Darren O'Shaughnessy | |
|---|---|
.jpg) O'Shaughnessy in 2016 | |
| Born | Darren O'Shaughnessy (1972-07-02)2 July 1972 (age 52) Lambeth, London, England |
| Pen name | Darren Shan, D. B. Shan, Darren Dash |
| Occupation | Author |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Alma mater | Roehampton University |
| Period | 1999–present |
| Genre | Horror, fantasy |
| Notable works | |
| Spouse | Helen Basini |
| Children | 2 |
| Signature | |
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| Website | |
| darrenshan | |
Darren O'Shaughnessy (/oʊˈʃɔːnəsi/; born 2 July 1972)[1] is an Irish writer and novelist. He is best known for hisyoung adult fiction seriesThe Saga of Darren Shan,The Demonata, andZom-B, published under the pseudonymDarren Shan.[2] The former was adapted intoa manga series from 2006 to 2009 as well asa live-action film in 2009, with aprequel series,The Saga of Larten Crepsley, being released from 2010 to 2012.[3]
O'Shaughnessy has published other children's books as Darren Shan, includingKoyasan, andThe Thin Executioner. From 2020 to 2022, heself-published his latest young adult seriesArchibald Lox.[4]
In the past, O'Shaughnessy has also published novels for adults under the Darren Shan pseudonym, but since 2014 he has released his work for older readers under the name ofDarren Dash.[5][6]
O'Shaughnessy was born in St Thomas’ Hospital inLondon, opposite theHouses of Parliament. At the age of three, he started school at English Martyrs' near theElephant and Castle where he lived. When he was six, he moved with his parents and younger brother, toLimerick inIreland, where he has lived ever since.[7]
He received his primary education inAskeaton, and attended secondary school atCopsewood College,Pallaskenry, graduating in 1989. He returned to London in 1990 to pursue a degree in Sociology and English fromRoehampton Institute of Higher Education.[7]
O'Shaughnessy bought his firsttypewriter when he was fourteen and wrote many short stories, comic scripts, and books that he never finished, many of which are unpublished. O'Shaughnessy claims that most of these stories will never be published. His first success came to him at age fifteen, when he was a runner-up in a TV script-writing competition forRTÉ in Ireland, with adark comedy story entitledA Day in the Morgue.[8]
After university, O'Shaughnessy 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 withAyuamarca, published in February 1999 byOrion Publishing Group under his full name.[9] The sequel,Hell's Horizon, was published in February 2000.Ayuamarca was re-released in March 2008 under the titleProcession of the Dead and the pen-nameD.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 ofDarren Shan). In January 2000, Shan releasedCirque du Freak, the first book ofThe Saga of Darren Shan series in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The series was a huge global success and by 2021 his books were on sale in 40 countries, in 32 languages, and had sold thirty million copies worldwide.[2]
O'Shaughnessy signed up with theChristopher Little Literary Agency in 1996 and they continued to represent him until Christopher Little's death in 2021. He is now represented by theCurtis Brown Agency.[10]
O'Shaughnessy continues to live inPallaskenry inLimerick, Ireland with his wife Helen Basini, a freelance university lecturer and global aid specialist.[11][12] On 23 September 2014, the couple celebrated the birth of their first child, Dante, named after the famous Italian authorDante Alighieri.[12] Shan and his wife Helen welcomed their second child, a daughter named Gaia, on 26 March 2019.[13][14]
This is a four-book series covering 200 years in the life of Larten Crepsley, a vampire first introduced to readers inThe Saga of Darren Shan.
The City Trilogy was written for adult readers and was originally released under O'Shaughnessy's own name. The third book was never published and the original versions are nowout of print. They were published byOrion Publishing Group. However, in March 2008,Ayuamarca was re-published asProcession of the Dead (with substantial changes) by the Voyager imprint ofHarperCollins (O'Shaughnessy's children's publisher).Hell's Horizon was released in March 2009 andCity 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.
On 12 October 2011, it was announced that O'Shaughnessy's next series for teenagers under the name ofDarren Shan would focus on zombies, and that the title of the series wasZom-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 short novel titledZom-B Circus, set betweenZom-B Gladiator andZom-B Mission, was released on 27 April 2014. This is officially book 6.5 in the series chronology.
On 1 April 2020, O'Shaughnessy announced that he had silently released three books digitally due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, making up the first volume of theArchibald Lox series.[17] There were nine books released in total, making up three volumes when they were collected into omnibus editions.
A short novel released forWorld Book Day in the UK in 2006.[18] 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 one-off novel,The Thin Executioner was released in April 2010. Inspired in part byThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and based in a brutal, fantastical world, it details the perilous quest of Jebel, the thin and scrawny son of a respected executioner, to petition a fire god for invincibility, so that he can succeed his father. O'Shaughnessy has stated that this is his favourite out of all of the books he has written.[19]
Lady of the Shades was released in the UK and Ireland on 30 August 2012.[16]
Hagurosan is a short story originally released in a book collection calledKids Night In in the UK in 2003. O'Shaughnessy tweaked and slightly expanded it ten years later, and it was released as a book by the publishing groupBarrington Stoke with illustrations byZack McLaughlin.
In 2014, O'Shaughnessy started publishing his books for adults under the name of "Darren Dash", so that they would not be confused with his children's books under the "Darren Shan' name.[20] announcing that he would be publishing the rest of his adult books under this pen name in the future.[20]
In July 2009, O'Shaughnessy 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 hisDarren Dash umbrella. There are also a few that will very likely never be published. O'Shaughnessy has not revealed details of any of his unpublished books, with two exceptions —Mute Pursuit andThe Cannibal King:
Universal Studios bought the film rights to the first three books ofThe 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.[21]Lauren Shuler Donner produced the film andPaul Weitz directed. The original screenplay was written byBrian Helgeland but rewritten entirely by Paul Weitz.[22]
In May 2019,Zom-B was optioned for a ten-part television series adaptation by London-based production company The Electric Shadow Company.[23]In March 2020, it was announced that The Electric Shadow Company had partnered with Slam Films in developing the series.[24] In March 2021,Susan E. Connolly was announced to be attached as the lead writer on the project, with The Electric Shadow Company releasing a teaser image depicting a blood-spattered B Smith opposite her best friend Vinyl to their website.[25] On 15th January 2024, Darren Shan announced on his website that the project would not be moving forwards and that the option rights had reverted to him.[26]
