Roll up! Roll up! Darren Shan is heading back out on the road... well, for one day only! I've pretty much pulled back entirely from touring over the last couple of years. With no new Darren Shan book to promote since the end of my Zom-B series, I've taken the chance to take a rest from the mammoth tours that I'd been doing for the previous 17 years. It's been nice to spend more time at home with my family -- and to squeeze in a bit of writing as well. I haven't completely retired from touring (I hope) and I imagine I'll be back out on the road again at some point in the future, but 2018 and 2019 have been incredibly fallow years on that front.

But, new book or no new book, how could I possibly say no to the Edinburgh International Book Festival?!? It was the first book festival I ever went to as an author, and it's my favourite, and I've been lucky enough to be invited back every year since -- in fact this year's appearance will be my TWENTIETH YEAR IN A ROW!!!

Since January marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Cirque Du Freak, I thought it would be nice to focus on that book (and maybe Vampire's Assistant and Tunnels of Blood, which all came out in 2000) for this year's event, so I'm going to be dusting off some old bits and pieces to perform, all linked in to my first three books. There will be some audience participation, Q&A, and I'll be signing afterwards. It should be lots of fun, and will probably be the only place you'll see me in action in 2019.

The Festival programme went live a few days ago, though you can't buy tickets until June 25th. I'll remind you all about it when we get to that date, but if you'd like to bookmark the page in the meantime, or look at what else is on at the festival, click here: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/darren-shan-roll-up-roll-up