• Issue 132 - July 2011

    03 July 2011

    GREETINGS!

     

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Yes, everyone, it's the July issue of the Shanville Monthly, and that always means a Happy DOUBLE Birthday -- both for the Shanville Monthly and for me! The Shanville Monthly celebrates its 11th birthday this month, while I'm a wee bit older -- I turn 39 on July 2nd!! Closing in on the big 4-0, which I'm not looking forward to!!! But I've still got a year of my thirties left, so let's push all thoughts of impending old age from our minds and focus instead on this month's news. There's plenty to report on, and this month also sees the first installment of the Darren Shan Great Global Giveaway, which I hinted at last month, a competition which is going to make LOTS of fans all around the world VERY happy over the coming months! To find out more about it, read on...

     

     

    OCEAN OF BLOOD

     

    The Ocean Of Blood Facebook App Competition (see below) is hotting up nicely! As I write this, they've just passed the 150,000 drops mark, with almost 100 prizes given away, and another 900 to come!! To celebrate passing the 100,000 drops point, my UK publishers, HarperCollins, decided to release an exclusive extract from Palace of the Damned, the third Mr Crepsley book, on their hugely popular Official Darren Shan Facebook page. Palace goes on sale at the end of September in the UK and USA, but if you want to read a chunk of its first chapter before anyone else, CLICK HERE. You can read the extract (and enter the compeition) no matter where in the world you live.

     


    BOOKS ON SALE IN JULY

     

    In the UK, the third collected volume of The Demonata goes on sale on July 7th. It contains Blood Beast and Demon Apocalypse. should be on sale in book stores around the country from the start of July. If you can't find it on the shelves, please feel free to ask a member of staff to order in a copy for you. Or you can order it online by clicking on this link: AMAZON.UK.

     

    DONATE TO THE OCEAN OF BLOOD!!

     

    http://apps.facebook.com/oceanofblood/

     

    The Ocean Of Blood, Facebook app competition is still going strong -- and entering has been made easier than before. For a week in June, fans coule enter repeatedly, as many times as they liked, without having to use the share function. The share function has now been restored, but it will only kick in after every 50 entries -- that means you can donate 50 drops in a row to the Ocean Of Blood before you have to send a link to some of your friends. After that, you can enter another 50 times in a row before sending out another link, and so on, as often as you like. The comp is open to fans everywhere in the world. There are lots of cool instant prizes to be won, such as iPod Nanos, iTunes vouchers, signed copies of Ocean Of Blood, and more!! Every entrant is also entered into a draw to be held at the end of the competition, where the main prize is an iPad 2 with all of my eBooks on it, as well as a unique signed cover!!

     

    Remember, YOU CAN ENTER AS MANY TIMES AS YOU LIKE, but only if you virally spread the game after every 50 drops, either by sending links to your Facebook contacts, your Twitter contacts, or to email addresses. You can send the link to the same people every time you enter if you wish, although it's better if you can target new people. Unlike most competitions, where you might want to keep it secret, to improve your chances of winning, this competition NEEDS lots of entrants -- the prizes will only be released as huge numbers of people play. So get clicking and get spreading!! Remember, you can enter dozens or hundreds or even thousands of times every day!!! And every time you donate a drop, you have a chance of winning a prize. 100 prizes have already been won, but there are 900 still waiting to be cliamed. Best of luck, Shansters!!!!!

     

    http://apps.facebook.com/oceanofblood/

     

    Please note, this game is being run by HarperCollins—if you have any queries about it, you should contact them via the links on their Facebook page.

     

     

    GET IN BED WITH DARREN SHAN!!

     

    It’s time to “Get in bed” with me on the fabulous GoodReads site to find out about five of my all-time favourite horror books!!! These brutally beautiful little beasts are five of the books that helped set me on the path which I’ve been treading these past 12 years and more!! http://www.goodreads.com/interviews/show/594.Darren_Shan

     

    You can also check out my shelves on Goodreads, to find a list of all of the books that I have ever read (well, ever since I started keeping track of them when I was a teenager), and the mark I gave them. I add to my shelf every time I read a new book, and have started to arrange them in chronological order, so you can easily see the most recent books that I have read. http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4643841-darren-shan

     

     

    COVERING ALL THE ANGLES!

     

    Check out this fascinating piece written by Catherine Casalino, the cover artist for my City trilogy in the USA. In it she discusses the process of designing all three covers. A rare insight into the complex world of cover design! I strongly recommend this article, which shows how complicated and time-consuming a job it is to create a really good cover for a book!! http://blog.figment.com/2011/06/14/how-do-book-covers-get-designed/

     

     

    TOP 10

     

    I was a bit late spotting this one, but Procession of the Dead was listed as one the Top 10 books of 2010 by one of the key reviewers on Fantasy Book Critic. Yay!!  http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2011/02/top-reads-of-2010-by-mihir.html For those who don't know, Procession of the Dead is the first book of my City Trilogy for older readers. You can find out more about it by CLICKING HERE.

     

     

    THIN REVIEWS

     

    More than a year after its release, The Thin Executioner is still generating lots of reviews — most of them extremely positive, I’m relieved to note!! I’ve added several new reviews from the last couple of months to my site. You can check them out here: http://www.darrenshan.com/reviews/list/the-thin-executioner/

     

     

    MIND YOUR MIND

     

    I was very pleased to recently give an interview to MindYourMind, a laudable website “for youth and emerging adults to access info, resources and tools during tough times. Help yourself. Help each other. Share what you live and know.” Check it out here: http://mindyourmind.ca/stories/interviews/authors/3952-darren-shan-interview

     


    JUNE COMPETITION WINNER

     

    The winner of the June Shanville Monthly competition was Anthony Case from Wolverhampton. Many congratulations to Anthony, and regrets to everyone else who entered but who weren’t so fortunate — better luck next time!!

     

     

    OCTOBER TOUR

     

    My publicists and I are in the process of putting together the details of my October tour of the UK and Ireland, to promote Palace of the Damned. I'll be revealing more details next month, but to whet your appetites, I can reveal that we'll be starting late in September in the midlands of the UK. We'll then be working our way south, covering as many different areas as we can along the way, ending the UK stretch in the southwest, before I head to Ireland to do some signings in Dublin (including the signing in Dundrum which had to be cancelled in May) and the surrounding area. I had hoped to fit in some signings in the north of the UK on this tour, but the logistics made this impossible. Hopefully I'll get back up there, and into Scotland, next time round!! As I said above, I'll be able to give more details next month, so tune back in August!!!


     

    SUMMER IRELAND/UK OCEAN OF BLOOD TOUR

     

    I will be doing the following events in the UK and Ireland over the course of the summer, before my next major tour in October.

     

    20th August, Saturday, 1.30pm -- Edinburgh Book Festival -- panel event with Barry Hutchison and Alexander Gordon Smith. http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/darren-shan-barry-hutchison-alexander-gordon-smith-talk-horror

     

    21st August, Sunday, 10.30am -- Edinburgh Book Festival -- solo event. This is an EXTRA special two hour event in which I will cover all 12 books of The Saga Of Darren Shan to celebrate my 12th year at the festival!! CLICK HERE for more details. http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/darren-shan-1

     

    4th September, Sunday, 3.00pm -- public event at the Mountains To Sea festival, Dun Laoighre. http://www.mountainstosea.ie/

     

     

    THE DARREN SHAN GREAT GLOBAL GIVEAWAY!!

     

    When my books are published, my publishers always send me free copies of them. I've built up a massive collection of Darren Shan books over the years, from countries all around the world. I always keep a few of each book for myself, but in many cases I have extra copies. These were stacked away haphazardly in my old house, then in storage for a year while I was living elsewhere, but when I moved back in, I had a chance to go through them and sort them out. Which means that I am now in a position to start GIVING THEM AWAY FOR FREE as competition prizes!!! Most months, for at least the next several months, I am going to run a competition for readers in different countries. The number of prizes will vary for each country depending on how many books I have to give away. I won't announce the number of books up for offer for any given country in advance -- all I will say is that I have a LOT of books to give away, so I'm going to be trying to issue as many prizes as possible each time! You don't get a choice of book as a prize -- basically, I'll see what I have available, and issue prizes accordingly.

     

    This month, I am starting with Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, and the USA. If you live in one of those countries, read the following terms, then send in your entry and keep your fingers crossed!

     

    GENERAL TERMS FOR ALL ENTRANTS:

     

    1) This competition is only open to fans who live in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, or the USA. (You cannot enter if you work for one of my publishers or are one of my relations.)

     

    2) You can only enter ONCE, and there can only be one entry per household. If you try to enter more than once, ALL of your entries will be disqualified.

     

    3) Put the NAME OF YOUR COUNTRY in the SUBJECT BOX when you send your e-mail. I will not accept your entry if you don't! And make sure you INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND FULL POSTAL ADDRESS in the body of the e-mail. This is so that I can easily send your prize to you if you win! Also, if you are 15 years old or older, and would like to be considered for one of my adult books, please note this in your entry.

     

    4) Closing date is midnight, UK Time, Sunday, July 24th, 2011.

     

    5) The draw for the winners will be made on Monday, July 25th, 2011, or on a date not long after that. It will be a completely random draw, made by Darren Shan personally (I use an online number generator to pick the winner). I will try to notify the winners by e-mail, and will post their names on the Shanville Message Board and in the August issue of the Shanville Monthly.

     

    6) Information submitted by entrants WILL NOT be shared by me with any other individual or company. I'll keep your details on my PC, then delete the info once the competition ends.

     

    7) My decision will be final.

     

    8) To enter, send an email, along with the NAME OF YOUR COUNTRY in the SUBJECT BOX, and your full name and address in the text, to this email address: [email protected]

     

     

    IT'S A WRAP


    And that's it for July!!  I'm going to be hard at work for most of this month. I'll be back at the start of August with all the latest news and updates. Until then, all my bloody best, Darren Shan x x x

     

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