Skulduggery author, Derek Landy on the accidental reveal of the ending of his new book

Derek Landy from @DerekLandy
True-life horror: You write a series with 13 award-winning bestsellers and number-14 is eagerly awaited and pre-ordered by fans worldwide and then... it accidentally gets released online.
The
series is about a rather dapper skeleton detective and his protégé, Valkyrie Cain. The core tale is about Valkyrie's struggle to stop evil forces threatening the world and her internal struggle to resist the darkness within.The 14th book in Derek Landy's acclaimed Skulduggery Pleasant series is due for release next week but an online release of a few pages as a treat went somewhat awry on Wednesday evening when the first 10 chapters — and the ending — made it into the wild.Â

For an author of books with superbly dramatic themes of death, vengeance, and destruction, Landy seems remarkably calm about the 'glitch'.
Landy, 46, who's from Lusk in Dublin, was initially furious. However, it has since emerged that it may have been an algorithm issue at a publishing sub-contractors.
"The person who’s responsible for sharing too many damn chapters on an official site... They made a mistake. Their head isn’t going to roll. They’re gonna feel bad enough about this already, without me adding to the mix... So to all you folks out there, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t go looking for this stuff online - but if you do? Fair enough. The book sales might take a hit but we’ve all got bigger things to worry about in our lives, don’t we?"
And he notes that: "It’s only because Twitter is how I interact with all of you lovable weirdos and oddballs that I think ALL the SP readers are on here — but they’re not, and this incident will pass and they won’t care about it one way or the other."
This 'look on the bright side' attitude has also helped Landy with his take on the lockdowns we've all endured over the past year.
"Working from home as a writer I have no office to miss, no co-workers or colleagues or water cooler thing to miss so in a way lockdown for me has been business as usual. The only big impact is that when it all started I assumed I would keep on writing and get through loads of work. But to write I need to daydream and that wasn't possible with all that was going on — so that stopped me from writing until about August."
He's making up for it now though with another book due out in May: it's a 81,000 word grimoire — a compendium of all things Skulduggery.
Like the characters in his Skulduggery books who often shrug off sorcerers, curses and disasters with sarcastic quips and a dose of quirky humour, Landy has focused on the bright side of lockdown.
"I've been lucky really, my parents and siblings all live within 10 minutes of me so we've been able to stand outside in the sunshine — and rain — and see each other that way. But I do really miss hugs with my nieces and nephews."
Landy has been living with his girlfriend, Laura Katie, 27, for the past year. "She moved in a year, or is it a year and a half ago. I don't do dates and can't remember anniversaries."
Fans might attest to this as Landy only recently tweeted for help with a fact check on his own books: "Okay then, folks, I'm gonna need your help here in figuring out Val's age. I've spent the afternoon trying to come up with a solid timeline that requires the MINIMUM of changes to the existing books, so..."
He also lives with a range of pets and a massive collection of movie memorabilia. As a fan of fantasy, horror, and superheroes, he has treated himself to everything from a Captain America shield to a 'facehugger' (the clue's in the name) from
.Surprisingly, Landy has restrained himself from 'excessive' impulse purchases since the pandemic began: "I've been buying luxury Marvel comics from the 60s — they are so beautiful."
For such a movie buff, is it a little strange that Landy's Skulduggery series hasn't made it to the big screen yet?
"We have veered very close a good few times. I actually stopped taking money from various studios and companies as once you option the rights away the involvement of the writer is greatly reduced. The Skulduggery world and the characters are hugely important to me and to the readers. I would like to see this happen, I have worked on a screenplay so much now. I started out in movies, I adore movies."
Landy has written two screenplays that have been made into films, the IFTA award-winning
and the IFTA-nominated starring Samantha Mumba."I will say this now though, we are close to something."