• Issue 292 - November 2024

    05 November 2024

    GREETINGS!

     

    Hi everyone, and welcome to the November issue of the Shanville Monthly! Halloween has passed, and we're facing into the long, dark days of winter (unless of course you live on the other side of the world to me, in which case it's hellooooOOOO sunshine!!). I'll try to brighten up the long nights for you as best I can with lots of jolly news and updates, such as the wonderful bunch that I've packed into the current issue of the newsletter -- new Cirque Du Freak cover in the UK! New Archibald Lox book in Iran! The Cirque Du Freak movie streamng on MAX in the USA! A 75 minutes-long video interview with the wonderful Katie Shox! A new Cirque Du Freak fanzine! And lots more! Le'ts kick winter off with a freaky BANG!!!!

     

     

    NEW UK COVER REVEAL!

     

     

    Here it is, folks -- the FULL COVER REVEAL for the 25th anniversay edition of Cirque Du Freak!!!

     

    January 2025 will see the 25th anniversary of the first ever release of Cirque Du Freak in the UK. To mark the magnificent occasion, my British publishers, HarperCollins, are reissuing the book with a brand new cover -- and here it is!!!

     

    The new cover art is by a very talented artist called Artem Chebokha. I've written a brand new INTRODUCTION which will appear at the start of the book, talking about how the idea for the book first came to me and discussing some of my memories from the early years after its release. And the release date will be January 2nd, 2025. So, nice and early in the month -- if you get any book vouchers as Christmas presents, you might want to hang on to them for a week or two!!!!

     

    I think they've done a fabulous job with the cover, and I hope you all love it as much as I do!! If you do, please share it as widely as you can, with anyone you think might be interested in it. This is the second coming of Cirque Du Freak, so let's try and help it land with as big a splash as possible!!!!!

     

     

    ARCHIE 2 IN IRAN

     

     

    Great news for my fans in IRAN!! After publishing the first Archibald Lox book last year, the publisher, Vida, has confirmed that they plan to publish Book 2 soon -- the exact date is yet to be confirmed -- and here's the cover for it, which I absolutely ADORE!!!

     

    I'm so pleased this is happening. The publishing industry in Iran has been having a very hard time of things in recent years, and it isn't easy for a publisher to bring out a new book, even in a small print run. But the first print run of Book 1 has sold out, so as well as releasing book 2, Vida are planning to issue a second printing of the first book as well, which is amazing news!!!

     

    Oh, and I need to mention that these are OFFICIAL versions. All of my other books (with the exception of the first two Zom-B books) were published illegally in Iran and I was never paid a penny for any of them, even though many sold in very high numbers there back in the days before the country's current struggles. But Vida agreed a deal with me for the first three Archibald Lox books, and these have been published with my blessing and full support.

     

    I'll let you all know once the release date for book 2 is confirmed -- I think there might also be a special limited time deal for those who order it early on, so I'll keep you in the loop on that front too!

     

     

    CDF ON MAX!

     

     

    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/

     

     

    KATIE SHOX INTERVIEW

     

     

    I had a LONG video chat with vlogger KATIE O'SHAUGHNESSY recently. When I get asked to do something like this, I usually have to consider it for a bit of time, but in this instance I couldn't say no -- she's a Limerick lady, and her surname is the same as my real surname, so it was pretty much a done deal as soon as I opened her email to me!!!

     

    We chatted for well over an hour, about my books, writing, the horror field in general, and lots, lots more. The time truly flew by for me when we were talking -- it felt like twenty minutes -- which is always a good sign. I don't do an awful lot of interviews these days, but even if I was doing loads, I think that this would be the standout video that you wouldn't want to miss!!

     

    Katie also starts with an absolutely beautiful intro to the video, which is a MUST-SEE, even if if you don't want to stick around to listen to ME waffling on for more than an hour!!! You can check it out by CLICKING HERE

     

     

    CDF FANZINE - 2024

     

     

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    It’s back!! The annual Cirque Du Freak fanzine!! Created BY Shan fans FOR Shan fans!! 34 pages of AMAZING art and short stories!! FREE to download NOW!! Please show your fellow Shansters your support, while FREAKING UP your day at the same time!! https://t.co/IEQwuAyAbK

     

     

    NOT TOO SCARY!

     

     

    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

     

     

    In Common is an independent, not for profit community, arts, culture and society website, based in Southampton. Last month, in the run up to Halloween, they put together a list of recommended horror books, grouped around different monsters -- so there's a werewolves section, a witches section, etc.

     

    No prizes for guessing the title of one of the books that made it into their VAMPIRES section!!! But if you want to see what else made the list -- and it's a really interesting list, with plenty of books that are new to me -- and pick up some good spooky reads, CLICK HERE

     

     

    DENBIGH HIGH

     

     

    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

     

     

    The run-up to Halloween is the perfect time of year for Darren Shan books, and some schools and libraries across the world used the occasion to recommend my books to their students, which fills my heart with freakish pride and joy.

     

    The first photo is of a display in CHALFONTS COMMUNITY COLLEGE in the UK, where my books share a special Halloween section with other cool horrific books.

     

    The next is from HYMERS COLLEGE LRC, where they created a gorgeous display of my Saga Of Darren Shan (Cirque Du Freak) books.

     

    The final photo comes from TAJIMI LIBRARY in Japan, where the librarians are trying to promote the English language copies of my books. In an ideal world, there'd be a library in England pushing the Japanese language editions of the same books, but I haven't seen any evidence of that... YET!!!!

     

     

    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

     

    Darren Dash

     

    For an interesting AI song which was put together by a fan of my books called Dustin, CLICK HERE. I haven't listened to a lot of AI-generated music, and in all honesty it's not something that appeals to me an awful lot -- I prefer my music, like my books and movies, to come from real people. But this is certainly fascinating, a nice little marker of how far technology has come in the 25 years since the book was first released. If I'd mooted the idea of a computer making a song like this back in the year 2000, it would have been science fiction. Today, it's all too real and not the least bit mind-blowing to most folks, just something that most of us take for granted now. We live in amazing times -- whether we like the technology or not! Thanks, Dustin, for taking the time to make this and share it with us.
     
    For more about AI and whether or not it's a good thing for the human race, you might want to check out my latest Darren Dash book for adults, Father Of The Future, which tackles that very theme full-on. Available as a low-cost eBook through your store of choice (Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo, B&N, etc.), or as a physical hardback or paperback edition through Amazon stores worldwide.

     

     

    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!

     

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    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.

  • / Shanville Archives for October, 2024
  • Issue 291 - October 2024

    01 October 2024

    GREETINGS!

     

    Hi everyone, and welcome to the October issue of the Shanville Monthly! October, of course, means... HALLOWEEN!!! I'm sure you're all as excited by the spooky season as I am. I know lots of people like to watch a few scary films in the run-up to Halloween, but it will come as no surprise to hear that I watch a few scary films pretty much every month of the year, so it will be business as usual for me! I've plenty of fun stuff to share with you this month -- there's a new Cirque Du Freak cover on its way (the first in quite a long time)... there's a Halloween sale on one of my Darren Dash eBooks... you can submit work to a forthcoming Cirque Du Freak fanzine... I provide an update of how the team working on the proposed Demonata TV show are getting along... there's a brand new competition... and lots more. So what are you waiting for?!? Pull on your finest Halloween-themed scuba gear and dive right on in!!!

     

     

    NEW COVER INCOMING!

     

     

    January 2025 will see the 25th anniversary of the first ever release of Cirque Du Freak in the UK. To mark this momentous occasion, my British publishers, HarperCollins, are reissuing the book with a brand new cover.

     

    I'm going to be sharing a couple of cropped images from the new cover over the first two Thursdays in October, on my Facebook and Twitter pages, ahead of the official COVER REVEAL on Thursday October 16th. I'll also be sharing some more info about the new edition of the book in the forthcoming posts, so stay tuned for updates!!!

     

    I like the new cover a LOT, and I hope you guys will enjoy it too!!

     

     

    HALLOWEEN SALE!!!

     

     

    Kobo are running a Spooky Stories Sale Promotion this month, to tie in with Halloween, and my Darren Dash horror novel Sunburn is one of the books that has been selected for the seasonal sale -- hurrah!! So, for the entire month of October, the eBook will cost just $0.99 in the USA, £0.99 in the UK, €0.99 in European stores, and a similar low price everywhere else in the world. That's approximately a 66% discount from its regular price!!! (Unfortunately I can't lower the prices of the physical copies, as they're print on demand.)

     

    A darkly comic tale that tackles the age-old problem of being naked with severe sunburn and running into a nightmarish beast in the mountains of Bulgaria (we've all been in that position, haven't we?!?), this is probably both the grisliest and funniest (if you share my twisted sense of humour!) of all my Darren Dash books to date. If you haven't read it, this is the perfect time to download a copy, or to recommend it to (or buy one as a gift for) a friend. The book will be on sale through all the major eBook sellers online (not just Kobo). I've included a few links below, but they're far from exhaustive, so feel free to search for it on your store of choice if you don't see it listed here.

     

    KoboAmazonAppleGoogle PlayAmazon UK.

     

     

    DEMONATA SCRIPTS

     

     

    Work on The Demonata scripts is continuing apace!! As most of you are probably aware, the team are working on trying to adapt the books into a TV show. Max and Ijaz are working on three different scripts, one for Lord Loss, one for Demon Thief, and one for Bec. When they've completed work on those, we're going to look at all three scripts and talk about them and start plotting a way ahead from there. The most likely starting point remains Lord Loss, but nothing is set in stone right now. Ultimately we'll go with what we feel works best -- well, I say "we" but Max and Ijaz will have the final say, as when it comes to adaptations, I'm always happy to cede control to the adapters. They're the sensible bosses on this one -- I'm just a mischievous passenger who's going to whisper demonically in their ear and try to lead them astray!!!

     

    "Let's start with Hell's Heroes and tell the story in reverse!!!!!" :-) :-) :-)

     

     

    FREAKY FANZINE

     

     

    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

     

     

    My son Dante is big into rap. It's not something I've ever delved into deeply, but maybe I'll have to start broadening my field, as at least ONE rapper appears to have devled deeply into MY work!!

     

    An article about a rapper called NATIVE JAMES popped up in my timeline recently. He's released a new song called Field, which fuses rap with nu-metal. I've listened to it a few times, and it's a catchy number (although rather sweary, like many rap tunes, so approach with caution if easilly offended!).

     

    But what drew it to MY attention?!? You can find the answer in the second paragraph of the article, which mentions some of the music and books which inspired the singer when he was younger... CLICK HERE

     

     

    HUNGARIAN GIFTS

     

     

     

    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?!?

     

     

    Mr Tall wasn't too happy when he saw the name of this upcoming burlesque night at a craft kitchen and brewery in Oregon!! CLICK HERE

     

    I have it on good authority that he's sending his team of lawyers round to "have a quiet word" with the organisers. That would be worrying in the best of circumstances, but Mr Tall's lawers are... LITTLE PEOPLE!!!! I think it won't be so much a case of "Cease and desist!!" as "DEcease and desist!!!!!" :-) :-) :-) :-)

     

     

    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

     

     

    Proving, once again, that I really do need to start sharing links from my "rainy day" folder more regularly that I have been doing... CLICK HERE for an article from about this time last year (!!!!) called When Adaptations Go Wrong: 15 Book-to-Movie Flops.

     

    It's hard to make a case for most of these flops, although I really enjoyed the Gold Compass movie myself. And I really enjoyed the entry that pops up at #13 on the list -- no prizes for guessing what that one might be!!!

     

    The compilers noted, of Cirque Du Freak, that it possessed "An intriguing foundation crumbled by a lack of focus and jumbled subplots." This is a pretty good summation, in my opinion, of why it didn't work for a lot of people. (Though there are quite a few, like me, who do appreciate it.) The books are VERY focused, building carefully, one block at a time, whereas the film rushed things along and threw in too many elements, including from later books. Sometimes you CAN have too much of a good thing.


     

    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.

  • / Shanville Archives for September, 2024
  • Issue 290 - September 2024

    01 September 2024

    GREETINGS!

     

    Hi everyone, and welcome to the September issue of the Shanville Monthly! As summer gives way to autumn, I'm hoping to get back into the writing groove -- I haven't done very much of that over the holidays, as I've been busy keeping the Shan family entertained during the long school break! I did manage to slip over to Budapest in Hungary for a couple of days though, for a massive, incredibly rewarding event -- you can read all about that in the first few entries, and even watch a video of a lengthy part of it. Aside from that, it's the usual eclectic mix -- an article about the influence of the Harry Potter books on the YA literary scene in the noughties... another on how great books can sometimes be adapted into terrible movies... I talk about a book series that had a big influence on a couple of the characters in my Cirque Du Freak books... and I explain why I bristled recently at the use of the word "mediocre"!!! For all that and more, read on...

     

     

    ARCHIE IN HUNGARY, VOL 2

     

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    Archibald Lox Volume 2 is now on sale in Hungary -- that's a photo of me above, holding one of the first copies to come off the printing press, when I visited Hungary late in August! I think the publishers have done a beautiful job with the cover, and there are gorgeous illustrations inside too. You'll hopefully be able to buy or oder a copy in your local bookstore, but itf you'd rather order directly from the publisher (who maybe even still have some signed copies available), CLICK HERE. As for how my visit went... read on!!

     

     

    HUNGARY EVENT SUMMARY

     

     

    Wow! My event in Budapest last month was a crazy, fabulous day!! I've had some epic signings in Hungary in the past, and this was certainly one to add to the list!

     

    The day started at 10am, when I met with a small group of fans who had signed up for a pre-event event (if that makes sense!). This was a nice, relaxed start to the day -- I was able to take my time singing their books, answered lots of questions, and hung out with them for a while.

     

    There was a 45 minutes delay after that, while the organisers got everything lined up. Then I did a Q&A (I posted a video of that yesterday) and started signing for the BIG crowd shortly before 1pm... and, with only a very short 15 minutes to so break for lunch, I stayed signing until just after 9pm!!! Yup, eight hours in total, furiously signing books, answering questions as swiftly as I could, and of course strangling fans in their photos with me!!!

     

    I know the whole signing session took a few hours longer than anticipated, and some people weren't able to stay to get their books signed, but it's always very difficult with a crowd this large. We could have just rushed everyone through -- a quick signature in just one book per person -- but I always like to give everyone at least a minute when they come up to meet me, write a message for them, sign as many of my books as they've chosen to bring along, and then have fun taking the photo. It's a big deal for a lot of fans, and some travel a long way -- at this event I had people come from Serbia and Austria!!! We could have capped the numbers, of course, and only allowed in 100 or 200 people, but I don't get to Hungary very often (it had been 10 years since my previous visit), and I wanted to give as many people as possible the chance to meet me. In an ideal world, we would have staged the event over two days, but I could only commit to a single day because of travel limitations (there aren't very many flights between my local airport at Budapest).

     

    Anyway, while I know lots of you waited a VERY long time in the line, I hope it comes as some small comfort that I waited longer than anyone!!! People kept commenting on how cheerful I seemed to be, even after five and six and seven hours, when my hand and back and neck were hurting -- but in all honesty, I WAS truly cheerful. I had a brilliant day. For me, a busy event is a great event. I love to meet as many of you guys as I can when I travel, and I was thrilled that so many of you went out of your way to come meet me. I would have stayed until midnight if I'd had to, though it was probably best that it didn't run quite that late -- the venue turned into a night club later, which would have been something of a rather big challenge!!!

     

    I hope to get back to Budapest again in the not too distant future, and next time we'll have another look at the organisational side of things, to try and make it a little bit smoother and easier for those who come. But for now, those of you who DID come and WERE able to stay in line for hours to get your books signed, will be able to say in years to come that you didn't just ATTEND a Darren Shan event... you SURVIVED it!!!!!

     

    Finally, an extra big THANK YOU to Carmen and her team of volunteers who worked so hard to make this happen, and who stuck with me all the way to the end. You guys went above and beyond the call of duty, and it's truly appreciated. Until next time -- CHEERS!!!!

     

     

    HUNGARY Q&A VIDEO

     

     

    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

     

     

    There was an interesting article on COURAGEOUS NERD a while back (OK -- quite a long time back! July last year in fact!!), looking at YA fiction of the early noughties, and how the Harry Potter books changed the YA world and paved the way for other authors to follow in its slipstream. You can check it out by CLICKING HERE

     

    In the author's summary at the end of the article, he states: "Without JK Rowling and Harry Potter‘s impact, the YA landscape would not be the same."

     

    I absolutely agree with that -- Harry Potter made publishers far more willing to push YA books, especially those that were on the edgier side, and certain authors (such as myself) enjoyed a level of success that we very likely would not have enjoyed if we'd published (or tried to publish) our books several years earlier.

     

    But the author also said: "JK Rowling’s success with Harry Potter inspired other authors."

     

    And I actually have to disagree with that, at least in my case. I'm sure the Harry Potter books DID (and still do) inspire lots of other authors, but I'd actually written most of the books in my Saga Of Darren Shan / Cirque Du Freak series before I ever read one of the Potter books -- indeed, I think I was well into my Demonata series too. They certainly were on my mind when I was creating my Archibald Lox series, and I think you'd find strong traces of them (along with the works of other authors, such as Dianne Wynne Jones, Ursula LeGuin, Neil Gaiman) if you were to compare those two series. But my noughties books, while absolutely enjoying a huge Potter push in terms of sales, actually featured pretty much no Harry Potter-inspired DNA!!

     

     

    MANGA REVIEW

     

     

    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?!?

     

     

    SCREEN RANT posted a feature some time ago, entitled TEN GREAT HORROR BOOKS THAT MADE FOR TERRIBLE MOVIES. No prizes for guessing which books featured in the #4 slot!!! You can check out the full list if you CLICK HERE

     

    As I almost always state when the subject of the Cirque Du Freak movie is broached... I had nothing to do with the film... I do wish it had been more faithful to my books, and a lot darker than it turned out... but I do think that on its own terms it was a pretty neat, entertaining little movie, that probably deserved to find a wider audience than it did upon release. I have no axe to grind with it, although I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the books get rebooted for a TV show, and that the adapters look to involve me this time, and stick a bit more closely to the source material.

     

     

    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!

     

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    This rather savage, but very funny, TikTok video was posted last month, and will hopefully see true Shansters both chuckling with glee and howling with outrage at the same time!!! CLICK HERE
     
    I have only two comments to make:
     
    1) The ending of Sons Of Destiny is NOT as clear cut as presented (especially in the comments), and it certainly was not an “all a dream” ending, or an “it never now happened” ending. If anyone thinks it was, they do need to go read through the book again.
     
    2)And I hotly contest the assertion that you have to be a 14 year old boy or tomboy to enjoy the books. I have fans of all genders and ages -- in Japan, for instance, they were read primarily by 18 to 30 year old women!! I know loads of parents and grandparents who carried on reading my work after their kids gave up on them. And some found and loved them even without having any kids in the equation!

     

     

    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!

     

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    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.

  • / Shanville Archives for August, 2024
  • Issue 289 - August 2024

    01 August 2024

    GREETINGS!

     

    Hi everyone, and welcome to the August issue of the Shanville Monthly! I hope you're all enjoying your summer (or winter, if you're on the other side of the world from me). I've been in Dad mode for most of the time since late June, as children in Ireland have VERY long summer holidays!! So, not TOO much work done last month! But I have been tipping away at various bits and pieces, which you can read all about in this issue of the newsletter. It includes details of my upcoming public event in Hungary... an update on the expected release date for The Terrified Troll... a very nice Archibald Lox discount sale... info about why there probably won't be any new book from me in 2024 -- but how there might be THREE from me in 2025!!! And those are just the first four items on the agenda -- I have lots, lots more to share with you too!! But let's kick things off with that exciting Hungary news...

     

     

    HUNGARY BECKONS!

     

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    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

     

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    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

     

    IES . Archibald Lox Volume 1: The Missing Princess

     

    To tie in with a Kobo promotional sale, for the entire month of August, the eBook of Volume One of my Archibald Lox series will be reduced to just $0.99!!! It will be a similar low price around the world, and just £0.99 in the UK, and €0.99 in European territories. If you haven't yet read the book, or read it but don't own a copy, or want to recommend it to a friend or loved one, this is the perfect time to grab Volume One at a bargain basement price!! It collects the first three books of the series, and presents them as a single story, the way it was originally written. On sale through Kobo (obviously!), but also Amazon, Apple, B&N, Google Play, and most other online eBook sellers.

     

     

    A SHORT DELAY

     

     

    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

     

     

    A fan on Facebook asked where my book Bec was set, He thought Ireland, but when one of the characters talked about making a march on foot of 8 or 9 days, he started doubting himself, as he felt Ireland was too small a country for such a long march, and that you could cross the whole place in just 2 or 3 days...

     

    I can confirm that Bec IS set in Celtic Ireland. If the country seems a bit larger than our current geographical mindset would suggest, it's worth bearing in mind that they didn't have roads like ours 1600 years ago. Much of the country would still have been forested, with lots of briars and bushes to hack through. They weren't travelling through familiar terrain. And because of the demons, they could only travel in daylight hours. So, while they could have completed their journey in today's world much more swiftly, even on foot, back then travel tended to take a lot more time. The world HAS got smaller in recent centuries, and I think books like Bec should help remind us that we live in what people of the past would have considered miraculous times. There's much to complain about in these modern times, of course, but there's so much to marvel at too...

     

     

    THE ABSENT QUEEN

     

     

    A fan called RYAN sent me an email recently, raving about my Archibald Lox series, and ending with a question about the books:

     

    "I wanted to ask you about Archibald Lox. This was the first series from you that I didn’t read as a kid, after re reading Cirque and Demonata (both of which held up and then some. Seriously amazing adventures). Turns out, this became my favorite of your work. Had no clue what it was going in, loved it as I was reading it, loved telling my girlfriend about all the twists and turns. But after I finished it, I realized I was still thinking about it every day for weeks, and I still think about it often. It’s such a magical experience man. Thinking of the ending line still gives me goosebumps. Did not see the twist coming at all. Anyway, the question I wanted to ask is how do you feel about the series now that you’re a a few years removed? Would you put it up with your best, or are there things you’re not happy about?"

     

    Firstly, I view it equally to all my other long series. I spent several years of my life at work on each of them, and I genuinely don't have a favourite between them. (Although I often cite The Demonata as the one I'm proudest of, as it's the one that stretched me most as a writer.) Archie is as dear to me as Darren Shan, the cast of the Demonata, B Smith, or Larten Crepsley.

     

    Having said that, it DOES bug me that I couldn't work in a fourth story arc for the series! Although released as nine short books, I wrote the series as three large Volumes -- The Missing Princess, The Kidnapped Prince, and The Exiled King. I would have loved to be able to include another large book between Volumes 2 and 3, using the word Queen in the title, to make it a nicely rounded royal quartet -- but although I played around with various ideas and story snippets, I just couldn't find a strong enough story to justify its inclusion. The series works perfectly fine as a trilogy, but part of me does still regret that I couldn't find a way to fashion it into a quartet.

     

     

    THE SHANDASHIVERSE!

     

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    A Shanster called Stephen was reading Molls Like It Hot last month, which is one of my Darren Dash books for older readers. He was surprised when he spotted a link to Lady of the Shades, another of my stand-alone books for adults, but which I released under the Darren Shan name, before I changed to Darren Dash. He wanted to know if anyone had spotted any more links like this, and if we were now living in a Shan/Dash multiverse?!?

     

    Firstly, it was an excellent spot!!! While I don’t normally link any of my series or standalone books to one another (so, NO Cirque Du Freak and Demonata links, despite both featuring demons), I decided to relax my rule in Molls Like It Hot, to allow for a small crossover with Lady Of The Shades, which was also a crime novel set in London. Will I ever enlarge upon this link and do more with it? Unlikely … but I’m not entirely ruling it out!!! So, while the Shan/Dash multiverse is nothing more than a fun tenuous link at the moment, it COULD one day become something more substantial... but probably WON'T!!! :-)

     

     

    BAD REVIEWS

     

    Why Gladiator Continues to Echo Through Eternity | Den of Geek

     

    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!

     

    THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN PROMOTIONAL PACKAGED FAKE BLOOD VHTF CHILDREN HORRO BOOK - Picture 1 of 5

     

    My UK publishers made these vampire blood vials as a free giveaway many years ago. There's one up on eBay for sale at the moment, with a price tag of just under $300!!! I've never seen one going for that kind of price, or even anywhere close to it, before!! It will be interesting to see if anyone buys it. I’ve got to say, personally, if I was going to spend that kind of money on a book-related product, I’d put it towards a rare signed first edition of a book that I loved, not a promotional tie-in. Then again, there are probably VERY few of these in existence still, in good unopened condition, so maybe the fake blood HAS become more valuable than the book it was created to promote! Let the free market decide!!! If you want to learn more about it, or are interested in actually buying the blood, CLICK HERE.

     

     

    UNLIKELY SEQUELS

     

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    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!

     

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    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.

  • / Shanville Archives for July, 2024
  • Issue 288 - July 2024

    01 July 2024

    GREETINGS!

     

     

    Hi everyone, and welcome to the July BIRTHDAY issue of the Shanville Monthly! This is always a double celebration, because it includes both MY birthday and the birthday of my monthly newsletter. This year I turn 52, while the newsletter turns 24. We're both getting old, although I'm admittedly the much older of the two, and no doubt always will be... well, unless the newsletter continues after my death and goes on to surpass me!! Wow -- we've got really morbid really quickly, haven't we?!?  Let's lighten things up a bit -- I've just added a photo of me, which I took midway through this opening paragraph, holding a couple of birthday cards which delightful fans sent to me ahead of the big day -- many thanks, Katharine and George!! Now, on with the news -- but this month, to keep things bright after that morbid start, I'm going to turn the spotlight of the first and last article over to you guys, starting with...

     

     

    BRIMINGTON

     

     

    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

     

     

    The YA Horror 400, by Tony Jones, was released on June 25th. It's a book collecting 400 reviews of YA and Middle Grade horror, compiled by a librarian who has been reviewing them online for more than a decade and a half. As well as the reviews, it also features loads of contributions by authors whose books are included in the reviews, and one of those authors is... ME!!!

     

    I wrote an article, more than 600 words long, about the book of mine which was reviewed, talking about how and why I chose my narrative style for it. But if you want to find out what that book was, and what I had to say about it, you'll need to buy a copy of The YA Horror 400!!! :-)

     

    You can find out more about the book by CLICKING HERE

     

    And you can order a copy from Amazon by CLICKING HERE

     

     

    10 SHOWS TO ADAPT

     

     

    CBR ran an article around this time last year (sorry for the incredibly late share!!!) entitled: 10 YA Series That Need Adaptations Before The Harry Potter Reboot

     

    In a nutshell, it listed ten different YA series that they would like to see adapted as movie or TV shows. I was delighted to see The Demonata in among the mix, and the warm words of praise that they had for it. Of course, fince this aired, The Demonata HAS been optioned, with an eye to developing it as a TV show, so hopefully CBR will get to see at least ONE of their dream adpatations come true in the not too distant future... To check out the full article, CLICK HERE

     

     

    2nd BEC TOUR

     

      

     

    I hosted my second Bec Tour of Craggaunowen Park yesterday, with a lovely guy called ADAM, who's been a fan of my books for many, many years. We spent a relaxed couple of hours strolling around the park, as I explained how it had inspired many of the scenes in the book, and read out lots of short extracts from it. We also spent a good bit of time chatting with the artisans who bring characters from the past to life, and that was fasinating too -- no matter how many times I visit Craggaunowen, I always learn something new!

     

    We concluded the tour with scones and drinks from the cafe, and spent quite a bit of time chatting there as well -- oh, and I signed Adam's books of course! Here's a photo that we took at the end, along with one of me with Adam when we met back in 2009 for the release of Hell's Heroes -- Adam's hardly changed a bit in the last 15 years, has he?!? :-)

     

    If YOU would like to go on a private Bec tour with me, drop me a line at [email protected] and I can let you know how we can make it happen.

     

     

    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

     

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    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

     

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    Some interesting info about the Cirque Du Freak movie Blu-Ray edition, posted on Facebook by a fan called Andrew:
     
    "Brought the blu-ray version of the cirque du freak film. Film is the same with them not really taking any dialogue or scenes from the books, however there are more deleted scenes than on the regular dvd and it gives the idea of some of the things that happen in the books, like mr tiny intimadating evra which is true to the character of mr tiny. I strongly feel that cirque du freak needs to be re-made with how it was written in the books, i think syfy are in the process of doing this i would go down a manga cartoon style of film, mainly because it will be easier to make I HOPE AND PRAY this will happen."
     
    Picking up on something that Andrew mentioned about Syfy... There IS a team in the States working on trying to reboot it as a TV series, but to the best of my knowledge no streaming service or TV channel is as yet involved in that process. We're still at the stage where the team are pitching it around to various parties, one of whom will hopefully come on board to invest the money needed to make it happen.

     

     

    ZOMBIES VS PEPPA PIG

     

    Thi)

     

     

    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!

     

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    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.

  • / Shanville Archives for June, 2024
  • Issue 287 - June 2024

    01 June 2024

    GREETINGS!

     

    Hi everyone, and welcome to the June issue of the Shanville Monthly! Summer is coming to Ireland, but although I'll be doing lots of stuff with my children over the warmer months and school break, I won't be abandoning my writing duties completely -- work will continue on The Terrified Troll picture book, and while I must admit that the artist, Eva Byrne, is the one who has to put in most of the hard graft at this stage, I'll be chipping in too, offering feedback on the pages as she prodcuces them, and tweaking my text when I feel it can be improved. I'm also beavering away on another project, which I haven't said anything about on my social media -- I don't want to say too much about it here just yet either, except if all goes well, I might have something else to excite you Shansters with, even before The Terrified Troll sees the light of day... But that's news for a future issue of the newsletter. For now, let's focus on what I can talk openly about, which includes... the 27th anniversary of the start of Cirque Du Freak... a radio interview with me, where I talk about some of my favourite books... info about how to come on a personal Bec tour with me... I talk about the role of the vampets in my vampire books... a Cirque Du Freak quiz... and I reveal who would win in a to-the-death battle between zombies and Peppa Pig!!! For all of that and more, read on!!!

     

     

    27th ANNIVERSARY

     

     

    Twenty-seven years ago, on May 8th 1997, I was sitting in a car, babysitting a young cousin who was asleep in the back, when I had an idea for a book about a young boy who runs into a vampire at a circus and ends up reluctantly becoming his assistant as a creature of the night. A few days later I began writing the first draft of the book that I had decided to call... Cirque Du Freak!!

     

    I had no idea at the time that this would change my life forever. I'd been writing full-time for a couple of years, and had written lots of books, all intended for adult readers. I was making a bit of headway with them, and assumed they would be my bread-and-butter if I was going to be able to make a career out of this writing lark. Cirque Du Freak was a side-project. I didn't think there was any money to be made writing for children, and I wasn't sure if I'd be any good at it -- I thought it would be difficult to rein in the darkness of my adult work. But, what the hell, I thought I could have some fun with it, so I went ahead and wrote it regardless!

     

    When I'd finished my first draft, I asked my agent Chris if he'd like to have a look at it. He said he would, and he really enjoyed it. He saw commercial potential that I hadn't seen, and submitted it to twenty different publishers in the UK, hoping to start a bidding war for the rights... only for all twenty of them to reject it!! It looked like my experiment in books for children had been a huge failure, and commonsense told me to push it aside and focus on my books for adults again.

     

    But I'd already written the first draft of the second book (I worked FAST back in those days!), and Chris didn't want to let it drop, as he still believed in its potential. So he set up meetings for me with three of the publishers who'd rejected it, to chat about what they had liked ot hadn't liked, and if they might be interested in other work from me. One of those editors, a lady called Domenica De Rosa, re-read the manuscript ahead of our meeting, to refresh herself with the material, and second time round it snagged her interest. She made a few very helpful suggestions -- such as making early mention of Darren's love of spiders, which didn't appear in the first draft until he was at the Cirque Du Freak and saw Madam Octa.

     

    Buoyed by this, I went away and did a re-write, and Domenica ended up commissioning it for HarperCollins. She then went off to have twins and never returned, and her replacement didn't like the book and tried to sell the rights back to us! But Chris stood firm and insisted they go ahead and publish it, and although they sat on it for a couple of years, they did put it out eventually, and... well... it did OK when it started appearing on bookshelves of shops, didn't it?!?

     

    Happy birthday, Cirque Du Freak. Thanks for bringing so much dark joy into the lives of millions of readers around the world, and giving me a fairytale kind of life that I couldn't even have imagined in my wildest dreams back in 1997, when I was drawing unemployment benefits and living with my parents.

     

     

    NEWSTALK

     

     

    I appeared on The Hard Shoulder, a show on Irish radio station NEWSTALK, last month. I talked about two of my favourite books -- longtime fans of mine probably won't be too suprised by my choices, but newer fans might be caught off-guard by at least one of them! I also mentioned what I was reading at the moment, and we covered some other stuff too.

     

    The interview has been archived as a podcast, so you can now listen to it at your leisure, no matter where you live in the world, by CLICKING HERE

     

     

    FIRST BEC TOUR

     

     

    I did my first Bec tour last month, with a lovely lady called HEATHER and her son THEO, and it was a wonderful day. We wandered lazily through Craggaunowen, taking in all the places there that inspired scenes in the book, and I read out extracts to demonstrate how important the park had been in my research. We met a few of the resident artisans -- people who dress like people in teh past, and who practise and demonstrate anicent skills. One of them was the guy in the attached photo, a blacksmith -- he wasn't there back when I was putting the book together, which was a pity as one of the characters in Bec is a blacksmith and it would have been great to chat with his modern-day counterpart in advance of writing it! I even ended up driving Heather and Theo back to their campsite -- the first time I've ever played chauffeur at one of my events!!!! :-)

     

    If you're wondering what on Earth a Bec tour is, and how Heather and her son wound up on one... It's one of the perks I offered in my Terrified Troll fundraiser late last year. For €250, fans were able to book a tour of Craggaunowen with me as their personal guide. Although the fundraiser has finished, I'm still offering the chance to book a tour if anyone is interested -- it lasts about 2 hours, and the price includes entry into the park and a snack and drink at the end. I tell you all about how Bec was created, and you can ask me loads of other questions too. Oh, and of course I'm happy to sign any of my books that you choose to bring along! All profits go towards producing the first ever Darren Shan picture book, which artist Eva Byrne is hard at work on. If interested, email me at [email protected] and we can discuss options.

     

     

    DREAMOLOGY

     

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    Had an enjoyable meeting yesterday with the Dreamology Pictures team. (They're the guys who are trying to turn The Demonata into a TV show.) Bounced around lots of thoughts, ideas and plans about how to take the books forward as a TV show. Still lots of big decisions to be made, but we are edging closer to the point where we’re going to start work on a script… or, more likely, scriptS, as it might be that we bang out a few very different drafts to give ourselves a better idea of what might work and what might not… Watch this space — but please be patient too, as genius can’t be rushed!!!! :-)

     

     

    BEYOND THE SPINES

     

     

    There was a lovely review for Father Of The Future, my latest Darren Dash novel for adult readers, on BEYOND THE SPINES REVIEWS. It was the first of my books for older readers that the reviewer had read, and while at first uncertain of what to expect, she enjoyed it immensely in the end, as best illustrated by this little snippet:

     

    "For me, this book felt like 1984 meets Netflix’s Loki meets 2001 meets I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, except that I enjoyed this novel more than any of those four fictions."

     

    High praise indeed, especially as 1984 and 2001 were BIG influences on my work in general, and Father Of The Future in particular!! If you'd like to read the full review, you can do so by CLICKING HERE

     

    And if you'd like to read the book, you can buy the very reasonably priced eBook on Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo, Smashwords and lots of other sites. Or you can get it as a hardback or paperback through Amazon stores worldwide.

     

     

    CIRQUE DU CHOO-CHOO!

     

     

    A mother of a student went to his school recently, and was impressed to spot a "literary Tube map" -- this is like the famous London Tube Map, only every "train line" represents a genre of books, with various novels and schools dotted along the way.

     

    The Shantastic parent sent me a picture of part of the map, and I was delighted to see a freakishly fabulous book at the start (or end) of the black horror line! All aboard for the Cirque Du Freak!! Choo-choo!!!!!

     

     

    NO MORE FREE FREAKS!

     

     

    I had a few people asking me recently if the Cirque Du Freak audiobooks were being removed from Audible. No they're not -- but, as you can see from the screenshot that one fan sent me, they HAVE been withdrawn from the FREE downloads list.

     

    I've got to be honest -- I know next to nothing about audiobooks! I don't listen to audiobooks, and had little to do with those of mine which have been recorded and released by my publishers over the years, aside from rubber-stamping their choice of narrators. But I'm aware that fans on Audible have been able to listen to the Cirque Du Freak books for free, for a few years now. (Don't worry -- I do still get paid!) Or at least some fans in some countries have been able to, depending on their subscription model.

     

    That has now changed -- but I don't know if it's everywhere or just in certain zones. But the books ARE still on Audible -- you just have to pay for them now, or use your monthly credits to download them if you have that set up. (As my wife does. She's always keenly looking around for new audiobooks to spend her credits on, though I don't think she ever spends them on mine!! Then again, I did read a few of my books to her on long car journeys years ago, so I suppose when you've have a private Darren Shan narrating experience, every other narrator will inevitably come up short!!!)

     

     

    BUZZFEED RE-READ

     

     

    There was a nice little article on Buzzfeed recently, about people's favourite books, although it had a rather cumbersome heading: Here Are 15 Books That Are So Good, People Wish They Could Relive Reading Them Again For The First Time. That header writer needed a good editor!!! :-)

     

    Anyway, there's a sweet mention for Cirque Du Freak in among the mix. To read what they had to say about it, and to check out the other books that got highlighted, CLICK HERE

     

     

    OLD FOR YOUNG

     

     

    Nice to see Cirque Du Freak make a list of "old" series on Gamespot entitled: Introduce Your Kids To Some Of The Most Popular Books From Your Childhood This Summer -- even though I still find it hard to believe that almost a quarter of a century has passed since Cirque Du Freak was first released!!

     

    The set that they've included an Amazon link for is actually the boxset of the British editions, where the series is known by its original and official title -- The Saga Of Darren Shan. (Though I'm happy to refer to it as the Cirque Du Freak series too!) As long as you don't mind the covers, which are VERY different to the American covers, it's incredibly good value -- all 12 books, in a stylish slipcase, for about $45?!? Yes please!!!! For the article and the Amazon link, CLICK HERE

     

     

    AN EVIL RECOMMENDATION

     

    https://scontent.fdub8-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/442493172_7686348978068584_6499772210629893763_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p526x296&_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=tjeUhNoqMI4Q7kNvgE-TXnP&_nc_ht=scontent.fdub8-1.fna&oh=00_AYD31uG7gcstVjUyWWjNKXd8m5zQtB0faetKFe2V35ODDQ&oe=665D0222

     

    This meme, posted by a fan called SARA JO, is maybe the best recommendation for The Evil And The Pure (one of my Darren Dash books for adult readers) that I've ever seen!!! :-)

     

     

    ALLIES RE-READ

     

     

    What's Allies Of The Night (the 8th book of my Cirque Du Freak series) like if you re-read it as an adult?? A fan called LUKE decided to find out, and documented his take on the book -- CLICK HERE

     

    ***SPOILERS ***

     

    I'm going to talk about events from the book here, so if you haven't read it, and don't want spoilers, my advice is to stop reading NOW.

     

    Luke raises a very interesting point about the Vampets, and their similarity to fascists like the Nazis. This was definitely deliberate. Luke doesn't like it, because it casts the Vampaneze as out-and-out bad guys, and he felt I'd been much more nuanced in my presentation of them up to that point. He's absolutely correct, but at the same time I think he's misinterpreted what's going on with the vampets, and the reason why I went all-out bad with them.

     

    The vampaneze are NOT automatic bad guys. They have different beliefs to the vampires, and I'd absolutely be more with the vampires than the vampaneze, but they're not inherently evil. But that changes when Steve comes into the mix. Because of Mr Tiny's prophecy, and their belief that their Lord will see them conquer the vampires, they follow Steve blindly, which allows him to corrupt them. The Vampets are HIS henchmen. HE ordered their recruitment, and directs their actions. The vast majority of the vampaneze disapprove of the Vampets, but Steve is their Lord, and his word is law, so they allow it to happen.

     

    Although I didn't get into politics heavily in Cirque Du Freak, the state of the world WAS on my mind all the same, and I addressed it with the Vampets and the negative impact they have on the vampaneze. They're a warning not to put too much power into the hands of our leaders, as corrupt officials can then lead us disastrously astray, as happened with Germans in the 1930s. I don't think any groups of people are inherently bad -- we're all one big family, and we sway the same ways. But the systems we implement can allow individuals in positions of authority to move big groups in sinister ways, and what I was saying with the Vampets was that we should never have a system where our leaders are granted God-like powers, where they're placed above our laws and rules, because such systems will always, eventually, be abused, to the harm of the wider populace.

     

     

    VIJAY REVIEWS

     

    https://external.fdub8-1.fna.fbcdn.net/emg1/v/t13/10540904240808303590?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FX7-Lx5f6iUM%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg&fb_obo=1&utld=ytimg.com&stp=c0.5000x0.5000f_dst-jpg_flffffff_p500x261_q75&ccb=13-1&oh=06_Q399_tQX_EmzV0lk_xkNieqKmWyYEPS4DbjmoydSK9MHw10&oe=6658F214&_nc_sid=139b9a

     

    A short but sweet review of Tunnels Of Blood, by a YouTuber called VIJAY. Have a look by CLICKING HERE, and if you like it, give him a thumbs up to thank him for his time.

     

     

    ZOMBIES VS PEPPA PIG

     

     

    This made me chuckle!! A school librarian (Ms. Yingling Reads) tweeted the attached photo, with the message: "End of school year! Always make sure that @darrenshan ZOM-B series doesn't spend the summer next to @WendyShang books. You can never be too careful!"

     

    I assume this is because Wendy Shang's books are aimed at younger readers, and the librarian is worried that, in her absence, an 8 year old could walk home with Zom-B by accident and start reading!!! :-)

     

    This reminds me of when Zom-B got pulled from a major supermarket chain in the UK many years ago, around the time that Zom-B Baby was released. (The hardback of that book has an especially grisly cover!!) Supermarket workers don't take the same care with placing books that a seasoned librarian takes, and they were simply stacking all the books for children together in one section, which meant Zom-B Baby was being stacked next to Peppa Pig books -- and the cover was traumatising toddlers and angering their parents!!! Enough parents complained for it to become an issue, and rather than train their staff to stack books correctly, the chain simply pulled Zom-B from their shelves.

     

    So, if you've ever wondered who would win in a war between zombies and Peppa Pig... :-) :-) :-)

     

     

    HOW TO READ

     

     

    With work ongoing on a potential TV adaptation of The Demonata (still VERY early days, so don't go getting TOO excited!), this might be a good time for a re-read of the series, to refresh yourselves with the storyline, if only to be able to accurately judge just how savagely it ends up being butchered!!!! :-) :-) :-)

     

    But with ten books to work your way through, you might not recall where to start or in what order to proceed from there. Luckily, the HOW TO READ ME site has listed the running order, along with a brief synopsis for each book -- plus they've also listed the chrnological order, in case any of you want to read the story in the way the time would have unfolded, rather than in the backwards-and-forwards way that I structured things.

     

    (I think the BEST way to read the series is the way I structured it, but it might be fun to start with Bec and work forward from there, especially if you've read the books before.)

     

    For your directions in the demon-ravaged darks, CLICK HERE

     

     

    CIRQUE DU QUIZ

     

     

    Ther are two teachers in California, KEVIN and JENNIFER, happily married and teaching in the same school. Every year, for the last 17 years, they have read Cirque Du Freak to their students, and are still enjoying it after all this time! They get the kids to send me a letter when they've finished the book, and I always love replying.

     

    They also give the kids a Cirque Du Freak QUIZ each year, and the one who scores highest wins a copy of the Cirque Du Freak omnibus!! They sent me a copy of this year's quiz, and I have to say, it's INCREDIBLY hard!!! There are 16 questions in total, and I think most readers will struggle to get even half of those right! (I didn't dare test myself, as I don't want to fail it!!!!)

     

    But hey! if you want to prove me wrong, I've attached scans of the quiz here, so go ahead and test yourself! Just, please, no cheating! It's a fun quiz, designed to find out how much you've actually retained abut the book. So no peeking or Googling the answers!!! Take on the challenge squarely, as any vampire of good standing would, and see how you fare. I'll be eagerly awaiting your scores in the replies to this post -- just don't expect any free books from me at the end!!!!

     

     

    IT'S A WRAP!

     

    And that's it for June. With the holiday season kicking off in earnest, I hope you all have a wonderful time if you have any trips planned -- the Shan Clan will be returning to Disneyland Paris this month, having visited last year and enjoyed it immensely. I'll see you back here at the start of July for the annual BIRTHDAY issue of my monthly newsletter, celebrating both the Shanville Monthly's entry into the world, along with MY entry into it some years earlier! 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

     

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