Darren Shan's Blog, page 3

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 week, 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), ...

Archie Book 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 later this month -- 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 ...

Zom-B UK sale

Fab news for eBook fans in the UK who haven't yet read my Zom-B books! For the month of October, each book in the series costs just £0.99!! So you can buy the entire set of 12 ebooks for just under £12!!! And don't forget about Zom-B Circus!! The "secret" 13th book in the series isn't part of the October sale, but that's because it's available to buy for just £0.99 all the time!!! Simply do a quick search for it on Amazon UK once you've added the other books to your cart, and it can be y...

CDF cover reveal - 2

As I said last week, January 2025 will see the 25th anniversary of the first ever release of Cirque Du Freak in the UK. To mark the freaktastic occasion, my British publishers, HarperCollins, are reissuing the book with a brand new cover. I'm sharing a cropped image from the new cover today, the first time anyone outside of the publisher's inner circle have seen it -- I hope you find it suitably intriguing!! There will be another cropped image next Thursday, ahead of the official FUL...

Monthly newsletter - October 2024

The Halloween issue of my monthly online newsletter just went live! Among the entries this month... There's a new Cirque Du Freak cover on its way (the first in 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... and there's a brand new COMPETITION, my first in a good while. Click on the l...

Demonata TV scripts PS

A quick follow up on a post I shared last week, from Dreamology Pictures, regarding the script for BEC that they are working on. As most of you are probably aware, the team are working on trying to adapt the books into a TV show. Quite a few of you took the post to mean that they were going to start chronologically, i.e. base the first season on Bec, and work forwards from there. This isn't actually the case, and I'm sorry I gave that impression. Max and Ijaz are actually working on thre...

CDF cover reveal - 1

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 next two Thursdays, 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 f...

Dancing With Demons!!!

Work on The Demonata scripts is continuing apace!! We're still at the stage where the writers are knocking the scripts into shape, before taking them to various studios to hopefully get backing to take things further. I haven't seen the scripts yet, but they'll be sharing them with me shortly, and inviting my feedback and input, which will be a first for me -- I've always been kept well out of the scriptwriting process prior to this!! I imagine my response will probably go something along th...

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 e...

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 email... 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...