Sutherland author wins Indie book award
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A WRITER living in Sutherland is celebrating a prestigious accolade.
Scott Neil’s latest book The Bird At The End of Time was named as one of the finalists in the novella category (under 40,000 words) of the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The winners and finalists in the awards have just been announced and Mr Neil is thrilled that his work has been recognised. There were eight finalists in the novella class with two tying for first place.
He said: “It is the largest international book award programme recognising independently published books and is often referred to as the Sundance of the publishing world.”
A former journalist, Mr Neil worked on a number of newspapers in the UK including the Daily Echo in Bournemouth and the Basingstoke Gazette.
He lived in the North Atlantic island of Bermuda for 16 years, up to mid-2021 when he decided to return to Scotland where his family is from and where he lived as a child.
“I was holidaying in the Highlands when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and I ended up having to work remotely for almost five months until I was able to return to Bermuda,” he said.
“That enforced stay helped sway my decision to move back to Scotland. While I miss the stunning beauty and warmth of Bermuda, I love the sweeping grandeur of the Highlands and the distinct seasons.”
Now aged 56, Mr Neil lives at Inveran, near Bonar Bridge, and still does occasional work as a freelance journalist but has more time and freedom to focus on writing.
While in Bermuda in 2012 he wrote the internationally released non-fiction book Lennon Bermuda, an in-depth account of John Lennon’s two-month sojourn to the island in 1980 where he wrote and worked on many of his final songs.
The book won the Crystal Butterfly Literary Award for outstanding contribution to Bermuda literature.
Mr Neil says his The Bird At the End of Time started as a 950-word story which he expanded last summer.
“By the time it was finished and published in December, it was more than 20,000 words in length,” he said. “It is set on Earth in the near future, a post-apocalyptic world devastated by wars, climate destruction and rogue AIs (artificial intelligence) with much of the story taking place in Bermuda.”
He is now working on a full-length novel set in the present day.
His books are available from online bookstores and there is also an audiobook of The Bird At the End of Time.
