Saw "Seed of Chucky" today. It really tickled my funny bone!! I didn't like the original "Child's Play" movie when I saw it in the 1980s, and can't reall bothering with the first couple of sequels. But I checked out "Bride of Chucky" when it was made and was very impressed. I didn't have high expectations for "Seed", but it surprised me big time! I think Jennifer Tilly made it -- she played herself (as well as the female doll) to perfection. I certainly wouldn't recommend it for little kids, but for those who like their horror edgy and smutty, it's great fun!!!!

One of my strongest supporters in the States in recent times has been Crowgrrl. She publishes a web site which is mostly about music, but also includes book reviews (and a lot of other stuff). She read "Cirque Du Freak" earlier their year and has been plugging my books enthusiastically ever since! In the most recent issue she's included details about my Edinburgh appearance next month. You can check it out by clicking here: http://www.crowgrrl.com/reviews/072405perch.htm

Edited more of book 5 of "The Demonata" today. (I started to edit it before the weekend.) I always like to start a book at least 2 or 3 years ahead of when it's due to be published. That gives me loads of time to play around with it and run it through 5 or 6 edits. I wrote the first draft of book 5 in January 2004, and this is the third edit I've done on it. I'm happy with how it's currently standing -- nice and tight, with plenty of action. (Though not an over-abundance of demons -- I'm saving them for book 6!) I usually iron out any serious problems in my first edit, and after that it's just a case of fine-tuning, trying to tighten scenes up and make everything work as smoothly as possible. But sometimes, when my editor at HarperCollins looks through it, she points out flaws which I hadn't noticed, and I'm forced to go back and have a re-think. So while everything about book 5 looks fine and rosy to me right now, I'm sure I'll be hacking hard at it next year when Stella (my editor) gets hers hands on it!!!!

I have a working title for the book (which I'm not revealing!) but I don't know if I'll stick with it. I'm finding the titles on "The Demonata" a bit tricky. It was easy with the "Saga" -- snappy titles came to me nice and quickly. Apart from "Lord Loss", that hasn't happened with this series, and I've gone through a number of titles on each book!!!!! I'm still not 100% sure what I'll call book 3!!!!

Covered quite a few different bits and pieces on the book and movie front today. I'm reading "Dreamcatcher" by Stephen King at the moment. I like it, but I'm making slow progress, which isn't unusual for me these days, sadly. I used to read 2 or 3 books a week when I was a teen, but nowadays I'm a much slower reader, spending far too much time watching movies and messing about on the web! I actually do most of my reading when I'm travelling, on planes, trains, etc.

Saw a silent movie from 1917 called "The Merry Jail". Not an especially good film, but I always enjoy watching old silent flicks. I like the fact that the people making these movies were discovering and inventing cinema. For instance in this film, the actors ham it up quite dreadfully, and often stare straight into the camera lens when speaking. This wouldn't have happened a few years later -- the makers had learned by then that overly dramatic theatrics look ridiculous on film (as opposed to theatre, where they can work better), and that audiences prefer it when the actors don't stare directly into the lens, but act as if the camera isn't there, making it more believable. But back in 1917 they didn't know all that, so even though the flaws detract from the film's effectiveness, they make it an interesting one to watch, especially if you're a geeky filmaholic like me who wastes a lot of his time charting the history and development of cinema!!!

Also saw a documentary about Bill Hicks. My brother gave me a Hicks compilation DVD for my birthday, with 3 of his live performances and the documentary. Good, angry, sharp stuff. I wish Hicks was alive and going strong today -- it'd be great to get his views on Bush the younger, Blair, and everything that's kicking off in London, Egypt, etc.

Then, to round the night off, I watched "Shane" again. It's a bit of a creaky movie, but definitely a classic. Beautiful landscape, brilliantly photographed. My favourite bit is probably the play of light from the clouds when Jack Palance makes his first kill -- an amazing bit of camera play. When I haven't seen the movie in a while, and sit down to watch it again, I always think that the kid (Brandon de Wilde) chants "Come back, Shane!" over and over at the finish -- and am always surprised to discover that in fact he only calls it out once!!!!

Stunned and disgusted when I heard about the savage bomb attacks at Sharm El Sheikh. I've been to Sharm El Sheikh-- Sinai was actually the first place I went on holiday, in late 1999, when I could afford a holiday!! I loved it over there -- climbing nearby Mount Moses, and watching the sun rise, is one of my fondest memories of all my trips abroad. I also loved the scenery, the stunning coral reef, the layout of the town. And the people were all incredibly friendly. Only heartless, deluded agents of evil could attack such a place of peace and goodwill. There is no honour in slaughtering innocents, and no cause in the world can justify it.

I always listen to CDs while I write -- I like having music in the background. I tend to listen to several albums at the same time, for a number of weeks, then replace them with a new set. Here's what I have on my jukebox (I have a real jukebox in my office -- very cool!) at the moment.

Jinx Lennon - "Live at the Spirit Store". Jinx is an Irish balladeer, a bit like Bob Dylan in his early days, in that he sings by himself, playing a guitar or keyboard. Sharp, satirical songs, about life in Ireland, politics, football, race, etc. This was his first album, recorded live. (His second,a studio album, is better.) There are too many songs on it, and the quality of the music is limited, but there are a few standout tracks -- "Lookout posts of Forkhill" is my fave -- and it's pretty good overall. You can find out more about Jinx by clicking here: http://www.jinxlennon.com/home.htm

I spent part of yesterday, Saturday July 23rd, working on the proofs for the American edition of "Lord of the Shadows". Each of my books gets "Americanized" when it's published in the States. e.g. "Mum" gets changed to "Mom", metres get changed to yards or feet, etc. Because my books aren't set anywhere specific in the world, I don't mind when my editors make minor changes -- it allows readers in different countries to read the books as "home" books, i.e. as if they were set in their country.

Usually it's a straightforward process. I look through the changes my American editor has suggested, OK most of them, reject a few if I feel they're TOO different. But with book "L.O.T.S." I had to do a bit more work than normal. An important chunk of the book focuses on a big soccer match, which has generated lots of interest in the town where the story is set. In the UK version, the match was a cup semi-final. That worked fine in most countries, because most countries have professional, high-profile soccer leagues, and cup semi-finals do create a lot of excitement.

The problem with the American version was, there isn't a major soccer league in the States, and no soccer cup semi-final could generate anywhere near the degree of interest which I'd written about in the book. My editor suggested changing soccer to American Football, but I didn't think that would work. So I made the game an important World Cup qualifier instead, and made a few tweaks to explain why the people in the town were so excited about it.

I often get asked if it feels strange not to be working on my vampire series any more, after spending so many years writing about the creatures of the night. The fact is, as you can see from the above, I'm still working on it!!!!

I've been thinking for quite a long time about starting up a blog (that's short for "web log", for those of you unfamiliar with the term), but I assumed it would be tricky to get started, and would take a lot of time and effort, so I procrastinated. Today I decided to look into the matter, did a Google search, and lo and behold, discovered it was as easy as pie to get started! So here I go!!!!

While I'll still be posting the Shanville Monthly each month, with all the Darren Shan news, I thought it would be fun for readers to keep up with me on a day-by-day basis. So this will be a sort of diary. I'll chat about what I'm working on, what I've been watching or listening to, what I've been reading, what I've been thinking about, etc. My plans are to post as regularly as possible -- ideally at least once a day -- although of course that depends on work commitments and what sort of interest the blog raises! Anyone who's interested can either access my blog by adding it to their favourites, or through a link which I'll add to www.darrenshan.com shortly, or by regstsering on the blog site to receive updates whenever I add a new comment. (I've checked the registering system out, and it's simple to join, and just as simple to opt out of -- you just click on a link if you want to unregister at any time.)

Being new to the Blog world, I'm not sure if I've chosen a decent blog provider in going with www.blogdrive.com I tried out a few different packages, and this was the one that seemed to work best for me. But if any of you know about any problems associated with BlogDrive, or if you have any suggestions for better blog providers, let me know about it via the contact form on my web site. If there's a good reason for me to move, I will. Otherwise I'll forge ahead here!!!