GREETINGS!

Welcome to the February edition of the Shanville Monthly! Sorry it's a bit late, but I had to add in loads of tour details. As you'll see when you scroll down, it's a LONG list!!! In fact it took so long to paste all the details in and then edit them into shape, that I had to spread my work on the Monthly out over two days -- hence the delay!! I have touring news for Ireland, the UK, America and the Far East, all the way up to September -- and there might be even more to add to the list later in the year! This is gearing up to be possibly my biggest, busiest touring year ever!!! But I've plenty more news to report before we get down to the nitty-gritty of the tour details, so pull up a pew, make yourself comfortable, and read on at your leisure ...



"SLAWTER" UK COMPETITION

For fans in the UK -- Waterstones are running an online competition to tie in with the release of the paperback of "Slawter". The four winners will each get a 3 months unlimited cinema pass to VUE cinemas!!!! Now that's what I call a super-cool prize!!!!! You have to be over 18 to enter the competition, but my advice, if you're under that age (as most of my fans are!), is to simply enter the name of your Mum or Dad -- if you win, they can collect it, and YOU can use it!!!!! There's still time for you to enter if you haven't already -- the closing date is February 11th. Please note, I have no direct involvement with this particular competition, so if you run into any complications, you'll need to contact Waterstones, not me. Click on the following link for more info and to enter:

http://www.waterstones.com/darrenshan



DONCASTER SHORTLIST

I noted in the Shanville Monthly a few months back that Demon Thief had been longlisted for the Doncaster Children's Book Of The Year award. I'm very pleased to be able to report that it has now been shortlisted, i.e. from the 25 books on the longlist, it has made the final shortlist of just 6 books. The award is entirely voted for by children -- so you can see that young readers of Doncaster have impeccably good taste in books!!!! The winner will be announced in March -- I'll be keeping my fingers crossed!! If any of you reading this are from one of the participating schools, I'd appreciate your vote! You can read the full shortlist and leave reviews of the book by clicking here: DONCASTER AWARD



"BEC" HITS JAPAN

"Bec" went on sale in Japan near the end of January (the 27th). So if any of my Japanese fans are reading this, go hunt it down A.S.A.P.!!! If you live outside Japan and want to order the book, it's possible to do so through Amazon Japan -- the site is a bit tricky to negotiate if you can't read Japanese, but if you're familiar with the Amazon site and procedures, it CAN be done!!!. Click on the following link to get to the "Bec" page: AMAZON JAPAN.

Also, check out my Japanese publishers' Demonata site, which features cool new fan art, wallpaper to download for your computer, and a whole lot more! Even if you can't read Japanese, you can find your away around the site quite easily, so it's certainly worth checking out. Clink on this link: SHOGAKAKUN DEMONATA.



"THE DEMONATA" ARE COMING TO GERMANY!

Lord Loss, the first book of The Demonata, will go on sale in Germany in March. Its full title in German is Dämonicon 1. Fürst der Schatten. If anybody wishes to buy it through the German branch of Amazon, this is the link: LORD LOSS

Book 2, Demon Thief, will go on sale in May (a nice short wait -- hurrah!!) and its title in German is Dämonicon 2. Höllenkind. This is its link on Amazon.de: DEMON THIEF



TRANSYLVANIA WELCOMES HOME ITS LATEST VAMPIRE!

I'm delighted to be able to announce that Romania has become the 33rd country to officially publish my books. I've just signed a deal with Grupul Editorial Corint for the first 3 books in the "Saga of Darren Shan" series. Hopefully the first book will see print later this year or early 2008. Romania, of course, is home to Transylvania, infamous for its Dracula association -- so it gives me an extra special buzz to know that my books will soon be on sale in the home of the original Lord of the Night!!!!



NEW INTERVIEWS AND REVIEWS
I've added a few new (and quite lengthy) interviews to my site. You can check them out by clicking here: INTERVIEWS Also, if you live in the UK, please note there will be a short interview with me in the The Independent newspaper on Wednesday February 14th (Valentine's Day, no less!), ahead of my appearance at the Royal Festival Hall on the 19th.

As well as theabove interviews, I've added some new reviews of Bec to my site, as well as a couple for Lord Loss, Demon Thief and Slawter. I've built up quite a nice library of Demonata reviews by now, which I like -- I'm always interested in what critics have to say about books. The reaction from fans matters more to me, but reviews fascinate me too. Even if it's bad, I like to get feedback! You can access all the reviws, both new and old, by clicking here: DEMON REVIEWS


NEW DOWNLOADS!!
I've added loads of new wallpapers to the downloads sections of my site. You can set the wallpapers as the background on your computer -- choose your favourite from the many on display, or alternate them if you can't decide!! The new wallpapers come from my Japanese and Taiwanese publishers. There are vampire wallpapers for those who loved The Saga, and demon wallpapers for those who prefer The Demonata. We're doing our best to keep everyone happy!!!!

You can find the demon wallpapers by clicking here: DEMON WALLPAPER

You can find the vampire wallpapers by clicking here: VAMPIRE WALLPAPER


NEW COVERS

I've added the Japanese and Taiwanese covers of Bec to Secret Shanville -- you can access them, and compare the very different, intriguing approaches they take, by clicking here: BEC COVERS

I've also added the covers for the first 3 Japanese paperback editions of The Saga of Darren Shan, and the cover for the Thailand edition of Killers of the Dawn. You can find them here: VAMPIRE COVERS



FAN SITE

There's a new, pretty cool Darren Shan fan site on the web. I don't list fan sites normally -- I know there are lots out there, but most don't offer anything more than you can find on my own site, so I see them as being mostly redundant. This one, though, has a few things of its own to serve up!! Click on the following link to check it out: FAN SITE



FEBRUARY EVENTS IN DERBY & LONDON
1) I am doing an event in Derby (in the UK) on Sunday 18th February. It will take place in the Guildhall Theatre at 5.00pm. Tickets are £9 for adults, £7 concessions, £5 under-16s. They'd already sold about half their allocated seats when I checked late in January, so if you're interested in going, my advice is to act quickly or you might miss out!!!! Please click on the link below for more info and to book: CLICK HERE FOR DERBY EVENT

2) *UPDATED FEBRUARY 12th* In London, on Monday February 19th, 2007, I am going to be doing an event at The Purcell Room instead of the Queen Elizabeth Hall as originally announced. This is a smaller venue, which holds about 370 people. Why the change? Well, I was under the impression that this was a schools event, with school groups being invited -- as popular as I like to think I am, I've never come anywhere near to filling a 900 seater at a public event!!! But I recently found out that, since most local schools are on half-term next week, NO schools have actually been invited!! So, since I figure there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of filling the QEH -- or even nearly filling it -- I decided it made more sense to move to the smaller venue, to avoid a feeling of crushing emptiness!!!!! It should still be a fun event, just not quite as on a massive scale as before. For more info and to book tickets: CLICK HERE FOR Q.E.H. EVENT (please note, tickets booked for the Queen Elizabeth Hall will still be valid, and I assume the organisers will try to give you similar seats to those you would have had in the other venue.)



MARCH IRISH EVENT

On Tuesday March 20th I will be doing a school event at Tarbert Comprehensive School in County Kerry. I will be opening their new library as part of my event.

APRIL U.S.A. TOUR

I am coming to America on tour in April 2007, from the 2nd to the 20th. My publishers, Little Brown have almost finished putting my schedule together, and you can check it out below! All the events in bold print have been confirmed. The events which are not in bold print (or where full details have not been provided) are not yet 100% confirmed. In-school events are for specified schools only. PUBLIC events are open to everyone, although you might want to contact the store in advance to be absolutely certain that you can get in, just in case there are space limitations!! We've tried to cover as many bases as possible, but with the States being such a big place, it wasn't possible to fit in every request. If I'm not coming to a venue near you, please accept my apologies -- maybe you can catch me next time!! If you want to come to any of the events, make sure you check back for the full, revised, confirmed itinerary closer to April, just in case there are any changes!

Monday, April 2, 2007 - Seattle

10:00 a.m.


In-school presentation/signing.

Afternoon (1 or 2)


In-school presentation/signing.

7:00 p.m.


PUBLIC Presentation/signing - Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE. http://www.thirdplacebooks.com

Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - Olympia/Lacey

8:00 – 9:30 a.m.


In-school presentation/signing - Olympia.

10:00 – 11:30 a.m.


In-school presentation (150 students)/signing - Lacey.

12:00 – 12:45 p.m.


In-school presentation - Olympia.

EVENING


PUBLIC presentation/signing - Barnes and Noble, Olympia, WA.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - Seattle/San Francisco

AM


In-school presentation/signing – Seattle.

PM


Possible PUBLIC San Francisco evening event.

Thursday, April 5, 2007 - San Francisco/Menlo Park/Burlingame

9:30 – 10:30 a.m.


In-school presentation/signing - Cathedral School for Boys, San Francisco.

PM


School group event - Menlo Park.

7:00 p.m.


PUBLIC presentation/signing - Books Inc., 1375 Burlingame Ave., Burlingame, CA 94010.

Friday, April 6, 2007 - Petaluma/Santa Rosa/Napa

10:30 a.m.


In-school presentation/signing - Kenilworth Junior High School, Petaluma.

2:00 p.m.


PUBLIC in-store presentation/signing - Copperfield’s, Montgomery Village store, Santa Rosa, CA.

7:00 p.m.


PUBLIC presentation/signing - Copperfields, Napa store.

Saturday, April 7, 2007




TBC




TBC

Sunday, April 8, 2007 - EASTER




Travel day. I get to rest. Hurrah!!!

Monday, April 9, 2007 - Humble/Houston

10:00 a.m.


In-school presentation/signing - Humble, Texas.

2:00 p.m.


In-school presentation/signing - Texas.

5:00 p.m.


PUBLIC presentation/signing - Blue Willow Bookshop, 14532 Memorial Drive, Houston, Texas.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007 - Coppell/Frisco

12:00 noon


Two in-school presentations/signing - Coppell Middle School West, Coppell, TX.

7:00 p.m.


PUBLIC presentation/signing - Barnes and Noble, 2601 Preston Rd., Frisco, TX 75034.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007 - Hurst/San Antonio

10:00 a.m.


In-school presentation/signing - Hurst Junior High, TX.

7:00 p.m.


In-school presentation/signing - Rawlinson Middle School, 14100 Vance Jackson, San Antonio, TX 78249.

Thursday, April 12, 2007 - Texas

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.


Presentation, “Taking a Bite out of YA Lit” - Texas Library Association.

1:30 – 2:30 p.m.


Signing - Texas Library Association.

Friday, April 13, 2007 - Chicago/Oak Park/Naperville

AM


TWO In-school presentations/signings – Illinois.

4pm


In-store event with Magic Tree, Magic Tree Bookstore, 141 Oak Park, Oak Park, IL.

7:00 p.m.


PUBLIC presentation/signing - Anderson’s Bookshop, 123 W. Jefferson, Naperville, IL.

Saturday, April 14, 2007 - LaGrange/Skokie

11:00 a.m.


PUBLIC presentation/signing - Borders Books and Music, 1 N. LaGrange Road, LaGrange, IL 60525.

3:00 p.m.


PUBLIC presentation/signing - Skokie Public Library, 5215 Oakton St., Skokie, IL 60077.

Sunday, April 15, 2007 - Cincinnati

1:00 p.m.


PUBLIC presentation/signing - Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Rookwood Pavilion, 2692 Madison Road, Cincinnati, OH 45208.

Monday, April 16, 2007 - Ohio/Brighton

9:00 a.m.


In-school presentation/ signing - Kings High School, Kings Mills, OH.

7:00 p.m.


PUBLIC presentation/signing - Borders Books and Music, 8101 Movie Drive, Brighton, MI 48116.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - Ann Arbor

12:30 p.m.


Business lunch with Borders - yum!!!!!!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - New York/New Jersey

10:00 a.m.


Business brunch with Little Brown staff - double yum!!!!!

1pm


In-school event with Bookends, 232 East Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450.

4:00 p.m.


PUBLIC in-store signing at Bookends.

7:00 p.m.


PUBLIC presentation/Signing - Barnes and Noble, 187 Riverside Square, Hackensack, NJ 07601.

Thursday, April 19, 2007 - New York

AM


In-school events - New York.

12:30 p.m.


Business lunch with B&N - triple yum!!!!!!

PM


Barnes and Noble – Long Island.

Friday, April 20, 2007 - New York




TBC - possible New York events, depending on the time of my flight home!!!



APRIL IRISH EVENT

On Saturday, April 28th, I will be doing a PUBLIC event at the Cuirt Festival in Galway. You can click on the following link for their web site, but there will be no information on it until March: CUIRT SITE



JUNE IRELAND/U.K. TOUR

I'm going to be doing another big tour of Ireland and the U.K. in June, to promote the release of Blood Beast, book 5 of The Demonata. You can check out the provisional schedule below -- please note, it will probably be updated quite a lot between now and June. I strongly advise that you check back for the full, revised, confirmed itinerary closer to June if you want to attend any of these events.

If you are a teacher or librarian interested in bringing a group of children to any of my events, please write to me using the CONTACT form, letting me know the date and venue that you are interested in. I will forward your requests to those setting up the events.

Tuesday, 5th


AM


Schools event at the Belltable Theatre in Limerick.
Tuesday 5th 4.30pm PUBLIC signing at Easons, Limerick.


Wednesday 6th


AM


School event at Linenhall, Castlebar.
Wednesday 6th 4.00pm

PUBLIC signing at Easons, 33 shop st, Galway.


Thursday 7th


AM


School events in Drogheda.
Thursday 7th PM PUBLIC signing at Waterstones, Drogheda.


Friday 8th


AM


Schools event at Mill Theatre, Dundrum.
Friday 8th 4.00pm

PUBLIC signing at Easons, Level 3, Unit 12-14, Dundrum town centre, Sandyford Rd, Dublin 16.


Saturday 9th


PM


PUBLIC event at – The Maltings Theatre, St Albans.
Saturday 9th PM PUBLIC signing - town and venue To Be Confirmed.


Sunday 10th


1.00pm


PUBLIC signing at Waterstones, Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes.


Monday 11th


AM


School events in Norwich.
Monday 11th PM PUBLIC signing - Waterstones, 11-17 Castle Stree, NR2 1PB, Norwich.
Monday 11th PM PUBLIC event in Cromer.






Tuesday 12th


11.00am


School event at Perse Prep for Boys, Cambridge. – speak to Heffers about outside venue.
Tuesday 12th 4.00pm PUBLIC signing at Waterstones, Ipswich.
Tuesday 12th 6.30pm PUBLIC event in Ipswich.


Wednesday 13th


11.30am


School event at Sweyne Park School, Sir Walter Raleigh Drive, Rayleigh, Essex.

Wednesday 13th


4.00pm


PUBLIC signing at WHSmith, Lakeside.


Thursday 14th


AM


School events in South and East London.
Thursday 14th PM PUBLIC event or signing in Central London.


Friday 15th


AM


School events in North London.
Friday 15th PM PUBLIC signing at Bookworm, 1177 Finchley Road, London NW11 0AA.


Saturday 16th


9.30am


PUBLIC event at Creative Writing on the Wirral.
Saturday 16th 2.00pm PUBLIC signing at Waterstones, Bold Street, Liverpool.


Sunday 17th


2.00pm


PUBLIC signing at Borders, Ellesmere Port.

Monday 18th AM Schools event in North Wales.
Monday 18th PM PUBLIC signing at a Waterstones shop in North Wales.

Tuesday 19th AM Schools event in West Wales.
Tuesday 19th PM PUBLIC signing at a Waterstones shop in West Wales.

Wednesday 20th AM Schools event in Cardiff.
Wednesday 20th PM PUBLIC signing, probably at a Waterstones shop in Cardiff.


Thursday 21st


11.00am


Schools event at the Lyceum in Sheffield. (It holds 1000 people!!)
Thursday 21st 4.30pm PUBLIC event in Waterstones at Doncaster.


Friday 22


10am


School event at Hull Collegiate, Tranby croft, Anlaby.



JULY FAR EAST TOUR

In July I will be visiting Hong Kong (for the Hong Kong Book Festival), Japan and Taiwan. There will be more info about these tours (and any others that come along as the year progresses) later -- so keep reading!! If you are living in any of the above countries and would like to contact the publishers (Shogakukan in Japan or Crown in Hong Kong/Taiwan) directly, please see the LINKS page on my web site, which has details for all of them. (My Hong Kong visit is being arranged by my Taiwanese publishers.)



AUGUST/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER U.K. TOUR

I haven't yet decided whether or not I'll be doing a major tour of the UK/Ireland in October, when Book 6 of The Demonata is released. Looking at all the dates above, I'll be surprised if I survive to do any touring ever again!!! But, what the hell, I'm a tough little half-vampire, so maybe I'll be up for even more, to make it a truly memorably gruelling year on the road!! Either way, I will definitely be doing the Edinburgh Festival in August (my eighth year in a row!! I'm going for 10!!! And I might be doing an EXTRA special -- probably never to be repeated -- event there this year!! But I can't say any more about that right now ...). And I will be doing a couple of events in the UK in late September too. You can find out the details below. It will probably be close to June before I decide whether or not to tour in October -- keep checking back for updates.

August





PUBLIC event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.









Friday 28th September


AM


Schools event at Bristol Old Vic.


Friday 28th September


Time TBC


PUBLIC event at the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature.



IT'S A WRAP

And that's it for February! Phew -- I got exhausted just typing in all those tour details!!! It's frightening to look at them and think about all the travelling, speaking and signing I'll have to do over the next several months!! But you guys are worth it -- I know how lucky I am to have such great fans and I think it's only right and proper that I try to meet as many of you as I can. As tiring as touring can get, I always get a buzz out of seeing a long line of fans with piles of my books clutched in their hands, so I've no plans to retire from the road any time soon!!! But for the time being I'm staying at home and working hard on my writing -- you can read more about what I'm working on by checking out my BLOG or visiting the blog on my MYSPACE PAGE. I'll see you all back here in March, hopefully. Until then, take care of yourselves, book early if you're coming to any of my events, and get your collections ready for the Shan-Man to sign!!!!! All the bloody best, Darren Shan x x x