• Issue 293 - December 2024

    02 December 2024

    GREETINGS!

     

    Hi everyone, and welcome to the December issue of the Shanville Monthly! Christmas is almost upon us, to the great excitement of my two kids! I'm sure their Christmas stockings will be bulging on the big day. I hope YOURS will be too -- but if it's not, hey, at least you have this festive issue of my newsletter to tuck into, and isn't that better than any number of presents?!?!? I don't have a huge amount to report on this month -- the year is dying down, and things tend to go quiet in the publishing industry around this time -- but there's an update on the potential Demonata TV adaptation.. info about how to go about setting up a virtual event with me... news about how the Cirque Du Freak movie has been faring on MAX after its transfer... and let's kick things off with an announcement about the imminent return of an old friend of ours...

     

     

    SHANTA CLAUS!!

     

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    Every year I publish a SHORT STORY on my website, all about... SHANTA CLAUS!! It started life almost a quarter of a century ago, and is set just after the end of Tunnels Of Blood. Originally it was limited to the characters who appeared in my vampire books, but over the years it's grown to include mentions of all of my major series, as well as nods to a few of my one-off books too. It's the only place in the official Darren Shan universe where you'll find Lord Loss rubbing shoulder with Mr Crepsley and B Smith! Just don't take it TOO seriously -- it's all intended to be nothing more than good, freaky fun!!! In recent years I've also used the story to include one or two updates on the status of the ongoing efforts to bring some of my work to life as movies or TV shows, and there might be an interesting little update in this year's edition, something that I thought about mentioning a month or two ago, but decided to hold back for the festive special... You'll be able to check it out from sometime in the middle of the month, by clicking here: https://darrenshan.com/extras But that link will ONLY work if you've been a good little boy or girl -- it will send you directly to the dungeon in Lord Loss's castle if you've been naughty!! Shanta KNOWS!!!!

     

     

    DEMONATA UPDATE

     

     

    A little update on the Demonata TV adaptation.

     

    The team (Max and Ijaz) have been working hard on scripts for the last few months, and have now sent a bunch to me, for me to read through, comment on, and tweak or alter. (I'd hoped to have done that by now, but November was consumed with moving back into my home after being out for two years.) Once I've done all that, I'll send the scripts back, and they'll go through them again, then maybe I'll go through them again, then maybe they...

     

    Once we're all happy, we'll be moving on to the next stage, where we start shopping the scripts around in search of the people with the money to turn our dreams into a reality.

     

    Please don't go getting TOO excited -- it's still very early days, and we're going to be beavering away on the script for the next few months at least, I would imagine. I just wanted to let you know that we ARE working away hard behind the scenes (well, Max and Ijaz have been working hard -- so far I've just been sitting in my high-backed chair, stroking my chin like a Bond villain!!!). I don't know if we'll get anywhere with this, but if we don't, it won't be for want of trying...

     

    Keep those fingers (or claws or tentacles if you're a demon) crossed for us!!!

     

    p.s. the structure of the series has yet to be determined -- we're looking at possibly structuring it the way the books were structured, e.g. we do Lord Loss as four episodes, then Demon Thief, then Bec. But we might also mix things up and take a different approach.

     

     

     A HAPPY REUNION

     

     

    The Shans moved back into our house last month, after having been out for almost two years following a fire. The place was full of boxes and crates for almost all of November (there are STILL quite a few of them to be unboxed!), containing everything that was put into storage when we had to move out. Each box was full of surprises, things we'd forgotten about or didn't expect to see back again. But nothing was as surprising a find as THIS little baby!!!

     

    Mrs Shan hurried to find me one night, while I was reading. She was beaming as she cooed, "You'll never guess what I just found in one of my boxes!!" I was even more astonished than she was when she revealed her find, and words can't really express the way my heart lifted as she handed it over.

     

    "But what the hell IS it?!?" I hear you all cry, as you stare with disbelief and confusion at a scrappy bit of card with very jagged edges and some faded writing.

     

    It's my bookmark.

     

    I'd been using this in pretty much every single physical book that I read since I was in university. You can see the 8th June 1990 date on it, but I'd actually been using it for a good while before then. I have no idea where I picked it up, or why I started using it instead of a nice, proper bookmark, but it had been a huge part of my reading life for more than 30 years, coming with me on every literary adventure that I undertook. Granted, I read mostly on Kindle these days, and have done for quite a few years, but any time I returned to hardbacks or paperbacks, the bookmark came with me.

     

    Until two years ago, when I left it on a shelf in the house when everything was packed away, and forgot to retrieve it before the moving team hit that particular room. I was sure I'd never see it again, and had resigned myself to the loss, telling myself that I was being ridiculous, mourning the loss of a bit of card. But to my delight, the movers packed it away and returned it, so we've been reunited, hopefully for another 30 years or more.

     

    Read on, MacDuff!!!!!

     

     

    VIRTUAL EVENTS

     

     

    I did some very enjoyable virtual events last month, and have a few more lined up this month. Recent events have been with schools in the UK, the USA and Ireland, and I have a big one (several hundred students) coming up with a school in Dubai. Effortlessly spanning the continents -- that's me!!!

     

    This photos is from an event I did with Trinity Academy in Halifax in the UK. Each event is set up differently, depending on the school's needs -- for instance, another recent event took place in the school library, with the kids up close, sitting on chairs and beanbags -- but this gives you a good idea of how it CAN be staged.

     

    If YOU are a teacher or librarian, interested in having me talk with your kids about my books, they're easy to set up. We do them on Zoom or Teams. Each event runs about 30 to 35 minutes. I do a reading, chat a little bit about myself, then take lots of questions. I like big groups where possible -- the more the merrier -- but I do smaller groups too sometimes. To find out more, just drop me an email at [email protected] and I'll get back to you to discuss the possibilities and specifics. Oh, and if you're wondering if you can afford me... I don't charge anything for these!!! :-)

     

     

    TOP 10 ON MAX

     

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    The Cirque Du Freak movie started streaming on MAX in the USA last month, and made it into the Top 10 most watched shows on at least one of the days, as the above photo can attest. Coolio!!!

     

     

    THE MANGA'S APPEAL

     

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    A fan called Joe posted the above frame from the Cirque Du Freak manga on Facebook last month, with the observation: "It was interesting when I heared the Cirque Du Freak manga did so well with women compared to the novels. I'm not sure why but there are some things I think were factors..."
     
    I had a good long chuckle at that!! Although, to be honest, despite what my publishers have often believed, my readership over the years has been about equally split between males and females. The industry thinking (and mine, until I started meeting and hearing from people who'd read the books) was that boys would prefer the dark, grisly tone of my work more than girls would, but in truth I haven't found that to be the case, even before the buff manga vamps hit the scene!!! :-)

     

     

    DEMONIC EMBELLISHMENTS

     

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    RAYMOND, a fan of my Demonata series, decided the original British book covers weren't QUITE scary enough, so he only went and embellished them, adding spine-tingling artwork of his own across the pages spines!! I've got to say, I think he did an absolutely fabulous job, and I'm envious! I wish my publishers had thought to do this all those years ago, though I imagine that would have added quite a bit to the publishing costs... :-)
     

     

    MATT CREPSLEY

     

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    I didn't get a lot of photos of fans dressing up as characters from my books this Halloween, but a guy called MATT did an amazing job as Mr Crepsley. So -- kudos to Matt! And the rest of you had better up your game next year!!! :-)

     

     

    IT'S A WRAP!

     

    And that's it for December. I hope you all have a wonderful, relaxing time over the Christmas holidays, and that you get to spend some quality time with the people you love the most. I'll hopefully see you back here at the start of January for the first newsletter of 2025. 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.

     

     

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