Hi everyone, and welcome to the August issue of the Shanville Monthly!! For the last 11 years, August has meant one thing more to me than any other -- the Edinburgh Book Festival!! This will be my 11th year is a row performing at the Festival, and it just gets more enjoyable every year!! I often debut new material in Edinburgh, I answer as many questions as I can, and my signing lines up there are legendary!! If you're thinking of coming, tickets are still available -- you can find out more details below, or on the Events page of my site, where I always list information about my tours and book release dates once they have been confirmed. Apart from that, it should be a busy month for me on the home front. I've been hard at work throughout July (you can follow my progress on Twitter and my Blog, though I can't always discuss certain works in great detail) and I plan to keep beavering away in August, except for when I'm at the Festival. On the publication front, August is the month when The Thin Executioner officially goes on sale in the USA, so there's good reason for my American fans to be excited too!!! You can find out more info about that, and all the latest Shan news, by reading on...

I know I said this last month, but I'm again going to re-stress that if you want to keep receiving notification emails about future issues of the Shanville Monthly, you MUST re-subscribe, using the links on the new site -- sorry for the inconvenience, but it was impossible to transfer the information across. You can choose to subscribe just to the Shanville Monthly if you only want to hear from me once a month with the new roundup, OR in addition to be notified every time I post a blog or news item -- it's your choice!! You can subscribe either by email or using RSS. You can unsubscribe any time you wish, and as always, I will never share your details with any other interested parties. For the subscription page, CLICK HERE

My first ever one-off, stand-alone novel, THE THIN EXECUTIONER, is now on sale in the USA. You should be able to find it in your local book shop, or else you can order it from Amazon. Actually, there have been a few negative reviews on Amazon, which surprised me, because the response from critics and fans in the UK and Ireland has been fabulous -- you can check out what reviewers have said so far about it by CLICKING HERE. If you read the book and enjoy it, I'd appreciate it if you'd post a short review on Amazon to try and balance the scales. Of course, if you DON'T like it, feel free to post that too -- I always like to know what fans think of my books by getting as wide a response as possible, whether that's positive or negative. But after the reaction from fans on this side of the Atlantic, and critics both in the UK and the States, I don't think that the handful of reviews on Amazon at the moment ARE indicative of the majority view. It's no biggie, but The Thin Executioner is my personal favourite out of all the books which I have written, so I'd hate for people who might know nothing about my work to reject it because of a few dismissive reviews on Amazon...

I’m coming back to the States on tour in November 2010, for the first time in 2 years!! It’s not going to be a massive tour but I’m going to try to squeeze in as many events as I can while I’m there! The tour will run from approximately November 15th to 23rd, give or take a day or two either side. I gave fans a chance to pitch for me last month. My publicist will now go through the requests and start putting the tour together. Hopefully I'll be able to confirm veues and dates next month, but if not, I'm sure I'll be able to list the schedule at the start of October. In the meantime, if you convinced a teacher, librarian or bookseller to pitch for me, keep your fingers crossed!!! Oh, and if you only heard about the tour now, and are kicking yourself for not pitching for me in time, you can always go back to the July issue of the Shanville Monthly for contact details for my publicist, as well as pitching guideliness, and try a last-minute pitch. It probably won't work out, but you never know -- it's always worth trying your luck!!!!

My American publishers, LittleBrown, have launched a brand new Darren Shan web site to tie in with the publication of The Thin Executioner. It’s a stylish looking site. There isn’t a huge amount of content on there, which makes it nice and easy to surf through. Two things on it which are well worth the time of checking it out are—the cover for Birth Of A Killer, which I haven't yet added to my site, and an exclusive Thin Executioner game!! To go have a look, CLICK HERE.

Kudos to eagle-eyed Shanster, Robert Purdham-Cook. I asked you guys a while back to keep an eye out for any public uses of “Cirque Du Freak”, after I’d noticed it in a few news articles, used in relation to events or news stories which had nothing to do with my books. Robert saw an ad for a Cirque De Freak night at a night club in Romford. You can check it out here: http://www.kulone.com/GB/Event/482226-Cirque-De-Freak-Presents-‘Freak-Show-Frolics’-Buddha-Lounge The freaks are taking over the night—coolio!!!!!

As well as working on my books, I've been busy working on the new web site for the last month. I've now taken control of the site from my web designer and have been filling in the last few blanks and tweaking it where necessary. I've added loads of new reviews, dozens of new book covers, transferred over all the extras from the old site, uploaded new wallpaper downloads, and more. The site is pretty much finished now -- I just need to polish up a few last bits and pieces, such as adding the 2009 dates to the Tour Archive, uploading some recent photos, and sorting out the Writing Tips section (thats going to be quite a major new addition!!). But, for the most part, the site is now fully active, all the links should work, all the material from the old site should be accessible, and there's a whole lot of new stuff which I've added too!! If you haven't surfed through the new site yet. I'd recommend giving it a while -- there are all sorts of goodies tucked away in various nooks and crannies, such as short stories, facts about me, books which I recommend, and a whole lot more!! They're all easier to find than ever -- you just need to spend a few minutes looking through the site and a whole new world of Darren Shan will open up at your fingertips -- nice!!!!!

I will be appearing at the Edinburgh Book Festival again, for my 11th year in a row, on Saturday, August14th, at 1.30pm!! For more details of the festival, and to book tickets for my event or any of the others, CLICK HERE. I plan to read at least one world-exclusive extract this year, maybe even more, and there will be plenty of time for questions and answers!! As usual, I’ll be happy to sign as many of my books as fans bring along at the end, so feel free to bring your entire Darren Shan collection if you wish, but be prepared to stand in line for quite a long time—my queue normally last 3 or 4 hours up in Edinburgh!!!!

In October I will be touring in the UK and Ireland again, to promote the release of the first book about Mr Crepsley, Birth Of A Killer. Every event of the tour will also be listed on the Events page of my site, where you will in some instances be able to find out more information, such as website or contact details. Please note, I'm always happy to sign as many books as fans choose to bring along, so yes, if you're happy to drag your entire collection along with you, I'm happy to sign them all!!! If I'm doing a talk, it usually lasts about an hour, and I then sign for as long as it takes to deal with everyone who has come.

Then, in November, as I stated above, I will be coming to the USA again on tour!! It will have been more than a couple of years since my last American tour (October 2008), so hopefully my fans Stateside will be chomping at the bit!! I can't confirm details yet, as we're still working on putting the tour together, but I can say that it finishes in Florida on or around November 22nd. There's no point writing to me directly asking me to come to your area -- follow the rules listed above if you are genuinely interested in trying to pitch for me.
 

please note, some details are yet to be confirmed. see the september issue of the shanville monthly for updates.

30^th September, Thursday

a.m. - Multi Schools Event, Westport, County Mayo, Ireland.

4pm - Public Signing - Easons, 33 Shop Street, Galway, Ireland.

1^st October, Friday

a.m. -  Multi Schools Event, Ennis, County Clare, Ireland.

4pm - Public Signing - Ennis Bookshop, 13 Abbey Street, Ennis, County Clare, Ireland.

2^ND October, Saturday

11.30am - Fan Event - Windsor Festival, Windsor.

pm - Public Signing - WHSmith Brent Cross Shopping Centre, Hendon, London NW4 3FB.

3^rd October, Sunday

12.00 - Public Signing - Waterstones, Aberdeen, 3-7 Union Bridge, Aberdeen AB11 6BG, Scotland.

10.30 - Multi Schools Event, North Inch Community Campus Theatre, Perth & Kinross, Scotland.
4pm - Public Signing - Waterstones Perth, St John'sCentre, Perth PH1 5UX, Scotland.
5^th October, Tuesday

10.00am - Multi Schools Event, The Magnum Leisure Centre, The Harbour, Irvine KA12 8PP, Scotland.

4.00pm - Public Signing - Waterstones, 38a The Plaza, East Kilbride G74 1LW, Scotland.

6^th October, Wednesday

a.m. - Multi Schools Event at Cockermouth School.

p.m. - Public Fan Event - Eco-Centre, Cockermouth.

a.m. - Multi-schools event, Carr Hill, Preston.

p.m. - Public Fan Event - Millfield High School, Thornton, Preston.

a.m. - Multi School Event with Bolton Libraries.

9^th October, Saturday

2.30 - Public Fan Event, Playhouse Theatre, Cheltenham Festival.

11.00 - Public Signing, Waterstones, 4-5 Milsom Street, Bath BA1 1DA.

Click here for all upcoming events information. This list will be updated whenever an event is confirmed.

I’ve been tweeting very regularly on Twitter -- I manage to tweet a few times virtually every day. I update followers about my work prgoress (even when I can't discuss the title of a book, which is the case when I'm working on something which I haven't yet signed a deal for). I chat about what I've been up to in my day-to-day life. And I've also started posting a link to a video every day, of songs which I like, some new, many from the 80s and 90s. You join follow me on Twitter by CLICKING HERE.

I often get asked when my next book is coming out, or where and when I'm going to be touring. That's why one of the first things I pencilled in to be included in the new site was an EVENTS page. You can find the release dates for my upcoming books on this page for every country where I have such information to hand. You can also see when and where I'm going to be on tour. And you can even find out about any upcoming media appearances that I might be making. I include all of the information that is made available to me by my publishers on the Events page -- but publishers don't always share their plans with me, which is why in many cases I can't say when a new book is coming out, because I honestly don't know!! But if I DO know, you can find the info on the Events page. So go check it out!!!!!

And that's it for August!! I hope you all enjoy the rest of the summer, and I also hope to see lots of you in Edinburgh. But if you can't make it, don't worry, you can catch up with me here next month for the September issue of the Shanville Monthly -- I'm regular as clockwork!!! Until then, all my bloody best, Darren Shan x x x


Follow Darren Shan on MySpace and Twitter and on his Blog. He also has a YouTube page.