Took things fairly easy over the weekend. I was out quite late on Friday with my friend Paul, and didn't get to bed until about 03.30. As a result I rose late on Saturday. Bas and I went shopping, popped in to see Paul on our way home, and then I spent the afternoon doing various bits and pieces, as well as putting most of the March issue of the Shanville Monthly into place. I thought I'd be able to wrap it up, but I forgot I had to include details of my upcoming UK tour -- always a lengthy job. In the end I had to leave it unfinished, then wrap up work on it on Sunday. Didn't do too much else on Sunday, apart from put some of my office work into order (a big pile of receipts had built up by the side of my keyboard), go for a nice walk in Curraghchase (my local park) and visit my grandparents and parents (it was Mother's Day, so I couldn't NOT visit!!!).

Saw an old Frank Capra film, American Madness, on Saturday. I'm a big Capra fan, and I've seen most of his films, but this one managed to avoid me over the years, because it's quite rare. I finall tracked down a copy from another country and got to see it at last. Not one of his best films, badly dated in a few places, but strong overall, with that trademark Capra feel for the little guy up against the big system. Today I saw a film by another of my favourite directors, Nazarin, by Luis Bunuel. This was one of his Mexican films, made while he was in exile. It's not as polished or memorable as his later, surreal masterpieces, but it was an interesting look at faith and the meanness of the human spirit. I love it that such films are finally available after years of neglect. As a serious cinephile, it always irked me that films by major directors such as Bunuel, Kurosawa or Bergman weren't readily available. Even a lesser Bunuel film is worth seeing, especially when you consider how shelves in DVD stores are spilling over with so many terrible recent films!!! It's great to see less well known films as these two finally make their way onto the market. Even if only a handful of people choose to actually track them down and watch them, at least they CAN be accessed. Hopefully, as internet downloads come into their own over the next decade or so, more material than ever before will be presented to the public, and hardcore movie buffs like myself can at long last claim to have seen EVERY Bunuel film and EVERY Kurosawa film and EVERY ......

I finished going through the page proofs of Death's Shadow today, so work on Book 7 of The Demonata is now officially OVER!!! I began work on the book on March 9th 2005, so it took almost 3 years to the day to bring it to completion, which is about the norm for most of my books. The only one I've ever worked on at a more substantially faster pace was Demon Thief, which I squeezed into the space of about a year -- the reason being, although it was the second in the series, it was the sixth book that I wrote, and its deadline was looming!!!! That was a one-off, the only time I've let myself get in a situation where I've promised a book by a certain date, but haven't actually written it. Most authors do that all the time -- they get paid to write, and promise to deliver the book by a certain date -- but I find life is much less stressful if I do the work first and only accept payment later. I could probably have spent just a year working on Death's Shadow, doing my edits without a long gap between them, and the results would have been much the same (Demon Thief taught me that -- I didn't spend any less time working on it, I just worked on the edits a bit quicker together). But that would have been a full-on, hassle-ridden year. I much prefer to give myself lots of time with a book. It helps that I juggle several around at the same time -- if I was only working on one book at a time, my preferred way of working would be unviable, as it would mean I only released a book every 2 or 3 years, but since I multi-task, it works out perfectly for me.

Anyway, it's done now, and very happy with it I am. While it's not one of my absolute favourites from the series, I'm as pleased with it as I am with any of the others, and it contains some of my favourite scenes and shocks. This is also the book where the main storyline really kicks in, and we starte to see the scale of the odds stacked up against Bec, Grubbs & co. It's going to be ugly and brutal from this point on ...

I also finished work on the D B Shan site today. All the tweaks have been tweaked, and all the fiddly bits have been fiddled with!! It's now 100% live and eagerly awaiting a flood of interested visitors. So please, if you have some free time, do drop by, have a look around, and leave a message or two on the newly created message board, or drop me a line via the contact form on it to let me know what you think. The URL is: http://www.dbshan.co.uk/

Saw a top-notch documentary this evening, about an architect called Louis I Kahn, who was one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. It was made by his son, and is a quest in which he sets out to find out more about the father he only barely knew. I've always been fascinated by architecture, and this does the superb job of both highlighting the work of a genius, and exploring the private life of the very flawed man behind the vision. Highly recommended if you can track down a copy. It's called simply My Architect.

The D B Shan site is almost all done and dusted! I've been busy fine-tuning it all day, in collaboration with my designer Liam, and it's about 95% ready to go. There are still a few things to kick about -- I haven't fiddled about with the messageboard yet, the Subscribe link isn't working at the moment, and there are a few other tweaks we need to make. But for the most part it's up and running. I'll be publicising it more widely on Friday evening or Saturday, when I post the March issue of the Shanville Monthly, but if you want to be one of the first to have a look, then click on the following link: http://www.dbshan.co.uk/

I had hoped to use the dbshan.com URL, but somebody else had already registered it!!! They did it quite a while ago, so it wasn't a case of identity theft, just unfortunate coincidence. We've been trying to obtain the right to use it for the last several months, but no joy so far!! Feel free to look around all of the site and comment on it, although as I said, we're still fine-tuning, so don't panic if you encounter some anomalies along the way. And if you've any ideas for improving it, do please let me know -- I always like to get feedback, and sometimes I do act on it -- I set up a messageboard and my MySpace account in response to requests by Shansters!!!

Apart from working on the D B Shan site, I always started editing the page proofs of Death's Shadow, Book 7 of The Demonata. I started work on the book 3 years ago, and now here I am, working on the very final draft. I'm very pleased with the work I've put into this one -- I've changed virtually nothing, and I'm halfway through the proofs. I normally make a few small last-minute changes at the proofs stage, but not this time!! (For those who don't know, "proofs" are copies of how the book is going to look when it's bound and published. Until now, I've been working from a Word document -- this is the first time I've seen the text laid out the way it will appear when it hits the shops in May.) Tomorrow or Saturday, I'll do my final piece of editing on Death's Shadow and it will be behind me forever after that. Am I sad at that prospect, sorry to be leaving it behind, nostalgic for the three years I've put into it? Nope!!!! I never sit still and mope about a book. Once it's finished, I'm done with it -- I look forward to the next book, and all the books after that. A lot of writers take time out when they finish a book, go travelling for 6 months or a year, or just hang out at home and watch lots of TV or read lots of books. But I don't believe in time off. I always like to be beavering away on one book or another, looking to the future, planning my next story, moving forwards, always moving on.

Saw the movie Michael Clayton this afternoon. I thought it was very stylish. What most intrigued me was how complicated and sophistcated it seemed -- it was quite difficult to follow in the early stages, and you had to concentrate to keep abreast of the story development. In fact it was a very simple story about corporate greed and the clinical way big companies deal with nuisances. There was nothing new in the story per se -- similar tales have been filmed countless times over the year -- but it was presented in a different fashion, and that made it seem like there was more going on. It's often said that there are no new stories, that mankind has exhausted the well of originality. I'm not sure if I entirely agree with that, but even if it's true, a film like this shows that no matter how well-worn a particular type of story might be, there's always the possibility of coming at it from a different angle and making it seem fresh again. That's really what story-telling's truly about -- finding a unique way to tell a story that everyone already knows.

The D B Shan web site is almost ready to go. I added a lot of material today, and worked with my designer to tweak the look and structure, and now it's just about done. It will probably seem very slim compared to the Darren Shan site, but those who were around when I launched that site 8 or so years ago will remember THAT was even slimmer when it first hit the web!!! It takes time to build up a web site as comprehensive as my DS site, and it depends on the number of books published, the popularity, etc. I suspect the D B site will never come near the size of my DS site, since there probably won't be as much fan art and the like, but only time will tell. At the moment I'm happy with how it's shaping up, and I'll add to it as and when things develop. It will also have its own message board, and although it won't have a monthly news letter, you'll be able to sign up to be notified by email whenever I post a news item.

Saw a couple of documentaries by Werner Herzog (of Grizzly Man fame) over the last few days. One was called Little Dieter Needs To Fly, and was about a German guy who emigrated to the States and went to Vietnam as part of the air force in the 1960s -- he was shot down, captured and tortured, then escaped and made his way to freedom. He was as tough as any vampire I ever wrote about!!! The other was called Wings Of Hope, and was about a woman who, at the age of 17, was the only survivor out of 92 passengers when her plane crashed in Peru. She wandered for 12 days before being rescued. It was jaw-dropping stuff -- it just goes to show how reality will always be stranger and more unbelievable then fiction. I mean, if I wrote a scene where a woman falls 2 miles out of the sky in her seat and walks away with only a few bruises, people would scoff. Yet that's exactly what this lady did.

Spent most of the day working on my D B Shan site, which is due to go live within the next few days. Although it's going to be a lot smaller than my Darren Shan site (at least to begin with), there's quite a bit of material to add, including a prologue I wrote for the book but never used, reviews, interviews, notes for Procession of the Dead (the longest set of notes I've yet to write for a book!!!), and more. Also, I'm using a different programme to set up this site, so I've had to adjust to that as well. I'd hoped to do all this a bit earlier in the month, but my travels over the last couple of weeks put paid to that plan, so now I have to force the pace to make sure I get the site up and running by the end of the month -- it's a good job I thrive under pressure!!!!

I'll let you all know once the site is up and running. This blog is going to be the sole crosspoint for the two sites. I'll be keeping them as separate as possible once the D B Shan site is live, but they'll both have a link to this blog (although the D B site will only link to my Blogdrive blog). This will be the place where fans young and old, of my adult books or children's books, can come to find out what I'm up to in my day-to-day life. So if any of you were worried that this blog might be affected by my upcoming venture into the world of adult's books, you needn't be -- it'll be business as usual as far as I'm concerned, regardless of what name people know me by!!!

Had a brilliant day at football (soccer) yesterday. My team, Tottenham Hotspur (nickname Spurs) were playing Chelsea in the Carling League Cup Final at Wembley. We were strong underdogs -- following a massive cash investment by a Russian billionaire a few years ago, Chelsea have become one of the biggest and best teams in England. Player-per-player they cost a lot more than our squad, and are technically superior in most positions. But Spurs got a new manager four months ago and we've looked a different team since then. Still, only the most optimistic fan would have fancied us to win -- we had a mountain to climb, and we all knew it.

I got a hummer (a large limousine) to Wembley with a group of friends. We sang all the way there -- partly, I think, because we thought we'd probably lose, and this might be our only chance to celebrate. It was my first visit to Wembley and it's a very impressive stadium (albeit one that's poorly served by public transport links). Spurs started strongly, and with far more of our fans than Chelsea fans in the stadium, the atmosphere was great. But then Chelsea scored from a free kick and we went in a goal down at half time. Chelsea are especially strong in defense and almost never lose a game once they take the lead. A hard job just got a hell of a lot harder.

But we kept plugging away all through the second half and finally we got a reward -- one of their players handled in the box and we were awarded a penalty. Robbie Keane (my personal favourite player of the last 6 or 7 years) used to be our regualr penalty taker, but following two misses earlier this season, our other forward, Dimitar Berbatov, took over. He stepped forward and, cool as a cucumber, buried the ball in the back of the net. 1-1. YEEESSSSSSS!!!!!

We should have won the game in normal time (i.e. 90 minutes) but missed a golden opportunity when one of our players was one-on-one with their goalkeeper. It ended 1-1, which meant extra time -- half an hour more, and if it was level at the end of that, the match would go to penalties. We started brightly in extra time, and within a few minutes we scored again and took the lead!!! It was a magical moment, but also agonising -- we now had the lead, and the Cup was ours to lose. There's no love lost between Chelsea and Spurs, and we knew that if they got an equaliser and went on to win, their fans would rub our noses in our failure to hold onto the lead. But we were brave and strong, and matched them in every corner of the field ... and then the whistle blew and we had WON!!! The Cup was ours for the first time since 1999 -- HURRAHHHHHH!!!!!!

It's hard to describe how elated I was. When I was a boy, Spurs were a very successful team -- we won two FA Cups and the UEFA Cup in a four year spell, and were always challenging near the top of the league. But the last 16 or 17 years have been hard. A succession of poor managers and players left us floundering in mid-table most seasons, and apart from another League Cup win in 1999, we hadn't won anything since the FA Cup in 1991. Nine years is a long time to go without any silverware, especially when you're grown up accustomed to at least a level of success. We danced and sang with delight, and I don't think a single Spurs fan left the ground before the team walked off with the Cup. It was a magical experience, and hopefully the start of bigger, better things for the team.

Sorry to go on so much about football, but as long-time readers of this blog know, it plays a big part in my life, and this was my biggest day as a football fan in 9 years, so you'll just have to allow me a ramble on this occasion!!

But the good news doesn't stop there -- my phone rang this morning, and it was my Japanese friend, Maiko, to tell me she's getting married in June. That put an even bigger smile on my face!!! Many congratulations, Maiko, if you're reading this, and I hope your Big Day proves even more of a success for you than my day out at Wembley!!!!!!!

I saw several films on my flights to and from Las Vegas, and a couple more today, so here we go with a quick summary of what I've been watching recently.

30 Days of Night -- great idea, some good moments, but overall a big disappointment. I love a good vampire flick, especially one that adds something new to the genre. This one promised a lot, and came at its story from a fresh, energetic angle -- but it fell apart plotwise very swiftly. Any good movie, no matter how far-fetched it might be, needs to be credible. All vampire movies are, if you boil them down to basics, ridiculous and unbvelievable. But the good ones make you suspend disbelief -- they tempt you to believe, even if just for a while, that the story could actually happen. I wasn't able to do that with this film -- the plot just didn't hold together. A pity, as I really feel this could have been something special.

The Heartbreak Kid -- the latest from the Farrelly Brothers. An exercise in extreme poor taste - a guy marries in haste, regrets it and tries to cheat on his new wife during his honeymoon - but surprisingly much funnier than I thought it would be. This actually had me laughing out loud a few times on the plane, and very few films ever do that!!!! Runs out of steam towards the end, but when it's good, it's very good.

Talk To Me -- a biopic about Petey Greene, an ex-con who became a radio talk star in the 1960s and 70s. Brilliantly acted, and interesting up to a point, but ultimately it didn't go anywhere far. Not a bad movie, but one that, given the talent involved, could have been a whole lot better.

You Kill Me -- a pitch-black comedy about an assassin with a drink problem. When his gang send him away to recover, he ends up going to AA meetings and falling in love -- but nothing is straightforward or predictable about this little baby! A smart, lively, funny, exciting movie, reminiscent of the Coen Brothers at their best. I wish I hadn't watched this on a plane -- it deserves a much bigger screen and one's complete attention. A winner!!!

Cloverfield -- went to see this at the cinema today. I had high expectations, given all the good reviews it received, but I left feeling somewhat disappointed. Yes, it was clever to film it from the point of view of the main characters, as if all captured by an amateur with a video recorder. But I felt that made it hard to get to know the characters, or to make the most of the tension. There were some very effective scenes, yes, and it grew on me as it progressed, but overall I only felt it was a so-so monster movie, nothing more or less.

Rambo IV -- I have to confess I'm a big fan of the first two Rambo films. Being a teenage boy in the 1980s, I loved action movies, and Rambo was right up there with the best Schwarzenegger or Bruce Willis flicks. The third one sucked (and seems especially embarrassing these days, considering the fact that they represented the Taliban as heroes!!!), but I still go back and watch the first two every so often. I thought this one would suck like the third, but it actually plays far better than I expected. It's the bloodiest of the series by a long shot, and I'm not absolutely certain what to think of that -- it goes much further than the other films, and we get to see people's guts spll around the place, women are raped just off-screen, heads explode with alarming realism. As a teenager, I think I would have loved it. As a man of 35, I'm not sure that's what we should be putting forward as entertainment. Then again, war IS hell, and maybe it's better to show it in all its disgusting, gory brutishness, rather than have people die cleanly. It was easy to cheer when the bad guys got killed in the 1980s films -- but less easy this time round. Maybe war films need to rub people's noses in blood and hurt and pain -- otherwise they risk making it look like a big, safe adventure. Hmmm ... I didn't expect to come out of a Rambo film questioning myself this way, but that's one of the things I enjoyed about it. It doesn't just give viewers a thrill -- it makes them flinch, and even think, and that's always a good thing in my view.

By the way, I've rated quite a lot of films on IMDB (though nowhere near all the films I've ever seen), and commented on a few too. You can check out my ratings by clicking on this link: IMDB ratings and if you want to read my reviews, click here: IMDB REVIEWS

And there you have it! I've had a quiet couple of days apart from the films today. Some of Bas's friends have come to stay with us for the weekend, and I went out for dinner and few drinks with them last night -- I might meet up with them later tonight for a drink or two as well. Bas and I popped in to the British Museum last night to see an exhibition of the famous Chinese Teracotta Warriors -- they're amazing, but the show was packed out, even at 10.30 at night, so I found it hard to really enjoy. A pity they couldn't have staged it in a bigger venue ...

Right, I'm off to prepare for the Carling Cup final tomorrow. It's Tottenham's biggest game in years, and the first final at Wembley that I've ever attended. I'm looking forward to it, even though I'm not too confident of winning -- Chelsea are on paper a far stronger team than us, and they've a great track record against us. But it's a final, it's a one-off game, we've been playing well recently, so who knows?!? Come on you Spuuuuurrrrrssssssssss!!!!!!!

I'm back from Las Vegas. We enjoyed the last couple of days as much as the first two. Visited some more hotels. Rode the roller coaster in New York New York. Ate more tasty meals. Went to the Playboy Club in the Palms hotel!!! Hey -- it was Bas's idea, not mine -- honestly!!!! She loves the show, Girls of the Playboy Mansion, and was hellbent on seeing a Playboy in the flesh! And ... well ... who was I to argue?!? I did some more gambling on our last morning, and hit a nice little run -- I more than doubled my original stake after an hour or so on the blackjack tables. I think I might have won even more, but it was time to leave, so I had to quit while I was ahead -- which is probably the ideal way to leave a city like Vegas ...

Flaw back to London overnight. Managed to grab a few hours of sleep, so I didn't feel too rough when I got back to our flat. Checked emails, unpacked, went for a walk, then had dinner with Bas and my friend, Dave English (I named a character after him in Demon Thief). Dave and I then went to see Spurs playing Slavia Prague in the second leg of the UEFA match that I went to Prague to see last Thursday. Again, we scored an early goal, but again we stuttered in the second half. We drew 1-1 in the end, and went through to the next round, but it was nervous stuff. Next up -- the Carling Cup Final against Chelsea on Sunday. If we win that, I'll be over the moon. If we lose ... well, you probably won't hear from me for a few days afterwards!!!!

Having a great time in Las Vegas, although the holiday's almost over now -- it was only a short trip. Bas and I have visited lots of casinos, done a small bit of gambling (a little bit up on the croupiers at the moment, which is always nice!), ate some nice meals and just generally chilled. We went to the Grand Canyon by helicopter yesterday, which was amazing -- it's an incredible place. I'd like to see some more of it one day, maybe do a trip down it by river, but for the time being I'll happily settle for the small slice we saw. We also went to see O by Cirque Du Soleil, which was mind-boggling. I was VERY tired when I saw it (we rather stupidly booked the late show the night after we arrived!), but I could still appreciate the effort and imagination that had gone into it. I've a personal grudge against Cirque Du Soleil (it's a long story), and for years I avoided all of their productions, but this was genuinely staggering in scale and execution. Went to see a Penn & Teller show too, and that was fab as well, though in a different way.

This is my third time in Las Vegas and I still haven't grown bored of the place -- there's so much to see and do!! It's a dream city, a wonderful place to come and get away from the real world for a while. But, having said that, it's a fast-moving city and I'm also quite looking forward to getting home and settling back into my normal routine next week.

One final note -- the Cirque Du Freak film started filming today!!! After 8 years of waiting, it's finally on its way!!! I'd like to wish good luck to all the cast and crew. I hope they have as much fun working with the CDF as I did for seven years, and that they manage to ceate something as deliciously twisted as the books I was so freakily fortunate to come up with. May the luck of the vampires be with you, guys!!!!

I've heard all sorts of tales over the years, of how readers have discovered my books. But today I got an email from a mother called Talia, which was a first for me!

As a mother, I want to say thank-you. My son started reading your books when he was due to audition for the role of Darren for the film and wanted to get an idea of the character. He auditioned in the middle of August and by Christmas, he had all 12 books read. He has just started the Demonata series. Kodie, 13, was never much of a reader until he started reading Cirque Du Freak and now he is reading your books all the time. He hates to put them down. He has also told many of his friends about the series and now the school library can't keep them on the shelves. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope you continue to write even after the Demonata series is through.

I'm used to reluctant readers discovering my books when a friend, teacher or librarian suggests they give them a try, but this is the first time to my knowledge that I've hooked a new fan this way!!! What impressed me most was that even after the part went to another actor, Kodie stuck with the books -- I imagine a lot of kids in his position wouldn't have wanted anything to do with Darren Shan after that!!! This reinforces what I was talking about the other day -- films have a way of attracting new readers to a book, regardless of what they might do to the book in the adaptation process. In this case, I've started reaching new readers even before the film has started shooting!!!!! Regardless of where each of you stands on the movie side of the fence (and I understand and respect both views, why some fans are excited and others dreading the prospect), from my position a movie will introduce new readers to the world of my books, and that makes it a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned. Kodie probably never would tried one of my books if I hadn't sold the film rights. There will be others just like him, hopefully lots of others, who will give the books a chance because of the movie. Though I doubt if many will come to the books in quite the same way he did!!! Hmm ... maybe I should get in touch with Universal and suggest they delay the filming so that we can audition another 10,000 kids for roles in the movie ...

I'm off to Prague for a couple of days, to see Tottenham Hotspur play in a European game. I'm also doing one or two interviews while I'm over there, so watch out for my face, Czech fans -- you might catch a glimpse of me over the next week or so!!!!