Finished my cleaning duties by sweeping and vaccuming downstairs. Also ran a duster over the blinds -- oh the excitement!!! I wonder if all writers lead as thrilling and action-packed a life as me?!? Actually, I'm pretty sure most writers are much the same as I am, doing their own chores around the house when they're at home, mowing their lawns, etc. No matter how extraordinary a writer's world might be in their stories, in real life we share the same world as everyone else. We go through the same daily routines as everyone else, preparing meals, taking out the rubbish, brushing our teeth, and so on. Maybe some successful authors go the celebrity route and have household staff to see to their every need, and just lie around doing nothing and being waited on when they aren't working. But I think they're few and far between. To make it as a writer, you need to work hard and be very disciplined, and I think that hard work and discipline helps keep the vast majority of us grounded. I've met a lot of writers over the last 7 or 8 years, and they've virtually all been very polite, nice, normal types of people. Maybe that's why the general media takes such little notice of us -- we're just too ordinary to be of common interest!!! And that's a good thing. Fame is, for the most part, a distraction, and distractions are bad for writers. A dusty floor that needs sweeping -- that will only take a few minutes out of your day, and leave you free to focus on your work. A team of papparazi camped outside your front door -- that's going to seriously affect your writing!!!! Crave not the attention of the mass media, O young and dreamy authors, or you might just get what you wish for -- and live to regret it ...

Saw the film "You, me and Dupree", which was so-so -- easy-going entertainment, but half an hour longer than necessary. I much preferred "Office Space" which I saw yesterday -- I've still been chuckling over bits of that today! Also saw another episode of "House" and I'm off to watch a few more episodes of "Frasier" in a while.

On the reading front, I finished reading "H.I.V.E." by Mark Walden and I can thoroughly recommend it. A neat idea, cleverly executed, with plenty of cool gadgets and a nice smattering of action. Not as tight as it might have been, but I think that's a common flaw of most debut novels. It was certainly the case with me -- I'm sure if I went back and re-edited my first few "Saga" books that I could find lots of ways to sharpen things up. It's amazing the difference a bit of tweaking can do. I'm editing book 10 of "The Demonata" at the moment, and although I'm not making any big changes, I find things to adjust in virtually every paragraph. The more experience you get under your belt, the more ways you find to make your stories flow. It's often tiny things, like not using the same word twice in successive sentences, or not just putting HE SAID or SHE SAID after quotation marks all the time but finding something more expressive, or taking a few words out of a line. Tiny, tiny changes, but over the course of a book they all add up, and they make the difference between a book flowing smoothly and a book moving forwards in fits and starts. You can never over-estimate the importance of the editing process. I only truly began progressing as a writer when I went back and wrote second drafts and edited them. First drafts are a crucial part of the writing process, but there's so much more about the business that you only learn by editing. For those looking for advice, here's a big tip -- the sooner you make the decision to move on to the editing process, the quicker you'll make the leap from being able to write a halfway decent first draft to being able to write a polished, professional, PUBLISHABLE finished book ...

Finished my current edit of book 9 of "The Demonata" this morning, and started editing book 10 in the afternoon. This is my first edit of the tenth book. I wrote the first draft just over a year ago. I always wait a few months before returning to a book once I finish the first draft. I normally wouldn't wait a whole year, but I'd spent a LOT of time working on "The Demonata" before and after working on book 10, and I needed a break from the series. Sometimes you have to give yourself time awat from a project, so that you don't start to feel that it's a drag. The time off worked a treat, and now I'm back firing on full cylinders. I think book 10 stands up pretty damn well for a first draft (at least what I've read so far!). I haven't had to change anything so far, just tweak things a little. I want to end the series on a fast-paced, dramatic, bloody high, and I don't think this savage little baby is going to disappoint too many readers!!!!

Did some more cleaning round my house -- cleaned the upstairs windows and swept the upstairs floors. A bit of sweeping downstairs over the next day or two and my work on this planet will be done. Went for a walk and called in to see my grandparents and parents. My Granny's not too healthy at the moment, which is a worry -- her time in the hospital hasn't really helped. Hopefully she'll pull out of her slump over the next few weeks, but if not ... well, there are plenty of hungry dogs in the neighbourhood hankering after a few fresh bones!!!!! Heh heh -- don't worry, I'm not being nasty!! My Gran has a wicked sense of humour and she loves to joke about death. In many ways, I've modelled Dervish Grady (a character in my "Demonata" books) after her. She doesn't believe in beating around the bush when it comes to things like death. We're all just waiting for death to claim us, so the best we can do is hope that the grim reaper takes his time, and joke about it while we can.

Got up early (08.20, which is early for me!!!) and edited some more of book 9 of "The Demonata" -- I'm into the fun bit of the book now, lots of action, so it's going much quicker. Then a couple of workmen arrived to lay two concrete foundations for statues which I'm having installed later in the month. I helped them out a bit, and while I didn't do any overly strenuous work, it was nice to be doing something outside for a change. It was odd -- one of the guys was saying how he envied me being able to sit inside all day when I'm working, while I envy him being able to work out in the open!!! I guess all of us, no matter what we end up doing in life, will always wish on some sort of a level that we could be doing something else ... the grass is always greener, etc. etc.

Watched two football games in the evening. First I saw England easily beat Israel 3-0. I answered the last of my mountain of fan mail while watching that game -- hurrah!!!! It's great to have finally gotten through it all. But I know Pablo already has another pile lying in wait for me, so I'm not celebrating too much!!! Then I watched Ireland draw 2-2 with Slovakia. A very frustrating game -- we started brightly, went a goal ahead, then let them come back into the match and equalise. We went ahead again in the second half, dominated proceedings, but fell victim to another goal in the last 3 minutes. There's nothing more disheartening in football than letting in a late goal that undoes all the hard work of the rest of the game ...

To unwind after the match, I watched "Snakes on a Plane". Utter rubbish -- as I was expecting -- but easy viewing, with some funny moments. The snakes, though, didn't look real for the most part -- there are some things CGI just can't capture. I'm quite scared of snakes, and always shiver when I see a movie with real snakes, but I didn't get the heebie-jeebies even once while watching this one.

Went to a birthday party this afternoon for my cousin Meara, who was nine. I had to organise games for her and all her friends after they'd eaten -- I have a giant snakes & ladders board, fancy sacks for sack races, and hoppers (inflatable balls). I also have a loud whistle, which is perfect for getting a group of 9 and 10 year old girls to pay attention!!! So that was what I got up to in the eveing. The dual life of Darren Shan -- "purveyor of horror by day, party entertainer by night"!!!!!

Edited more of book 9 earlier. It's going quite slowly because I'm doing so much work on it. Also, I'm taking things a bit easier than normal. It's been a busy year, I'm well ahead of where I hoped to be by this stage, so there's no point killing myself by working too hard!

I also cleaned the insides of most of my downstairs windows today. I get the outsides washed by a cleaning firm, but I do the insides myself ... occasionally!!! It's actually ages since I last cleaned them! But the sun was shining today and for some reason I just decided out of the blue to give them a wipe. I'm not overly interested in house chores as a rule, but once the mood grabs me, I do a pretty good job, even if I do say so myself! Tomorrow I'll try and clean the upstairs windows too -- might as well have a matching set!!!!

Edited more of book 9 of "The Demonata". I've been cutting out a LOT of material, but I'll probably go back through it again when I finish, to trim it even further -- I want to focus on shaving down those exposition-heavy scenes while they're fresh in my thoughts!!! The first rule of writing as far as I'm concerned is "Always keep the story moving." In an ideal world, you should never have to slow down to explain things -- they should unravel along with the action. But occasionally there's no escaping the need to fill readers in, and no easy way to do it. But at least you can look for ways to tighten things up and help readers get through the less action-filled pages as swiftly and comfortably as possible. Book 9's in a much better state than it was last time round, but I'm not entirely happy with it yet -- hopefully another edit will allow me to cut out everything but the absolute essentials in the slower sections, upping the tempo without losing any of the key bits of information which readers will need in order to fully understand the series...

Received a load of books from my agent today, from various countries around the world, but mostly from Canada, where they just published books 5 to 12 in one big batch!! I absolutely LOVE my global collection of Darren Shan books -- it's an amazing experience to be able to look at shelves filled with copies of my books from so many different countries. But, having said that, they ARE becoming a bit of a problem in terms of space -- I'm running out of room for them!!!! I reckon I can get by for another year or so, by creatively stacking the books and using up every last bit of space on my current shelfing system, but in the long run I'm going to have to find new places around my house to store them. The perils of success!!!

Answered more fan mail -- I've only got a few letters left now, although I know Pablo has a load more awaiting my attention. It's a relief to finally be nearing the end -- there were days when I thought I'd never get through them all!!! Had quite a lot of business emails to respond to over the course of the day, which ate up a thick chunk of my time. Managed to squeeze in a walk in the evening, and also trimmed around the edges of my lawn -- oh, the excitement!!! Saw another episode of "House" and the movie "Clerks 2". Not as good as the first, but funnier than I'd expected -- a few sections had me howling out loud!!! Now I'm off to watch some episodes of "Frasier" -- it's always nice to end the night on a mellow sitcom high ...

Today was haircut time again, so after doing some editing in the morning, I watched an episode of "House", then headed in to Figaro's in Limerick, to have my head seen to by Brian, Limerick's best barber! Went browsing in HMV after that and picked up some DVDs, then went grocery shopping. Back home Bas and I watched "My Neighbour Totoro". I hadn't seen it in years. It's a real feel-good film, full of beautiful scenes which make me smile BIG. The story is very slim, and it ends rather abruptly, but this is a film more about mood than plot. HIGHLY recommended!!!

Mowed the lawn after dinner -- we took turns, Bas did half, then I finished off. Next we went for a walk down by the river. Local stone-lover Goldie tagged along as usual, though he was in an odd mood tonight -- the tide was out, and at one point he trekked through a hundred metres or so of mud in pursuit of water he was never realistically going to reach!! Answered some fan mail when I got back, and now I'm heading up for a quick shower (the hairs are starting to itch!), then Bas and I will watch an episode of "Dumped", a new ecologically-themed reality show which we've been watching for the last few nights.

Found the following interesting extract on the Jonathan Carroll blog today, about Japanese collectors.

"Kyoichi Tsuzuki, a Japanese photographer and publisher, has spent nearly a decade taking pictures of luxury-obsessed Japanese in their tiny apartments surrounded by their collections of clothes, ties, scarves, jewelry, handbags, and shoes for the FASHION NEWS, one of Japan's oldest fashion magazines. Tsuzuki calls his subjects "happy victims" because, while they are victims of brand marketing, the items seem to bring them a sort of happiness. There is the Hermes collector, a patent executive who lives in a tiny fourth floor walk up flat. He keeps all of his Hermes shirts, ties, and leather goods in their original boxes and bags, which are stacked up on his tatami floor. He spent about $4000 on a Hermes briefcase that he carries with a Hermes towel wrapped around the handle to avoid damaging the leather with his hand perspiration.
"There is the Buddhist monk who collect Comme des Garcons religiously. Once a month, the monk shed his robes. dons Comme des Garcons avant-garde constructionist clothes, and heads from his temple to Tokyo to pick up a few more pieces. He is so convinced of their miraculous powers that he says his delinquent sister cleaned up her act when she started wearing Comme des Garcons. There's an English teacher at a prep school who started wearing Gianni Versace's flamboyant designs to keep the attention of his students. After ten years, he had one hundred pieces of Versace as well as an impressive Bulgari jewelry collection. He lives in a shoebox apartment with his unemployed girlfriend who spends her days organizing the collection. There's a Tom Ford collector, an Armani man, a McQueen girl, and a Martin Margiela maniac who is so fastidious about his collection that he never cooks at home because he doesn't want the clothes to retain the odors. The only thing in his refrigerator is eyedrops. "When he gets thirsty," Tsuzuki said, "he goes to a convenience shop and drinks there then goes back home. He does not want to put any trash in the room."

from DELUXE by Dana Thomas.

It struck a chord with me because I'm almost exactly like the people described in it (only I have a bigger house in which to store my stuff!!). I LOVE collecting and always have -- I've gone through different phases in my life, such a religious objects, stamps, comics, knives, books, films, original art. I've moved on from and dumped some of the collectibles over the years, but others (comics, books, CDs and films) are still going strong, and I'm sure in years to come I'll find some new crazes to latch onto and devote silly amounts of time and energy to. I know non-collectors find it hard to understand what makes people like us tick, and it's not really something we can explain. The need to HAVE, to OWN, to HAVE ACCESS TO, is just too much to ignore, even when you KNOW it's crazy. For instance, I have a movie collection of over 4000 films -- yes, FOUR THOUSAND!!! Now, I've actually seen virtually all of them, but mostly I saw them on TV or video or at the cinema years ago. I know, even as I add to the collection, replacing videos of films I already own with DVDs or buying DVDs of movies I've seen in cinemas, that I probably won't ever get around to watching them again -- time is limited, and I don't watch as many films as I used to. But knowing that I CAN watch them, any time I wish, if the urge takes me, drives me on to keep buying more. I guess collectors are like dogs who bury bones -- the chances of the dog digging it up again and cleaning it and ignoring the rancid meat and eating it are slim to none -- but, you know, it's a DOG, and that's just what dogs do ... if it left the bone above ground and some other dog ran off with it, the chance of eating it would be gone forever ... and, well, what purpose in the universe has a dog without a bone?????

Returned to editing book 9 of "The Demonata" today, picking up where I finished last week. Lots of exposition in the chapters I went through. I don't like big chunks of books where you're just being told facts, but occasionally, unfortunately, it's unavoidable. Rest assured, I'm doing all I can to make sure it's as smooth and streamlined a read by the time the book finds its way into the hands of fans! I've got about a year and a half to continue working on it, and I plan to cut out everything but the essentials, to move things along as swiftly as possible.

Had lots of other bits and pieces to attend to today, emails that had to be answered, flights that needed to be booked, etc. etc. Managed to squeeze in a nice walk late in the day, watched another episode of "House", and saw the film "Tsotsi", which I was extremely impressed with -- a hard-hitting film, but one which shows that hope and redemption are possibilities for even the lowest and most wretched of people. My kind of film!!!! Also visited my parents and grandparents. A busy little day -- I'm looking forward to the simple, soothing comfort of bed in another hour or so!!!!

Went up to Dublin on Saturday to go to the All Ireland hurling final. For those who don't know, hurling is an Irish sport, the fastest team sport in the world!! If you want to find out more about it, Google it. I met up with my uncle Derek and we went to a few pubs and a nightclub on Saturday. There were loads of Limerick people in the city -- this was the first time in 11 years that Limerick had been in a final, and it had been 34 years since they last won one!! We pretty much took over Dublin for the weekend -- at times it seemed like everyone from Limerick had come to the capital to party!!!!

On Sunday we met up with my cousin, Little John, and some of his family and friends. After a few hours in the city centre, we went out to Croke Park, the GAA stadium. There's a Jurys hotel just outside the ground and we planned to drink there. But when we arrived, it was incredibly crowded, and the general public were being denied access to the hotel -- barriers had been erected in front of the main doors, and lots of people were waiting by them, in the hope of getting in. We decided to move on and try somewhere else, but then Little John found an unguarded side door and moments later we were at the fulcrum of the party!!!! A bit naughty, I know, but sometimes you just have to seize an opportunity when it presents itself!! A Limerick station, 9tFM, was broadcasting live from the hotel, and when my young cousin Shaun told them I was there, they came over and did a quick interview with me!!!! Even on my days off I have to give interviews -- the curse of being a writer!!!!!

Then it was time for the match. The other team, Kilkenny, were strong favourites to win, and while everyone from Limerick hoped for an upset, it was hard to believe it would really happen. Any sense of hope we had disappeared in the first ten minutes, when Kilkenny tore us apart and surged into an uncatchable lead. The game was pretty much over by that stage, and all that remained was to see if Limerick could close the gap to a halfway respectable score, or get absolutely trounced. We fought hard and did claw some points back, and the players' heads didn't drop, so although in the end we were well beaten, at least we left with a bit of pride. Still, it was disappointing to lose, especially in such a fashion, and it definitely put a damper on the rest of the night. But there's no point moping about these things, so most people just got on with things and did their best to enjoy the night, and while I saw plenty of glum faces afterwards, I didn't see anyone crying. Sometimes you just get beaten by someone better than you, and you just have to accept that. There's always another day ...

I had a bit of a sore head this morning, but I didn't feel TOO bad. Got a lift down to Limerick from another of my uncles, Mike. Caught up with my emails, then watched "Return of the Jedi", bringing the "Star Wars" series to a close. While "Jedi" was the weakest of the original three films, I've always enjoyed it, and this occasion was no different. The Ewoks are ridiculous, of course, but I like them regardless!!! All in all it was a pretty good way to wind the series up. Now I'm off to watch a few episodes of "Frasier", then I'll be hitting the sack earlyish for what I'm sure will be a VERY good night's sleep!!!

Worked on the latest issue of the Shanville Monthly for most of today -- it required quite a bit of tinkering with, as it involved both a major competition and a listing for my upcoming October UK tour. You can check it out by clicking here: Shanville Monthly

Saw another episode of "House" and of season 7 of "Frasier", which I began watching last night -- I meant to move on to a different series, and leave "Frasier" for a while, but I couldn't resist!!! I'll be off to watch another couple of edisodes after this!! Also saw "Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back". The fifth episode is definitely the best of the series in my opinion -- everything in it works perfectly. Although it was strange watching Yoda having just seen the first 3 episodes -- while he was digitally created in the new films, he was just a puppet when he first appeared back in 1980, and he looks very stiff and lifeless in his original incarnation now. He's still my favourite character from the series, but it's such a shame they didn't have today's technology back when they were first creating him. Then again, the fact that he IS a puppet is nice in an odd way -- for all the ground-breaking effects and sets, it's wonderful to see an old-style puppet steal the show!!! (p.s. I've actually met one of the women who worked the puppet of Yoda during the filming of "Empire" -- she's a colleague of Bas's. I think she had maybe the coolest job ever doing that!!!!!)

This email came in from a teacher called Terry, in Texas, and it gave me the nicest feeling inside that I've had in quite a while -- the perfect pick-me-up after a summer of nervous hospital visits:

I'm sure you receive many commentaries about your books from teachers and kids. I need to thank you for the Cirque series. I teach in an urban school where many of the students would not dream of picking up a book of their own free will. Many are gang members or reluctant readers. Getting any work out of them is next to impossible. The content is exciting for them and "safe" enough for me as a teacher - I don..'t worry that parents will breathe down my neck because of objectionable material. It is not "dark" for darkness' sake. As a class novel, I present A Living Nightmare; it NEVER fails to capture their interest, hook them into finding out what happens next, AND to pursue the other books to complete the story. Then they actually begin to explore other books and they turn into readers - thanks to your series.Last year, 3 of my students obtained a near perfect score on the state assessment - 2 had not passed it EVER! For me, as well as the other teachers at my school using the series, NOTHING has made so much of a difference in "turning on" my students to reading as the series. For that, as an educator, I thank you. Again, I'm sure you hear this all the time, but I've never read a book that has ever transformed my students like yours has.

I hope you all have a great weekend, gang. I'm off to see the All Ireland hurling final on Sunday -- COME ON, LIMERICK!!!!!!!

Started editing book 9 of "The Demonata" yesterday. This is my third edit of the book, so there's still a long way to go on it. The ninth book is definitely the most challenging of the series. A lot of the higher concepts of the storyline are explained in this one, and the middle section is probably the least action-orientated of any of my books. One of my favourite films is "2001: A Space Odyssey", and this book reflects that!!! I'm working on tightening the middle third up a lot, to make it as painless as possible for those who read my books primarily for the suspense, but I know that no matter how hard I work on it, quite a few of my readers are going to grumble at the relatively slow and concept-heavy stretch. But to sweeten the deal, the last third plays out at a frantic, action-packed, bloodthirsty pace -- I think it will leave everyone frothing at the lips in eager anticipation of the final book in the series!!! The way I look at it, a slow one-third of a single book out of a ten book series isn't going to kill anybody!!!!!

Went out with my friend Kenny last night for a few drinks. Saw the last few episodes of season 6 of "Frasier" -- fantastic stuff!!! I was worried it might start to drag after so many years, but the sixth season was one of the best so far. As always, when I'm watching "Frasier", I feel both regret at not catching it sooner, when it was first on the air -- it galls me to have gone so many years without experiencing the pleasure of such a brilliant show -- but also relief at the fact that, by not watching it until now, I'm able to see it all for the first time, as if it was brand spanking new.

Saw the film "Sunshine" tonight. Didn't like it at all. A major disappointment -- I expect much more from director Danny Boyle. It looked neat, but it just didn't work. It wanted to be a thought-provoking, serious piece of sci-fi -- but it also threw in a big bang or action scene every few minutes, and even dengerated into a ridiculous horror flick towards the end. Parts were good, but the parts didn't fit together, at least not for me. It has its fans but I won't be watching it again. A pity, because I do love a good sci-fi film or book -- many of the ideas in "The Demonata" were inspired by films like "2001" (as mentioned above), writers like Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asmiov and Arthur C Clarke, and by all manner of space-related comics. I've always been fascinated by space the mysteries it holds (or might hold). Looking up into a sky full of stars, I always wonder what's up there, and those wonderings provide me with much fuel for thought. When I see a good sci-fi film, I like it for tapping into my love of the genre. When I see a bad one, I get annoyed, even more annoyed than if I see a bad horror or action flick. I always say in interviews that horror was my first love as a child, and that's true. But maybe science fiction is my TRUE love ...