2011 was another busy year for me, so here's a quick rundown of what I got up to over the last 12 months.

Hell's Horizon was released in the USA in January, while the American cover of Procession of the Dead was chosen as one of the 50 best covers of the year! In the UK, my publishers launched the first official Darren Shan Facebook page. In February the American edition of Procession of the Dead was awarded a stamp of excellence for its typography. My American publishers also released their own Darren Shan Facebook page, focused at American fans. On the long-running BBC show, Eastenders, series regular and octogenarian Dot Cotton was spotted reading Vampire Mountain in one episode!

In April, Ocean of Blood went on sale in the UK and USA. In the UK, my entire back catalogue of children's books were made available as ebooks for the first time. The first collected volume of The Demonata went on sale in the UK, with the other four volumes following over the course of the summer. I visited Australia and did some events there for the first time in several years -- hopefully it won't be as long until my next trip! Late in the month, my Granny passed on, which resulted in me having to cancel and re-arrange the first leg of my April and May tour of Ireland and the UK. Despite that, the tour was a big success and I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the viral Ocean of Blood campaign which HarperCollins ran to promote the release of the book -- especially when they hit their target and collected the millionth drop of virtual blood that they had set as their goal!

My third book for adults, City of the Snakes, hit the States in June. In an interview with Goodreads, I revealed five of my favourite horror books. In July I celebrated my 39th birthday and the Shanville Monthly's 11th. I ran the first of my Global Giveaways this month, and proceeded to give away hundreds of my books over the following months to fans all around the world. The damage to my wallet was severe, but you guys are worth every penny!!! In August I appeared at the Edinburgh Book Festival for the 12th year in a row. To celebrate the milestone, I performed a special two hours event, in which I gave a synopsis of the entire Saga of Darren Shan. It over-ran by half an hour, but most fans seemed to enjoy it, and I hope to do it a few more times in 2012 if I get the chance, once I've tightened it up a few notches.

Palace of the Damned went on sale at the end of September. I did another tour of the UK and Ireland to promote it -- it was in the middle of a heat wave, and my over-riding memory is of watching people swimming in the sea in October while crossing to the Isle of Wight! Charlie Higson listed The Vampire's Assistant as one of his ten favourite fantasy books for children in The Guardian. It was this month that I broke my biggest new of the year and finally revealed what my next series was going to be about -- the Zom-B news was first broken at the Frankfurt Book Festival, along with the news of Lady of the Shades for adults.

And that's most of the major news of 2011 in a nutshell! I reported on plenty of other stories too, of course, from the release of my books in various countries to prizes I was nominated for. The internet has changed a lot over the last dozen years, and I now use sites like Twitter and Facebook to keep in more immediate contact with my fans. But the Shanville Monthly is still the prime source for all the latest Shan news and updates, so make sure you Register if you haven't already, so that you can become a Shanster and never miss out on any of the big Darren Shan reveals!!