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Darren O'Shaughnessy

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Darren O'Shaughnessy
BornJuly 2, 1972
London, England
Pen nameDarren Shan
OccupationNovelist
NationalityIrish
Period1999—
GenreHorror, Fantasy
Website
http://www.darrenshan.com
This article is about the author. For the book series, see The Saga of Darren Shan.

Darren Shan (born July 2, 1972 in London, England) is the pen name of the Irish author Darren O'Shaughnessy, as well as the name of the protagonist of his book series The Saga of Darren Shan. This series is also known as The Cirque Du Freak Series in the United States. He also is currently writing The Demonata series.

Universal Studios have bought the film rights to the first three books of The Saga and plan to combine them to make a single movie. If it is successful, they might make 4 movies in total, each film combining a trilogy of books from the series. Lauren Shuler Donner is producing the film, Paul Weitz is directing it, and the script has been written by Brian Helgeland. The movie will probably be called Cirque Du Freak.

Biography

Darren O'Shaughnessy was born on July 2, 1972, in St Thomas' Hospital, London, England. He lives in Pallaskenry, County Limerick, in Ireland. At the age of three he started school at English Martyr's in London. When he was six, he moved, with his parents and younger brother, to Limerick, Ireland, were he has been living ever since. He received his primary education in Askeaton, and went to secondary school at Copsewood College in Pallaskenry. He then traveled back to London to study Sociology and English at Roehampton University.

Darren worked for a cable television company in Limerick for a few years and then decided to become a full-time writer. He bought his first typewriter when he was fourteen and wrote several short stories, comic scripts, and books that he never finished. His first success came to him at age fifteen, when he was a runner-up in a TV script-writing competition for Radio Telefís Éireann in Ireland, with a dark comedy story entitled A Day in the Morgue. He finished his first novel at age seventeen. Mute Pursuit was never published, but Shan loved the writing experience, so he started focusing on novels more and not on short stories.

All of Shan's first books were oriented to adults. He thought writing children's books would be a nice idea for the future but adult books were his main focus. His first breakthrough was with his book, Ayuamarca, written under his full name instead of his pen name. It was published in February 1999 by Orion Publishing Group, and did not sell very well. The sequel, Hell's Horizon, published in February 2000, was thought to be a better book, but it sold fewer copies than did the first.

Then between the two adult books, Darren published his first children's book, Cirque Du Freak, and it launched him into becoming a best selling author as he started The Saga of Darren Shan which he would finish twelve books and five years later. After The Saga, he started his new series, The Demonata with five books already released and five more on the way.

By 2007, Shan's books were on sale on every continent, in 36 countries, and in 29 languages. He has been a children's bestseller in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and other countries, and he has topped the adult bestsellers charts in Hungary, Japan and Taiwan. His books have sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

Darren has a collection of thousands of movies, and he also likes to collect original artwork. He enjoys reading books and comic books, taking long walks, watching football (he is a Tottenham Hotspur F.C. and Republic of Ireland fan), listening to pop and rock music, and traveling worldwide.

Bibliography

The Saga of Darren Shan

The series is comprised of 12 volumes:

The Cirque du Freak trilogy (Vampire Blood)

The Vampire Mountain trilogy (Vampire Rites)

The Hunters trilogy (Vampire War)

The Destiny trilogy (Vampire Destiny)

13 The death day calls Short stories

The Demonata

Template:Future book

The Demonata series currently has four books released, with a fifth and sixth confirmed. The series will be made up of 10 books. The release dates listed below refer to the UK and Ireland. In America, the books will be released every spring and fall, i.e. book 5 in fall 2007, book 6 in spring 2008, etc. For release dates in other countries, visit Darren Shan's website at www.darrenshan.com and go to the LINKS section, where you will find a full list of his publishers, with links to their web sites. You should be able to find out their schedule for the books on their sites or by contacting them.

Ordered by spot in the series and by publication date

  1. Lord Loss
  2. Demon Thief
  3. Slawter
  4. Bec
  5. Blood Beast(June 2007)
  6. Demonata Book 6(October 2007)
  7. Books 7-10 (to be released every June and October until October 2009)

Ordered chronologically

(Note that this is only for Books 1-6 and past that is yet to be known where they'll fit in)

  1. Bec (Between 350 AD and 400 AD. About 1600 years before Demon Thief)
  2. Demon Thief (Mid 1970s. About 30 years before Lord Loss)
  3. Lord Loss (Early 21st century. About a year before Slawter)
  4. Slawter (A year after Lord Loss. A few months before Blood Beast)
  5. Blood Beast (About a year after Slawter.Sometime before Demonata Book 6)
  6. Demonata Book 6 (Sometime before Demonata Book 7)

The City Trilogy

The City Trilogy was written for adult readers and was released under the name Darren O'Shaughnessy instead of Darren Shan. The third book was never published and they are now out of print. They were published by Orion Publishing Group.

  1. Ayuamarca - First published in the United Kingdom in February 1999 and then in Russia.
  2. Hell's Horizon - Sequel to Ayuamarca. First published in the United Kingdom in February 2000.
  3. City of the Snakes - Never Published

These books are due to be reprinted in the UK, by HarperCollins, with the first, renamed Procession of the Dead, being released in Spring 2008. The first two books will be re-edited, and they will be released under a different name (Revealed on his own website as: D B Shan). This was first announced by Darren at the Town Hall Theatre in Galway city during the 22nd Cúirt International Festival of Literature on the 28th of April, 2007, a few days before officially releasing the statement on his website.

After a conversation during a signing Darren stated that there were in fact 4 books originally in this series. The fourth book set before the other 3.

Other books

  1. Koyasan - A special book released for World Book Day 2006

Short stories

  1. "Hagurosan" - Originally written for Kids' Night In.
  2. "Young Alan Moore" - Originally written for Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman, a book written to celebrate the 50th birthday of Alan Moore.
  3. "The Good Ship Tree" - Originally written for the Times Educational Supplement, and accepted.
  4. "Life's a Beach" - Originally written for the Times Educational Supplement, but rejected.
  5. "Guyifesto–Who We Are" - Originally written for Guys Write For Guys Read. (Play on words of "manifesto")
  6. The Saga of Darren Shan tie-in short stories - See above

Unpublished books

  1. The Contender - This book was not published because his publisher was so disgusted by it he got the hand written copy (happened to be the only copy darren Shan had) and took it home and put it into his wood log fire. This is not confirmed but it kept the publishers family warm for 30 seconds and once it was burnt they had a party (they didnt invite Daren Shan)
  2. Mute Pursuit - A futuristic cross between The Terminator and Stephen King's The Dark Tower; Darren's first complete book
  3. City of the Snakes - See above
  4. The Cannibal King - Because this book was all about cannabilism the book was rejected by everyone involved with Darren Shan, everyone was so disturbed by what he had written that they suggested counciling and some people even donated to him via his blog. It's not confirmed but apparently he used the donation money to buy a shit load of gay porn on the internet.
  5. The Guide: To Being A Paedophile - This book was so wrong that the police got involved. They have raided his computer and found thousands of pictures of under age porn, he has been charged but has not been setenced (expected to go to court on the 27th of July). But they expect him to get 5-10 years jail.

Darren Shan Manga

Darren Shan is being adapted into a manga. Darren Shan is a very popular writer around the world, especially in Japan. *[1] *[2] Thus far "The Cirque du Freak trilogy" (the first three books) has been completed in the 2007 Shonen Sunday Issue #11 with Chapter 24, running since Issue 36-37 (2006). The fourth book has begun in Issue #12 with Chapter 25. Three manga volumes have currently been published.*[3]

Awards

The Saga of Darren Shan

In 2001, Cirque Du Freak (Book 1) won 2nd prize at the Sheffield Children's Book Award.

In 2001, Cirque Du Freak (Book 1) was shortlisted for the WHSmith Children's Book Of The Year in the UK.

In 2002, Cirque Du Freak (Book 1) won the IRA-CBC Children's Choice Award, in the USA. (IRA = International Reading Association, and CBC = Children's Book Council).

In 2002, Cirque Du Freak (Book 1) received a certificate of Outstanding Achievement in Books from the Parent's Guide to Children's Media Inc, in the USA.

In 2004, Cirque Du Freak (Book 1) won the Wyoming Soaring Eagle book award.

In 2005, The Vampire's Assistant was shortlisted for the Wyoming Soaring Eagle book award.

The Demonata

In 2006, Lord Loss won the Redbridge Teenage Book award, in the UK.

In 2006, Lord Loss was shortlisted for the Berkshire Book award, in the UK.

In 2006, Lord Loss was shortlisted for the Doncaster Book award, in the UK.

In 2006, Lord Loss was shortlisted for the Lancashire Children's Book Of The Year award, in the UK.

In 2007, Lord Loss was shortlisted for the Leeds Children's Book award, in the UK.

In 2007, Demon Thief was shortlisted for the Doncaster Book award, in the UK.

In 2007, Demon Thief was shortlisted for the Irish Children's Book Of The Year award, in Ireland.

In 2007, Demon Thief was shortlisted for the Lancashire Children's Book Of The Year award, in the UK.

In 2007, Slawter was shortlisted for the Staffordshire Young Teen Fiction book award, in the UK.

In 2008, Lord Loss was shortlisted for the Flume: NH Teen Reader's Choice award, in the USA.

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