Darren Shan - Author

Hi everyone, and welcome to the December issue of the Shanville Monthly. It's that time of year again -- Christmas -- which means only one thing on Shanville... the return of SHANTA CLAUS!!! You can find out more about that below, along with amazing new audio covers, two different books polls that you can vote it, and lots more! The Shanville Monthly -- the gift that keeps giving all year round!!

Book 6 of my zombie series, Zom-B Gladiator, goes on sale on January 2nd in the UK, and January 7th in the USA, and around the same time in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. HOWEVER, since Christmas falls so close to the release date, there's a chance that some book shops might put it in the shelves a bit earlier than scheduled, in the run-up to Christmas. I'm not saying they WILL, but they MIGHT. So keep an eye out for it when you're doing your Christmas shopping -- but don't be too disappointed if you don't spot it!!

Good news for my more impatient fans in the UK and Ireland! Zom-B Mission, the seventh book in the series, was due to be released on April 10th, but it has now been brought forward to March 27th -- hurrah!!! The reason for the early release? So that I can go on tour with it -- we found out that schools in the UK were breaking up for half-term around the time of the original planned release, so we switched the date around so that I could go out on tour and hit some school before the hols. We're always thinking about you guys and planning our lives around you!!!!

Young library readers in Essex in the UK have excellent taste in books! For proof, have a look at this post from Essex Libraries, and check out who the most borrowed YA author is!! I'm a big supported of libraries, so it's a real honour for me to pop up on a list like this. CLICK HERE

The great TeenReads site is asking readers to vote for their favourite YA books of 2013. You can choose titles from their list (Zom-B Angels and Zom-B City are both on there -- hurrah!) or nominate any other books that you loved that were first published in 2013. (Zom-B Underground and Zom-B Baby both qualify, if you think they're worthy of a vote.) You can vote for as many of your favourite 2013 books as you like, which I think is a really good idea. Voting is open until January 1st. To vote, CLICK HERE.

World Book Day in the UK are asking readers to help them create a list of 50 Must Read YA books. I was very pleased to see Lord Loss included as one of their recommended titles! But readers can vote for as many of their favourite books as they wish, so if you want to nominate more of my books (or, indeed, books by any of your favourite authors) feel free! To vote, CLICK HERE.

Although some of my Saga Of Darren Shan/Cirque Du Freak books were published in audio format in the UK, the series was never completed or made available in other countries. That’s all about to change! The first three books in the series have been released in brand new audio editions, in both the UK and USA, and Book 4, Vampire Mountain, and Book 5, Trials Of Death, are due to be released on December 1st, with the rest to soon follow -- see below. The narrator is Ralph Lister. Those are the covers for books 4 and 5 above -- pretty impressive, huh?!? If you click on them, you will be able to listen to free samples of the books, and download them if you wish to buy them.

You can download Cirque Du Freak through the Amazon UK site here or you can buy it on CD here. You will find links for the other books on that page.

In the USA you can download Cirque Du Freak through the Ambling Books site here or buy it on CD through Amazon here. You will find links for the other books on those pages.

Books 6 and 7 are scheduled to be released on January 1st 2014, books 8 and 9 on February 1st 2014, books 10 and 11 on march 1st 2014, and book 12 on April 1st 2014.

Meanwhile, audio fans who are keen to sink their ears into my zombie books might want to note that Zom-B Baby is now on sale in the USA in audio format, read by Emma Galvin -- you can BUY IT HERE. It should go on sale in the UK soon too, read by Zawe Ashton.

The manga edition of Tunnels Of Blood goes on sale in Finland on December 1st. I don't have the cover to share with you yet, but will add it to my site when I do.

I strongly recommend this interview with me/article about my books, that saw print in Verge, an Irish university magazine. It's one of the best pieces (i.e. most flattering!!) about me that I've read in a long time! :-) But, seriously, it's very well written and raises some interesting points. You can find it on page 8. http://issuu.com/uccexpress/docs/vergeissue6full

I highly recommend this report of an event I did in Guildford last month—it gives you a really good idea of what one of my live events is like, for those of you who have never managed to catch me in action. To read it, CLICK HERE.

They’ve been 4 years coming, but I’ve finally got around to adding new photos to my website! Well, some of them date back to 2009, so they’re not “new” exactly, but while you might have seen a few of them on Twitter and Facebook over the years, most are only newly revealed!! There are lots there, and I hope to add some more in the very near future. If you want to see what I get up to on the road, as well as in my spare time, this is as close as you’re going to get to an intimate look into my day-to-day world!! To check them out, CLICK HERE.

It's that time of year again, when SHANTA CLAUS comes to town for a short, sweet spell!! For those who are new to the site, and don't know what I'm talking about... I've published lots of extras on my site over the years -- short stories, deleted scenes and a whole lot more. One of my favourite short stories is a fun, tongue-in-cheek tale about Santa Claus, involving a round-the-world trip one Christmas Eve where he bumps into many of the characters from my books. I've updated it most years, adding in new characters and elements. It's only ever on the site for a short while, maybe 2 or 3 weeks over the Christmas period. This year I plan to upload it on Friday the 13th, if all goes according to plan. So, if you want to check it out, click on the following link any time after December 13th -- but don't wait too long, as it will be gone again for another year not long after Christmas Day!! CLICK HERE

ZOM-B GLADIATOR TOUR

Erm... actually there isn't going to be a Zom-B Gladiator tour!! We did explore options, but because the book is being released at the start of January, in the end it just didn't make sense to tour with it. Also, I did events in every single month of 2013 -- for the first time ever -- so I figured I needed a bit of a break, before you guys got sick of the sight of me!!! So instead we're going to wait until early April, when Book 7: Zom-B Mission is released, when I'll be going on a big tour of the UK and Ireland -- although I'm hoping to squeeze in a few events in Canada in late March, if we can work out the logistics -- I'll hopefully have more info about that next month to share with my Canadian fans!

NEW ADULT BOOK

I've mentioned the fact that I plan to reveal details of my next adult book here over the last few months. Sorry for the delays, but complications have kept cropping up. But they've pretty much all been sorted now, so in February I'm finally going to be able to make the big announcement... although it's also going to be a very secretive announement! You'll find out what I mean in February...

And that's it for December. I hope you all have a fabulous time over the festive break -- enjoy your Christmas dinners (if you're into Christmas) and cheer in the New Year as loudly as you can! 2013 has been a busy, productive, happy hear for me -- five books released (Zom-B 2 to 5, plus a short book called Hagurosan), new audio editions of the Saga Of Darren Shan series, the release of the last few volumes of the manga in the UK, public events in every month of the year, marriage and a long honeymoon... The good news for you guys is that 2014 is shaping up to be even bigger! I won't be able to squeeze in as many events as I did in 2013 (it was a just a fluke, the way this year worked out, with events fitting in with other travelling that I was doing) but I'm still going to be spending a lot of time on the road. In addition, there will be four more Zom-B books, another short book (more info about that soon!), plus at least one new adult book -- maybe two!!! 2014 marks my 15th anniversary as a published author -- my first book, Procession of the Dead (originally it was called Ayuamarca) came out in February 1999 -- but I've no intention of slowing up any time soon!!! I'll be back here at the start of January to wish you all a Happy New Year. Until then, all my bloody best, Darren Shan. x x x

Follow Darren Shan on Facebook and Twitter. He also has a (very rarely updated!) YouTube page.

Issue 161 - December 2013

Shanville Monthly Archive