Over 20 years ago, I was 13 years old at the Skokie Public Library watching my favorite author do a reading and signing. That author was Darren Shan, and the book was Lord Loss. I still have that signed copy.

Darren is the author of over 70 books, including the beloved Cirque du Freak and Demonata series, and has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. He is widely regarded as the Master of Children's and Young Adult Horror. 

In this conversation, we talk about what horror can teach children about grief and death that other genres can't, how he snuck the most graphic scene he's ever written past his editor with one small change, what it felt like to have Cirque du Freak rejected by 20 publishers before it became a global phenomenon, and why he thinks writer's block is just laziness. We also get into his books as a form of self-help, the moral core underneath all the darkness, and what it means to him that his readers come from every corner of the world.