Obviously!!
I finished my latest edit of what will hopefully be my next adult book today. I can’t say anything about it yet, except I’ve got a very good feeling about this one! I think it’s my most mainstream adult book to date, and hopefully it might prove to be my breakout novel in that field. While I’m not overly concerned if I never make it big in the adult market, it would be nice to kick up a storm — like any ambitious writer, I always want MORE!!! I think it’s good to challenge yourself, to ask more of your muse. I could very easily just sit back and coast along with my children’s books — I enjoy writing them, they sell in massive numbers, children are the most appreciative fans you could ever hope for — I’ve already sold more books than most writers can ever dream of selling in the whole of their career. But I don’t believe in sitting on one’s laurels. The money in the bank has never mattered much to me — it’s certainly very nice to have, but it’s not what I wake up thinking about in the morning. For me it’s always been about writing the best books I can, winning over as many readers as I can, entertaining or fascinating or revolting as many fans as I can. I’ve hit the heights with my chidlren’s books, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to take it easy on myself. I’m going to keep on pushing myself to produce adult books every bit as successful as my books for younger readers. If I fail, so be it, I won’t lose any sleep — but I’ll fail knowing I tried. Life is ultimately all about trying. At the end of your days, if you can look back and know that you’ve made a decent stab at chasing all the dreams that you ever had, I think you can pass on happily to whatever lies beyond this realm. But if you get to the end of the line, look back and realize you didn’t push yourself as hard as you could have… if the last thing you think is “I’m really sorry I didn’t make the most of my time here”… Well, who wants to go out like that?!? Dream big, have fun chasing your dreams, don’t be too disappointed if they don’t all come true — that’s Darren Shan’s recipe for a happy, contented life!!!
As well as editing, I’ve been busy answering fan mail over the last few days — another huge pile has built up while I was away. One letter got me fuming yesterday. It was from a teenage girl. She wants to be a writer, and asked me if I had any advice, then said, “but not the obvious stuff like ‘just keep writing’ — that won’t be any use to me.” I replied to her, as I reply to every letter which I receive, but rather more curtly than usual. I basically told her that, actually, ‘just keep writing’ WAS the best advice I could offer, and that if she didn’t pay attention to that advice, all other advice would be wasted on her. I say it her often, I know, but it’s always worth repeating — the secret to becoming a writer is to WRITE!!!! If you do that, and work hard, and push yourself, and learn from your mistakes, and put in the time and effort and sweat and tears that becoming a writer requires… well, if you do all that, the practicalities will take care of themselves. You’ll learn things and find out things and figure out things — publishing is like anything else, there are rules and regulations, and it’s not that difficult to work them out. But the writing has to come first, and it’s all you should be focused on in the beginning. Knuckle down and prove yourself TO yourself before you go looking to win over the rest of the world. If you’re not prepared to do that — if you try to cut out the hard work and just straight into producing a bestseller and getting a publisher before you’ve written a good book — then you’re just pretending to be a writer and you’re only fooling yourself. And as you’ll find if you write me a pouty letter and catch me in a stern mood, Shan has little time for fools…. 
p.s. check out this video about the Daily Mail — it made it chuckle a lot!!! CLICK HERE
It could be YOU!!!
Had a nice, relaxing Saturday. We went to the Milk Market in Limerick in the morning, an outdoors market which sells everything from local produce to second-hand drills!! We enjoyed the food stalls more than the drill stalls — I had a delicious hog roast bap, and bought some pies for later (one for today, one for later in the week — I’m not so much of a glutton that I’d eat two pies in the same day!! although, having said that, I DID once eat two kebabs in the same night — I felt so ashamed!!!!!). I say the documentary, Food Inc, on one of my recent flights. It wasn’t handled as tightly as it could have been, but it certainly opened my eyes to certain aspects of the food industry. I’m not going to change my eating habits completely, but I am going to try to be a bit better when I can, buy locally sourced foods where possible, support local farmers and sellers. On our way out we visited Kenny and my grandparents, then went for a nice walk at home. Later I watched the film 2012 — very noisy and silly, but entertaining enough if you just want to park your brain at the start and enjoy the catastrophes!!!
Tonight I received the following email from Dani in Mexico:
I have to say the one author whose books i can’t stop reading is you. You describe things in a paragraph with little words but enough so you can picture the image perfectly. Not like others who pass 5 chapters describing and by the end of the description you say: How was it again?? and you have to read it all over again. I haven’t met you but i feel i already know you. Red is definately your favorite colour! You are the best author i know and thats saying something! You started my obsession of books. Before reading cirque du freak and demonata i hated books! but then i read the fantastic 12 books of cirque du freak in 2 months!! And the demonata in 2 and a half! You made me love books and this year (even if we are in march only) i have reada total of 25 books. None as good as yours but all good. But my only objection is that the movie they made based on your first 3 books of cirque du freak was terrible!! The only thing that stayed the same was basically the names. I didn’t like that movie but i promise that when i grow up i will be a director and i will make a movie of all the cirque du freak books. They will be the best 12 movies in the planet!! The demonata are going to be hard but i’ll do my best! thankyou for writing those books and opening my eyes to the literature world! You are the best!
Heh heh — I like Dani’s enthusiasm and determination!! The thing is, he COULD one day end up directing a new version of the movie. ANY fan who fancies going down the path of movie directing could. A lot of fans were angry that I had so little to do with the movie. They wanted me to take control, do it my way, write and direct it. But I’m a writer of books, not a maker of movies. Writers don’t control films of their works — we’re little more than curious bystanders, the same as our fans. Films DO get re-made and re-imagined — look at Lord of the Rings. There was a failed attempt to film the series in the 1970s. For a long time it looked like nobody else would ever try again. But then along came Peter Jackson, a fan with a dream, a fan with a vision, a fan who became a director, a fan who worked hard to put HIS version of the books up on screen and do them full, faithful justice. If YOU weren’t overly enamoured with the movie… if you think that YOU could have done a better job… then don’t moan about it!! Knuckle down, work hard, learn to write and direct movies, and who knows, maybe one day YOU will be in a position to handle a multi-million dollar budget film and do your own version the way you think it should have been done.
But you’d better make haste, or Dani will beat you to it!!!!!
Back to work
So, Bas and I flew home on Sunday. We enjoyed our last few days in Dubai. We didn’t do much, just visited Aquaventure every morning, rested from the midday sun, then pottered around in the afternoon, before tucking into a scrumptious meal later on. We stayed at the Atlantis hotel, which was incredibly OTT — it makes the hotels in Las Vegas seem modest!! It was an amazing experience — we had a lovely view looking back over the Palm, which is one of the strangest, most remarkable man-made constructions I’ve ever seen — apparently they levelled a mountain to get the rubble to build it!! The only fly in the ointment was that my legs got sunburnt on the last day, so I had to wear shorts on the flight home! I hate sunburn, and always feel angry at myself when I’m foolish enough not to protect myself properly in the sun — I mean, how difficult can it be to just reapply regularly?!? But I always seem to find a way to catch a few too many rays. At least I didn’t get it on my back and shoulders this time — that’s the worst!!!
Back home, I sorted through my post and emails, got some office work out of the way, and have now started another edit of what will hopefully be my next book for older readers. It’s one that I have high hopes for, assuming I can knock it into shape. I think it’s very close to its finished format — I just have to knock some edges off of it, tighten things up a bit, and I should (fingers crossed!!) be there.
Elsewhere, fervent Shanster Paul Carroll has started a YouTube book club, where viewers are invited to read a book every month and comment on or chat about it. He kicked things off with Skulduggery Pleasant, and is doing Lord Loss next. If you want to check it out, listen to Paul’s reviews and maybe add some of your own, CLICK HERE.
Goodbye, Fr Donnellan
Bas and I are back home now from Dubai. I’d meant to write about our last few days there, but tonight I found out that one of my favourite teachers from the old days of secondary school had died. He was called Fr Donnellan, and he taught me English. He also taught me a lot about football and humility and editing and decency and a while lot of other things. I was asked by the Times Educational Supplement, way back in February 2000, to write an article about my fave teachers, and Fr Donnellan was the main man. Rather than try to come up with anything new to say about him, I’m going to include it here. It’s a piece I’m very glad to have written, especially since Fr Donnellan read it and was delighted — he invited me down to the school for lunch shortly after it was published, and we spent a great few hours together, chatting about the old days, books, writing and lots more. I had no idea at the time that it would be the last time I would ever chat with him. I kept meaning to pop down to see him again over the years, but as we lived so close to one another, I never quite got around to it — “I can always do it next week.” Alas, life being what it is, “next week” became “next month” became “next year” became… never.
Father Donnellan taught English, ran the school sweetshop and played football almost every lunchtime.
Dreamy Dubai
Bas and I returned to Dubai on Wednesday morning for a short holiday. We’ve been having a lovely time, sunbathing, swimming, goofing around in the fabulous Aquaventure water park, and eating lots of good grub. Happy days!!! On St Patrick’s Day we went to the Irish Village, a pub beside a small pond, where they had bands playing outdoors — it was great fun, and packed with people from all sorts of countries. We did quite a bit of dancing and singing — my favourite bit was when one of the bands played “Blister on the Sun” by the Violent Femmes, one of my all-time fave songs!! Google or YouTube it if you’ve never heard it — you’ll be humming it for days to come!!!
Speaking of fave tunes, check out my latest favourite ever band and song on YouTube by clicking on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAsUfWvIiXY I’ve a sneaky suspicion it might be a hoax, as it’s hard to imagine anyone being this deliciously awful if they were being serious — but hey, you never know!!! Whether it’s real or faked, I’ve been singing the chorus to myself all day, so awful or not, it’s certainly effective!!!!
Now I’m off to check out an art fair which is currently going on here, then we’re going to visit a food-tasting fair later on, and maybe catch Gary Rhodes in action!! In Dubai, just about anything can happen…
Much happier in Hong Kong!!
Did a couple of excellent schools events this morning in Hong Kong. Great crowds in a great venue. I also had a nice little room this time, where I could relax beforehand. I think that was one of the problems yesterday — there was nowhere for me to chill before my events. That might not seem like a big thing, but it actually made a big difference. Instead of calming down somewhere nice and secluded before I took to the stage, I had to wander around, steaming. I also did a signing session in Hong Kong International School, which was a nice bonus. Having slept on it, I think I reacted a bit harsher than necessary yesterday — I was very disappointed that the organisers had only booked a room for 70 people for my public event, and I still am, but the school events were top-notch. I think they were just too focused on those, and didn’t realise how important the public events are to me. I love a good mix on tour, of school events and public events. The school events here were better than in many places that I visit (bar the hiccups I had yesterday). If I’d had another public event or a signing session tonight, I could have lived with the small venue yesterday. Ultimately, I just wasn’t worked as hard here as I like to be. I think, in future, I need to be firmer with organisers of events like these in advance, and tell them that I’ll only be truly happy if they work me till I drop!!!!!
Hmmm… It’s been a strange couple of days!! I’m reminded of the opening line of A Tale of Two Cities — “It was the best of times and the worst of times!!” The school events were fab — the public event (while perfectly fine when taken just on its own terms) a letdown, and I let my temper get the better of me and reared up on the organisers, which is VERY rare on tour (in fact, I think it’s only the third time that has ever happened). Not a tour that I’ll forget in a hurry!!! Now we’re off for dinner with Kimmy, one of my Chinese publishers, and then it’s on to the airport and back to Dubai for a little bit of beach time — hurrah!!!!!
Mr Grumpy in Hong Kong!!!
Flew to Hong Kong on Saturday. Had a day off on Sunday. Spent it sightseeing — walked round the Soho area, then caught the ferry over to Kowloon. I’ve been to Hong Kong before, but didn’t get a chance to see a lot of it, so it was nice to wander a bit. Today I started in on my events, and while the events themselves were all enjoyable successes, behind the scenes it’s been a real topsy turvy day!!! First, I wasn’t able to get into my first venue when I arrived — I was left standing outside, twiddling my thumbs. When I finally got in, there was apparently nowhere in the building where I could rest up ahead of my event!!! So I took off in a grumpy mood, went for a walk, then returned and went straight into action. I did two school events, and both were a lot of fun — by the end, all had been forgotten and forgiven.
Then, after a nice break, I was taken to the venue for my public event. Now, when I travel, the public events are always the most important thing on the agenda as far as I’m concerned. School events are a great way to introduce myself to new fans, but public events and signings are my way of rewarding my existing fans, a chance to meet up with them, chat, answer their questions, sign their books. While I’m always looking to bring new Shansters into the fold, taking care of those already on board is my first priority. On this tour, I had hoped to do two public events, to maximise my time here, but the organisers of the festival decided to only do one public event with me. I was disappointed about that, but figured it would be one big event, and hopefully all of my fans in Hong Kong would hear about it and turn up if they could.
Nuh-uh!!!!
The organisers had different plans. They had booked me into a room which held a grand total of 70 people. Yep — seventy!!! Now, I don’t want to blow my own horn, but I’m a pretty big draw in the world of children’s books. Sure, I sometimes still turn up to events and there’s 70 people or less — but it doesn’t happen too often these days. In most cases, I get crowds of 150, 200 or lots more. I like big events — they’re exciting, both for me and the audience — it feels more special for the fans when they’re part of a large crowd. I always like to perform in venues where lots of fans can turn out — if they don’t, so be it, but as long as the capacity is there, I’m happy. Today it wasn’t. I did my usual event, and I think everyone enjoyed it, and it was great to meet some hardcore fans (including one who brought entire sets of ALL my books, in both English and Chinese — over 40 books in total!!!). But I should have been in a much bigger venue. More fans should have been given the chance to meet me. The last time I came to Hong Kong, I met with LOADS of fans, and I thought I would have the chance to do the same this time. When I realised I was to be denied that chance, I lost my cool and got very snappy with the organisers. I didn’t let it affect my performance, but before and after the show, I was raging!!!! It was a pity, especially having travelled so far. I know that I have a large fan base in Hong Kong, and today I was denied the chance of connecting with most of them. Oh well — I guess I’ll just have to come back again sooner rather than later — only this time through a different set of organisers!!!!
Anyway, looking on the positive side, the school events were very enjoyable, and hopefully Tuesday’s will be too. And I’m really enjoying being in Hong Kong — it’s a fab city. And those lucky 70 fans who turned up got treated to a nice, intimate performance. Still, I just feel like… like I’ve turned up to run a marathon, and been stuck in a 3 legged race instead. If that makes sense….
Shanmania hits Dubai!!
Blimey — I wasn’t expecting THAT!!! I had my public event in Dubai this Friday. I was hoping for a good crowd, but you never know when you go to a country for the first time. To my delight, I got pretty much a full house — hurrah!!! I’m not sure of the exact numbers — one person said about 300, but it looked like a lot more than that from where I was standing… And it certainly FELT like a lot more afterwards — I was signing for almost 5 hours in total!!! There was a bit of chaos at the start — the organisers hadn’t anticipated such levels of excitement, and the signing line started out as a bit of a free-for all. Luckily Bas was on hand to help sort it out — she’s been to lots of my events over the years and knew how to help the people there get the line into orderly shape. There were some complaints from parents who only wanted me to sign one book per child, but I just turned a deaf ear to them — I always sign every book that every fan brings to an event or signing, and I couldn’t care less about the moaning of parents!!! I see it as sweet revenge for all the many hours they make their children wait around when they’re shopping for clothes!!!!! In the end, the vast majority of fans were happy to wait patiently, and I made as much time for each of them as I could, answering questions while signing, posing for photos, etc. I had a real blast and by the happy faces of those staggering away after their long hours of signing, I think the fans did too!!! Travel snags aside, Dubai has been a riproaring success. Now on to Hong Kong — the show never slows!!!!!
In other news, I’m delighted to see that the two teen stars of Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, Josh Hutcherson and Chris Massoglia, have both been nominated for Best Actor Of The Year award on the KidsPickFlicks site, an award voted for entirely by children. To learn more about it, and to cast your own vote, CLICK HERE.
A quick one from Dubai
Made it to Dubai safely on Tuesday, though it was touch and go for a while — I was supposed to be picked up, to be driven to the airport, but the car never arrived and another had to be called — I only just made it in time!!! Once on the plane, though, it was all smoothness and comfort — the delights of business class travel!! Extrfa delightful when someone else is footing the bill!!!!! After settling into our hotel, we attended the opening ceremony for the Dubai literary festival. Then I went to do an interview. In the evening we were taken on a walking tour of Old Dubai with lots of other authors. I had great fun chatting with the likes of Garth Nix, Jacqueline Wilson, Roger McGough, Joe Abercrombie and Korky Paul. Today I did my first event, a schools event for 1000 kids — yep, that’s not a typo — a thousand!!! Again, it was almost a tragedy at the start, when my car dropped me in the wrong place — a park instead of the cultural centre where all the kids were!!!! Luckily we were able to get to the proper venue in time and the event went swimmingly. I signed as swiftly as I could for an hour and a half afterwards. My apologies to anyone who was taken away by their school before they could come to have their books signed — that’s always a problem with large groups of mixed schools. But if you can make it to my public event on Friday, be assured that I’ll stay and sign for as long as fans are standing in line — if you have the patience to wait, so do I!!! Right now I’m off to see Alexander McCall Smith, then we’re going to the cinema later to catch Shutter Island — this feels almost too much like a holiday to class as work!!!!!!!! 🙂
48
Bas and I flew over to Newquay on Friday, then drove down to St Ives, in order to go to a wedding on Saturday in a remote but lovely little spot called Prussia Cove. It was my first time in St Ives. It’s a sweet place. We visited the Tate Gallery while there, which was hosting an interesting exhibition by an artist called Dexter Dalwood – I wasn’t sure I liked him at first, but his work grew on me more as I wandered round. Then we went to see the Barbara Hepworth sculpture garden, which was very impressive — a small space, but beautiful works carefully arranged. After that (and a Cornish pasty, of course!!) we went to the wedding, which was also lovely and sweet. Sarah and Hugo (the happy couple) had put their own unique stamp on things, such as displaying hundreds of bunches of spring flowers in jam jars and tin cans!! Many weddings feel artificial and forced, people slotting in with what they think is expected of them, but this one showed what can be done with a bit of imagination and thought.
Back to London on Sunday. I spent most of the night signing copies of City of the Snakes for family and friends and packing and addressing them. This morning I filmed some pieces for HarperCollins, including an interview and me reading an extract of The Thin Executioner. (I’ll let you know more about them when they go online.) Then we went to see Alice in Wonderland at the IMAX. Meh!! I’ve got to say, I’m not an Alice fan. I’ve never seen the attraction of the original books — sure, they’re weird and wacky, but they never appealed to me as stories or set my imagination firing. I’m well aware that I’m in the minority on that one, but to me the books are a prime example of The Emperor’s New Clothes — because they’re enshrined as precious, majestic children’s books, you’re not supposed to say anything bad about them, and people tut if you do. But I don’t care about that!!! A person’s opinion means nothing if it’s not from the heart. This is a world where we’re free to enjoy or dislike whatever we like. We shouldn’t let the mood of the majority sway us. I’m sure everyone has a particular “classic” book or movie which they secretly despise and don’t see any worth in. Well, I don’t think it should be a secret — there’s nothing wrong with saying you don’t like a particular books, movie or anything else, regardless of what everyone else might say. Your opinion is your own — if you don’t cherish and value it, you’ll simply become a mouthpiece for other people’s thoughts. I never liked Alice, and while this new version came at it from an interesting angle, and looked fabulous, the direness of the orginal story dragged it down and sank it. I wish the Queen of Hearts HAD chopped off Alice’s head!!!!!
In between the filming and film, I went through several issues of The Bookseller which had been delivered for me while I’d been away. In one, I found a list of the 50 bestselling authors in the UK in 2009, and was surprised and delighted to spot that I was on it!!! I was at number 48, which might not seem particularly high, but lists like these are nigh on impossible to get onto — it’s a list of EVERY bestselling author, so you’re not just competing with other children’s authors, but with writers of adult fiction, biographies, cookbooks, etc. I think it’s the first time I’ve made the top 50 list in the UK (I was at #60 in 2008) so I was tickled pink!!! The future is bright — the future is bloody!!!!!
I head off to Dubai in the morning. I’m all packed (pretty much) and have plenty of extracts to read out, including one from The Thin Executioner which I will be reading out live for the first time anywhere. I’m looking forward to meeting lots of new fans in Dubai, before jetting on to Hong Kong to hopefully meet some old friends in among the crowds of newcomers. All are equally welcome in my eyes, so if you live in Dubai or Hong Kong, make sure you check out my touring info in the Shanville Monthly and I’ll see you SOON!!!!
Darren Shan's Blog 