"Molls Like it Hot is a thoroughly grizzly, gritty, and unmissable story based in London, UK that provides the reader with plenty of twists and turns to keep them hooked from the very first page. In all honesty, this is probably Darren Dash's best work to date. Despite being released late into the year, Molls Like it Hot surprised, and left such an impact on me, I am naming it my Book of the Year 2019."

Wow. Just... wow. I don't think reviews come much more glowing than this one of Molls Like It Hot, by reviewer Tom Sturtridge over on the Vocal Media web site. You can read the full review by CLICKING HERE.

Molls has been getting a great reaction from reviewers across the board -- I've honestly yet to read a truly negative review of it. If you'd like to learn a bit more about it, and how to order it either as an ebook or paperback, visit the Darren Dash web site at www.darrendashbooks.com

MAVEN OF THE EVENTIDE

I was thrilled to see famed vampire reviewer Maven Of The Eventide post a lengthy video review of Cirque Du Freak (along with The Vampire's Assistant and Tunnels Of Blood) last week. It's a really fun and well-researched piece, and she's very entertaining to watch -- I love her accent! (She mentions me having an Irish accent at one point -- I didn't have the heart to write and tell her that despite having lived in Ireland for more than 40 years, I still speak with the strong Cockney twang that I had when I left London as a 6 year old!) She does mispronounce Murlough's name (it should be Mur-lock, not Merlot) but many many have done (and continue to do) that over the years -- my fault for assuming that everyone knew that a lake is known as a lough in Ireland... Anyway, that's enough of my prattling. Time to CLICK HERE and let the Maven start rattling!

GETTING STARTED

A fan of my books, called Kendra, recently wrote to me for some advice about publishing. In her email she said:

"I'm a comic artist/animator, just about to graduate college, and I have a piece I've been working on for a very very VERY long time. I'm finally ready to try to publish it and draw it out -- but I'm absolutely terrified. Putting my writing - and my art - out into the universe feels so personal, and I am absolutely terrified no one is going to like it. Do you ever feel this way when you write and publish your books? How do you get over the fear of failure -- if you consider no one enjoying your books a failure? How do you work with others -- and let them change your work without letting it affect you personally? And how do you keep writing fun? I'm always stuck in the balance of writing for myself and then trying to write for others. I can't find the happy medium. I want to enjoy it but I'm terrified of failure, simply because my work is so personal and so important to me. What do you do with these kind of problems if you face them at all? What keeps you writing and what gives you the courage to put it all out there?"

BIG questions that I think pretty much every writer faces when they're starting out. I wasn't able to answer all of them in depth, though I've gone into more detail about those in the past and written about them on my web site (there will be a link for that at the end of this post) but here's how I responded to Kendra:

"If there's one message that I hope every reader takes away from my books it's that we must never let our fears define or confine us. It's perfectly natural to be scared of showing your work to others, but if you've got to the point where you feel ready to send it out into the world, then you just have to put those fears to one side and start submitting it. Expect rejections and, even though you will be disappointed by them, you won't be crushed by them. Remind yourself that pretty much every writer struggles and gets turned down when they're starting out (Cirque Du Freak was rejected by 20 publishers), and wear those rejections if and when they come as a badge, with pride -- because they're proof that unlike the many people who dream of being writers but never dare put their neck on the block, you've stepped up and are taking the shots as anyone in pursuit of their dream must take. Also remind yourself that you're still VERY young, even if it might not feel that way -- most authors are in their 30s before they really start to get going -- so if this one doesn't work out, move on to the next one, and the one after that, and the one after that...

"Every rejection hurts, but better to try and be knocked back, than never try at all. The most important thing is to KEEP trying. You'll learn to deal with the hurt, and grow from it. You might even find that it helps you become a better writer, in the long run.

"And, hey, you might not get rejected at all -- though you'd be a very rare anomaly if you're not!

"Best of luck with the adventure!"

I hope that proved of some help to Kendra, and that it maybe helps some of you reading this, if you're in the same boat as her. For LOTS more on this subject, you might want to check out the Writing Tips part of my web site, where I've gathered together my thoughts on most things concerned with writing and publishing. You can access it by CLICKING HERE.

(nearly) ALL THE BOOKS

Over the years, quite a few fans have sent me photos of their Darren Shan collections. They're usually pretty impressive -- I've written a LOT of books, and they take up a lot of shelf space when you see them all together -- but they're also almost always shown spine-out. That makes sense, since that's the way we all stack our books, right? But a fan called Amity Lee (many of whose amazing drawings I've featured on my blog in past posts) decided to take a photo of her collection of my books with the covers face-up, and the scale of it made me pause and whistle appreciately -- "I've published THAT many books?!?" I murmured to my myself, almost disbelievingly. :-)

But as jaw-dropping as this photo was, something about it made me pause. I've published 51 books (including a couple of shorts, and the novels for adults that I release under the name of Darren Dash) but I could only count 50 here. (Discounting the double-ups of my Demonata books.) I must admit, it took me a few minutes of head-scratching and re-counting to figure out what was missing -- and I wonder if any of YOU will be quicker to the punch than I was!! I'll give you a couple of clues -- it's a short book -- there WAS a paperback edition -- but it's only ever been on sale as an eBook.

If you can't work it out, visit the Books section over on my website, where you'll be able to find it in among the mix of all my published work: www.darrenshan.com/books

This one's a bit of a French oddity...

The manga edition of The Saga Of Darren Shan (aka the Cirque Du Freak series) was released in French many years ago. I was sent the first six volumes, but no more, so I assumed that the publishers had stopped there. It wouldn't have been the first time that had happened to my series in France -- the books of the Saga were first published in 2001, but the publishers stopped at the fourth, and they were re-translated and re-published several years later, and this time they only got to the third book. The same fate befell my Zom-B series even further down the path, and again they stopped publishing them after the third book. "C'est la vie!" as my frustrated French freaksters no doubt groaned each time!

But then, last year, a strange thing happened -- I spotted volumes 7 to 12 of the French edition of the manga online. (I think a fan shared the image with me.) I asked my agent to investigate, and it turns out they actually published all 12 volumes, but never sent me the second half of the series. That has now been rectified, and I've added them all to the Covers section of my web site, where I collect the covers of every edition of my books that has ever been published -- well, at least the ones that my publishers have actually sent to me!

You can check out the entire French manga collection, together on my site at long, long last, by CLICKING HERE.

LITCAST OF DOOM