Just got back from my trip to Portsmouth about an hour ago. I caught a train to Lymington Town from London Waterloo on Friday evening, with 3 friends, and met another en route (the one who own the boat). Drank quite a lot of beer and talked quite a lot of football!! Loaded our gear onto the boat in Lymington, and met the skipper and his missus. Went for a very nice curry later. Enjoyed it a lot, but I was breaking wind like mad the next day!!!! Stayed up late, watching the stars, drinking, and discussing the affairs of the world.

After about 3 hours of sleep, we had to rise and set sail for Portsmouth. Luckily it was a nice, calm day, so the sailing went very smoothly. I didn't feel even the least bit sick, which was an unexpected delight! We had the tide with us, so we completed the trip in about 2 and a half hours, instead of the expected 4 hours!!! I have to say, I'm no lover of boat trips. I like cruising along a river or slightly out to sea (where the waves aren't too choppy!!), but I have no interest in spending hours on end, or even days on end, on a boat. Small doses suit me fine!

We had a late breakfast or early lunch in Portsmouth, had a few drinks, then went to the match. I don't want to offend any Portsmouth fans, but the stadium - Fratton Park - is a real tip!!! It's like something from the dark days of football, as if it had travelled through time from the 1950s. And the section of the stand where the away fans sit is uncovered -- there's no roof!!! Now, that's fine if it's a sunny August afternoon -- but yesterday, it rained non-stop for the full 90 minutes of the match, and most of the time it rained heavily!!!! All us Spurs fans were soaked to the bone. And I do mean SOAKED!!! You'd expect such conditions at a club in the lower divisions, but not in the Premiership, or even in the Championship! And the toilet facilities were awful too! Don't even get me started on the food stall!!!! It's just not good enough for Premiership football. In my view, Portsmouth should be forced to bring the stadium up to scratch, or they should be booted out!!!!!!

Now that I've got that rant off my chest ... Spurs won 2-0, so it was a great result! We've been very poor away from home for the last few seasons (well ... almost as long as I can remember, to be honest!!). In fact, this was our first away win in all of 2005!!!!!! We didn't play very well, but the win was the most important thing. All in all, it was worth getting soaked to see us notch up a rare away victory. The Spurs fans loved it -- we hardly stopped singing all through the game, especially in the second half, when it became clear that we were going to win. If you've never been to a football match, and are ever thinking of going to one, it might be worth trying to get tickets to an away game rather than a home match -- away fans are normally a lot more boisterious and enthusiastic than home fans ...

Had a few more drinks after the match, then went for a meal. Did a small bit of gambling in the casino near where we were docked, then had a fairly early night, tucking in not long after midnight -- we were all absolutely exhausted!!! Got up about 8 this morning, cleaned up the boat, then caught the train back to London. Feeling tired now, but not as wrecked as I might have been. When you get to your 30s, you tend not to party as hard or as late as you do in your 20s -- your body just can't take the aggro!!!!! I'm by no means a boring old fogey, but I do like to get a nice bit of sleep at the end of a busy night!!!!!!!!

I'm setting off for my trip to Portsmouth (for the Spurs game) within the next half hour, so I won't be posting here again until Sunday -- maybe even later, depending on how rough I feel when I roll back on Sunday evening!!!

Delivered the manuscript of "Demon Thief" to my editor, Stella, and ran through it quickly with her. Now it's all over, and we can set to work on book 3. I still don't have a finalized title for the third book, but I'm getting close to it, and will announce it at some stage in the not too distant furture ...

All hands on deck!! Thar she blows!!!! Or, as a certain Spits Abrams might have said -- "Aaaarrrrr!!!!"

Flew over to London today. I'm going to see Spurs play Portsmouth on Saturday, then I'll be heading up to Edinburgh later in the week. Had a busy morning, tying up loose ends, doing the final bit of work on "Demon Thief", choosing the winners of the Shanville monthly competition and packing their prizes to send out (I had a bit of help from Bas on that front!). It'll be nice to have a little break from work -- I've been hard at it for the last couple of weeks, even working at the weekends.

Flight to London was nice and smooth, but I didn't particularly enjoy it. I've gone off flying over the last couple of years. I'm not scared of flying -- I just don't like it!! I used to love it when the plane thrust off, like I enjoy it when I'm on a roller-coaster and it picks up speed. But these days I keep thinking about turbulence and air pockets ... It's something I just have to put up with -- I come over to England a lot, for work and to watch matches, and my job takes me all around the world, so planes are an unescapable part of my life ... but I still don't like flying much!!!!

The winners of the Shanville Monthly August competion are, in the order they were randomly drawn:

Overall winner:
Debra A Mills, USA

Runners-up:
Leo Buckley, UK
Claire Goodwin, UK
Kyle Galbraith, UK
Joshua South, UK
Dakota Bradshaw, USA

Given the fact that I received 336 entries, from all over the world, I was surprised that so many of the winners were from the UK, but that's what happens when you hold a random draw!!! Perhaps it was the work of Destiny ...

Printed out all of my Edinburgh material and marked it up, i.e. highlighted the lines which my volunteers will have to read out. I'm happy with what I've prepared for both events. I don't think either will match my best-ever events (the very first scene I ever prepared - the bit where the wolf man bites off a woman's hand at the Cirque Du Freak - is still the most popular of anything I've ever done, and wows the crowds even if use it now, more than 5 years after the book's release!), but they should hopefully be pretty enjoyable. They'll certainly be insightful -- Friday's will reveal facts about "The Saga" never before revealed, and on Saturday fans will learn all sort of world-exclusive facts about the next 3 books in "The Demonata"!!!

I actually place a lot of importance on live appearances, which is why I've been prattling on about them so much recently. I think a lot of writers don't bother, or feel uncomfortable, at live events, so they just read out a bit from their latest book. I prefer to turn a reading into an event, to involve the crowd and make it exciting and fun. Especially fun -- an hour can feel like an awfully long time if there aren't any laughs from the crowd!!! It doesn't take that much more of an effort, but it makes it mor entertaining for me, and hopefully more entertaining for those watching!!

As an aside, I don't ever charge for public appearances. When I was last in the States, I heard that top writers often charge a few thousand dollars just to appear, give an hour's talk and sign some books!!! I could probably command a pretty hefty fee if I wanted, but it's not something I've ever done. There are a few reasons. One is good karma -- my books are selling very well, so unlike the vast majority of writers, I don't really need to charge for readings or signings; the way I figure it, if I do them for free, I'm putting out good karmic vibes which will hopefully keep me bobbing along nicely!!! But also, I like not charging because it means I'm free to say and do whatever I please. If you accept money to appear at an event, I think you owe it to the person paying you to do as they command, and to structure your event around their requirements. If you do it for free, you have a free hand! I've never pretended to do anything else than plug my books when I do an event!!! I'm there to entertain people in the hope that they'll buy my book!!! I don't ever take the "reading is good for you" line or try to promote books as a whole. My events are never anything more than a glorified Darren Shan plug -- and since I don't charge for them, nobody can ever quibble about that!!!!     :-)

Came across this blog page yesterday: http://aliveinlimerick.blogspot.com/2005/04/limerick-geek-made-good.html It's by some Limerick guy who heard about me when the Universal film deal was announced. The piece he wrote is definitely cheeky, some might even say downright rude, but I thought it was pretty funny!!!! I certainly don't think of myself as a geek, but I'm not bothered if that's how I'm perceived!!! By the way, he grossly miscalculates how much money I earn!!!

Did more work on my Edinburgh material today. It's all pretty much done and dusted now. I'll print it up tomorrow, make a few copies, go through them with a highlighter, then practise and maybe fine-tune the various pieces slightly over the next couple of weeks.

Saw "Mr Moto's Last Warning" today. I really enjoy those old Mr Moto and Charlie Chan films, though until today it had been years since I'd seen any of them. They're very creaky and stiff by today's standards, but you could see foreshadowings of James Bond in this film. While I was watching it, I got the impression that Mr Moto provided a key link between the old-style detectives like Sherlock Holmes and the modern-day action heroes. It used to be that heroes had to use their brains and unlock a load of mysteries before the end of a story, whereas nowadays they mostly just have to kick the crap out of the bad guys ... Mr Moto did a bit of both!

Bas and her friends got back from their tour of Western Ireland last night. After a quick change of clothes, we all went to Bunratty Castle, for a Medieval Night. I've been a couple of times before, and it's always great fun. Bunratty is an old, beautiful castle which has been lovingly restored. You can go in and just look around during the day, but at night they have feasts, in which you eat old-style food and listen to traditional Irish music. You also get lots of Mead and wine to drink!! I'm not that keen on wine, but I have a soft spot for Mead! We spent the night eating (with a knife and our fingers -- no forks!!) and drinking and listening to music -- which is a pretty good way to spend a night, in my opinion!

Finished editing the proofs of "Demon Thief" -- hurrah!!! But, wait a minute, I'm not entirely finished with it yet -- my editor, Stella, has a few last-minute suggestions she wants to run by me next week ...

Also edited the American proofs for the book, pencilling in the changes and corrections which I'd made to the UK version. My books get "Americanized" for publication in the States -- just small stuff, like changing "Mum" to "Mom", and altering words or expressions which American readers might not understand.

Ended up changing the last couple of paragraphs of the book. The ending itself hasn't changed, just the wording -- I wanted it to be a bit tighter than it was in the previous draft. I usually know the last line of a book before I start to write it -- I like having something definite to work my way towards. But sometimes that line can change, if I get to the end and think of something better. Occasionally, even the ending itself might change, but that's fairly rare for me.

I've almost concluded my editing duties on "Demon Thief" -- should wrap it up tomorrow. There was one major gaffe, which my sharp-eyed editor fortunately spotted -- at one stage, I make mention of the film "2001: a Space Odyssey", except, in a display of bumbling incompetence, I called it "2001: A Space Oddity"!!!!! I've only seen it, like, 10 times!!!!! My excuse is that I got the film title mixed up with the classic David Bowie song, "Space Oddity". Or else I'm just an idiot!!!!

Had an e-mail from a fan who's coming to my "Lord Loss" event at Edinburgh. He was worried -- I've only been talking about my "Saga of Darren Shan" event here, and he wondered if that meant the Saturday event was going to be crap!!!! No way, Jose!!!!! ALL of my events are brilliant!!!  :-)   Seriously, the Saturday event is in the bigger tent, with 3 or 4 times the capacity of the children's tent, so I'm going to be putting a hell of a lot of work into that one too!!! The only reason I've mentioned the Friday event so much is that it's different type of event to the one I normally do.

If any of you haven't bought tickets yet, but intend to, and are dithering over which event to come to, let me put it this way -- you should come to both!!!! But, if you can only make one, the Friday event will provide more of an insight into the way I work, and will show you how "The Saga of Darren Shan" came into being, the hurdles I faced, how it all happened. It won't be as funny or as frightening as my typical type of event, but it should provide plenty to entertain. The Saturday event will be more like what I usually do, and I'll be using it as a test-run for my October tour of the States, trying out some new material. I'll be reading 2 or 3 extracts from later books in the "Demonata" series (maybe even a few more extracts, if they're short) -- and I've only ever read out one of those in public before. So most of the extracts will be getting a world exclusive airing in Edinburgh!!!!

At both events, I'll be answering questions from members in the audience, like I always do -- that's normally the most enjoyable part for me!! And I'll be rounding off each event with the song I mentioned in an earlier Blog entry ... So, if you have delicate ears, you might want to slip away a few minutes before the end!! And, of course, I'll be signing afterwards. I'll happily sign every one of my books that fans bring along, but I'll be limiting dedications to 2 per person on Friday, and 1 per person on Saturday. (A dedication is when I write "To .......", then write a short message, then sign and date the book.) So, if you bring all 13 of my books on Friday, I'll dedicate 2 of them and sign the rest. On Saturday, I'll only be able to dedicate one, but I'll still sign all the others. (N.B. on Ebay, signed books are worth far more than dedicated books -- no collector wants a book that has some other fan's name in it!!!!)

By the way, tickets for Saturday's events are now almost sold out, and you can't order them online any more!! So if you're interested in getting tickets to either event, you'll need to ring the box office at this number: 0131 624 5050  (0044131 624 5050 if you're outside the UK)

Got through a hefty chunk of "Demon Thief". I'm pleased by how little there is that I want to change. When you get to this stage of a book, you should be happy with what you've done. If not -- if you find lots of sections you want to do more work on -- then you're in trouble!!!!

Finished going through my diary entries for the Edinburgh event. Amazed by how much I'd forgotten! Such as ... Collins originally wanted to call the series "Cirque Du Freak" ... and my original title for Book 9 was "Dawn's Crimson Flames"!!!!!! Now I've just to got to work all of my diary entries into an amusing, interesting story, which I can read out live to an audience at Edinburgh ...

Was going to watch the silent version of "Ben-Hur" tonight, but my DVD was scratched badly and wouldn't load! So I ended up watching Francois Truffaut's final film instead, "Confidentially Yours". Truffaut was a great director, but he did his fair share of dull flicks too. This wasn't a bad film, but it didn't do an awful lot for me. Very Hitchcockian, and filmed in a nice noir style, but it was a little too clever for its own good, and threw in way too many coincidences.