Darren Shan's Blog, page 184

And now back home-ing!!!!

My elongated Christmas and New Year's break has finally come to an end! I had a week in London after my Rome holiday. Went to an interesting Gauguin exhibition at the Tate Modern. I don't LOVE Gauguin the way I love Van Gogh, but his best work is certainly quite stunning, and it was nice to be able to get an overview of his work. I only started getting into the art world several years ago, so I'm still learning all the time, and large-scale exhibits like this one are a great way to get up to ...

Audio reviews

I came across a cool, school-run web page recently, where lots of different students give short reviews of books which they have read. It’s a neat, fun way for kids to post their views. I particularly liked Leo’s review of The Thin Executioner—especially the way he declared it a “gooooood book” at the end!! The school is Duke School MS, and this is the link: http://www.dsmoodle.org/library/bookt... Happy listening!!

Public event at Bourne Hall, Ewell, Surrey

I am doing a public event on Friday, February 25th (during mid-term, so schools should be closed) at 11.30am at Bourne Hall, Spring Street, Ewell, Surrey, KT17 1UF. I will be doing some readings and answering questions for approximately one hour, then signing books afterwards. You can buy books on the day or bring along books from home. I am happy to sign as many books as anyone wants. Tickets are available through the Surrey County Council website: http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite......

Done Rome-ing!!

I've spent the last few days in Rome, on a short New Year's holiday. As usual, I had a fabulous time there -- it's one of my favourite cities to visit. There's so much to see and do. Just walking the streets around the centre is an adventure by itself, like taking a trip back through time. It had been a while since we'd last been there, so we re-visited some old faves -- the Vatican museums (the Sistine Chapel is still a mind-blower!), the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. ...

Bye bye 2010!!!

Happy New Year, everybody!! I don't have time to post a long blog -- heading out to see some family members soon, then going to see The Invisible Man at the Menier Chocolate Factory, then going out for a nice meal, before viewing the London Eye fireworks display from my flat -- it's going to be a busy old day!!! I'll try to provide a more thorough round-up of 2010 in the Shanville Monthly January edition when I post it tomorrow (hopefully!!). But, in brief, it's been a good old year, packed w...

Christmas blog

I usually try to post a blog a bit closer to Christmas Day, but I probably won't get a chance this year, because my phone services have not yet been transferred over to me new house!! So I'm going to take this chance to wish every one of you a truly heartfelt Merry Christmas!!! I've been busy with the move over the last few days -- it seems to have been going on forever by this stage!! I hit my lowest point a couple of nights ago when I caught my little finger in a folding ladder -- it swelle...

Bye Bye Martha

My grandaunt Martha died today. She'd been ill for several months, so it wasn't a shock, but it was still obviously upsetting. I was very close to Martha. She was a real character, with a wicked sense of humour. She was generous too -- when I was at university she used to cook a dinner for me every Thursday! I always found her easy to talk with, and popped in to see her as often as I could when in London. The last time I saw her was just before my trip to America. It was raining really badly ...

The neverending move!!

Again, I have to apologise for my lack of a blogging presence, but I've been immersed in the move back into my house for most of the last fortnight. I've been chasing my tail around pretty much every day, trying to juddle a dozen different problems at the same time, coordinating the finishing touches to the house while living in the middle of the pandemonium. It's been crazy!!! I can't remember the last time I've been so exhuasted -- although we do seem to have cleared the worst of the wrecka...

New blog

This is the link for the new blog page:  http://www.darrenshan.com/news/ You will be able to comment there, the same way you were able to comment here, and you can Subscribe on the site to receive blog updates if you want to be sent an email each time I post a new blog or news item. I won't be making any new blog entries on this wordpress site. It's been fun, but all good things must come to an end — or, in this case, move over to a new host site!! Ciao, wordpress!!!!

Closing this Blog down

Hi folks, I'm going to be shutting down this wordpress blog shortly. Now that my site has been redesigned, I am hosting the blog over at www.darrenshan.com in the News & Blog section. By keeping it there, I'm going to be able to maintain it much easier. Also it will tie in with the rest of my site, and make it easeir for you guys to view it as part of the site. I'll still be replicating it on MySpace for the time being, but this wordpress version now seems redundant, so my advice is to head o...