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!!! :-)

MATT CREPSLEY

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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If you received an email with a link to this issue of the Shanville Monthly it's because at some point in the past you subscribed to get updates from me. I don't share your details with any third parties, and do not hold them on any independent device -- everything on the subscription front is done through Sendfox, and you can read about their privacy policy by CLICKING HERE. If you're happy to continue receiving emails from me, you don't need to do anything, and you will continue to be sent updates whenever a new issue of the Shanville Monthly goes live. If, at any point, you wish to unsubscribe, there will always be an Unsubscribe link in any email notification that you receive from me, and you can simply click on that to have yourself removed from my mailing list.

If you live in the USA, and have access to MAX, you're going to have a freakily fabulous start to the month, because the Cirque Du Freak movie is streaming on MAX now!! Yay -- or boo -- depending on your opinion of the movie!!!!

For a list of everything else that is new on MAX this month, click here: CLICK HERE

And if you don't live in the USA, but want to watch the movie, you can either buy a copy of the DVD or Blu-Ray on a site like Amazon, or buy or rent it through one of your local streaming services -- I recommend searching on JUSTWATCH to find out your options: https://www.justwatch.com/

With Halloween just behind us, this is the perfect time to share this list of horror books that aren't TOO scary, for the younger horror fans out there -- or for those who are grown up but just big scaredy cats!!!

The list appears on SCREEN RANT, who included Cirque Du Freak in the #7 spot, and had some very nice things to say about it. I also absolutely LOVE the picture they created to go with the list -- my book nestled next to books by Stephen King and Ray Bradbury, two of my all-time favourite authors, who were (and are) huge influences on me. If you'd told me thirty years ago that a book of mine would be keeping company with such heavyweights, I'd have thought you were patronising me!!!!

To read what the compilers of the list said, and to check out every other book that made the cut, CLICK HERE

OLD ICE CREAM

A fan called JODIE emailed me quite a while back, asking if I recalled writing a recipe for Bailey's Ice Cream in the distant past -- she had a vague memory of it, and wanted to find the recipe again, as she used to make it and loved the ice cream when she did! But I couldn't really recall, so I wasn't able to help her.

Fast forward to the last month, and Jodie got in touch again -- she'd found a copy of the recipe on an old device of hers (it used to be on my American publisher's web site), and shared it with me. This was a real blast from the past -- and it's also got me thinking it might be time that I made a batch of this for myself again!!

IN COMMON

Look what was Book Of The Week at DENBIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY one of the weeks last month!!

I love it when teachers and librarians highlight my books this way. Back in 1997, when every publisher in the UK rejected the early draft of Cirque Du Freak, one of the reasons cited was that it would inspire fury among educators, who would call for it to be banned. When the book came out in 2000, not only did this prove NOT to be the case, but teachers and librarians became some of the earliest champions of the book, recommending it to their students and helping it become a word-of-mouth success. They saw what the publishing experts didn't -- that despite its grisly trappings, it was a positive, uplifting story about the importance of friendship and the courage it sometimes takes to do the right thing and put others' futures ahead of your own. So, whenever I see a post like this one from the staff at Denbigh High School, it tends to remind me who the TRUE experts are when it comes to the world of children's books and what kids will or will not want to read. Publishers, book sellers, reviewers, authors... we all play second fiddle to these guys!!!! Respect!!!!!!!

HALLOWEEN LIBRARY DISPLAYS

FREAKY HOARDERS

A fan called JAMIE got in touch with me recently to say the following: "I’m watching hoarder videos while cleaning (because, that’s what we do) and in this video, at the 39:55 mark, I saw something that made me cry! I read my copies to shreds! And it makes me sad that they likely never cracked open these books."

To find out what brought tears to the sharp-eyed Jamie's eyes, CLICK HERE and fast-forward to near the end of the 39 minutes mark -- unless, of course, you love watching hoarder videos too, in which case feel free to watch the whole thing!!!

I never worry too much about books that get moved on. Life changes for us all, and I like to think that books that get thrown away are simply undergoing a state of migration, and will hopefully fine lovely new homes with owners who will enjoy them all over again. But hey, as you all know from reading my books, I *AM* a starry-eyed optimist...

AI SONG

COMPETITION WINNERS

When I drew the winners of my October competition, it threw up a statistical anomaly that I can't recall ever having run into before over the course of the twenty-five years that I've been running competitions!! First up, the two lucky winners were, in the order drawn...

REBECCA PROENZA, from the USA.

REBEKAH FARMER, from the UK.

See what I'm talking about?!? TWO Rebecca's!!!! OK, they spell the name differently, but still!! There were more than 400 entries, so the odds against the two winners having the same first name must be astronomical!! Could it truly have been mere coincidence... or might FATHER, that super-computer from the future, have jerry-rigged the draw in order to let us know that he's keeping a very close eye on things here in the past?!?

Thanks to everyone who took part, and better luck next time to those who didn't win on this occasion.

IT'S A WRAP!

And that's it for November. The photo above is of myself and Mrs Shan in the outfits we wore to the Halloween party at our children’s school -- for the last few years we’ve constructed and run a small scare zone -- terrifying fun!!!! I'll hopefully see you back here at the start of December for the run-up to Christmas. 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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If you received an email with a link to this issue of the Shanville Monthly it's because at some point in the past you subscribed to get updates from me. I don't share your details with any third parties, and do not hold them on any independent device -- everything on the subscription front is done through Sendfox, and you can read about their privacy policy by CLICKING HERE. If you're happy to continue receiving emails from me, you don't need to do anything, and you will continue to be sent updates whenever a new issue of the Shanville Monthly goes live. If, at any point, you wish to unsubscribe, there will always be an Unsubscribe link in any email notification that you receive from me, and you can simply click on that to have yourself removed from my mailing list.

The Cirque Du Freak Fanzine is a lovely little online freebie that's been going for quite a few years now. Put together each year by a fan of the book, who invites other fans to submit drawings or stories or poems or cosplay photos (or a mixture of those). I always love checking it out when it goes live around Halloween.

It's going ahead again this year, and is now open to submissions, so if you want to submit a piece of work -- or create a piece of work to submit -- CLICK HERE. You have until October 26th.

10 WORST HORROR MOVIES?!?

A new month = a new "Cirque Du Freak is one of the worst movies ever" article!!! :-)

This time round it's the good folk at COLLIDER, who compiled a list of the 10 Worst Horror Movies Based On Great Books, and placed Cirque Du Freak in the #10 spot. Which I guess is tragedy heaped on insult -- if a film of yours is going to make a list like this, I imagine you'd probably want to at least be #1 on the list, is only for the notoriety value!!!!

A list like this is always something of a mixed blessing for me. On the one hand, they're slagging off a movie based on my books, which isn't very nice -- but on the other hand, they're saying my books are GREAT, which is extremely flattering for ME!!!

Since I had nothing to do with the making of the movie, I guess I should just take the plaudits and keep quiet, but as I usually do in this situation, I must confess that I do truly like the film on its own terms. Yes, I think it should have been a lot more faithful to the books. Yes, I think it might have worked better if they'd involved me in the adaptation process. And yes, it's nowhere near as dark as it should have been.

But lots of people who'd never read my books (or even heard of me) saw the film and liked it enough to go read the books afterwards. I met quite a few of them at my recent event in Hungary, as I usually do when I meet with a large group of Shansters. It was their introduction to my world, and even though their opinion of it might have dipped after they read the books and realised how much of the source material the movie-makers had junked or changed, many of them still look upon it fondly. As do I.

So -- great books? Yes, immodest little chap that I am, I'd agree with that 100%!!! But one of the ten worst horror movies ever?!? Nay. Not in my opinion. Indeed I'd say very far from it.

Anyway, to check out the entire list of the unfortunate ten movies, CLICK HERE

NATIVE JAMES

I received quite a few presents on my recent trip to Hungary, which came as a pleasant surprise -- I genuinely wasn't expecting anything. Art, postcards, snacks, some alcoholic drinks (hic!!) and more. While every gift was of course warmly accepted and cherished, two in particular just blew me away. The first, by a fan called ANNA, is what she terms a booknook -- a display to sit between books on a bookshelf. She made it from scratch, providing us with a glimpse backstage at the Cirque Du Freak -- there's Mr Crepsley's hand holding Madam Octa... Mr Tall's hat... Harkat Mulds... and loads of other tiny details -- you see more and more the longer you look into it!!

The other was a little lamp box, made by a fan called EVA. Each face presents a different scene from my books -- Harkat... Mr Crpesley and Darren... the Wolf Man. It's absolutely stunning, especially when the light is turned on.

As I said, every gift was special to me, but the work and time that went into these just astounded me, and I was honestly left somewhat speechless on the day. Suffice to say, a little bit of my heart will always remain in Budapest.

CIRQUE DU WHAT?!?

A FREAKY CALLBACK

A Shanster called Morgan was reading Zom-B Bride recently when he noticed a VERY familiar line!! See if YOU can spot it too -- if not, I'll point you towards it at the bottom of this entry...

While there are, of course, lots of coincidences in the world, this line was inserted deliberately, as a little Easter Egg for sharp-eyed fans who had read Cirque Du Freak. It seemed like a fun little way to hark back to the start of that series, and while I don't normally include anything like that, as it can break the spell of a book and jolt readers out of the world that I've carefully created for them, this was one instance where I just couldn't turn away from the idea once it presented itself to me.

Or... I suppose it might also have been... DesTiny?!?

****If you still haven't located the line in question, look at the third line from the bottom in the photo***

WRONG ADAPTATIONS

XAVIER'S LETTER

***Some letters from fans take a while to compose, but are worth waiting for! This one from XAVIER is a case in point, and made my heart throb with joy when I read it...***

Dear Mr. Shan, My name is Xavier. I've been trying to figure out how to write this correspondence for about 14 years now. It began as a letter I first tried to write at 10 years old, back in 2010. I never could put together the right words to say. Now, as a young adult in his mid 20's, I've decided to take another shot expressing my gratitude. I guess I'll start at the beginning and I promise not to take too much of your time. I was 10 years old in a new school district with new people and no friends. Our teacher took us to the massive school library. Well it wasn't massive, I was just small. I wandered around not finding anything and feeling discouraged until I stumbled upon Demon Thief. It was the only book of yours on the shelf at that time. I was so excited! I finished that book in 2 days. I can't even explain my excitement when I found out there were NINE MORE books! I ended up finishing that series withing a few months.

I saw myself in Grubbs, and, in fact, I found pieces of myself in many of your characters. From Dervish, to Bec, to Bill-E all the way to Bran/Beranabus (holy plot twist by the way!!). Each character showed me bits in pieces of myself and helped me grow as a person. But after finishing the series, now what? The Saga of Darren Shan, that's what! Unfortunately, my school library didn't carry those. That didn't stop me though, I had them special order every single one of those books until I finished that series! That series showed me what it really meant to be courageous, selfless, and how to face my fears. From there, I moved onto my favorite novel of all time, The Thin Executioner. What a piece of literature! It was so amazing, that I bought the novel for my girlfriend to read recently!

Now you may be asking, why am I telling you all of this? There are so many people out there with my story, what's so different about mine? As an adult, I was diagnosed with ADHD and High Functioning Autism. Through therapy, I've been learning a lot about myself, especially my childhood. My mom was dealing with substance abuse and wasn't that present, my dad wasn't a big factor in my life, and my step-dad didn't want to overstep so he never really contributed to my personal development. And if you recall from earlier in the email, I had just moved to the district and I had a lot of trouble making friends. My point is, your books helped me develop my imagination, sense of self, and so much more. I imagine that’s exactly what you hope to achieve as an author, crafting characters that resonate with readers in such personal and profound ways.

I'm proud to say that I am the Vice President of one of the largest school districts in my state, and I also work in the State Assembly leading the charge on productive change. Keeping everything in perspective, I wouldn't be where I am today without you. So thank you for helping me become me.

Recently, I’ve started reading Archibald Lox, and I’m already captivated by the world you’ve created. It’s incredible how, after all these years, your stories still have the power to draw me in and spark my imagination. I’m excited to dive deeper into this new series and see where it takes me.

Best regards, Xavier

COMPETITION

I released Father of the Future (my latest book for adults, released under the author name of Darren Dash) around this time last year. A darkly comic time-travelling tale that looks at the dangers of living in a world where Artificial Intelligence is kingpin, it's becoming more and more relevant with every passing day. I signed some copies of the hardback on its release day, and also dated them and scribbled in publication day for extra emphasis. I'm offering two of those signed copies as prizes in this month's competition. To be in with a chance of winning one of them, all you have to do is answer a simple question and email it to me, along with your name and address. After that, keep your fingers crossed and hope that YOUR name pops out of the electronic hat when I make the draw!!

1) Answer this question: "What is the title of my latest book for adults?" (This isn't a trick question! It really IS that simple!!!)

2) Send your entry to: [email protected]

3) Put your NAME in the SUBJECT BOX when you send your e-mail. Make sure you INCLUDE YOUR FULL POSTAL ADDRESS in the body of the e-mail, as well as the answer, so that I can easily send your prize to you if you win

(4) Closing date is 11.59pm UK time, Tuesday, October 15th, 2024.

(5) This competition is open to fans 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 Wednesday, October 16th, 2024. 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 my social media channels too.

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

(10) My decision will be final.

IT'S A WRAP!

And that's it for October. I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween. If you're going trick-or-treating, may your bags bulge with goodies by the end of the night! If you're staying in that night, please treat those trick-or-treaters sweetly!! And if you plan to go partying, watch out for demons on the dance floor!!! I'll hopefully see you back here at the start of November. 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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If you received an email with a link to this issue of the Shanville Monthly it's because at some point in the past you subscribed to get updates from me. I don't share your details with any third parties, and do not hold them on any independent device -- everything on the subscription front is done through Sendfox, and you can read about their privacy policy by CLICKING HERE. If you're happy to continue receiving emails from me, you don't need to do anything, and you will continue to be sent updates whenever a new issue of the Shanville Monthly goes live. If, at any point, you wish to unsubscribe, there will always be an Unsubscribe link in any email notification that you receive from me, and you can simply click on that to have yourself removed from my mailing list.

A fan in the crowd recorded the whole of my Q&A at the event in Budapest. It runs 46 minutes in total, but that includes the translations to my answers -- if you fast forward through those (as I assume all non-Hungarian speakers will), you should shave a good 20 minutes or so off the running time. CLICK HERE

There was a scheduled interview to begin with, where I was asked questions by the interviewer on stage, then we threw it open to the crowd. We covered LOTS of ground and touched on all sorts of topics. It's been a long time since I did a public Q&A like this, and very few of those back in the day were ever fully recorded, so this is a rare chance to catch me in action and hear me speak on a wide variety of subjects. CLICK HERE

ARCHIE VOL 2 REVIEW

The first Hungarian review for the second Archibald Lox Volume hit the web recently. To read it, CLICK HERE

It's a solid 7/10 review. The reviewer felt there was a bit too much focus on Grop (a sport that is hugely popular in the worlds of The Megre in the series), but that the series was building nicely and that answers to certain key questions would probably come in the third Volume -- which they certainly do!

One line made me smile wryly: "the author could have worked out how Archie had credibly explained to his parents and guardianship his disappearance. We didn’t get any feedback on how much his absence had influenced his relationship with his foster parents, since they already have a dead child."

This was something that a number of people commented on when they were reading the first two Volumes. Archie spends a lot of time away from home over the course of his adventures, but doesn't talk much about how he's squaring that away with his foster parents. It seemed like a bit of lazy writing on my part -- though I don't think anyone quite put it THAT bluntly!

Heh heh!!! Those who know me well (which is hopefully most of you who are reading this) will know that there's very little laziness on my part when it comes to constructing my twisting, sneaky plots!! If it looks like there's a big hole in my narrative, or that I'm shying away from properly explaining something... well, that's when your Spidey senses should be tingling, because it's normally a subtle sign that I'm gearing up to pull the rug out from under your feet in a completely unexpected (and often quite shocking) way!!!

POTTER & YA IN NOUGHTIES

Vlogger BLURBAL REASONING recently reviewed the fifth volume of the Cirque Du Freak manga adaptation. It's a 16 minute review that goes into quite a lot of interesting detail, and is certainly worth checking out, which you can do by CLICKING HERE

If you've never read the CDF manga (or even heard about it!), all 12 books were adapted many years ago, first in Japan, then in translated editions in lots of other countries around the world, including the USA and UK. Those orignal editions are out of print and very hard to track down these days (very costly too, in some cases), but they were reprinted a few years ago in omnibus editions, two books per volume, and these should be a bit easier to find -- although, having said that, the reprints seem to have gone out of pring too, and a few of those can be tricky to find too!!

If you can't source copies through your local manga specialist, you might enjoy some luck on a site like Abebooks or Alibiris, both of which specialise in second-hand books and have huge numbers of titles up for grabs.

GREAT BOOKS - TERRIBLE MOVIES?!?

BELGARIAD INFLUENCE

A fan of mine called JAY emailed me recently to say: "I’ve just started reading The Belgariad series and saw your quote in the front of the book. I’ve been a massive fan of your books for some time and wondered if anything from this series has helped inspire your work. I saw some parallels in Belgarath and Beranabus and wanted to see if it was a little Easter egg!"

Jay was partly right about the Belgariad easter egg, but got the wrong book and characters! While Belgarath might have been a subconscious influence on Beranabus in my Demonata series, in my vampire books Vancha and Evanna both owed a very conscious debt to a character from the Belgariad called Beldin!!! :-)

I love The Belgariad and read the books several times in my teenage years. They definitely were a big influence on me, and I recomend them most wholeheartedly -- which is why I gave the publishers a quote which they used on some of the covers when the series was refreshed a few years back. (And the teenager in me still finds it rather surreal that a quote of MINE has been used to help plug one of my favourite series!!!)

SAVAGE TIKTOK!

NEVER MEDIOCRE!

A post was trending on Twitter last month: "Nobody understands the bond between a girl and the mediocre book she read when she was 13 years old."

Several people mentioned my books in reply to it (mainly my Cirque Du Freak and Demonata series), which was lovely, but I do bristle at that word MEDIOCRE.

I get what she means -- sometimes a book can play a huge part in your life when you're a teenager, and if you try to read it again as an adult it doesn't have the same impact on you, and can even seem a bit (maybe a LOT) lame in retrospect. But I think it's crucial to bear in mind that it's YOU that has changed, not the book.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with leaving the world of children's books and YA books behind and moving on to the world of books that are written for adults. Indeed, that's a path I'd encourage ANY and EVERY reader to take. I've always had a soft spot for children's literature, and still read several every year, and while I rarely enjoy them as much as I would have 40 years ago, they do still hit a sweet spot for me. They're not a major part of my reading habits, any more than horror or fantasy or sci-fi are major parts of my reading habits these days -- I read a very wide variety of books. But they do still work for me, and I continue to read them for pleasure.

I suspect I'm in a minority on that one, and most adults don't read an awful lots of kids' books, unless reading them to or with their own children. And that's perfectly fine and absolutely natural -- if I had to choose, and could only read books for adults or children, I'd pick books for adults.

But I think it's a pity if we lose sight of the fact that there are GOOD children's books and BAD (or MEDIOCRE) children's books. I've always been an avid reader, and I've forgotten most books I read as a child and teenager -- while I might have enjoyed them at the time, they haven't lived with me in my memories, so I suspect they weren't that strong. But other books HAVE remained with me -- The Secret Garden... Rebecca's World... The Machine Gunners... The Chocolate War... The Belgariad. These rocked my world back then, and I still remember them fondly all these years later. OK, they might not stoke my fires as strongly if I read them again now (although I'm sure at least some of them still would), but that in no way reduces them as brilliant books. I have changed. I've gotten older. I've branched out. I've explored more literary paths and niches. That in no way means that any of those books are lesser joys now than they were back then.

If you remember a childhood book fondly, please don't cheapen it by casting any MEDIOCRE light upon it. If it lives on within you, that's because it was a GOOD book. You don't have to blush with embarrassment if you're mentioning it to anyone, or laugh away your love for it by mocking it -- "Oh, yeah, Cirque Du Freak... it's awful, I know, but I loved it when I was a kid. Children, eh? What do they know?!?"

They know LOTS, is my short, concise answer. And no matter how wise and informed an adult you might have turned out, you shouldn't forget that those books you read and loved in your younger years helped shape you as a wise, informed adult... and if you mock them now and turn your back on them snobbishly, perhaps you're not as wise and informed as you might think you are...

IT'S A WRAP!

And that's it for September. The Shans headed to Malta on holiday in August, and spent a wonderful couple of weeks there. I've included a snap from the trip above, and you can find a lot more if you scroll back through my Facebook and Twitter posts from August 6th onwards. As I said at the start of this newsletter, I plan to get back behind my keyboard this month, starting with some editing and heavy rewriting of a book that I hope to release next year, and then I'll see where the road leads me from there. I'll hopefully see you back here at the start of October for the HALLOWEEN (yay!!) issue of my monthly newsletter. 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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If you received an email with a link to this issue of the Shanville Monthly it's because at some point in the past you subscribed to get updates from me. I don't share your details with any third parties, and do not hold them on any independent device -- everything on the subscription front is done through Sendfox, and you can read about their privacy policy by CLICKING HERE. If you're happy to continue receiving emails from me, you don't need to do anything, and you will continue to be sent updates whenever a new issue of the Shanville Monthly goes live. If, at any point, you wish to unsubscribe, there will always be an Unsubscribe link in any email notification that you receive from me, and you can simply click on that to have yourself removed from my mailing list.

I'll be making a rare public appearance in Budapest, Hungary on Saturday August 24th. I'll be giving a talk and answering questions from those in attendance, then signing books and posing for photos. It's been a long time since my last event in Hungary, and I haven't been doing many events anywhere over the last several years, so if you live in Hungary and miss this one, it might be a long time before you get a chance to catch me again!!

I won't be the only author at the event -- there will be Hungarian authors giving talks and signing as well, with the focus very strongly on fantasy books. The organisers were forced to change the venue, but have come up with somewhere that looks like it might work even better than their original choice. To confirm where it will be, and to book your tickets if you haven't already done so, CLICK HERE. You can find some extra info on the organiser's Facebook EVENT page, including times (although these might change slightly, so make sure you double-check on the day when you get the venue!), by CLICKING HERE.

TERRIFIED TROLL UPDATE

When I announced last year that I was going to be releasing my first ever children's picture book, The Terrified Troll, with artist Eva Byrne, I said that we were hoping to release it before the end of summer 2024, but "our time scale MIGHT prove to be overly optimistic." That, alas, has turned out to be the case. We haven't actually run into any external bumps, such as sickness or accidents (touch wood!!), but it has been a much steeper learning curve than we'd anticipated. For instance, we started out without a storyboard (basically a map of the entire book, featuring a detailed sketch for every page), not knowing that we would need one. When we realised that a storyboard would be essential, it took a few months to work it up from scratch, and as we did that, our aims grew more ambitious and the book grew longer by several pages -- which is good news for all of you who pre-ordered a copy, as you'll be getting far more bang for your buck, but it does also mean a longer wait, as each of those pages had to be planned, and now have to be drawn.

We're almost at the the halfway point, as far as the internal art is concerned. Eva is in the final stages of her MA this coming month, and her children are on holiday, but come September, with the MA in the bag and the kids back at the school, she'll be able to devlote much more time to the book. We don't have a precise estimate for you guys at the moment, but we think spring 2025 -- say, March or April -- is a realistic target. We're hopeful of being in a position to deliver it even earlier than then, but of course the obverse could happen too, and it could end up being even later than that (although we genuinely don't anticipate that much of a delay).

We're sorry for the delay, but we hope you'll all think it was well worth the extra effort and time when you see the finished book -- it's already far exceeded MY expectations of it!! So, your patience is greatly appreicated, and I'll be back in touch with more news and a more concret ETA at some point over the coming months, as work progresses even further and the end starts to trundle into sight. In the meantime, here's one of the pages from the book for you to enjoy -- a little taste of the Trolltastic treats to come!!!

ARCHIE VOL 1 SALE

OK folks, this is a mixed news post -- potentially good long-term news, but mixed in with some short-term bum notes!!

So, I was planning to surprise you all in October with a new Darren Shan book. It's a short horror novel that I wrote several years ago. My agent at the time presented it to my publishers, but they weren't interested in it, so I put it aside for a while, before returning to it this year to polish it up and get it ready for self-publication -- I felt there'd been a long enough wait since the end of my Archibald Lox series, and decided this would be a good one to follow it up with, as I still have a soft spot for the book, regardless of what the publishers thought. My plan was to get it ready, then drop the news on you guys at the last minute, shortly before I went ahead and released it.

As I worked on pushing ahead with the book, I sent the latest draft to my new agent. I always run my self-published work by her ahead of releasing it, to keep her in the loop, and also to give her the chance to step in and take it to traditional publishers if she feels there might be a market for it. I fully expected her to knock this one straight back, since it had been rejected previously, but to my surprise and delight she came back with some very thoughtful comments and suggestions for a rewrite. (For the first time in my long career, I've had someone ask me to make a story darker instead of tone it down!!!)

There's absolutely no guarantee that the rewrite will go well, or that we'll be able to land a publishing deal for it. I may very well end up pushing ahead with my original plan, and self-publish the book next year. But I'm going to give it a go, as there's no doubt that it stand a much better chance of finding a wider audience if it goes through a traditional publisher -- I'm not very good at the publishing side of things and taking my self-published work to a larger readership.

The rewrite will take time (I'll probably have to go through it a few times before I'm happy with it), and then it will have to go to my agent, and then -- if she likes it and thinks it has a shot -- it will have to be sent to a few publishers. So there's absolutely no way it's going to see print this year.

I'd like to put out a Darren Dash book instead, to plug the gap, but unfortunately I don't have one ready to go, as I was concentrating on the YA book. I'm going to start working on one as soon as I can, and might even work on it at the same time as I'm rewriting the Darren Shan book, but I think it's VERY unlikely that I'll be able to get it all lined up before the end of the year. I'm not ruling the possibility out completely, but it's an extreme long shot, and I imagine it will be spring 2025, or even later, before it will be ready for release.

So, this look like being a VERY rare year, with no new book from me on either the YA or adult front. But hopefully I'll make up for it in 2025, with a new Darren Dash book, plus a new Darren Shan YA book, PLUS of course my first ever picture book, The Terrified Troll. Keep those fingers crossed!! And while you're doing that, I'll keep working hard on things at my end, to bring the books to you as swiftly as I can. 2024 might prove to be a bust, but 2025 could end up being one of my most productive years ever!!!!

BEC'S SETTING

BAD REVIEWS

A budding writer called BEX emailed me, having been hurt by a review of her work in progress:

"I hope this is OK to send but I would like to pick your brains about something. Next year, I’ll be self-publishing my debut novel. I’ve chucked the plot about in a private author group only for it to get torn to shreds and it triggered something inside me, spiralling me down a stressful pit of despair and asked myself ‘am I good enough?’

"It then brought on the concern of how do I take criticism? If all it takes is one person (who called my writing poor judging by how I used exclamation points in the synopsis!) to set me off, how will I fair when it comes to negative reviews? So, my questions are – how do you do it? Were you just as nervous before your books were published? Should I not waste energy on [the negative reviewer]?"

I felt Bex's pain, and here's what I told her, which I hope might come in useful for other budding writers too:

"You just have to remember the old adage -- opinions are like a**holes... everyone has one!!! :-) :-) :-)

"My advice is to either ignore reviews completely, or else try to take them with a grain of salt when you read them. Positive reviews put a small smile on my face... bad reviews make me scowl slightly... but I try not to pay too much attention to either. Once you publish a work, it's done, and no review can have any real impact on it from that point on. You should be thinking about the next book, not worrying about what people are saying about one that is now in your past.

"Easier said than done, I know, and some reviews DO rankle with me, even after all my years, especially when they're an ill-formed review. But you really are better off not responding to them, or saying anything to the reviewer. When you put a work out there, people are free to say whatever they want about it, and if you argue with them -- however politely you might argue, even if only to correct them on a big mistake on their part -- they won't appreciate it and it probably won't go well for you. Let them say what they like... take it in, mull it over for a few seconds if you wish... then move on."

A BLOODY HIGH PRICE!

UNLIKELY SEQUELS

A fan of my books, called Andrew, posted on Facebook recently, recommending my Saga Of Larten Crepsley series to other Shansters. After explaining why they should go read the prequel series, Andrew added: "I think this is where Darren the writer is at his best. I think the true power in his creativity is in these sort of books, mainly spin offs from the Cirque Du Freak series... There are loads of avenues he could go down if he chose to, like the origin of the Cirque Du Freak or how the vampire and the vampanese separated or a smaller book of what it is like for some one from the Cirque to live life in normal human society... The ideas are endless. It's up to you, Darren, it's your call..."

I love the Mr Crepsley books just as much as Andrew does… but limiting myself to more and more spin-offs and sequels and prequels? Nah. Not my idea of a life well lived. There are plenty of writers who create a universe and are happy (and maybe are only able) to continue working within that universe for the rest of their careers. But I’ve always been most strongly drawn to the NEXT story, in the NEXT universe. I never rule out tie-ins to my earlier works, but there has to be a damn good reason for me to dip my toes back into waters of my previous creations. It happened with the Crepsley quartet — I couldn’t stop thinking about him and his story before he met Darren — but so far I’ve never been drawn in a similar way by any other story, and I don’t write with an eye on the market and what my readers might most want from me. I write from the heart, always, and pour everything I have into every story that I tell, every single time. Whether it ends up being a traditionally published bestseller or a self published niche item, to me is utterly irrelevant. I go where the stories lead.

IT'S A WRAP!

And that's it for August. Myself and Dante climbed over the O2 dome in London when we were in the area in holiday last month -- that's a photo of us abover, with Canary Wharf in the background. The Shans will be on holiday again in August, this time to Malta, where I'm expecting less of those clouds that you can see behind us in the photos!! I won't be doing much actual work over the coming month, but rest assured my brain will be ticking over in the background, and I'll also be dealing with some interesting bits and pieces of business if they come my way while I'm relaxing by the pool -- by September, I might have announced that a THIRD of my series is potentially going down the TV optioning route, and trust me, this will be one that nobody saw coming!!! Make sure you keep an eye on my Facebook and Twitter pages for any updates on that front, and I'll hopefully see you back here at the start of September for the next issue of my monthly newsletter. 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.

GDPR

If you received an email with a link to this issue of the Shanville Monthly it's because at some point in the past you subscribed to get updates from me. I don't share your details with any third parties, and do not hold them on any independent device -- everything on the subscription front is done through Sendfox, and you can read about their privacy policy by CLICKING HERE. If you're happy to continue receiving emails from me, you don't need to do anything, and you will continue to be sent updates whenever a new issue of the Shanville Monthly goes live. If, at any point, you wish to unsubscribe, there will always be an Unsubscribe link in any email notification that you receive from me, and you can simply click on that to have yourself removed from my mailing list.

I did an online event with a class of kids at Brimington Junior School last month, and their teacher sent me the following letter a few days later. What a lovely response!! It's always amazing to get follow-up feedback like this after an event -- usually I don't get to find out how my chat went down and what the students got out of it. I especially like Archie's comment near the end!!

(I had a weird start to the Q&A session with the kids. The first boy up was Archie, so course I told him that the main character in my most recent series was called Archie. Then the next girl up was called Lexi, and there's a character called Lexi in a book that I'm working on at the moment!! I had a glorious yet terrifying thought -- what if EVERY kid in this class shares a name with a character from one of my books?!?)

Schools are out for the summer, so I won't be doing any more events like this for a while, but if YOU are a teacher or librarian, and you're interested in trying to set up an online event with me when the kids return after their break, just drop me a line at [email protected] and I'll do my best to sort something out with you.

YA HORROR 400

665 DELIGHTFUL DEMONS

A fan of my books, called LINDEA, was idly scanning the shelves of her local goodwill bookshop recently, when to her shock she spotted THIS -- one of the limited edition copies of Bec that my British publishers, HarperCollins, released back in 2006. And it turned out to be a really cool number too -- 665, the second-last of the 666 copy edition!!

I was delighted for Lindea, and also rather impressed by the clarity of my signature! I have very messy handwriting at the best of times (occasionally I've had fans come up to me with books that I signed for them at previous events, asking me to transcribe the message that I wrote for them!) and I signed all 666 copies of the book on the same day. By this stage of the process, I'm surprised my signature wasn't a barely legible scrawl!!

Anyway, it was lovely to see this again almost 20 years later. If any of you are keen to try tracking down a copy yourself, hit those charity stores for all your worth!! If that fails, you might enjoy some luck on a site like Abebooks or Alibris. There were also limited editions (again, 666 copies each) of Lord Loss and Demon Thief. (For some weird reason my publishers didn't do one for Slawter.) There was one for Hell's Heroes too, but there were only 50 copies of that one, and they hardly ever come up for resale -- you can expect to spend at least several hundred pounds on it if one ever does, unless you make a VERY lucky find in your local charty shop or second-hand bookstore!!

VIJAY ZOM-B REVIEW

VIJAY is back with another short video review, this time for Zom-B Chronicles I, an omnibus edition that collected the first three books of the series. To find out what Vijay thought of the books, CLICK HERE

CHLOE'S DEMONATA VLOG

I recently watched a lovely, lengthy vlog from CHLOE, talking about my Demonata series and how much it meant to her as a child. It starts with a short piece about Roald Dahl, but then the rest of it is pretty much demons!!! To watch it, CLICK HERE

STORYTELLERS SANCTUARY

A podcaster called JACK, whose podcast is called Storytellers Sanctuary, devoted an episode to Cirque Du Freak, the book that he says turned him into an avid reader. It's long -- almost 1 hour 20 minutes!! -- so brew yourself a nice cup of hot chocolate, settle back into a comfortable chair, and hit PLAY when you get to the podcast by CLICKING HERE

DEMONATA AUDIO SUMMARY

I seem to get asked about audio books for The Demonata every other day! I've summarised before, but here's the skinny again for those who missed it previously...

The first 6 books were released as audio CDs in the UK many years ago. My publishers decided to stop at that point, much to my dismay. They have never been made available to buy through sites like Audible. I've urged my publishers to rectify this situation many times over the years, but so far I've enjoyed no success. I plan to go back to them soon to ask again and make as strong a case as I can, so if you would like to see the series finished and made available on Audible, keep those fingers (and toes) crossed!!! But given my previous failures to convince them, don't hold your breath!!!

FINNICKY FINNISH REVIEW

A Finnish blogger reviewed my Saga Of Darren Shan / Cirque Du Freak series last year. It wasn't an entirely gushing review, with the blogger highlighting what, in their view, were some weaknesses, but overall it was pretty upbeat. If you'd like to check it out, CLICK HERE -- my browser offered me the option of translating it into English, and while it was a far from perfect translation, it did the job well enough.

SHAN IRAN FANS

Thirty-six Iranian Shansters met up last month to chat about my books, copyright law and lots more. It's lovely to see that I still have a solid fanbase in Iran (even if most of my books were published illegally there). For a short video on Twitter, in which the fans very sweetly spell out their feelings for me, CLICK HERE.

CDF BLU-RAY

ZOMBIES VS PEPPA PIG

FAN MAIL

Back in the day I used to get lots of letters and lengthy emails from fans of my books. That's changed with social media, as most of you now contact me via Facebook or Twitter, where your messages tend to be more truncated. But I do still get the occasional old-school letter or long email, and one was sent to me a few months back by a Mum of a young boy who had just discovered the joy of reading. It's the kind of email that reminds me, on my glummer days, why I became a writer and how important my stories have been to my readers, and gives me a kick up the bum to say that I should be busy writing, not sitting around moping!!! :-)

"Dear Darren, my son Noah, age 9 (nearly 10) is a very competent reader, however he has never chosen to read for pleasure despite my encouragement. We've been to bookshops and libraries on numerous occasions, where he would choose a book that he seemed interested in, only for it to sit unread at home. Even my offers of reading it to him weren't enough to change his mind, he was totally uninterested. Until last week.

"He came home from school and started talking about a book that his teacher was reading to his class, he was keen to tell me about the characters and storyline. He was consistent in talking about it for three days, and while on my lunch break I came across a copy in a charity shop, so I bought it for him, and I have never seen him so thrilled to receive a book.

"That book was Cirque du Freak, and he eagerly started to read it the moment we got home. He was eagerly telling me about the plot, he was reading aloud to me, so keen to involve me in every chapter. He completed it in three evenings!

"Having seen how interested he was, I wanted to encourage him, so I purchased the complete set for his birthday. I ended up giving him the set yesterday as an early birthday present as he just would not stop talking about how he couldn't wait to find out what happens next. He was over the moon. The minute he got up this morning he started book two, and as I write this he's halfway through it. He has read the blurb on every book, and talked non stop about what he thinks will happen, and what he hopes will happen.

"I just wanted to say a huge thank you for writing a series of books that has captivated the most reluctant reader, and hopefully sparked a love of reading that will continue. I'd better leave it at that as I'm now being told that Darren has returned to Cirque du Freak, and is sharing a room with Evra the snake boy! Thank you so much, Zoe."

IT'S A WRAP!

And that's it for July. The Shan will be in holiday mode this month, spending the first half of the month in London. We started getting into the spirit of things even earlier than that though, with a Green Day concert and a day trip to the Emerald Park theme park coming shortly before we take to the skies -- that's a photo of Mrs Shan and I, and our son Dante, taken on their very cool (and very wet!) log flume ride. I'll hopefully see you back here at the start of August for the next issue of my monthly newsletter. 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.

GDPR

If you received an email with a link to this issue of the Shanville Monthly it's because at some point in the past you subscribed to get updates from me. I don't share your details with any third parties, and do not hold them on any independent device -- everything on the subscription front is done through Sendfox, and you can read about their privacy policy by CLICKING HERE. If you're happy to continue receiving emails from me, you don't need to do anything, and you will continue to be sent updates whenever a new issue of the Shanville Monthly goes live. If, at any point, you wish to unsubscribe, there will always be an Unsubscribe link in any email notification that you receive from me, and you can simply click on that to have yourself removed from my mailing list.