Friday, July 31, 2015

Demon Road Teaser

Minions of the world, unite for the awesomeness...

Monday, July 27, 2015

The Platinum Edition

Every spare moment of the past week, I've been signing.

Whenever I need a break from the new book, whenever I need time to think something through, I've been going into the kitchen, sitting at the table, and pulling over another stack of pages to scribble my name upon. My dreams are now lagged by random sheets of paper, flying by on the breeze. They've become a constant in my life. They're always there, whenever I look around. When I have lunch, they're there. When I have dinner, they're there.

(I don't really have breakfast, which explains why they're not there then.)

(I mean, they ARE there. It's not like they AREN'T THERE at morning time. They are. Listen, if I DID have breakfast, which I don't, they would be there for breakfast as well. But I don't, so... so why are we even arguing about this?)

How many sheets of paper have I signed, you ask? 3000, I answer.

Why am I doing this, you ask? Because these sheets of paper will be collected from my home, shipped back to the UK, and placed into 3000 very special editions of my new book.

Ladies and gentlemen, i present to you the Limited Platinum Edition of Demon Road, available EXCLUSIVELY when you preorder at Waterstones.

Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful?

It's taken a HUGE amount of work to get a cover this strong, and while we have the regular gold cover to reflect my Golden God status, I reckoned Waterstones should have a Platinum Edition for the sterling work they've done in supporting me.

(Sterling! Get it? Sterling and platinum! Haw!)

(Yes, I realise that sterling is silver and platinum is a metal, but they're both ROUGHLY the same colour, and if you could just let me have this one without pointing out how none of this makes any sense, I'd be ever so grateful.)

You can pre-order here, if you so wish: https://www.waterstones.com/book/demon-road-signed-edition/derek-landy/9780008160500

Thursday, July 23, 2015

UK and Ireland Tour


At last! The tour dates! I'll also be in Germany in October, but for now, these are the places I'll be appearing, and if you're lucky enough to be close, you can bring along both Demon Road AND Skulduggery Pleasant books for me to scrawl in.

AUGUST

WED 26: Waterstones, Hampstead, 7 PM talk and signing.

Tickets available in store or on www.waterstones.com/events


THUR 27: WHS Guildford, 4 PM signing.


FRI 28: Waterstones, Bluewater, 10:30 AM signing.

Waterstones, Birmingham, 7 PM talk and signing.

Tickets available in store or on www.waterstones.com/events 


SAT 29: Waterstones, Durham, 1 PM signing.

Seven Stories, Newcastle, 6 PM talk and signing.


Tickets will be available on www.sevenstories.org.uk



SUN 30: Edinburgh Festival, 1:30 PM talk and signing.



MON 31: Waterstones, York,  12 PM  signing.

Waterstones, Manchester, 6:30 PM talk and signing.

Tickets available in store or on www.waterstones.com/events 


SEPTEMBER


TUE 1: Newham Bookshop, Stratford Picture House, 4 PM signing.


THU 3: Easons, O'Connell Street, 5 PM


Watch out for ticketing information and further details on www.easons.com



FRI 4: Dubray Books, Galway, 3:00 PM signing.


SAT 5: Easons, Cork, 12 PM signing.


TUE 8: Pavillion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire, 5 PM talk and signing.


Tickets available on www.paviliontheatre.ie




Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Demon Road Cover

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, finally, the Demon Road cover.



Okay, I know I said last time that I was presenting to you the final Demon Road cover, and I absolutely WAS, there's no question about that. But this is the FINAL final Demon Road cover, which is obviously the ACTUAL final cover, unlike the PREVIOUS final cover, which — as it turned out — wasn't really final at all. It was, as we say in the book trade, "not the actual final cover." But this one is. Totally.

For a start it's, like, gold. Someone may have made a joke (it could have been me) that it'd be cool to have a gold cover to reflect my, y'know, Golden God status, and my publisher may actually have thought this was a good idea, so... gold.

Also, it's just a touch less BUSY, don't you think? The image of Amber running will still be appearing, but now it'll be on the back.

Arriving at a cover this cool has not been easy but boy, has it been worth it. And just wait till you read what's INSIDE it!

(Hint: it's really good.)

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Demon Road Opening Line

The Demon Road proofs have been sent out to critics and reviewers and bloggers and booksellers and all kinds of wonderful, wonderful people ahead of the release on August 27. I can't WAIT for this book to get onto shelves. I want to know what you think. I want to see how you react. I've been warned by my publishers not to expect the second series to be as big as the first — at least not initially — and let's be honest, Skulduggery is a hard act to follow. But this whole thing has become a giant experiment for me, and it's going to be fascinating to watch unfold.

This weekend in London I'll be at YALC on both Friday and Sunday. On Friday, I'll be talking about Demon Road. On Sunday, I'll be on a panel discussing how the late Terry Pratchett has influenced my writing — basically it's just an excuse for me to yap about how funny he was. There will be signings both days, and I'll sign whatever you bring along.

There's gonna be some cool bits and pieces available too —"merch" or "swag" or "stuff" or "free things" like Demon Road badges and wristbands and maps and little pamphlets containing the first four chapters. That's kind of the point of this blog post, actually, because once those sample chapters are released, a plot detail that I haven't REALLY spoken about is going to be confirmed. So I'm going to discuss it here first, by providing to you the opening line of the book:

"Twelve hours before Amber Lamont's parents tried to kill her, she was sitting between them in the principal's office, her hands in her lap, stifling all the things she wanted to say."

I've talked about how this is a story about a girl being chased across America by a pack of demons. What I haven't said is that those demons are Amber's own parents. 

I had this idea years ago, of a teenager being hunted by her mother and father. It resonated with me because this is so obviously WRONG, it is against the natural order of things for parents to want to harm their children. I'm lucky — I come from a good home, and I have loving parents, but I am well aware that not everyone is in the same position. This inversion of values is why the idea stuck with me, and so the whole trilogy has become an examination of family, and what it means to be loved and accepted for who and what you are. 

I'm not going to say anything more about it right now, and all those wonderful people who are reading the proofs won't really be saying anything about it until the official release, but I genuinely cannot wait for you to get your hands on this book.