If you're wondering what the first Shanville Monthly newsletter was like all those moons ago... well, there's no need to wonder, as you can click on a single link and find out almost instantly! I archive all of the issue of the Monthly, and you can find the links in every issue, over on the right-hand side of the screen. They're integrated into the new-look site, so they don't look exactly the way they did when they first went live, and most of the links in them are long inactive, but the text is all there, for anyone who is interested in dipping in and out. Here's a link to that very first issue, which was published way back in August 2000, when I was flagging up the global markets into which Cirque Du Freak had so far been sold, and preparing for my first ever trip to the Edinburgh Book Festival.  http://www.darrenshan.com/news/shanville-archives/2000/08/ 

I'm not doing many events at the moment, since I'm between projects and don't want to go on the road without a new book to promote. That said, I'll be doing occasional, one-off events while we're waiting for the next Darren Shan book to come along, and I have three of those coming up this month.

Thursday, March 2nd -- 10.00am -- I'm doing a school event at St Gabriel's School in Limerick. (I take my son for swimming lessons there, so I couldn't say no when they asked!!)

Thursday, March 30th -- 1.30pm -- I'm doing a Twitter chat with the students of Glenthorne School. This will also be accessible to other on Twitter -- check out my Twitter account closer the time for more info.

Friday, March 31st and Saturday April 1st -- I'm doing a number of events (both large-scale and small-scale) and signings at the Sci-Fi Weekender festival in North Wales, an epic coming-together of fans of sci-fi, fantasy and horror, featuring authors, film and TV stars, and a whole lot more. For more information about the Sci-Fi Weekender, click here: http://www.scifiweekender.com/

TEACHERS ARE LOVELY 2

YOUNG JOURNALIST

Good, honest, truth-seeking journalists are needed now more than ever, so it's good to see some of them are starting young, in the High School Insider section of the Los Angeles Times. One of those young journalists is Isaias Garcia, and even though his ultimate goal is to become a firefighter, he's a pretty good writer too. I was chuffed to see him mention that my books were what first got him into reading -- it's always lovely when you can help open someone's mind to the power of words. Best of luck in the future, Isaias, whether it's whether that's wrestling with a pen or a fire hose!  http://highschool.latimes.com/author/isaias022414/

Mrs Shan and I spent a weekend in New York last month to celebrate the 15th anniversary of our first date. (Because we didn't marry for another 11 years -- in romance, as in writing, the Shan man works surely but slowly! -- that continues to be our main anniversary.) Above are a couple of photos, taken in Central Park and Times Square. I've got to be honest -- while the trip was primarily about our anniversary, it was also a work trip. Central Park and Times Square both feature in the new series that I'm working on. There was an especially important scene in the second book, set in Central Park, which I needed to research. I'm all about killing two birds with one stone...  And for those of you wondering how work on the new series is going -- I'm making good progress on my first edit of the second book, trimming it down nicely. Once that's done, I'll be turning my thoughts to the first draft of the third book, and if that comes together neatly inside my head, I could be looking at hitting the GO button for book 1 in the near future. Of course, if it doesn't come together neatly, that could be problematic -- but I always believe in hoping for the best!!

ZOM-B CHRONICLES

I'm aware that some of my fans in the UK might be waiting eagerly for the fourth volume of the Zom-B Chronicles, which collects the 7th and 8th books of the series. It was due for release around now, but that was before my UK publishers, Simon & Schuster, decided to rebrand the paperbacks and re-schedule them. With the new-look paperbacks of volumes 7, 8 and 9 only hitting the shelves recently it didn't make sense to release the next volume of the Chronicles around the same time. So I'm afraid it's been pushed back until the revamped paperbacks have finished coming out. The current release date is December 28th, though to be honest, there's a chance it might never see print -- given the long gap after the third volume, I'm just not sure there's going to be a demand for more. (They seem to have stopped in the USA as well.) As always, if plans change, I'll let you guys know as soon as I'm informed.

TEACHING PLAN

I recently came across a teaching plan for Cirque Du Freak. It's a collection of resources for teachers who want to teach the book and who are looking for guidance to how best to use it in class. Now, I have nothing whatsoever to do with this, so I don't know how helpful it might be, whether it's good, bad or indifferent. And in my experience, most teachers who want to deviate from the normal curriculum are pretty inventive when it comes to making up their own plans. And while it's not especially expensive, it isn't free. But, just in case any teachers out there are looking for something like this, I figured I'd share the link and leave them to assess its merits themselves. So here it is: http://www.teacher-of-english.com/resource.php?id=1554

The winners of last month's competition, each of whom received a signed copy of the second edition of Sunburn, were: Krisztian Szasz, Hungary. Emily Holland, England. Eveliina Viljanen, Finland.

This month, since we're celebrating the 200th issue of the Shanville Monthly, I wanted to offer some really special prizes. ALL of the prizes I put up for offer have something unique about them, but I wanted to give away something REALLY unique this month -- and after a quick raid through my files, I think I've found just the right things! When we get to the final stage of the editing process on each of my books, it's called the proof stage. At this point my publisher sends me a printout of what the finished book will look like, with everything the way it will appear in the book, but printed on A4 sheets of paper. This is my opportunity to read through the book the way the readers will, and my very last chance to make any last-minute corrections. I never change anything major at this point -- it's mostly about catching any mistakes that might have slipped through, and perhaps tweaking the occasional word or two.

I sometimes get more than one copy of the proofs. The idea, going back to the old days before the internet and emails, is that you mark up any final changes on the printouts, then return one set by post to the publisher and keep the other set for yourself. Of course these days I do everything by email, noting down the pages and line numbers for easy reference. I keep the set that I work on for myself (although I think I've thrown out some in the past) and most of the additional sets go into the recycling bin once the book has been published, as they take up a lot of space and I've no use for them any more. However, I happened to hold onto a few of the Zom-B proofs as I was going along with the series, and these are what I'm offering as prizes this month. I'm pretty sure my publishers will have long destroyed any of their own sets, so apart from the sets in my files, these are true one-offs as far as I'm aware -- I have no more spare sets of them, and never again will have. (Though I do plan to give away a few proofs of other books of mine in a future competition.)

I have five proofs in total up for grabs. First prize will be the British proof for Zom-B Baby. This includes the cover art, which the American proofs do not -- they simply have a blank page where art is going to go. Second prize will be the American proof from the very first Zom-B book. Third prize will be the American proof for Zom-B Gladiator. Fourth prize will be the American proof for Zom-B Mission. Fifth prize will be the American proof for Zom-B Clans.

1) Answer this question: "When was the first issue of the Shanville Monthly published?" I'm looking for the month and year in your answer. As an example, if you were asked when issue 200 was published, the answer would be March 2017. (HINT -- you can find the answer elsewhere in this issue of the Shanville Monthly.)

2) Send your entry to: [email protected]

3) Put your NAME 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 FULL POSTAL ADDRESS in the body of the e-mail, as well as the answer. This is so that I can easily send your prize to you if you win.

(4) Closing date is midnight, UK Time, Friday, March 10th, 2017.

(5) This competition is open to everybody, everywhere in the world, unless you work for one of my publishers or are one of my relations.

(6) You can only enter the competition ONCE. If you try to enter more than once, ALL of your entries will be disqualified.

(7) Only one entry per household -- if you send in more than one entry, ALL of your entries will be rejected. If more than one person in a house wants to enter, you'll need to make a joint entry.

(8) The draw for the winners will be made on or after Saturday, March 11th, 2017. It will be a completely random draw, made by Darren Shan personally (I use an online number generator to pick the winners). I will try to notify the winners by e-mail, and will post their names in the Shanville Monthly, and on Facebook too.

(9) Information submitted by entrants WILL NOT be shared by me with any other individual or company.

(10) My decision will be final.