Darren Shan - Author

N.B.!!! If anyone in New York is intending to come to my public event on November 12th, please note that the address listed up to November 3rd on this site was WRONG!! The correct address is New York Public Library, Jefferson Market LIbrary, 425 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10016. It is NOT going to be held in the Mid-Manhattan Library!!!!

Hi everyone, and welcome to the November issue of the Shanville Monthly!! This is the month when I return to the USA on tour for the first time in two years --hurrah!! I'm really looking forward to my return, and I hope lots of you turn out to celebrate with me! Most of the events have now been confirmed (just a few school events still to be pencilled in as I write this at the start of the month) and you can find all the details below. I know I'm not covering as much of the country as on previous tours, but hey, I'm getting old, I can't do the entire continent in one tour any more!!! Next time I'll do all that I can to hit the more central and western States -- promise!! In other news, there's an amazing auction coming up this month, where the winner will get to have a character in one of my books named after them (or after someone of their choice)... the Killer Fan competition hots up and continues... there are lots of new interviews, reviews and covers to peruse... and an especially bloody piece on Anthony Horowitz's new book!!! To find out why I'm plugging that particular exercise in horror, you'll have to read on!!!!

Birth Of A Killer went on sale in Canada, the UK, Ireland and USA in October. It did very well in the charts in Ireland and the UK, getting to #2 and #5 on the children's bestsellers charts respectively. It's also been picking up rave reviews from fans and critics alike! For anyone who doesn't yet know, Birth is the first of the four book series about Larten Crepsley and his life before he met Darren Shan. It's an epic adventure series in every sense -- it covers 200 years, crosses continents all around the world, features a huge cast of characters, and more plot lines than you could shake a stake at!!! Over its course we will get to see how Larten first entered the world of vampires, how he rose through the ranks, and why he chose to walk away from the clan when he did. We'll meet characters old and new. We'll find out about the women Larten loved, the friends who were close to him, the troubled path he found himself on for much of his time.

Birth Of A Killer should now be on sale in all good book shops in Canada, Ireland, the UK and USA -- if you don't see it in your local store, please feel free to ask the staff to help you locate it, or else order in a copy for you if they are out of stock. Or, if you would rather order online, you can buy the UK edition from Amazon UK by CLICKING HERE. You can buy the American edition from Amazon by CLICKING HERE. And you can buy the Canadian edition from Amazon Canada by CLICKING HERE.

Ever wanted to see YOUR name appear in a Darren Shan novel?!? Then bookmark this freakily fabulous auction, starting November 11th:

http://members.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?viewUserPage&userid=autistica_charity

I am offering the winning high bidder the chance to have a character named after them (or someone of their choice) in Brothers to the Death, book 4 of The Saga of Larten Crepsley, due for publication in the UK and USA in May 2012. As an extra treat, I will kill off the character in the book, so the winning bidder will be able to say that they were slaughtered by me in print!!!

This is a VERY rare opportunity to become an actual part of the Darren Shan universe—the winner’s name of choice will appear alongside those of Mr Crepsley, Seba Nile, Arra Sails, Vancha March and many, many more of my vampire characters. I’ve only pariticipated in an auction of this nature once before, when the winner got to appear in Wolf Island. As on that occasion, all monies raised are going to the brilliant Autistica charity. Lots of other authors are supporting them as well, and offering fans the same opportunity that I am, so make sure you have a good look around when you visit their site—this is an amazing chance to win the Christmas present of a lifetime for yourself or someone close!!!!

Bidding starts on November 11th, and ends on November 21st. Be warned, bidding went VERY high last time round, so be prepared to dig deep if you want to be top dog!!!!

http://members.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?viewUserPage&userid=autistica_charity

Birth of a Killer has picked up some rave reviews from critics! I've added several new reviews to my site over tha last month. If you're interested in seeing what they have to say about it before you forge ahead and buy your own copy, CLICK HERE -- and I hope you enjoy it as much as they did!! I'll be adding more reviews to the site as they come through, so make sure you check back every now and then. You can also read some very positive reviews from fans on the Amazon USA site.

I had an other fabulous time on tour in the UK and Ireland in October, to promote Birth of a Killer. There were large queues at all of my signings, and every school or public event was packed! I usually get one or two disappointing events or signings on tour, but not this time -- I was treated like a true Prince of the Night wherever I went!! In fact, I had such a good time on the road, that I added an extra signing at the very end of the month, in my home town of Limerick, to tie-in with Halloween! It was a monster of a signing too -- three hours fifteen minutes!!! Thanks as always to everyone who helped set up the events (especially Geraldine Stroud and Mary Byrne), and to everyone who came along to make them so special. You can read a very well written review of my event in Windsor on October 2nd by CLICKING HERE. The author provides a good description of the event, and even lists some of my answers to a few of the many questions which I was asked. And there’s an equally well-written account of a later event on the tour, this time at Cheltenham on October 9th, which you can read by CLICKING HERE. Both articles are highly recommended for anyone who might be wondering what my events are like.

I’ve added lots of new covers to my site this month, from Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey and the UK! Proof that Shanmania truly is a global phenomenom!!! You can check them out, along with all the other covers of my books from countries worldwide, by CLICKING HERE.

While we're talking about covers... Procession of the Dead, the first book of my City Trilogy for older readers, goes on sale in Hungary on November 1st. Book 2 goes on sale in April 2011, and Book 3 in october 2011. But my VERY organised Hungarian publishers have already commissioned the covers for all three books, and you can check them out by CLICKING HERE. I’m sure you’ll agree with me, they look absolutely fabulous!! I can’t wait to see them in the flesh!!!

And yet more cover news... Ding Ding! Round One!! Seconds Out!!! Empire Of Books pitted the American versus the British cover of Birth of a Killer in October. To find out how they scored it, and to weigh in with your own opinion if you disagree with their decision, CLICK HERE. And may the best cover win!!! Me, I love them both equally, of course!!!!!

My UK publishers, HarperCollins, launched a truly Shantastic competition last month! It's called SEARCH FOR A KILLER FAN! Basically, the test is to try and prove that YOU are the biggest Darren Shan fan in the world, by asking as many of your friends and contacts as you can to rate you as a vampire -- the more people you can convince to rate you, the higher up the leader board you will climb! To enter, you'll need to register with the Killer Fan site and grab a widget from it, then share the link via Facebook and Twitter to get as many of your friends as possible to rate your vampire skills. The more friends that rate you, the higher you climb on the leader board, and the most chance you have of getting into the top 10 and winning a place at a special event with... Darren Shan!!! That's right -- the Top 10 fans will get a chance to have a special meeting with me on a future book tour in 2011!! You can also win other stuff, including a limited edition T-shirt and a signed, framed book cover. And the #1 top fan will also win an incredibly cool iPod Touch!!! The competition is open to fans everywhere in the world, but the meeting will take place in the UK in 2011, so if the winners wish to come to it, they will have to make and pay for their own travel arrangements. But if you're a winner and can't come to the meeting, you will still receive the rest of the prizes, so don't let geography put you off entering!!

Competition has been fierce -- some fans even tried to bend the rules by voting multiple times for themselves! But they have been caught and eliminated from the compeition, as will anyone else who tries such underhanded, un-vampire-like tactics!! The leaders have been imaginative and undustrious, seeking votes from all sorts of sources on the web, casting their net as wide as possible. To get an idea of how one cunning fan approached the task, CLICK HERE. There's still time to make YOUR stab for glory! It won't be easy, but then that's what makes it such a special competition!

To enter the Search For A Killer Fan competition, CLICK HERE. Please note, this competition is being run by my UK publishers, HarperCollins. I am not personally involved in the organisation of it. If you have any queries, you will need to take them up with the good folk of HarperCollins.

In November I am coming to the USA again on tour!! It has 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!! All of my public events have now been confirmed, along with most of my school events. You can find all of the details below. 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.

5.00pm - Public talk and signing at New York Public Library, Jefferson Market LIbrary, 425 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10016. Please note, the address listed for this event on this site up to November 3rd was WRONG. It is NOT going to be held in the Mid-Manhattan Library!!!!

2.00pm - Public talk and signing at Watchung Booksellers, 54 Fairfield Street, Montclair, NJ 07042.

6.30pm - Public talk and signing at Barnes & Noble #2288, 911 Haddonfield Road, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002.

2.00pm - Public talk and signing at Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116. This will be held in the Teen Room on the Mezzanine Level.

7.00pm - Public talk and signing at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 1 Town Center Boulevard, Suite 5800, Fredericksburg, VA 22407.

10.00am - School event at Brookland Middle School, 9200 Lydell Drive, Henrico, VA 23228

2.00pm - School event at Rolfe Middle School, 6901 Messer Road, Henrico, VA 23231.

6.30pm -- Public talk and signing at Fountain Bookstore, 1312 E Cary St, Richmond, VA 23219.

9.00am -- School event at Hopewell High School, 11530 Beatties Ford Road, Huntersville, NC 28078

time TBC - School event at South Mecklenburg High School, 8900 Park Road, Charlotte, NC 28210.

5.30pm -- Public talk and signing at Park Road Books, 4139 Park Road, Charlotte, NC 28209.

1.30pm - Public panel event and signing with Scott Westerfeld and Ellen Hopkins at Miami Book fair International, Miami-Dade Community College, 300 Northeast Second Avenue, Miami, FL 33132. The event will be held in the Prometeo Theater, Room 1101.

08.30am -- I will be giving a 30 minutes talk at the NCTE Annual Convention, Orlando FL, called "Finding Myself Among Friends And Freaks".

I gave several interviews recently, mostly while touring to support the release of Birth of a Killer. You can find a few of them in the About Darren section of my web site, along with almost every published interview that I have given over the past 11 or so years, by CLICKING HERE. You can also read a new interview with me on the Amazon site (I haven’t yet archived it) by CLICKING HERE. Plus, there’s another very interesting (unarchived) interview with me on the Vampires.Com site—to access it, CLICK HERE.

Going back to an issue I highlighted a few months ago, about the term Cirque Du Freak starting to appear in the public domain but not in connection with my books… I have spotted another couple of mention of its, this time in Utah, and Huntsville, AL, both in the good ole US of freaky A!!! where it popped up as the name for a brace of Halloween-themed nights at a club!! To read the full articles, CLICK HERE FOR UTAH and CLICK HERE FOR HUNTSVILLE.

Anthony Horowitz has a new book out called More Bloody Horowitz. It’s a collection of horror stories, presented in an oversized, EC Tales From The Crypt sort of style. Why am I plugging Mr Horowitz’s books, I hear some of you cry?!? Well, apart from the fact that I’m a big fan of his writing, the very first story in this collection is called The Man Who Killed Darren Shan!!!! I’m quite good friends with Anthony, so I decided to base a character on him in one of my books—Antoine Horwitzer, in Wolf Island. And since I think there’s no finer mark of respect that a horror writer can pay one of their friends than killing them off in a grisly fashion in a story, I had poor Antoine meet with a most gruesome and gory finale!!!! In revenge, Anthony is returning the favour. I haven’t read the story yet, but hopefully it will end with me being ripped apart in some fiendishly devious way!! In fact, going by the title alone, I think that’s a fairly safe bet!!!!!

Anthony’s publishers actually asked him to check with me that it was OK for him to include me in one of his stories—they were worried I might get angry about it. But as I told them when I responded, I’m always happy for someone I like to butcher me in print!! If it was someone I didn’t like? Well, then I’d have to sic the vampaneze or Lord Loss on them!!!!!

Anyway, More Bloody Horowitz should be available in all good book stores, or you can order it from Amazon UK by CLICKING HERE or, if you live in the States, from Amazon USA by CLICKING HERE.

And that's it for November!! I'm looking forward to my final tour of the year, and hoping I end with a bang! In December I'll be moving back into my house -- I've been out of it for more than a year, while it's been extensively extended. Moving back in will be a joy, but there's going to be a LOT to sort out and set in place, so I don't think I'm going to get much work done in December!! Oh well, I'll just have to work doubly hard in the New Year!!!! I'll be back here at the start of December with all the latest Yuletide news and updates. 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.

Issue 124 - November 2010

Shanville Monthly Archive