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.

Tickets £4.50, available on https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/derek-landy-demon-road

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

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.)

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. 

Updated Cover

Covers, like books, are only REALLY finished a few weeks before release. With that in mind, here is the final, moodier version of Demon Road.

See it. Love it.

Oh, Woe Is Me

It's not easy writing a book.

I mean, it's easier than mining coal. It's easier than most factory work. It's probably easier than a lot of office jobs as well.

But STARTING to write a book... those first few inches you have to push that boulder till it hits the edge and starts to roll downhill... THAT'S the hard part.

Not as hard as teaching, granted. Or working on a farm. Or being a doctor or a nurse or a cop or a fireman. I doubt it's as hard as construction, either, or carpentry, or plumbing, or engineering.

But STILL...

Forgotten Trail competition

Back in 2013, I ran a little competition.

The competition had nothing to do with me or Skulduggery — it was all to do with an educational video game designed to teach you maths and have, you know, actual fun while you do it. Incorporating historically accurate aspects of Native American tribal life and culture, the game was called Spirit Lake, and the competition was to find someone to become a character in it, using your name and likeness. Here's what I said about it at the time:

"And if this works like they hope it will, this could be the beginning of something huge. This could revolutionise teaching, and learning— not just in America but across the world— and it could be just the thing that's needed to help struggling students make that singular, all-important leap. This could change people's lives." 

The competition was a great success. I got in some hilarious responses, and also some heartfelt ones, and while it was not easy to pick a winner, a winner I did pick. 

And now I'm going to do it all over again.

These same awesome people — people who include the mother and sister of my personal (Twitter) friend, UFC champion Ronda Rousey* — have another game in development, called Forgotten Trail. 

SO — if you like the idea of having a video game version of yourself teaching kids maths across America, give me your reasons why. In no more than thirty words, explain why you should win, and send your entries to skulteams@hotmail.com. You can enter as many times as you like, you can be any age, from any country, and the winner will be announced at the end of July.

Good luck!

* Yes, Ronda does count as a friend**.

** By friend I don't, of course, mean someone I've ever actually met, but that's not what's important here***.

*** What's important is that we're PALS. Some might say buddies. Kindred spirits, perhaps. I might even go so far as to say I've taught her everything she knows****.

**** I haven't ACTUALLY taught her everything she knows, but she knows that I would have, if ever I knew something that she didn't already know. Such as writing*****.

***** Although seeing as how Ronda's autobiography has made it to the New York Times bestseller list — a list I have yet to ACTUALLY grace — this probably isn't the best use of my, or her, time. But even so, I am sure there are PLENTY of things I could teach her. Though probably nothing useful or, you know, not-imaginary, like unicorn-taming, or yodelling******.

***** I'll shut up now. 

DEMON ROAD

Ladies. Gentlemen. Minions.

Behold.

Wow.

We're still working on it, still altering and changing the little details, still tweaking... but I really wanted to get it out before it's leaked.

And let's face it, it is BRILLIANT.

You can start trembling now.