Darren Shan's Blog, page 16

Shanta Claus reminder

I posted VERY briefly about SHANTA CLAUS yesterday -- the reason it was so brief was that I was rushing out the door to get to my Ash concert!! So, for those who might have overlooked it in my haste, here's a bit more info... I first published a Christmas story set in my Cirque Du Freak universe in December 2000, and I've republished it annually every year since then. It's grown massively during that time, to include appearances by characters from all my main series, as well as a few of my o...

Signing and numbering prints

Eva Byrne and I met up this morning to sign and number the PRINTS that have been produced to date for our Terrified Troll campaign. These look absolutely amazing in the flesh -- we were both thrilled with how they turned out! While we originally set the print runs quite high (50 for the A4 prints, and 25 for the A3 prints) we have decided to make this MUCH smaller -- now, despite what it says on the Indiegogo page, there will be a maximum of EIGHT copies of any given print. So, if you buy a ...

CBR - toe to toe with Harry!

Cirque Du Freak Could Have Competed With Harry Potter -- that was the headline for an entry about Cirque Du Freak on an article that appeared on CBR today, entitled 10 Box Office Flops That Could Have Made Great TV Shows. Hmm!!! While I'd love to think this was a universe where a Darren Shan adaptation could have gone toe-to-toe with the Harry Potter franchise, I suspect my books were always a bit too dark and... well... FREAKY to go down quite that well with the massive mainstream audience ...

Growing Pains vlog

I recently did an interview with vlogger NICHOLAS FLORES, whose vlog is called GROWING PAINS. We chatted for nearly an hour, and covered a very wide range of subjects. We talked about specific works of mine at some points, but also writing in principle. It was a very enjoyable interview, and the hour flew by for me, which is always a good sign! Hopefully it will fly by for YOU too if you decide to watch it, which you can do by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0g47... I also...

Soul-hurters!!!

"The Movie Was So Bad, It Fully Hurt My Soul." That's a quote that would bring a tear to the eye of anyone who's seen their favourite book adapted for the big screen, only to come away from the viewing feeling incredibly underwhelmed and disappointed. It's happened to all of us at one point or another, I'm sure, but in this case the fan with the bruised soul was talking about... [yes, you guessed right!!!] the CIRQUE DU FREAK movie. The short, sad review appeared on a Buzzfeed ar...

Father in Kirkus magazine

My latest Darren Dash novel, Father Of The Future, was reviewed very positively online by book industry giant KIRKUS ahead of its release, which was lovely. BUT it was also included in the November 15th issue of their physical magazine, which was an amazing bonus achievement! Kirkus review HUGE numbers of books every month, and select only a very small percentage of them to appear in the magazine they produce, which is sent to booksellers, librarians, teachers and others in the publishing in...

Ambigram

A fan of my books, John Gichomo, who lives in Kenya, recently sent me this VERY cool ambigram of my name. Now, I've got to be honest -- when I saw the word "ambigram" I didn't have a clue what it meant, so I had to Google it!! Turns out it means a name that can be read the same way in either direction. So, like a palindrome, only visually a whole lot snazzier!!! John told me that he started out trying to turn the word SLAWTER into an ambigram, but found that my name leant itself more nat...

The Anime Harmonix podcast

One of the perks in my Terrified Troll fundraiser (which is still active) is the chance to take part in a one-to-one Zoom chat with me -- there's also the option to take part in a small group chat, which will have a maximum of 4 participants. I did the first of these sessions last Friday, with a guy in America called TRAE. When Trae was thinking of buying the perk, he got in touch with me to ask if it would be possible for him to record it for his podcast, THE ANIME HARMONIX. I was absolutel...

Birth Of A Killer reviewed by Morgan

If you're having a quiet, lazy Sunday, why not pass an hour of it wacthing a Shanster called Morgan chat about Birth Of A Killer, the first book in my Saga Of Larten Crepsley series?!? Almost every time I post about the Mr Crepsley books, I get at least one or two fans replying, "WHAT?!? There's a series about Mr Crepsley?!?" The answer is, yes indeed, there is!! Four books in total, starting when Larten was a young human boy, and covering the two hundred years of his life before he met Darr...

December 2023 newsletter now LIVE

The December issue of my free, online monthly newsletter is now LIVE, with all the latest Darren Shan news and updates. Looking for an extra special Darren Shan-themed gift, either to buy for someone else or receive yourself? Check out my Terrified Troll fundraiser, which is still active and features LOADS of unique, exclusive PERKS... Archibald Lox has joined the audio books revolution... The 2023 edition of the fan-created Cirque Du Freak fanzine is live... And our old friend S...