Darren Shan's Blog, page 2

10 great horror books that aren’t too scary

With just a few days left to go until Halloween, 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 ...

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 on the following link and fast-forward to near the end of the 39 minutes mark -- unless, of course, you love ...

In Common

In Common is an independent, not for profit community, arts, culture and society website, based in Southampton. This 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 o...

Halloween library displays

Halloween is almost upon us -- just one week to go!!! It's the perfect time of year for Darren Shan books, and some schools and libraries are using 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 two are from HYMERS COLLEGE LRC, where they created a gorgeous display of my...

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 wer...

Sanctuary Runners

That's Mrs Shan looking fabulous in the attached photo!! The reason I'm posting it?!? Well, basically, she is involved with Sanctuary Runners, a solidarity-through-sport movement with a particular focus on community integration, especially of refugees and asylum seekers. Started in Ireland in 2018, the group now has over 20,000 people who've taken part in one of their events since they started, and 40 groups in Ireland who run or walk weekly - more info about that here: https://sanctuaryrunners....

CDF 25 full cover reveal

Here it is, folks -- the FULL COVER REVEAL for the 25th anniversay edition of Cirque Du Freak!!! In case you missed my previous posts... 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!!! As I revealed before, the new cover art is by a very talented artist called Artem Chebokha. I also revealed that ...

October 2024 competition winners

I've just now drawn the winners of my October competition, and 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 are, 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 a...

Competition October 2024

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. I signed some copies of the hardback on its release day, and also dated them and scribbled in "publication day." I'm offering TWO of those signed copies as prizes in a competition, one for each of two lucky winners. To be in with a chance of winning a copy, all you have to do is answer a VERY simple question and email it to me, along with your nam...

CDF cover reveal - 3

January 2025 will see the 25th anniversary of the first ever release of Cirque Du Freak in the UK. To mark the momentous occasion, my British publishers, HarperCollins, are reissuing the book with a brand new cover. I'm sharing another cropped image from the new cover today -- who could it possibly be?!? I'll be doing the FULL COVER REVEAL next Thursday, October 16th -- I hope you're all as excited about it as I am!! As I revealed last week, the new cover art is by a very talented ar...