Came over to London on Thursday with a few of my young cousins, mainly to catch a couple of Tottenham Hotspur games. We were playing a UEFA Cup match on Thursday night. We were awful in the first half, as bad as I've seen us play for quite a long while, and went two goals down -- but then we turned things around completely and won 3-2!!!! It was bizarre but beautiful! On Friday I took the bosy around some shops, then we went to see "Spamalot". I'd seen it before, on Broadway, with its original cast. I have to say I didn't think it was great second time round. Funny, yes, with some good, jokey songs -- but a bit long, and not so funny that I burst out laughing too often. It's by no means a bad play, but I think it's only done as well as it has beecause of the love people have for Monty Python.

On Saturday I took the boys ice skating (I just watched -- I have a terrible sense of balance!!!) and then, after a nice walk along the river and quick pop into the Tate Modern, to see "Avenue Q". Now THAT is funny!!!! This is the third time I've seen it, and I still think it's brilliant and laugh all the time! What's so great about it is that, OK, it's a rude show about puppets who swear and have sex and do all sorts of bad things -- but at the same time it's a light, warm-hearted, uplifting show, and you leave with a big smile on your face and a feeling that the world isn't such a bad place. There are a few shows in London which I class as must-sees, and have been to on 3 or more occasions. "Phantom of the Opera", "Les Miserables" and "Blood Brothers" are my top 3 pics out of them -- but "Avenue Q" is right up there with them too!!!!

On Sunday, after a game of bowling in County Hall and brunch, we went to see Spurs play Birmingham. We played much better this time ... in fact very well indeed ... but somehow we lost 3-2!!!!! Football -- it's a mug's game!!!

Oh, and while I remember, about my books "not maturing with their readers" ... This was a comment from someone on my message boards. It was a rather rambling comment overall, with much that I swiftly ignored (heh heh), but that one part of it made me want to reply. The person was 18ish and complaining that my books weren't giving them the same buzz that they did when s/he was younger. S/he wanted me go further with the books, to appeal to those readers who've been with me for a number of years and now want MORE. S/he even accused me of "betraying my original fans". (I suppose to should react hotly to ludicrous, over the top comments like that, but I've made plenty of ludicrous, OTT comments myself on many occasions, so I'm not one to cast stones!!)

Well, the simple answer, as one fan pointed out in reply to the message, is that (hold the front page!! world exclusive revelation on the way!!!!) ...well ... they're children's books. Um. I think that pretty much gives the game away. To put it another way -- They're. books. written. for. children. Heh heh -- I know how sarcastic that sounds, but, honestly, it's not meant to me. I remember writing an angry letter to the people who make the comic 2000AD. I became a huge fan when I was 12 or 13 and collected it without missing an issue for several years. But then I started to read Watchmen, Killing Joke, Love & Rockets and others, and they went much further than 2000AD ever did. They worked on all sorts of darker, more adult levels, and I wanted 2000AD to do the same, to go on a journey with them, to appeal to the more developed teenager that I had become. "By heavens," I wrote (and I'm paraphrasing here!!), "this reads like a comic written for 12-14 year olds!!!" The good folks of 2000AD never wrote back to me, but if they had, their answer probably would have been (and should have been), "Well, you presumptuous idiot, it is!!!!!"

Look, I appreciate each and ever one of you guys. That should be clear from the amount of time I spend on my blog, updating my site, replying to your letters, etc. I know there are hundreds of other writers you could be reading, or films or TV shows you could be watching, or computer games you could be playing, instead of reading my books. But it's impossible to cater to the changing demands of each and every one of you. I do my best on each book. I try to evolve and do different things with story structures and plot line and characters. I go to some very dark places and sometimes push at the boundaries of what is acceptable in a children's book. But at the end of the day, when all's said and done, they ARE for children. Older children, to be sure, but children nevertheless. I've been called Stephen King For Kids in the past, and have said in numerous interviews that I like to see myself as a kind of bridge to adult horror and fantasy, that I hope my fans go on to read the likes of King, Clive Barker, Raymond E Feist, etc.

But "go on" are the key words there. Most of you reading this WILL "go on" to other writers, or will just stop reading so much at some stage. Most of you WILL grow up and leave my books behind and look for more challenging, darker , sophisticated material. Some of you reading that might very well go, "No! It isn't so! I'm your fan for life, and maybe even beyond!!!" Trust me -- many have said the same thing before you over the last 8 years, and with just a very few exceptions, virtually all of those have moved on from my little world now. I'm not sad about it. I don't feel upset or aggrieved when a fan decides (consciously or otherwise) that they've had enough of my books. That's life. It's something we all go through. We all hold flames close to our hearts for certain periods of our lives, then let them grow cold and cast them aside. I did it with 2000AD, with David Eddings, with TV soap opers, and loads more besides. I'm sure that I'll do it again with certain writers and shows that I love now. We're constantly changing in life, becoming new people, developing new tastes and desires. That's not a bad thing -- indeed, I think it's the very core of being human, and the thing that drives us on to be the species we are.

I try and do a lot with my Darren Shan books, and I like to think I do. I've gone places other children's writers never went (and maybe won't go again!). No matter how simply they're written, there's an air of sophistication and complexity to the books (count the number of characters in The Saga, or the number of themes covered, or genres played with; study the structure of The Demonata as it becomes clearer (and, as an aside, although lots of you love to tell me how you see every twist I write coming in advance, nobody has yet written to me to say they've spotted what that structure is -- six-tenths of the way through, and I've managed to keep the shape of the series a mystery from all of you!! though not for much longer methinks ...)). I think long and hard about these, spend at least two years working on every novel, and do the very best I can with them.

But they're still children's books, and always will be. I know I have lots of adult fans, and I hope to keep some of you entertained for a while longer if you're willing to go along with my on my somewhat restricted journeys.  But I don't write for you guys, just as I don't write for the 6 and 7 year olds who read my books (and, yes, there are a few!!). I write for those between, those torn between the worlds of childhood and adulthood, those who go to school but are moving towards the adult world beyond, those who are ready to ask questions of the world, of life, of themselves, of the universe, who want to have fun but who also want to be made think. My books DO mature (The Saga developed a lot between Cirque Du Freak and Sons of Destiny), and The Demonata is maturing too, as the characters grow older and learn more. But I'm not interested in letting those characters grow beyond a certain point, because that would make the series a rough ride for the fans who started out with the earlier books. We're all on journeys through life -- but what you have to realise is that you're going to journey with very many people along the way, and very few (probably none) of those are going to be with you all the time. For me, writers and stories are all interconnected. It's irrelevant if, coming of a certain age, you decide to cast my children's books aside and move on to someone else. There are places I can't go with you, areas I can't explore with you ... at least, not as Darren Shan.

As D B Shan, however (to finish on a nice self-promoting note!!!), I can go as far as you like,and probably a hell of a lot further than you'd wish!!! So all you older Shansters and adults out there, make sure you watch out for Procession of the Dead in March 2008!!!!!!!!