GREETINGS!

Hi everyone, and welcome to the June issue of the Shanville Monthly! Lots to report this month, including some signing sessions in Hungary... new British covers for two of my very early books... an update on my next novel for adult readers... plus some insights into why I'm not as productive these days as I used to be in the past! All of that and loads more, but let's start with news about that Hungary visit...

BUDAPEST SIGNINGS

I'm making a welcome return to BUDAPEST in HUNGARY this month, to sign copies of the 25th anniversary edition of Cirque Du Freak (and other books of mine, of course, although this time we've limited it to three books per person, to try and keep the lines moving smoothly). To try and make things a bit easier for fans, I'm doing four separate signing sessions across Friday and Saturday the 12th and 13th of June. (I'm also doing a more intimate event on the Thursday night, but I think that's sold out.) If you pre-order a copy of the book, you can choose a slot to come have it signed, which hopefully means nobody will be waiting TOO long. If you don't pre-order, you might be able to just turn up on either day and join the line for one of the slots, but we can't guarantee that I'll be able to sign for you, as those who have pre-ordered will get first preference -- if I have time for signing after finishing with those, I'll be happy to carry on and sign for extra fans, but it will all depend on how long it takes to get through the pre-orders.

For more information, and to pre-order your copy and book your signing slot, CLICK HERE for the publisher's Facebook page, or CLICK HERE for the pre-order page.

NEW BRITISH COVERS

New editions of The Vampire’s Assistant and Tunnels Of Blood are being released in the UK and Ireland on August 27th, and these are the gorgeous covers.

These are follow-ups to the 25th anniversary edition of Cirque Du Freak that was published last year. Hopefully more books in the series will follow, although that will depend on how well these sell -- so if you like them, do please buy them, and help spread the word to anyone you think might be interested.

If you would like to pre-order The Vampire's Assistant, CLICK HERE.

If you would like to pre-order Tunnels of Blood, CLICK HERE.

AOL - BEST HALLOWEEN MOVIES

In the run-up to last Halloween, AOL ran a list of The Best Classic Halloween Movies of All Time

To my surprise and delight, the Cirque Du Freak movie was included, rubbing shoulders proudly with the likes of Nosferatu, Midsommar, The Shining, Get Out, and many other classics of the genre.

I know the film gets slagged from time to time, and it's easy to buy into the narrative that everyone hates it and always has (there's no denying it flopped at the box office), but as I've been saying since it was first released, based on reading every review of it that I could at the time, and picking up on articles like these over the years, a LOT of people out there do actually LIKE it! So, if YOU are one of those who do, you don't ever need to feel like it's a guilty pleasure -- you're in good company, despite what the haters might have you believe!!!

THE CONVERSATION

There was an interesting article on THE CONVERSATION a while back, in which the author wrote about A Series Of Unfortunate Events, and mentioned some other books which he classed as "gothic" rather than "horror". One of those was Cirque Du Freak. You can read the full article by CLICKING HERE.

Are Cirque Du Freak and its sequels more gothic than horror, or something else entirely? Discuss!!!

WHY I'VE SLOWED DOWN

A fan called DANIEL recently emailed me to make an observation and ask a question:

"Maybe 15 years ago, you were rattling out at least a book per year. It felt like I’d finish one and the next was just around the corner. Obviously that hasn’t been the case recently and I was wondering why? I’m asking that with no judgement by the way. I’m genuinely curious. Is it a case of life getting in the way? I remember you had the house fire and now that I have two kids and haven’t written a word in the last two years or so, I’m just curious to know if it’s life getting in the way of your insane productivity/output or whether this is an intentional break. A little wind down for a while. I hope that question doesn’t cause any offence because I really don’t mean it that way."

It certainly didn't cause any offence, and as I told Daniel, I haven't entirely been sitting on my hands doing nothing over the last several years -- there were the Archibald Lox books, of course... I worked for a lengthy time on turning Koyasan into a stage musical, but sadly couldn't get it off the ground... I've been deeply involved in working on the scripts for the prospective Demonata TV show... I released a picture book last year... and I'm editing a Darren Dash novel for release hopefully later this year...

But, yeah, a decade or more ago, I'd have done all that AND released two or three Shan books a year!! There are several reasons for the slowdown. One, as Daniel guessed, is simply life getting in the way -- I have two lovely, active kids, and they take up a lot of my time -- I joke that I'm a glorified chauffeur these days, but the truth is I DO spend a lot of time ferrying them around, and doing stuff with them, and going on lots of holidays.

The failure of the Archie books to find a home with a traditional publisher also hit me hard. I've never had a problem self-publishing the Darren Dash books -- I quite like being a self-publishing guerilla on that front -- but I thought the Archie books would be picked up, and it knocked my confidence when they weren't.

Part of it is also that I've slowed up with age. Time passes so much more quickly these days. I rarely spent more than 4 or so hours per day writing, even in the whirlwind old times, which isn't that much, but these times it's become a struggle to find even that much working time most days. There just always seems to be something else to do, and I don't seem to be getting those other things done as quickly as I once did.

But, even accepting that all of the above is true, the largest part, if I'm being honest, is... LAZINESS!!!! I'm always telling young writers that you have to push yourself hard. When you write, you work for yourself, and you have to be a son of a bitch to work for! A proper writer doesn't accept any excuses -- they put the work front and centre, and everything else has to fit in around that. I haven't been doing that in recent years. I've been dipping my toe into work, instead of properly focusing on it.

I'm hoping to get back into my groove again, but we'll see. Laziness is contagious!! Work on the latest Darren Dash book has been good for me, and got me eager to start firing on all cylinders again, so hopefully that will be the encouragement I need to push on and start producing fresh material again.

DARREN DASH

Speaking of the new Darren Dash book for adults... I finished my first edit of it last month, and have moved on to the next edit. It's the book about magic and sex which I first mentioned back in February, when I returned to it after a "shortish" gap of 30 years or thereabouts!

To my pleasant surprise, there turned out to be far more magic than sex in the book -- I'd remembered it as being much more smutty, but while it certainly does feature some X-rated scenes, they make limited appearances, and do all serve an actual narrative function (even though it will take readers a while to work out what that is).

It was actually more of a rewrite than an edit, as although I didn't alter the structure too much, I rewrote the vast majority of the lines, deleting some completely, adding brand new ones where appropriate, and finding ways to improve on the vast majority of those that I kept. It's in good shape now, though I'll need to do at least another two or three edits before I'm entirely satisfied with it.

My plan, if I end up self-publishing the book, will be to release it towards the end of this year -- ideally I'd love to get it out there before Halloween, but I suspect November or even December is a more realistic target. HOWEVER... I've sent the current draft to my agent, to run her eye over. If she likes it and thinks it might be a good fit for a traditional publisher, then we'd be looking at a publication date a good bit further down the line -- probably some time next year.

Either way, I'll keep you updated in future posts over the coming months. But rest assured, the next Darren Dash book IS on its way, one way or another, and it's going to be up there with An Other Place as one of my most twisted and bizarre books yet!!!

SCHOOL EVENTS

I did a lovely online event with some of the students of FURNESS VALE Primary School last month. It was a smaller group than I would normally work with, but they were all huge fans of my work, and their teacher wrote a gorgeous little email to me, so how could I say no?!?

Teachers and librarians can pitch for me to do online events any time of the year -- since I do them from my office at home, we don't have to deal with any of the complications of physical travel. So if YOU would like to invite me to speak to YOUR students, feel free to drop me an email at: [email protected]

If you're in the UK or Ireland, and would like to register your interest in an actual classroom visit, I hope to do some touring in the autumn time, to various places around the countries. I haven't started scheduling the tours yet (though I know I'll be in the Manchester part of England early in October), but I can keep your details on file and get back to you once things start to come together over the next month or two. Once again, if you want to ask about an in-person visit, the email address to send your query to, is: [email protected]

DEMONICALLY LUCKY!

My publishers in the UK released a limited edition of BEC when it first went on sale twenty years ago (October 2006). There were 666 numbered copies, and look who was lucky enough to nab the final one of the 666 that I signed!!! Since it was the very last one, I dated and wrote in the time, and also added a short message.

His name is NIALL, and he got in touch recently to ask if there was any way we could meet up this year so that he can get it signed again on its 20th anniversary. I'm planning to tour in Ireland and the UK in the autumn (after a summer detour to Hungary), so hopefully we'll be able to work something out.

I didn't hold back any of the numbered copies for myself, so if any cynical souls out there ever wondered if I held onto the first or last or any other "hot" number, this is proof that I didn't!!

ERROR! ERROR!

A fan called Natasha spotted a strange misprint on the back of her copy of Vampire War last month! The British omnibus contains books 7, 8 and 9 -- but her back cover features miniature covers for books 10, 11 and 12!! Was this an extremely rare misprint that was going to make Natasha rich?!?

Alas, as far as riches go, the answer is... no!! This bizarre error crept in at some point over the course of the book's reprints -- I *think* I'm correct in saying it wasn't there on the original printing. It took a while before we became aware of it -- which only happened when it got drawn to my attention by fans when I was out touring -- and although it was corrected at that point, loads of copies with the misprint had been produced and sold by then.

Still, a very nice oddity all these years later, and a nice little "extra" for the Shanster who might have everything else that I ever released!

IT'S A WRAP

And that's it for June. The Shans had a perfectly lovely two weeks holiday in Florida last month. After a week in the Disney parks, we headed for the Universal end of Orlando. We rode on MANY roller coasters, wild water rides and other attractions... visited a few water parks... went swimming most night in our hotel pools... and even squeezed in a bit of shopping for Mrs Shan! It was expensive, of course, but a truly memorable trip. Hopefully we'll get back again one day in the not too distant future.

I'll be back here online at the start of July with all the latest news and updates. It will also be the annual birthday issue, so I might have one or two little extras to throw into the mix -- for instance, it's been quite a while since our last competition, hasn't it?!? 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.