GREETINGS!

Hi everyone, and welcome to the April issue of the Shanville Monthly! There's plenty to dwell on this month, including reports of a trio of school events that I did last month... I was interviewed for a podcast... there are new reviews for two of my series... an update about the book I'm currently working on... how I tried to fool everyone on April 1st... and more. Enjoy!

PEOPLE FIRST PODCAST

I was interviewed last month for the March edition of the People First Podcast. This is run by People First Keighly And Craven, a day service and self-advocacy charity run by and for people with learning disabilities and those who are neurodiverse.

I chatted away with the interviewers for just under half an hour, about my books, writing and more. It was a nice, relaxed interview, one that I enjoyed a lot, and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE.

WORLD BOOK DAY EVENTS

I did a couple of fun in-the-flesh school events in London last month, on World Book Day, one in Holland Park School, the other in Eastlea Community School (which is where this photo was taken). I've had great feedback from the teachers and librarians since my talks -- the kids seemed to enjoy the events almost as much as *I* did, which is always a welcome bonus!! 😂

I haven't done too many in-person school events since I stopped touring with Zom-B almost a decade ago, but I might be doing some more after the summer in the UK and Ireland, when the new editions of The Vampire's Assistant and Tunnels Of Blood are released. So if YOU are a teacher or librarian and would like to register interest, feel free to drop me a line at my email address, and I'll reply to you once I start putting my tours together:

[email protected]

While I don't visit many schools physically these days, I do quite a lot of virtual events, which are *nearly* as much fun as an actual visit. If you'd like to enquire about setting up one of those, again, just drop me a quick email, and we can discuss.

JFK MEMORIAL SCHOOL EVENT

As well as the World Book Day events in London, I also did a rare in-the-flesh school event in my home city of Limerick last month, in the John F Kennedy Memorial School. It was lots of fun, and the boys asked loads of great questions -- that's the one part of my events I can never control, so it's always a relief when lots of hands go up and the questions are actually thought-provoking.

The staff posted several photos and a few video clips on their Instagram page. If you'd like to get a taste of what I'm like in action, you can check them out by CLICKING HERE.

And, as I said above, if YOU are a teacher or librarian, interested in trying to set up either a live or virtual event with me for YOUR school, feel free to drop me a line at [email protected] to enquire.

ITALIAN REVIEW - IN ENGLISH!

Italian Shanster VALENTINA is working her way through The Demonata and reviewing each book on YouTube as she goes. The reviews were originally only in Italian, and I wrote a post saying that alas there's no way yet that I know of to have a video translated as swiftly and easily as text -- but when I clicked on the link to watch the clip on YouTube, I was stunned and delighted to find Valentina's review auto translated into English!! The translation isn't perfect, but it's pretty good, and definitely better than no translation at all!!🥰

Demon Apocalypse is a key moment in the overall storyline, which brought everything together neatly from the first five books and set up the second half of the series' major plot thread. Alas, in Italy, my publishers stopped publishing the series at that point, disappointing fans who were unable to read it through to its end. So this will be Valentina's final review. But, on the plus side, she linked the book to the first five, in a lengthy, VERY cool review. Please check it out by CLICKING HERE and leave her a big LIKE ON YouTube to reward her for her dedication!!

ARCHIE HARDBACKS

I was asked recently where people could buy the hardback editions of my Archibald Lox books, by a fan who wanted to get the series in that format. I told him you could only get them on Amazon, but then afterwards realised I was incorrect -- although the paperbacks are exclusive to Amazon, the hardbacks are actually more widely available, and you can order them through all sorts of stores, e.g. Waterstones in the UK or Barnes & Noble in the USA.

So, if YOU are looking to join the legions of hardback-enabled Archibald Lox fans, search for the titles on the website of your store of choice -- and you always have Amazon as a fallback if your first port of call can't get them for you. (A quickh eads up!! Volume 2 is currently on sale in the USA Amazon store at a massive discount...)

Oh, and it's only these omnibus volumes (each of which collects 3 books) which are available in hardback. I never did hardback editions of the orginal 9 books -- since they were so slim, I just felt the cost to buyers would be extortionate. The cheapest way of buying the series, of course, is digitally -- the eBook versions are MUCH cheaper than the physical editions. You can get those through any of the main eBook sellers -- Amazon, Apple, B&N, Google Play, Kobo, Smashwords, etc. etc.

WORLD POETRY DAY 2026

I was listening to the radio on Saturday March 21st and heard that it was World Poetry Day, which inspired to post about the most consequential poem that *I* ever wrote.

Through my teens and into my early twenties, I wrote a lot of poetry. Most of it was pretty dark and morbid, though I wrote plenty of other stuff too -- I found it a great way to get ideas and words out of my head and down onto paper, without requiring the same kind of time and concentration that short stories or novels required. I remember almost none of those poems -- they were momentary diversions, and even though I've held onto them all, that was never a path that I seriously considered venturing down.

But one poem stuck in my head after I wrote it. A poem about an eight-armed demon master, a sentinel of sorrow. Something about the character intrigued me, and every so often I'd recall it and wonder if there was maybe more I could do with it. Then, some years later, I was playing around with ideas for a werewolf book, and wondering if I could find a fresh way of writing about them. Suddenly I found myself thinking about that demon from the poem, and saw that if I made it a story primarily about demons, I could work the werewolf angle in on the sly...

So, here's my poem, in honour of World Poetry Day. I suspect one or two of you might have read it before...

LORD LOSS

Lord Loss sows all the sorrows of the world
Lord Loss seeds the grief-starched trees

In the centre of the web, lowly Lord Loss bows his head

Mangled hands, naked eyes
Fanged snakes his soul line
Curled inside like textured sin
Bloody, curdled sheets for skin

In the centre of the web, vile Lord Loss torments the dead

Over strands of red, Lord Loss crawls
Dispensing pain, despising all
Shuns friends, nurtures foes
Ravages hope, breeds woe
Drinks moons, devours suns
Twirls his thumbs till the reaper comes

In the centre of the web, lush Lord Loss is all that's left

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The drawing is by a fan called LEINBOW, who orignally posted it on BlueSky.

ARCHIBALD LOX 3 REVIEW

There was a lovely review in Hungary last month for the third volume of my Archibald Lox series. The reviewer neatly summed up the first two volumes, then wrote a lengthy review about the third, without including any spoilers. It's in Hungarian, of course, but my browser translated it into a mostly accurate English translation for me when I visited the page -- if yours doesn't offer that option, you can always cut and paste the text into an online translator.

You can read the review by CLICKING HERE.

PIMP YOUR SHAN BOOKS!

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the phrase “pimp your ride.” Well, a Shanster called LOUISE has taken things to the next level — “pimp your SHAN!!!!” 😊

She added lots of sparkles to her copy of The Thin Executioner, and is planning to do this with more of my books in her collection. I think it turned out beautifully. For a better view of the book, check out a video that I shared on my Facebook page on March 18th by CLICKING HERE.

WHERE'S THE SMUT?!?

I’m about a third of the way through my current edit of the “X-rated” Darren Dash book for adults that I mentioned for the first time in February, and so far… no smut!!! :-)

Not having looked at the book in more than a quarter of a century, it’s surprised me. I thought it was wall-to-wall nookie, but I actually spent quite a lot of time building up the characters and plot. What a disappointment!!!

But fear not - the naughty stuff is just around the corner, methinks, and there will be oodles of it when it… er… comes!!! (Couldn’t resist!!!) Unless I’ve misremembered all that too!

Heh - if I was further down the road with it, I might have released it on April 1st, billed it as the most sizzling novel ever, and then delivered… absolutely zero smut!!!

APRIL FOOL!

While I don't post an April Fool's joke EVERY year, I do like to drop one every now and again, and this year saw me try to catch out everyone with the following post on April 1st -- from the feedback I saw on Facebook and Twitter afterwards, I managed to fool a good few of you!!! 😊

I'm heading up to see the band GORILLAZ tonight with my son and one of his friends, and we're getting the full VIP treatment -- best seats in the house and getting to hang out with the band afterwards. Why?!? Ah-hah! There's a story in that, and it's an exciting one!! Read on...

As you probably already know, a Demonata TV show has been in the works for a while now. While we started out planning to go down the live action route, a recent conversation has led us to switch tack and focus on trying to get it off the ground as an animated series -- and we have an "actor" firmly lined up to play DERVISH!!

Basically, Damon Albarn's team reached out to Dreamology Pictures to say he was a big fan of the books and had heard about the possible TV deal. He was keen to get involved, most obviously with the soundtrack, but he had another suggestion that intrigued us. If we were willing to go down the animated route, he suggested casting 2-D, the character that he voices in the Gorillaz band, as Dervish.

This really tickled my fancy, as Dervish is the "rockiest" of all my characters, an ageing punk rocker, and I thought this would be a brilliant bit of casting. So, after a few Zoom chats, Mr Albarn has signed up to the project, and now we're looking to get funding to create an animated show, with 2-D "playing" Dervish, voiced by Damon. How rock 'n' roll is that?!?

But before you go getting TOO excited, there are two very important things to bear in mind!!

1 -- funding for this is by no means yet guaranteed!!

2 -- and today's date is April 1st, which means...

APRIL FOOL!!!!!!!

Heh heh!! How many of you did I catch out?!? Sorry if I got your hopes up, but it was too tantalising a prank not to pull. The reality is that I AM taking my son and his friend to see Gorillaz tonight, but we'll be sitting in normal seats in among the crowd, and won't be mingling with the band afterwards, just heading straight home. And while the Dreamology Pictures guys and I are certainly not completely averse to maybe taking The Demonata down the animated road, we're still primarily focused on trying to make it happen as a live action show. But hey, if Damon Albarn hears about this and actually IS a fan of the books, he's always welcome to audition to play real-life Dervish!!!

IT'S A WRAP!

And that's it for April. The Shans went to London for a few days last month and had a fun, busy time -- including a day trip to Legoland, where the above photo was snapped. We're in the middle of the Easter holidays as I type this, so I'm busy doing lots of stuff with the kids. Once they're back at school, I'll be cracking on with my edit of the Darren Dash book. I need to start making up some time on it, as I thought I'd be further along than I currently am -- I'm slowing up in my middle age!!!

I'll be back here online at the start of May with 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.