Though of Irish descent, Darren Shan lived in London until the age of six, when his family moved to Limerick, Ireland. He has lived there ever since.
He studied Sociology and English at Roehampton University in London, and became a full-time writer at the age of 23, though he began writing in his teens. He was 17 when he completed his first novel!
Besides writing, Darren loves movies, and has a personal collection of more than 4,000 films. He also enjoys watching football (soccer), studying and collecting art, and travelling the world.
Here, in a piece that is fitting for the Halloween season, Darren talks how he got into writing horror novels and why he loves being scared --- and scaring others!
I sometimes get asked by parents if I’m worried that my books will give their children nightmares. I always answer honestly: “No, in fact I hope they do!” I loved being scared when I was a child. I would lie in bed at night thinking of scary things to try and give myself nightmares! For me that was all part of the fun of being a horror buff. You read funny stories to make you laugh, sad stories to make you cry, horror stories to get freaked out! For me the highest compliment I can be paid is to be told that my books have turned a reader into a shivering, trembling wreck.
My love of all things creepy goes back to when I was very young, no more than five or six years old. I remember catching a Dracula film one night, and falling in love with the caped, wall-crawling bloodsucker. Many of my early experiences with horror came through the medium of film, because there were no horror novels being written for children when I was growing up.
I have fond memories of Dracula 1972 A.D., a truly terrible Hammer flick, in which the Prince of Darkness is slotted in with punks and teenagers in flares! But it features one inspired scene, where Dracula is brought back to life in a cemetery, and his hand bursts out of a mound of throbbing, steaming earth. That gave me many sleep-disturbed nights!
Then there was Theater Of Blood, where the magnificent Vincent Price wreaked revenge on a cluster of critics who had panned his performances. I’ll never forget when he fed one pet-lover his mashed-up poodles until he choked. When viewed as an adult, it’s a very funny scene, but when you’re six years old, it’s enough to make your eyes boggle, and I thought mine were going to pop from my sockets!
As I got older, I moved onto horror books, which were even more deliciously deranged. The advantage that a horror novel has over a film is that it allows you to internalise the horrific scenes, to add your own layers to the mix. For instance, one of the first adult horror books I read was SALEM'S LOT by Stephen King. There’s a famous scene in it where a boy gets turned into a vampire and returns to kill his friend and brother. That was extremely disturbing in the 1970s film adaptation, but even darker when I came to read the book. I was able to put myself into the shoes of the friend and brother, to imagine myself in their place, to pause while I was reading and replay the scene over and over inside my head, to really creep myself out!
As scary as the horror genre might be, it’s a safe kind of scary, because you’re always in control of the material, especially if you’re reading a book. You decide whether or not to turn a page and read on. If you find a story particularly upsetting you can stop, close the book, wait until you feel more capable of dealing with it, or never return to it at all if you choose. I must be honest, I’ve yet to find a story that has made me run screaming for the hills, never to return. But I live in hope!
Being a horror writer, I’m always trying to push the boundaries of what a good horror novel can do. I don’t want to simply repeat stuff I’ve read elsewhere. I want to expand the possibilities of the genre. My wickedly wretched wish this Halloween is that young writers who read my books will be inspired to go off and create their own ghoulishly groovy tales that will add even more to the ever-growing field, and that one day my mind will be sent into meltdown by a story concocted by one of my fans. I’m always in the process of throwing my grisliest, most twisted imaginings out into the world — I’m hoping they come flying back at me one day, with extra, blood-dripping interest!
