I try to include a few Pasta O'Malleys every now and again, along with the more memorable heroes and villains.

Sorry for forgetting about you, Pasta -- I'll try not to forget you again -- and I hope this post makes up for it!!! :-)

https://darren-shan.fandom.com/wiki/Pasta_O%27Malley