GREETINGS!

Hi everyone and welcome to the October issue of the Shanville Monthly. This is more than a week late, because I was away on tour in England at the start of the month. Apologies for my tardiness, and I'll do my best to be more punctual going forward! But, that said, the tour was worth a touch of tardiness. It was a huge success. I had a large turnout at every store and each signing lasted about two hours -- the one in Nottingham actually went on for three hours! I worked in a few fab schools events too, in Manchester (in the wonderful Central Library) and Cleethorpes (in the equally wonderful Cleethorpes Academy). A joy from start to finish! Thanks to all the staff in all the stores (plus libraries and schools) who accommodated me and helped everything run without any hitches. And thanks to all of the Shansters who came along and waited patiently in line. Without you guys, it would have been a lonely few days for me!

The tour, of course, was in support of the new editions of The Vampire's Assistant and Tunnels Of Blood, and there's a reminder about those below. I'm also doing one final event this month, in Dublin, on Halloween itself! It promises to be a memorable one, and you can find out more about it, along with LOTS of other news, if you read on...

NEW EDITIONS

In the UK and Ireland, The Vampire's Assistant and Tunnels Of Blood were recently reissued with brand new covers, following up on the 25th anniversary rebrand of Cirque Du Freak last year. I love the new covers, and so did the vast majority of the fans I met on tour. You should be able to find or order them in your local book shop. Otherwise you can buy them online from Amazon UK using the links below.

Book 2: CLICK HERE.

Book 3: CLICK HERE.

HALLOWEEN EVENT

I’m doing an event in CHAPTERS BOOKSTORE in DUBLIN at midday on HALLOWEEN! (Saturday 31st October.)

I haven’t done many Halloween events over the years, so this is a rare chance to catch me in action on my favourite day of the year. I’ll be giving a talk, answering questions, then signing books.

I did an event in Chapters last summer which was one of my highlights of my return to the road. That one sold out, and there's a good chance this one will too, so my advice is to book sooner rather than later. Tickets are €10, but that includes a book — you get to choose one of the new editions, either Cirque du Freak, The Vampire’s Assistant or Tunnels of Blood.

For more info, and to book tickets, CLICK HERE.

This will probably be my only Irish appearance this year, so if you live in the country, why not treat yourself to a day in the capital, where you can do a bit of shopping, sightseeing, fine dining or whatever, AND catch up with your favourite half-vampire as well?!? Think of it as killing two freaks with the one stone...

NOW YOU DON'T!

I'm releasing a new Darren Dash book for adults soon, called:

NOW YOU DON'T!

The current on-sale date is December 31st but I'm hoping to actually release it a few weeks earlier, in time for Christmas. You can preorder the eBook now through all the usual suspects: Amazon, Apple, B&N, Google, Kobo, Smashwords, etc. Here are a couple of handy links for those of you who like to read your books that way:

Click here to pre-order on AMAZON.

Click here to pre-order on APPLE, KOBO and more.

There will also be a hardback edition, and possibly a paperback edition. I'm hoping to release the physical edition at the same time as the eBook, but there's a chance it might not be ready to go until a few weeks later.

Now You Don't! is a dark horror novel about magic and sex! You can find out more, and read some early reviews for it, on GOODREADS if you CLICK HERE.

HUNGARY - BOOK 2

My Hungarian publishers, BOOKAHOLIC KIADO, released a beautiful 25th anniversary special edition of Cirque Du Freak earlier this year. It has now SOLD OUT, but the good news for those who got their hands on Book 1 is that the publisher isn't stopping there -- they are releasing a special edition of book 2, The Vampire's Assistant, later this year, hopefully in time for Christmas. That's the gore-geous cover above!

You can pre-order a copy of the book on the Bookaholic Kiado site by CLICKING HERE. I would advise pre-ordering as soon as you can, as I suspect this edition will sell out pretty swiftly as well.

As for Book 3... read the next entry!!!

HUNGARY - BOOK 3

The exciting news doesn't stop as far as my Hungarian fans are concerned! Because as well as releasing a special edition of Book 2 late this year, Bookaholic Kiado will also be releasing Book 3, Tunnels of Blood, in the spring next year!

The publisher ran a poll on their Facebook page, offering fans the chance to pick the cover from three different images that the artist presented them with. It was a close-run thing, but the CREEPY MURLOUGH image won in the end, which I was very happy about, because that was MY favourite! That's the rough image above, from which the artist will now produce the final cover.

Book 3 is not currently available to pre-order -- there was a short window where fans could pre-order it at the same time as Book 2 -- but it will open for pre-orders next year, closer to the release date, and fans will be able to do that on the publisher's website, which you can find by CLICKING HERE.

CIRQUE DU FANZINE

The Cirque Du Freak FANZINE is heading back our way and submissions are open!!! This fabulous fan-created magazine airs online annually, around Halloween. If you’d like to find out more about how YOU can submit a piece (fan art, cosplay photos, fan fiction or poetry), to be part of freaking history, CLICK HERE.

DANCE-OFF!

Just when I think there are no new questions that you guys can ask me…

A lady emailed me recently, commenting on the dance that takes place in Vampire Mountain when all the vampires have assembled for the Council. She wanted to know if it had been inspired by any dances in vampire movies, or if I had any favourite dances from vampire films. I can’t recall being specifically influenced by anything in particular to include the dancing scene, but thinking back on it, likely (if most probably subconscious) scenes in films that may have inspired it, would have been:

Masque of the Red Death, the Roger Corman version, which features a VERY gloomy, atmospheric dance scene.

And possibly Dance of the Vampires (aka The Fearless Vampire Killers), the Roman Polanski film, which, if I’m remembering correctly (it’s been a LONG time since I last watched it) also features a memorable dancing scene that would have had a big impact on me.

It’s odd, looking back, that I actually included a dancing scene, because in real life I’m a terrible dancer, and although I love dancing wildly at gigs or in clubs, I absolutely loathe organised dancing where you have to do it properly!!!

PROOF

I moved back into my house almost two years ago, after being out of it for two years following a fire, but haven't yet got around to sorting out the library where I keep all of the different editions of my books that have been released around the world.

Last month I finally made a start on what's going to be a pretty big job. Most of the books are up on shelves already, just not in any kind of order. But some were still boxed up, so I thought I'd begin with those. They were a real mix, and as I was going through them, I found a few copies of THIS little number -- the first ever Cirque Du Freak proof (also known as an ARC -- Advance Reader Copy).

This is where Cirque Du Freak's journey out into the world all kicked off. It's a proof edition of a few hundred copies, printed in the latter half of 1999 in the UK. Copies were sent to key booksellers, reviewers, librarians, etc. The aim was to get word of mouth about the book going early on, to hopefully boost sales in those first few months, which are always a tough time for a debut novel by an unknown author.

It's quite elaborate for a proof -- most proofs are far plainer than this, as publishers don't want to spend too much money on something that they're giving away for free. But although HarperCollins hadn't shown a lot of enthusiasm for the book after first buying it -- I think it's fair to say that they suffered with buyer's remorse, and sat on it for almost two years, asking themselves why the hell they'd bought such a lousy, non-commercial book that every other publisher in the UK had outright rejected -- things had changed as we got closer to its publication date, and they'd started to think that they might actually have the makings of a hit on their hands, which is why they put extra effort into producing the proof.

What exactly had changed, you ask? Well, a young lady called Joanne Rowling had released a book about wizards a couple of years earlier, and sales of that and its sequels were starting to tick along rather nicely. She read Cirque Du Freak even before it got to the proof stage (the perks of sharing an agent, who was able to send her an advance copy of the manuscript), and her glowing opinion on the back cover -- "A compelling book... a plot full of twists which leave the reader hungry for more" -- seemed to have quite a big impact on the publishers.

"I suppose, if J K Rowling likes it, it can't be all THAT bad..." looks to have been the general in-house consensus at HarperCollins. And the rest, as they say, is freaking history!!!

COSPLAY

The cool-looking kid in the photo is MARS, who was trialing out his Halloween costume ahead of the big night. He makes for a fabulous Mr Crepsley, doesn’t he?!? His mother told me they 3D printed Madam Octa and hand-coloured her!! A true labour of love -- Seba Nile would be proud of them!

If any of YOU dress up as Mr Crepsley or any other characters from my books this Halloween, do please share a photo or two with me. I always LOVE seeing people cosplay as my creations, and the Shansters love it too when I share the snaps with them.

A TRIVIAL MATTER

A Shanster called HANNAH was playing a 2000s edition of Trivial Pursuit with her family last month and got asked the question on the card above. She says she squealed with delight when she heard it!!

I like to think that all of you lot would have got this right too! But I have my doubts about a few of you… 😊

IT'S A WRAP!

And that's it for October. I'm ending this newsletter as I begun it -- with a strangling! The strangling of Shansters is a longtime ritual at my events and signings. Some fans choose not to be strangled, and we pose for a smiling picture instead, but the majority prefer to have my fingers wrapped around their throats. What a strange bunch you all are! I blame it on the bizarre and inappropriate books you read!!! 😊

I'll hopefully see all of you back here online at the start of November 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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