Happy New Year, everybody!!! I hope you all had a great 2005 and have an even better 2006!!!!!!

I took Bas to see her first live Spurs game today! And she couldn't have come to a better match -- we outclassed Newcastle completely, played one of our best games of the entire year, and won 2-0!!!! She actually missed the first goal - I'd sent her to fetch pies! - but was there for the second. She really enjoyed it -- though I don't think she's going to commit to a season ticket any time soon!!!!

Had a few drinks in my local after the game, with some of the regular gang I go to the footie with. Then a few of us managed to get a cab to Waterloo, where Bas and I went to see "Once in a Lifetime". I wasn't too keen on it. I normally like 1920s-set movie spoofs, be they plays or films, but this was long and a bit flat. Looked good, and was well acted, but it failed to excite me.

We were going to stay and watch the firworks over the London Eye at midnight, but the play ended at 10.00pm and we just couldn't be bothered to stand around for a couple of hours. So we got the tube back to our flat near Brick Lane and are going to enjoy a nice, romantic, intimate end to the year together instead ...

See you all in 2006, my friends!!!!!!!!

Went to see my great-aunt Nora and her hubby Davey (a mad Scot who provided the name for the character of Davey McKay in "Lord Loss") in the morning. They're two of my favourite relations -- they used to cook Saturday breakfast and Sunday lunch for me when I was at university! But I'd love them even if they weren't great chefs!!!! Their daughter, Sharon, by the by, provided the name of the witch in "Demon Thief" (she's married to a Turkish guy called Gokhan Egin); their eldest daughter Davina was mentioned in "The Saga" somewhere, and their son William (nickname Arfur) was in the there too. A clean family sweep!!!! I often include names of people I know -- and sometimes even fans too ...

Went to see a new movie, "Brokeback Mountain", at the Vue West End. It's been hotly tipped to get lots of Oscar nominations. I can certainly see that happening -- it's an "issues" movie, centering on a forbidden love affair between two cowboys, and we all know how Hollywood loves an "issues" flick!!! Fortunately it's a very good film as well, skilfully directed and well acted. A bit slow and long, perhaps, but you grow to care about the main characters and their lives as the film progresses, which is always a rarity in a movie.

Had dinner in an Italin restaurant, Strada, just off Leicester Square, then went to see "History Boys" at the National. We saw it during its first run, with the original cast. I thought it wouldn't be as good with its new cast, but I have to say they did an excellent job. Of course there's no stepping into the shoes of Richard Griffiths and Frances De La Tour, but their replacements did a damn fine job of giving the parts their own spin, and the actors playing the boys were first-rate. For those who don't know about it, it's the story of a northern British school trying to coach eight pupils to get into Oxford and Cambridge. I heard that it's transferring to Broadway in May 2006. It'll be interesting to see how it fares over there. I think it's one of the strongest British plays of recent years, but I'm not sure how Americans will take to it ... But the same measure, "Wicked" is coming to London soon, and I'm not at all convinced that British theatre-goers will flock to it in the same way that fans have in the States ...

"Mystic Shan" -- true theatrical seer or horse's ass?!? Time will tell .......

Disaster!!! Went up to Spitalfields Market to get a Square Pie this morning, only to find them closed for the day, along with the rest of the market!!!! Had to make do with a chicked, bacon and sweetcorn ciabatta -- nice, but no square pie!!! I'm hoping they're back in business on Sunday!!!!!

Went up the West End in the afternoon to see "A Man for All Seasons". Thought about walking up there, but it was VERY cold today, so decided to tube it. Liked the play a lot, though it did run a bit on the long side. The actors were first-rate, especially Martin Shawn in the lead as Sir Thomas More. I've seen quite a bit of Tudor-related material recently -- this, "Mary Stuart", the movie "Elizabeth". It's a really crucial, fascinating period in UK (and Irish) history -- and it's also interesting to see how modern-day parallels can be drawn between that time and our own. e.g. at one point the narrator tells the audience that this is set in the past, and that those were barbaric times where a person could be arrested without charge, held indefinitely, and tortured while imprsioned -- nothing like our own enlightened times, eh, Mr Bush and Puppy Blair?!?!?

Over to the Southbank next. We had a couple of spare tickets for the next play we were going to. Managed to sell them on the doorstep of the Cottesloe Theatre (part of the National Theatre) to somebody who was waiting to buy returns. Went for dinner in Giraffe, a new restaurant very close to the National. We'd been there before and liked it, and it was equally impressive tonight -- despite the fact that it was packed out (and had just run out of burgers!!!!), we were treated courteously, the food came quickly, and it was yum-diddly-umptious!!

The second play was the new Mike Leigh play, his first foray into theatre-land in a LONG time. Set in 2004 and 2005, it's very topical, exploring Jewishness, Israel, family structures, and a whole lot more. Very Mike Leigh-ish. Not up there with his finest work, but it ticks along nicely, has some good lines, and the actors are very strong. Enjoyable and thought-provoking, with a great final joke -- God calls Noah and says he's going to send another flood, but this time he doesn't want Noah to save animals, just fish. "And I don't want any old fish," the almighty says, "I want carp. Just carp. I want you to build eight floors, fill them with glass cases, and put carp in them." Noah thought about this for a few moments, bemused, then said, "So, you want me to build a multi-storey carpark????"

Cracked me up!!!!!!! (Say the last word out loud a couple of times if you don't get the joke straightaway!)

Saw the second half of "No Direction Home" last night. Interesting and well edited, with some great live footage. I knew many of Dylan's fans were upset when he moved away from solo performances and played with a band, but I never realised just how much aggro he had to deal with -- he faced a barrage of boos and cat-calls every time he played live!!! But he kept on going and did what he wanted, not what was expected of him. Respect!!!!

Watched the final episode of "Extras" this morning. I really liked the series -- much better than I thought it would be. I feared Gervais would prove a one-trick pony after "The Office", but he certainly got it right with this one. A great mix of belly laughs and subtler jokes, with some truly hilarious excrutiating moments. Top stuff.

Flew back to London in the afternoon -- I'm here for a few days to catch some plays and watch Spurs play live on New Year's Eve. It's a hard life ...

Went to visit my parents for a couple of hours after the races, then went to the two local pubs in Pallaskenry for a few drinks with Derek and some others. Started in The Corner House. A good atmosphere, everyone merry, drinks flowing nicely. Bas and her Mum joined us after a while (her Dad's quite old and doesn't like pubs!). Stayed there a few hours, then most of us went on to the other pub, Clancy's (better known as Eric's). Very lively, a band playing, loads of people dancing. You tend to get a younger crowd in Eric's, and they weren't quite as mellow as the crowd in the Corner -- a fight broke out in the back yard while I was there, and tempers were running high!! Then they stopped serving at 1.00pm!!!! I was astonished -- I thought the pubs would stay open early into the morning in a small Irish village on Boxing Day!!! We returned to the Corner, but they'd stopped serving there too. The gardai were on duy again, making sure the pubs closed on time. I know they're only upholding the law, but I think it's ridiculous and insulting -- in rural Ireland the laws are traditionally bent a little during the festive season, and shutting the pubs earlier than expected only frustrates people. I guess the police would say that people drink more at Xmas, and by closing the pubs on time they prevent accidents. But I think it's overkill myself, and so did just about everybody else in the two pubs.

Anyway, I was going to bring several people back to my house for after-time drinks, but Bas threw a bit of a wobbly and made it clear she didn't want them there. I got into a huff but just decided to let her have her way, so we went back to John's (the guy who got engaged on Christmas Day) and we ended up drinking until nearly 05.00a.m.!!!!! Nobody was badly drunk -- we were just drinking nicely, chatting, singing songs. Neil - John's brother - is in a band, and his friend Pa, who's also in it, was there, and the pair of them took turns playing a guitar and singing. A nice night.

Felt a bit the worse for wear this morning, but not TOO bad. Didn't do too much, fiddled about on my computer, answered some more fan mail, went for a walk. Saw Part 1 of "No Direction Home -- Bob Dylan", an interesting documentary about him, directed by Martin Scorsese. I'm a big Dylan fan and have pretty much all his studio albums. Found myself thinking about my great-grandfather when I was watching it. We lived with him in his small cottage when we moved back to Ireland when I was six, and he then lived with us when we built a new house, until his death when I was 15. One day I was playing some old Dylan records (back in the era before CDs!), his early albums where it was just him and his guitar. Grandad (as I always called him -- I had three grandads when I was growing up, him and my two "real" grandads!!) heard it and thought it was ME singing!!!! He told my Mum that night that I had a pretty good voice, but when had I learned to play the guitar?!?!?

In Ireland and the UK, St Stephen's Day (December 26th) is more commonly known as Boxing Day -- in the past, this was the day when Christmas boxes were tradtionally given. I went horse racing for the first time ever today, with Bas and her parents. There's a course near us, outside a village called Patrickswell. It's quite a big course -- they can accomodate a crowd of about 10,000. We arrived early, sized up the form, looked around, made our first bet, and found a good spot opposite the winning line. The horse I'e bet on reared up before the start of the race and threw off his jockey, then ran around for more than 10 minutes while the stewards tried to catch him. I thought he'd be withdrawn, which would mean I'd get my money back -- so I was gutted when the jockey remounted and the horse ran in the race. But then he came on strong near the end and almost won it, finishing second!!!!!! That was pretty much my story for the day -- most of the horses I bet on finished second or third. Which would have been fine if I'd gone for a place bet each time, but I mostly bet on them to win, so I lost steadily. I did get lucky in the final race -- an outside I put a placed bet on came third when the horse ahead of him fell at the final hurdle, and I won €30!!!! I lost a lot more than that over the course of the day, but I did enjoy it regardless and certainly will go again.

Had a cracking house party on Christmas Eve. Lots more people came than expected! The snacks we prepared didn't last long, but luckily there was plenty to drink, so everyone was happy!!!! I like throwing house parties -- it's more intimate than a pub, everyone's relaxed, and it's easier to get a drink!! The cleaning-up is the worst bit, but even that's not too bad when a few people chip in. Got to bed about 03.00 in the end, and waited to see what Santa would bring ...

Had a nice Christmas Day. Dinner was at my grandparents' house, though my Mum did pretty much all the cooking this year, since my Granny has been quite ill recently. Those present included my Granny and Grandad, my Mum and Dad, Bas and her parents, my uncle Derek, his wife Shirley and son Pearse, and my aunt Karen, her husband Mark and their daughter Olivia -- a full house!!! And that's only a fraction of the family!!!!!! The meal was delicious and everyone was well full by the finish. Had lots to drink, including a rather pricey bottle of vintage port which I brought back from Portugal earlier in the year. Had a HUGE presents-opening ceremony in the afternoon -- most people got far more pressies than usual -- except poor uncle Derek, who had his worst haul ever!!!!! I got loads of stuff, much of it from Bas, mostly small, nice gifts. It took ages for us all to sort the presents out, open them, discard the gift wrapping, then take them to our cars!!!!!! Had a few more drinks after that, then went back the road to my uncle John's house. Stayed there for a few hours, chatting with him and his family -- one of his sons (also called John) had just got engaged, asking his long-term girlfriend to marry him only that morning -- but instead of popping the question aloud, he wrote it in his Christmas card to her!!! From there we went to see another of my uncles, Michael. Had a few more drinks and played the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" DVD game. We formed two teams, Derek, Mike and his wife Rosetta against me, Bas and Mike's son, Conor. We had a "friendly" bet of €10 to start -- but things started to get serious when we lost three and drew one of the first 4 games!!!! I was €40 down and the next, final match was double-or-quits, so I was facing an €80 loss!!!! But worse than the money was the amount of gloating Derek was doing -- as he said himself, he's a good loser but a bad winner, and he was loving the fact that they were beating us!!!! Thankfully, with the luck of the vampires they blew things in the final game and handed it to us on plate, leaving us with the last laugh!! We walked off into the night merrily and quite drunkenly singing "Walk away! Walk away! Walk away!!!!!!" And that was the end of Christmas!!!!!

... and Darren Shan was busy answering fan mail!!! Yup, I had a couple of free hours this afternoon, so I decided to make a start on the mound of letters stacked up close to my computer. Got through 23 letters in total. I don't think you'll find many other authors working on their fan mail on Xmas Eve, but what the hell -- I found it added to the festive feeling!!!!! I consider you guys part of my extended family, and it's nice to spend a bit of time with you lot at Christmas!!

The gardai (Irish police) were on the prowl in Pallaskenry last night, so the pubs stopped serving about 01.00 -- much earlier than I anticipated!! So I had a relatively early night and didn't feel too rough this morning. Pottered around on my PC for a while, watched some episodes of "Extras" (VERY funny! A worthy follow-up to "The Office"), went for a short walk with Bas and her parents. We're throwing a little party after "midnight" mass (they have it at 9.00pm!!! yet still they refer to it as midnight mass!!!!!! crazy!!!!!!!). I've stayed home to prepare the food for it. I'm not much of a mass person. I probably would have gone if we hadn't been having the party, but once a good excuse to stay home presented itself, I jumped at the chance!!!! I did feel a LITTLE lonely when the others drove off and it was just me alone in the house -- but then I thought about what my bum would feel like after just ten minutes on a hard church pew and remembered why I was so eager to skip the whole thing in the first place!!!!!! Not very Christmassy of me, I know, but hell, I'd much rather be blogging here than keeping a pew warm there!!!!!!!!   :-)

Right, I'm off to watch another episode or two of "Extras", before setting to work on the food. I hope you all have a brilliant Christmas and get loads of pressies from Santa!!!!!!!!!

Finished my most recent edit of Book 4 of "The Demonata". My editor will get back to me early in January with some overall notes and suggestions and I'll do another edit. Then she'll go through that i more detail and provide me with a list of comments and suggested changes, and I'll edit it again. And that will be the bulk of the work completed -- it will go to the proofs stage then, and I might make some VERY minor last-minute adjustments, but it will be pretty much done and dusted. So I'm close to the end!!!!! I like this book more and more each time I read it. On one hand it's a simple quest story. On the other it's about capturing the feel of a specific time and place (something I don't do very often). I'm also looking forward to the scratching of heads that will take place when fans of the first three books read it and wonder how exactly it links in with them -- only to have the answers to that revealed in books 5, 6 and beyond ...

Picked up a HUGE pile of letters from Pablo today. I still have letters going back to October and November that I haven't found time to answer yet, so if you've sent a letter to me any time within the last three months and haven't received a reply yet -- PLEASE BE PATIENT!!!! I will reply eventually -- I've just fallen behind because of all the travelling I was doing lately and the amount of seasonal mail that's been coming through. I'd hope to be back up to speed by mid or late January ...

Went to Shannon with Bas this afternoon to pick up her parents, who are staying with us over the Christmas holidays. Their flight was delayed, so we were at the airport an hour and half in total. Went for dinner in Durty Nellies (a famous pub in Bunratty) after that. I plan to go in to one or both of the local pubs soon -- the Christmas festivities start here!!!!!!!

Watched the original 1933 "King Kong" tonight with the three cousins I took to the cinema to see the remake (Lorcan, Kealan and Tiernan). It had been a few years since I saw it. I hadn't realized just how closely Peter Jackson had stuck to it, and how much of it he'd incorporated into his version -- the adverts in Times Square are the same, loads of lines have been transferred intact, etc. Watching the two so close to each other shows just how much of a labour of love it was for him. I think that's why it worked -- normally, with remakes, just about everything is jettisoned in favour of new, modern material. Here, Jackson simply wanted to expand upon the original film and make it appealing to a 21st century audience, while maintaining the heart and core of the original. The only real major difference is the relationship between Kong and Anne Darrow. The original, in a way, was more realisitic -- Darrow looked upon Kong as a savage beast, and although we the audience saw his sweet side and felt pity for him at the end, she kept on screaming with horror all the way through. In the remake Darrow reciprocates much of Kong's love and plays around with him. This makes his death more emotional, but it also humanises in an unrealistic way. I can see why Jackson did that, and I think it works well, but it does soften Kong quite a lot compared to the roaring, destructive beast he originally was.

One final word on the matter -- I was delighted by just how much my cousins enjoyed the original. They weren't looking forward to watching a 1930s black and white film, especially having just seen the remake. Tiernan even said straight out that he didn't want to watch it. But, as creaky as the effects are in comparion to the remake, the story sucked them right in and they enjoyed it almost as much as I did. Proof that, no matter how dated a film might become technically, a good, cracking, fast-paced, moving story can stand the test of time and work for ANY audience!! For those of you who want to experience more great 1930s fantastical movies, may I suggest "The Invisible Man", "The Man Who Could Work Miracles", "Things To Come" (uneven and stodgy in places compared to the others, but fascinating), "Frankenstein" and, probably the decade's finest, and maybe the finest mix of horror, fantasy and comedy ever, the incomparable "Bride of Frankenstein".

Edited another 40+ pages of Book 4 of "The Demonata". Almost finished -- I'm hoping to wrap it up tomorrow, allowing me to break cleanly for Christmas and New Year's.

Liam Fitz, my web designer, has jazzed up the "secret" zone of Shanville, adding some neat graphics and giving it its own home page. If you've already become a Shanster, or registered for the Shanville Monthly in the past, you can go check it out now. Otherwise you can join the club by clicking here: http://darrenshan.com/phplist/?p=subscribe