Darren Shan

On 2 April 2020, Shan announced that he had silently released three books digitally, making up the first volume of the Archibald Lox series, a few days previously.

Shan continues to live in Pallaskenry in Limerick, Ireland with his wife Dr Helen Basini, a freelance university lecturer and global aid specialist. On 23 September 2014, the couple celebrated the birth of their first child, Dante, named after the famous Italian author. Shan and his wife Helen welcomed their second child, a daughter named Gaia, on 26 March 2019.

A short novel titled Zom-B Circus, set between Zom-B Gladiator and Zom-B Mission, was released on 27 April 2014. This is officially book 6.5 in the series chronology.

In 2014, Shan started publishing his books for adults under the name of Darren Dash, so that they would not be confused with his children's books. The first, in 2014, was The Evil and the Pure, followed by Sunburn in 2015, An Other Place in 2016, and Midsummer's Bottom in 2018. Shan plans to write the rest of his adult books under this pen name from this point onwards.

Lady of the Shades was released in the UK and Ireland on 30 August 2012.

On 12 October 2011, it was announced that Darren Shan's next series for teenagers would focus on zombies, and that the title of the series was Zom-B. There were twelve books in total. The first book was released in the UK and USA in late September 2012, and the last book was released in April 2016.

A one-off novel, The Thin Executioner was released in April 2010. Inspired in part by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and based in a brutal, fantastical world, it details the perilous quest of Jebel, the thin son of a respected executioner, to petition a fire god for invincibility, so that he can succeed his father. Shan has stated that this is his favourite out of all of the books he has written.

In July 2009, Shan revealed that he had written first drafts of 53 books in total. Most of those have now been published, although there are several which have yet to see the light of day, which he plans to release in the future, most probably under his Darren Dash umbrella. There are also a few that will very likely never be published. Shan has not revealed details of any of his unpublished books, with two exceptions — Mute Pursuit and The Cannibal King:

Universal Studios bought the film rights to the first three books of The Saga of Darren Shan and combined them to make a single film, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, released in the US on 23 October 2009. Lauren Shuler Donner produced the film and Paul Weitz directed. The original screenplay was written by Brian Helgeland but rewritten entirely by Paul Weitz.

The City Trilogy was written for adult readers and was originally released under the name of Darren O'Shaughnessy. The third book was never published and the original versions are now out of print. They were published by Orion Publishing Group. However, in March 2008, Ayuamarca was re-published as Procession of the Dead (with substantial changes) by the Voyager imprint of HarperCollins (Shan's children's publisher). Hell's Horizon was released in March 2009 and City of the Snakes was released in March 2010. All three books are now also available in the US, as well as in several other countries.

A short novel released for World Book Day in the UK in 2006. The paperback edition is out of print, but it is available in ebook format through Kindle on Amazon stores worldwide. It has also been translated and released in several other countries.

A short story originally released in a book collection called Kids Night In in the UK in 2003. Shan tweaked and slightly expanded it ten years later, and it was released as a book by the publishing group Barrington Stoke with illustrations by Zack McLaughlin.

After university, Shan worked in a TV cable company in Limerick for two years, before becoming a full-time writer at the age of 23. His breakthrough came with Ayuamarca, released under his real name (Darren O'Shaughnessy). It was published in February 1999 by Orion Publishing Group. The sequel, Hell's Horizon, was published in February 2000. Ayuamarca was re-released in March 2008 under the title Procession of the Dead and the pen-name D.B. Shan. Hell's Horizon followed in March 2009, and the third in the trilogy, City of the Snakes in March 2010 (but this time under the name of Darren Shan). In January 2000, Shan released Cirque du Freak, the first book of The Saga of Darren Shan series in the UK and Ireland. The series was a huge global success and by 2019 his books were on sale in 40 countries, in 32 languages, and had sold in excess of twenty-five million copies worldwide.

Shan signed up with the Christopher Little Literary Agency in 1996 and they have continued to represent him and his novels up to the present day.

He received his primary education in Askeaton, and attended secondary school at Copsewood College, Pallaskenry, graduating in 1989. He returned to London in 1990 to pursue a degree in Sociology and English from Roehampton University.

Darren O'Shaughnessy (/oʊ ˈ ʃ ɔː n ə s i / ; born 2 July 1972), who commonly writes under the pen name Darren Shan, is an Irish author. Darren Shan is the main character in O'Shaughnessy's The Saga of Darren Shan young adult fiction series, also known as the Cirque Du Freak series in the United States. He followed that up with The Demonata series and the stand-alone books, Koyasan and The Thin Executioner. Then came The Saga of Larten Crepsley which is a prequel to The Saga of Darren Shan and tells the life of Larten Crepsley. His most recent completed series, is the 12 novel Zom-B. The first book, Zom-B, went on sale in September 2012, with the final book, Zom-B Goddess, published on April 2016. Shan also writes for adults, and has published The City Book Trilogy and Lady of the Shades under the name of Darren Shan, and The Evil and the Pure, Sunburn, An Other Place and Midsummer's Bottom under the name of Darren Dash.