Students from the schools involved in the Swindon 10 Youth Festival of Literature were invited along to the Wyvern Theatre to meet gothic children's author Darren Shan. Shan, who moved from London to Ireland as a child, has written two large book series, The Saga of Darren Shan and Demonata. In total, these series are made up of twenty-two books, and the books focus heavily on the worlds of vampires and demons. Students swarmed to experience this macabre author in the rotten flesh, and to learn more about his books of horror.

Darren (real name Darren O'Shaughnessy) read two extracts from the first book of each series, Cirque Du Freak and Lord Loss. In the first extract, he used some volunteers from the audience to help act out the scene. Then he suddenly jumped, screaming "Bang!" causing the whole audience to scream and gasp. The scene took place at the point in the book where the character of Darren first watches the Cirque du Freak show at an old, abandoned movie theatre in his hometown. Something to note is that when writing the books, Shan, now 37, purposely left the location of the town in the books as a mystery, so that each individual reader could imagine it taking place in their own town.

After reading the extracts, he followed up with a small summary of each series. The Saga of Darren Shan is all about a boy, the fictional Darren Shan, who is turned into a vampire to become the Vampire's Assistant at the Cirque Du Freak. This series focuses heavily on the vampire world and rewrites a lot of vampire myths and legends, not unlike The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. Then he spoke about the Demonata series, saying that it was much darker than The Saga of Darren Shan, and that some scenes were much more gruesome. For instance, one scene involves two demons killing the main character's parents and sister in a horrific manner. The writer also said that when inventing these demons, all he had to do was think of the most disgusting things he could and put them onto paper.

He then went on to talk about his plans for future books, where he spoke about a single fantasy book he'd be releasing soon called The Thin Executioner. This story follows a young boy who has decided that when he grows up, he wants to become an executioner. Shan says that although the theme of the book seems dark and bleak, it has it's lighter side, too. He also mentioned a four-part series based around the character of vampire Mr. Crepsley, revealing the truth behind his mysterious past.

When asked about the recent film based on his first three books of The Saga of Darren Shan, called Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, he told the audience that he was very pleased with the final product, as although it was fairly Americanised, he felt the atmosphere of the film was "very similar to what I envisioned in the books". He also said that it would be much harder to make a film based around the Demonata series, as the scenes would be much too graphic and bloody for a film made for young adults, therefore much of the book would have to be changed in a film adaptation. Shan said that the reason the film encompassed three books was that it would be impossible to make 12 films, one for each book in the series.

The author also revealed during the event that he was inspired by many writers, including those such as Enid Blyton and his favourite author, Stephen King. Also, the demon Spine is his favourite from the Demonata series, as he likes "how she kills" and how disgusting she is in general. He gave a last message (or should I say, warning) in a short interview with us after signing books, in which he told fans to "Keep reading... or else."

By Daryl Francis (Photos by Sam Hackett), Dorcan Technology College