GREETINGS!

Hi everyone and welcome to the August issue of the Shanville Monthly. July was a strange month for me. On the one hand it was a happy, relaxing month, with the Shans on holiday in London, but on the other hand we lost a close family member late in June, and that sad cloud hung over us the entire time, until his funeral ceremony late in July.

You can read about that loss below (one of the most memorable characters in my Zom-B series was named after him, which is why it merits a mention in my newsletter!). There's also news of two upcoming tours that I'm doing in England -- the first is actually later this month, so you'd best get planning your travel arrangements ASAP! There's also a chance for a few of you to hang out with me for a couple of hours if you live in or can get to the city of Bath while I'm on tour. A couple of hugely successful fantasy authors name check me when talking about their influences. There's a small update on what's happening with the potential Demonata TV adaptation. A brand new competition. And more! But let's start with that tour news...

TOUR DATES

I’m hitting the road again this autumn to celebrate the release of new editions of The Vampire’s Assistant and Tunnels Of Blood (following up on last year's 25th anniversary reprint of Cirque Du Freak). I’m doing two legs in England, all in WATERSTONES stores. I’m hoping to add in some Irish signings as well, and possibly some others, but here are the confirmed details for the English appearances. You do NOT require tickets — you can simply turn up and join the line.

The new editions of Cirque Du Freak, The Vampire’s Assistant and Tunnels Of Blood will be on sale at all the stores. It would be lovely if you bought at least one copy of them, to support the stores, but it’s not a requirement and I will be happy to sign any books you bring from home too.

AUGUST

Friday 28th August – OXFORD at 4pm. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

Saturday 29th August – PLYMOUTH at 10am. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

Saturday 29th August – EXETER at 2pm. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

Sunday 30th August – SWINDON at 10am. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

Sunday 30th August – BATH at 2pm. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

Monday 31st August – FINCHLEY ROAD LONDON at 1pm. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

OCTOBER

Thursday 1st October – MANCHESTER ARNDALE at 1pm. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

Friday 2nd October – PRESTON at 4pm. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

Saturday 3rd October – HANLEY STOKE-ON-TRENT at 10am. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

Saturday 3rd October – NOTTINGHAM at 2.30pm. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

Sunday 4th October – YORK (Coney Street) at 10.30am. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

Sunday 4th October - HULL at 2.30pm. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

Monday 5th October - SHEFFIELD MEADOWHALL at 4pm. CLICK HERE for the store's event page.

BATH TIME!

If you've ever wanted an intimate bath with Darren Shan... you're out of luck!

But if you'd like an intimate meeting with Darren Shan IN Bath... that can be arranged!!!

To help cover some of the costs of my August and October tours, I'm offering a handful of fans the chance to hang out with me for a couple of hours in BATH, after my signing on Sunday August 30th. From 6pm to 8pm, up to five fans will be able to come with me to a venue in Bath (most likely a pub). You'll have to chance to ask me any questions that you like. We'll chat about my books, my writing process and a whole lot more, and of course I'll be happy to sign any of my books that you choose to bring along.

The cost for this very rare chance to "hang with Shan" for two hours will be £100 per person. Please note, while you're welcome to apply for more than one ticket, you can't bring any friends or family members along for free or split the cost of one ticket between more than one person -- so, for instance, two people can't pay for one ticket between them and both come -- they would need to buy two tickets. I want to keep the numbers to a maximum of five, so that everyone in the small group gets plenty of "Shan time" and value for money.

If you're interested, send an email to [email protected] with BATH TIME in the heading.

When entering, please let me know your name and how many tickets you would like. If I get more than five applications, I will choose the winners in a random online draw. You must submit your entry by 11.59pm UK time on Thursday August 6th. If you're one of the lucky Shansters, I'll let you know on Friday August 7th how to make a payment to secure your place -- you won't have to pay anything until that point, and will be free to withdraw your application at that stage if you change your mind. Please note, the costs of any drinks or snacks are not included, so you will have to pay for your own on the night.

I might also be running a "hang with Shan" event in Manchester on October 1st, so keep an eye out for news about that in a later post...

DAN

Last month I posted the saddest “TATTOO TUESDAY” I ever hope to post.

Normally I only post photos of real tattoos, but as you’ve probably already guessed, Mrs Shan, myself and our 7 year old daughter HAVEN’T gone and got matching tattoos! These are only sprayed on.

Those of you who have read my Zom-B books and ever heard me speaking about them might know that the most vicious villain in it, the dreaded Dan-Dan, was named after a young nephew-in-law of mine. Most of the villains in that series were actually named after real people, friends or family members, even booksellers, all people that I liked. It tickled my fancy to name the awful Dan-Dan after one of my wife’s nephews, one of the sweetest kids I knew.

Just over a month ago, we lost our real, beloved Dan-Dan, and his his funeral celebration was late in July. It was a sad but lovely affair, a fitting monument to his short but remarkable life. He loved tattoos, so his parents hired a tattooist to design some air-spray tattoos in his honour, and the one we’re sporting in the picture was our favourite.

Even in death may he be triumphant!!!!

INFLUENTIAL!

Fantasy authors Ryan Cahill, Robin Hobb and Brandon Sanderson sat down recently for a fascinating hour-plus chat about books, fantasy and writing. At the 8 minute mark they start talking at length about their writing influences, and I was delighted (several minutes later) to get a mention from Ryan — and stunned that Brandon recalled the scene in the prologue of Cirque Du Freak where Darren sucks a spider up with a hoover!!!

That scene often gets mentioned to me. It was a throwaway few lines, one I gave little thought to at the time, but I think it hooked in a LOT of readers and may have played a very big part in the book’s ultimate success. Anyway, if you want to listen to three great authors talking about their work, Darren Shan and a whole lot more, CLICK HERE.

IN THE BEGINNING

Before there was Darren Shan or Darren Dash, there was… Darren O’Shaughnessy!

My first ever published book was called Ayuamarca, and I released it under my real name in February 1999, the year before Cirque Du Freak came out. (It was renamed Procession Of The Dead when it was re-released a decade later.) Its sequel, Hell’s Horizon, came out a year later, in February 2000.

A fan called Steve recently asked if my publisher had ever worked on a cover for the third book. The answer is no. I had written the third book back then, but the publisher lost interest after the second book and I don’t think they even read the next one past that.

Intriguingly, the third book in the “trilogy,” City of the Snakes, was actually the fourth book -- originally the series was a quartet, which I referred to as The Paucar Wami Quartet, with the third book set decades before the first two. It’s the darkest book I’ve ever written, which is why I ultimately decided to make the series a trilogy and set the original third book aside. But I’ve been thinking about it recently, after my recent visit to Hungary, when there was much excitement when I made a passing mention of it, and might return to it at some point and release it as a Darren Dash novel. So if you dig my dark stuff, and The City books, stay tuned…

DREAMING BIG

I had a lovely meeting with the Dreamology Pictures team last month -- they're the guys working on trying to adapt my Demonata books into a TV show. Ijaz and Max are working their socks off, pitching everywhere they can — if YOU know anyone looking to invest tens of millions of pounds into the greatest ever TV show, feel free to drop me a line!!

At one point, while sipping our third or fourth beer, we started tossing around a few dream cast ideas. Mark Gatiss for Drust?!? Keanu Reeves for Dervish?!? Hey, we can dream, can’t we?!?

FAB FIND 1

I posted a video last month, in which a Shanster called NIALL found a signed and dated copy of Cirque Du Freak from many years ago, in the fabulous Chapters Bookstore Parnell Street in Dublin -- and when I looked into the date a bit more closely, it turned out to be an even more remarkable discovery than I at first imagined.

I checked my records (I kept a detailed record on my website of all my signings and events up to 2015), and I'm virtually certain that this book was signed on May 20th 2000, when I did an event with Childrens Books Ireland for teachers and librarians in Dublin. This was one of my earliest events -- the 16th, as far as I can see, and all of the previous events had been school events (except for one very small after-school event in a library). Which means this is one the very earliest signed and dated copies of Cirque Du Freak that I've ever seen. Indeed, since book sales were minimal at those early school events, this must be one of the earliest signed and dated copies of the book in existence -- a truly fantastic find!!!

FAB FIND 2

Another lucky Shanster enjoyed an ultra rare find last month! This time it was a fan called MOLLIE, who ordered a copy of Ayuamarca, my first ever published book. When it arrived, to her shock there was a publisher's sheet tucked inside -- this was something the publisher sent out to journalists, booksellers, librarians, etc, to try and drum up interet in the debut novel. I’ve seen plenty of copies of Ayuamarca over the years, but I don't think I've ever seen that accompanying letter from the publisher before.

CIRQUE DU MIKE?!?

We’ve seen this Cirque Du Freak clip on YouTube many times before, but this time there’s a difference in the commentary, which you'll spot pretty swiftly if you CLICK HERE…

After watching it, I have one question for all of you..

Mike?

Mike?!?

Who the freaking hell is MIKE?!?

COMPETITION

I'm a month late, but to celebrate my birthday and the 26th anniversary of the first Shanville Monthly issue last month, I'm offering a tour T-shirt as a prize in a COMPETITION.

This is an unworn T-shirt that my British publishers made for my long-ago DESTINY TOUR in the UK and Ireland, when I spent the entire month of October 2004 on the road to promote the release of Sons Of Destiny. The cities and dates are on the back of the T-shirt. I have signed both the front and back of the T-shirt. It's size Medium, but I would suggest not ever wearing this even if it fits you, as the ink will very likely wash out if you wash it a few times.

To be in with a chance of winning this incredibly rare T-shirt, 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 YOUR name pops out of the electronic hat when I make the draw!!

1) Answer this question: "What was the name of the book I toured to promote in October 2004?"

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, Friday, August 7th, 2026.

(5) This competition is open to fans everywhere in the world.

(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 winner will be made on or after Saturday, August 8th, 2026. It will be a completely random draw, made by Darren Shan personally (I use an online number generator to pick the winner). I will notify the winner by e-mail, and will post their name in my social media channels too.

(9) The prize will not ship until August 20th or later (I'll be away on holiday!). I will send it as a gift, with a very low value, so hopefully the winner will not be hit with any import taxes, but if you live in a country where the postal system demands an import tax, the winner will have to cover the cost of that themself.

(10) Information submitted by entrants WILL NOT be shared by me with any other individual or company.

(11) My decision will be final.

IT'S A WRAP!

And that's it for August. I spent most of July in London with the Shan fam. We squeezed in a HUGE amount of activities -- swimming, theme parks, Center Parcs, cinema, visiting a 93 year old nun... On one of the days we went to an Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. It was excellent, and the kids enjoyed it almost as much as myself and Mrs Shan did, but I came away with very strong Lord Loss vibes!! Have a look at that photo above and you'll know what I mean!

I'll hopefully see all of you back here online at the start of September for all the latest news and updates. Until then, all my bloody best, Darren Shan. x x x

You can follow Darren Shan on Facebook and Twitter and Bluesky. He also has a (very rarely updated!) YouTube page.

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