Edited more of Hell's Horizon today, and did some bits and pieces around the office as well. The storm that's been raging since late Sunday continues to howl around my house, and we lost power for a couple of hours tonight. Luckily I have a few emergency lights strewn around the house, so I sat at my desk and answered quite a lot of fan mail. One of the letters was from a young wannabe writer who, like so many of you, was keen to get some advice from me. I pointed the wannabe to this blog and its array of entries -- there's no short answer to the "Can I have some advice?" question, and one of the things I like to do with this blog is provide some of the many long answers that exist, explaining how I go about my work, how I developed, how I sought a publisher, etc. I'm still planning to gather all the entries together one day and lump them somewhere on my site where people can access them all at the same time. But for the time being you have to sift back through my rather long backlist of entries -- then again, as I often say, the struggle is what makes the victory worthwhile, so maybe I should leave the posts as they are, to separate the REAL wannabes from those who are only playing with the idea of being writers!!!! 

But one of the things I said to this young writer, which I don't think I've said in a lot of my posts here, was "Write for FUN." I think that's really important to stress, especially if you're 10, 11, 12, 13 years old. Most of the would-be writers who read this blog are older, and my posts are usually aimed at those -- I think teachers and parents are better positioned to offer encouragement to younger pen-masters (and at a tender age, encouragement makes far more of a difference than advice). But the advice holds true no matter what your age, or how advanced along the road to being an author you are.

HAVE FUN WHEN YOU WRITE.

You're going to spend a hell of a lot of time by yourself if you choose to become an author. It's lonely, it's anti-social. Your friends and family will probably think you're deluded, and no matter how supportive they might appear, they'll pretty much all harbour doubts. You'll have to write lots of bad stories to learn to write good ones, and there will be times when you're sure you're wasting your time, that it isn't going to work out. Nobody in the publishing industry will care about you, and you'll have to fight hard to stake a place in that very difficult-to-crack world. In short -- it can be a miserable bloody time when you're starting out!! So I think it's vital that you enjoy the actual writing itself. Don't worry about the market or impressing people or how you compare to the published authors whose work you admire. Juts have fun with your imagination and write the sort of stories you'd love to read. Go wherever your mind prompts you. Don't be afraid to experiment. In some ways this will be the most free time of your career -- once you start to publish and build up a base of fans, you have to worry about letting them down if you write a story they won't like, but in the beginning, since nobody is reading your work, you're 100% free to write whatever you like!!!! If you want to write a 500 page book in rhyming couplets, do it! If you want to pepper your story with wild sex scenes or buckets of gore, go ahead!! (But try not to let your parents or teachers see -- most don't understand the more excessively playful reaches of the writer's psyche!!!!!) Write stories about your favourite characters or books or films (just don't try to publish them, for fear you run into legal complications!). Do whatever gives you enjoyment. The publishing and re-writing and editing and fine-tuning will come later, as you develop and grow and learn to focus your vision. In the beginning, just have a blast!!!

Really enjoyed seeing The Feeling in Birmingham on Friday. It was the first night of their latest tour, but you wouldn't have known from the quality of the performance. Even though Bas is much more of a fan than I am, I do like them, even if their second album isn't as good as the first (in my opinion). But they're energetic and enthusiastic, and they take it all in good fun. They even paraded through the crowd as part of their encore -- there aren't many bands around who would dare do that!!!! Only negative of the night was the Birmingham Carling Academy -- I thought it was a shocker of a venue!! It's a good size, with a decent enough stage, but both sides of the stage are blocked off, meaning unless you're able to manoeuvre into the middle of the floor, you have a very limited view of the performers -- there are 5 members in The Feeling, but we could only see 4 of them! It's an incredibly poor piece of design, which is a pity, because it would be a fab venue otherwise.

On Saturday I went to a 40th birthday party for my cousin Davina. I have literally hundreds of cousins (I come from a VERY extended family!), but Davina is one of the ones I'm closest to (her Mum and Dad are Nora and Davey, who I've often mentioned here), so it was a party I was extra pleased to attend. We had a nice few hours in a pub, then a group of us retired to my flat to carry on the party into the wee hours of the morning -- it was about 04.30 when I got to bed!! I've said it here before, but it's worth saying again -- few things in life are as enjoyable as passing away a night in the company of friends and family you care about. Good times!!!!

The good times continued on Sunday, when my team, Tottenham Hotspur, thrashed local rivals West Ham 4-0. Well ... I say rivals, but in truth the rivalry is more on their side than ours. West Ham have always been one of the lesser teams in London, and because they're so far out of touch with the bigger teams (Arsenal and -- in more recent times -- Chelsea), they've focused on Spurs and positioned us in their hearts and minds as the biggest local team they have any chance of out-doing. While we're a long way off the achievements of Arsenal, we're also a LONG way ahead of the likes of West Ham in the footbal food chain, as evidenced by the many trophies we've won over the years (the most recent being just a couple of weeks ago). So it's hard for us to take them as serious rivals -- they're just another club as far as we're concerned, no different to Charlton or Millwall or Watford. But because their fans nurture a rather silly hatred of us, and loudly and publicly mock our failures and envy our victories, it's always nice when we put them in their place on the football pitch and remind them of their rather lowly status in the greater footballing scheme of things. I'm normally on the side of the underdog in most cases, but nobody likes an underdog who whines and yaps at you like a pampered, petulant little puppy!!!!

I flew back home after the game. It wasn't a flight I was looking forward to. The worst storm in years had been forcast for Ireland and the UK, and was due to blow in some time on Sunday night. I thought my flight might be cancelled, but it left on time. Once we were up in the air, the pilot said there might be some rough winds ahead, but that we should be OK. A bit later, he said the wind in Shannon was too rough for a landing, but we'd go into a holding pattern for a while and see if they died down. An hour later, he said it was just about under the accepted levels, so we'd try and set down -- if the wind increased again while we were attempting a landing, he'd abort and we'd divert to Cork. Needless to say, I wasn't too happy about that!!! But I just had to sit and hope for the best, along with the rest of the passengers -- and hope we didn't end up being capsized by an especially strong blast of air!!! In the event, it was quite a smooth landing -- a bit rockier than normal, but nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. Still, I've rarely been more happy getting off a plane!! Oh, for a train link between Limerick and London ...

Spent today doing various bits and pieces around the office. I tried to do some more work on Hell's Horizon after lunch, but we had a series of power cuts -- the power would go off for a handful of seconds each time, but it meant having to reboot my PC on every occasion. In the end I got sick of it and replied to some fan mail instead!!!

I recently wrote an introduction to the classic book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has been re-released by Puffin. They recorded me reading out my introduction, as well as answering questions about the book, and reading out a short extract from it. The intro lasts about 5 minutes, the answers 6 minutes, the extract about 3. I always find it strange listening to myself when I've been recorded speaking -- that voice doesn't sound like the voice inside my head when I'm speaking to myself!!! But if you want to hear me waxing lyrical about one of my favourite books, and failing miserably to mimic an American accent (I'm absolutely RUBBISH at accents!!), then you can download and listen to the Puffin podcast, which you can find by clicking on the following link: http://thepuffinpodcast.typepad.com/

Flew over to London for a brief visit yesterday. Went to see Spurs play their latest UEFA cup game, at home to PSV Eindhoven. We were useless, and lost 1-0. To be honest, we could have lost by more than that! Hard to believe this is the same side that whupped Chelsea just 11 days ago!!! Anyway, we have the second leg away next week. It's still all to play for, but after last night's performance I don't feel too much enthusiasm ...

On a more upbeat note, Bas and I are going to see The Feeling in Birmingham tonight, at the start of their latest tour. They're one of Bas's favourite bands and I quite like them too. We saw them play a short set in front of the London Eye a month or two ago, and that was fun, so we're really looking forward to seeing a full set. Rock on!!!!!

A fan called Ryan Ficken sent the following message to me yesterday:

I myself am an aspiring author; screenwriter to be more specific, but I can write in novel form also. I'm sure you get this a lot, like all writers, but how do you overcome speed bumps like writer's block and getting started. I'm sure there are times when you want to write it all so you can get to the climactic ending, so how do you write the middle? I have a 4-story series in mind, with all kinds of thrilling plot twists and action that would make a great movie, but the ideas flow in faster than words, and I find myself fascinated by the daydreaming of watching the nonexistent film, but when I attempt to write it, I'm at a loss of words. The reasons differ, but I always seem to find something wrong with the scene I'm writing -- whether it's not long enough, not descriptive enough, or it just doesn't feel right. As cocky as it seems, I feel the idea is too grand for words, so how do I fit it into words? This is an ongoing dilemna, as well as deciding what I should do with a different story of mine, specifically how to start the next chapter. Thank you for reading this all; I hope to hear back.

I think most young writers struggle with this -- I know I certainly did. What you have to realise is that vision comes before ability to realise that vision. I've had what I thought were great ideas for books pretty much all my life. Definitely when I was 13, 14, 15, 16, I could picture big scenes, dramatic moments, big fight scenes, death scenes, etc. Like Ryan, it was like I was watching clips from a movie, inside my head. But when I'd try to put a bigger story around those clips and develop them into a novel ... that was a different matter altogether!!!

As I'm constantly saying on this blog, writers need to WRITE. It's not enough to have the vision, to be able to see scenes playing out inside your head. That's a very important starting point, but I'm of the opinion that EVERYONE does that. I think all humans daydream and play out imaginary scenes inside their heads. It's why I always think the question "Where do your ideas come from?" is a pointless question to ask a writer, because it needs to be asked of everyone -- we ALL have ideas for books!!

To do justice to your vision, you have to work hard and write lots. The most sensible way is to focus on short stories, keep writing those for several years, develop your craft that way -- it's what most writers do. But it's not the only way, and it's not what I did. I decided from a very early age (16 or 17) that I preferred the longer format, so I started writing novels. I wasn't equipped to write a good novel at that stage, but I went ahead and wrote book-length stories anyway, and that's how I learned. Over time, and lots of mistakes, I gradually learnt and improved.

Procession of the Dead is a good book to point out. I had the idea for that when I was 21, and that's when I wrote the first draft. It was a far lesser book than the one I've published now, at the age of 35. It was about half the length, not as pacy or twisting, nowhere near as polished. It was half-formed and half-baked. But at least I had SOMETHING. I'd produced a piece of work and, flawed as it was, that gave me something solid to work with, to go back and re-write, and edit, and play around with. You can never tell what a story will play out like until you write the whole thing down. Then, when it's on paper, you can go back and study it, see what's wrong, where it's weak, where it needs fixing ... and you can set to work.

Dreaming won't get a wannabe writer anywhere. Plotting things out in your head won't get you anywhere. Having great ideas and being able to visualise amazing scenes inside your head won't get you anywhere. You. Have. To. Write. Until you sit down and put yourself to the test, you're only a dreamer. Once you actually start writing, you become a writer. Not a good writer or a published writer -- that probably won't come for many years -- but you've set foot on the path and you're working towards your dream. You mustn't be afraid of words and of failing. ALL writers fail at the start. In fact I think writers NEED to fail -- only by seeing what's bad or undeveloped in yourself can you start to address your flaws and work towards your strengths.

In short -- don't sit there dreaming -- get writing!! And if what you produce isn't any good -- write again. And again. And again. And again. And ...

That's what I did and what every writer I've ever spoken to did. Good writing doesn't come from having a neat vision -- it comes from having the determination and guts to work hard to make that vision a reality. Ackoweldge your weaknesses. Work to overcome them. Keep faith in yourself. And you WILL get there. It won't be easy, but nothing worthwhile in life SHOULD be easy. A hard-fought victory is always a lot sweeter than a first-round knockout!!!!

Edited more of Hell's Horizon. It's tightening up nicely. I did most of my major work on it during my last edit, but there are still plenty of lines which can be improved by trimming a word here or altering the structure there. I like my stories to flow, for people to be able to read the paragraphs swiftly and effortlessly, without having to struggle to understand a line. Some writers want their readers to pause, to study the words, to reflect -- their style is all about making readers aware that they're reading. I prefer to immerse my readers, to have them give themselves over to the story, to flow along with it and lose track of time and the world around them, to feel like they're really in the story. I don't think either style is, in and of itself, better than the other, though I know most serious critics prefer the cerebral books -- many frown on books which are "just" entertaining. but personally I prefer books that flow. I've read and enjoyed books that don't -- such as Ulysses by Joyce, or Gunter Grass's novels -- but all things considered, I read books primarily because I love stories. And I make no apologies for that, since I consider story-telling one of the purest and best ways a person can pass their time.

I picked up a lot of fan mail from Paul at the weekend, so once again there's  large stack on my shelf which will take a while to get through. I replied to twenty letters tonight, so I've made a good start. But there are many more still to go. Getting fan mail is one of the best and worst parts of being a writer. Best because it's wonderful to hear from people who've responded to your work the way you always dreamed and hoped people would respond. Worst because you have to reply to them, and when there's a lot of letters, that means a lot of extra work!!! But the best far outweighs the worst for me, and although it does feel like homework at times, I still enjoy reading and replying to letters, and marvelling at the fact that people in Japan, America and Sweden (just three of the countries that cropped up in tonight's batch) are writing to ME!!!!!!

I had a nice conversation this afternoon with one of the people involved with the Cirque Du Freak movie. Shooting's going well, he said -- this week they've been filming a lot of scenes in Darren's house -- and he commented on the fact that the look of the film is great, very stylish. I've been invited to visit the set, if we can find a date that's suitable for all of us. If that happens, I will of course report my visit on this blog as soon as I return -- though if it does happen, it probably won't be for a while yet, so don't hold your breath!!!!

Began another edit of Hell's Horizon, my second D B Shan book, today. This time I'm working from my editor's notes -- she read through my revised draft a month or so ago, made some tweaks, suggested some changes, noted some mistakes, asked some questions. It's always a relief as an author when your editor comes back with ways to make your book better. Sometimes there can be differences of opinion and you have to go your separate ways as soon as you can. (I remember when a temporary editor on The Saga said she didn't like time travel and maybe I should remove mention of it from the books -- given that it was an essential part of the overall plot, and something I'd been working up to for most of the series, I just knew we weren't going to have a long-term working relationship!!!) But good publishing houses have a knack of putting together their authors with the right editors, editors who get the books, who are in tune with the authors, who can see the strengths and weaknesses of the manuscripts and find ways to improve them.

I've been very impressed by Sarah Hodgson, the editor of my D B Shan books, just as I've been very impressed by Stella Paskins, who's been with me all the way on The Demonata. I feel like I'm in sync with them both, and far from being wary of their notes, I actually look forward to hearing from them, because I know that nine times out of ten they'll be spot on with their suggestions or complaints. (And the one time that they're not? Well, again, good editors who have a good relationship with their authors know when to give us the benfit of the doubt. e.g. Stella absolutely HATES the way I use hyphens, but when she saw how much that meant to me, she let me break all the rules and do what I wanted.) I always mention my editor in the credits at the start of my books, because I think they're instrumental in bringing the finished work to life, and deserve the nod. But you can never have too much praise if you're doing a good job, so let's hear a big Hip Hip Hooray for Sarah and Stella -- freaks and grave-robbers of the very highest standards!!!!!!

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.