PLOT OUTLINE

Book 11 of The Saga Of Darren Shan. Darren's going home. Back to where everything started. The town's changed a lot in the years that he's been away -- but then, so has Darren.

Plagued by nightmares of what the future seems to hold, Darren feels uneasy revisiting the place where he was re-born as a child of the night, as though the universe (as though destiny) is plotting to throw something very nasty at him on the streets of his old home.

It is.

Travel home with Darren in the penultimate book of the Saga, then join him on his final outing in book 12, Sons Of Destiny!!!

AUTHOR NOTES

!!!PLOT SPOILERS!!!

As most of you probably know, I originally planned the series to be 18 or so books, and that was my intention right up to when I started work on this book. As I was planning the 11th, I realized that, if I wished, I could use the end which I had planned for the end of the series in book 12 and stop there, and that it would make perfect sense coming at that point of the story-line. At first I just smiled at the thought and went ahead and wrote book 11, which was about 50% longer than the book that finally got published (it went on after the scene in the theatre, to the final fight between Darren, Steve and Vancha). I then started planning the original book 12 ("The Cannibal King") and went ahead and wrote it.

But I couldn't get the notion of stopping the series early out of my head. It just wouldn't go away, while I working on book 11, then book 12. I tried to ignore the voice saying "Stop, Darren, stop!" for reasons you can find in the Book 12 section. It was only when I finished the first draft of "The Cannibal King" that I realized that the voice was right -- the character of Darren didn't belong in the second half of the story line which I had planned, and had ceased to be interesting (because he'd played as much of a part as he could).

So I went back, took out the chapters of book 11 that I wanted for the new 12th book, and set to work on the re-writing and editing process for the now shorter book 11.

Once I'd decided to end at book 12, I was much happier than I had been while writing the original 11th draft -- the book felt more natural now, and although I was nervous about fan reaction to the news of the imminent end (and all the money I was going to miss out on by not continuing!!!), I knew I was doing the right thing, and that the Saga would now end on a logical high.