Finished my latest edit of City of the Snakes today.There's another 18 months or so to go before it sees print, but I'm very happy with the shape it's currently in. The last few chapters in particular please me every time I come to them. A good ending can be vital to a reader's final impression of a book. There are few things more disappointing than having a whale of a time with the first four fifths of a book, only for things to fall flat in the final stretch. I'm not saying the ending is the MOST important part of a book -- if the first four fifths are no good, people won't stick around to see how things work out!! But a good finale is like icing on a cake, and it's often what readers will remember best. I think I've pulled off an ending that will satisfy pretty much every reader, especially those who read all three books. That's a dangerous prediction, I know, but I usually have a good idea as a writer how fans are going to respond to particular books and sections of books, and I reckon this one will prove to be a winner ... touch wood!!!!

The ninth volume of the Darren Shan manga was released in Japan today. I think it's the best volume to date -- the artist keeps getting better over the course of the series. I recommend it very highly to all my Japanese fans. And to those in the States and other countries -- please be patient, we'll get there eventually!! In fact, the translation of Cirque Du Freak is on its way to me even as I type. I plan to go through it and tweak it wherever necessary, to give it as authentic a feel as possible, i.e. to try and make sure the tone of the books comes through. So hopefully, when it's all done and dusted, the words will be as slick and carefully thought out as the artwork. I've loved following the Japanese editions, and I can't wait to read the whole thing in English! In a way, I'd like it if I didn't have to get involved in the translation process, because then I could just read it as a fan, like the rest of you. But I just can't resist the temptation to be part of the team responsible for unleashing it on the western part of the world!!! By playing a direct part in the process, I can hopefully give the translation a bit of an extra shine, and ensure that no mistakes are made, so that none of the details get "lost in translation".

It's typical, of course, that all this should be happening in a very tight window of time that I have between the end of my holiday and the start of my tour!! In addition to my edit of City of the Snakes, I have to go through the manga, I had to check the Americanised proofs of Wolf Island a couple of days ago, and I also have to do another edit of Dark Calling!!!! But that's the way things go in writing, as in life in general -- if you've all the time in the world, nobody bothers you; as soon as you're working to a tight timeline, everything comes crashing down on you at the same time!!!!!! But I'm not complaining -- I love challenges like this, where I'm juggling several different pies at the same time, trying to do a good job on them all and not lose track of where I am on each of them. It keeps life interesting!!!!

Oh, and for any of my Japanese fans who want to buy volume 9 of the manga from Amazon (fans in other countries can buy from them too, if you can figure out the system and don't mind paying the high international shipping costs), this is the link: Japan Manga 9 Or you can look it up on my Japanese publisher's site (and check out some of the characters, too!!) by clicking here: http://websunday.net/rensai/set_darren.html