Derry author nominated for nine awards in the Indie Ink 2024 book awards

A Derry author has seen his debut novel nominated for nine categories at the Indie Ink 2024 book awards.

Eamonn Bradley has seen his book ‘The Ranger’ nominated for awards including Best Light Read, Best Setting, and Wittiest Character.

He said: “It is amazing.

“When I saw the nominations, I didn’t even know I had been nominated. It is quite big, and it could be good exposure too.

“I released the book on the 25th of October on Amazon, and since then it has been selling well for a first-time indie author.

“The reviews have been good for it also, so that is a great feeling for it to be well received.”

Mr Bradley, currently residing on the island of Jersey in the Channel, grew up in Galliagh before moving to Buncrana at age 12.

Throughout his childhood he loved reading and writing short stories before other interests piqued his fancy as he grew older, but a couple of years ago he rediscovered his old love before taking up writing again.

He said: “My cousin Paul Casey, a singer-songwriter in Derry, gave me my first gamebook when I was about 9 or 10, Lonewolf number two. As a kid, once I started reading them, you play them by having your own adventure through these books, and I read them when I was a child, and I ended up devouring them; they captured my imagination.”

‘The Ranger’ has been inspired by the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings works.

Mr Bradley, 45, was inspired by the world created by Tolkien, taking it upon himself to look to start building his own world for his characters.

He said: “The Ranger is like the Hobbit in a way; it is an introduction. It is not soft or light by any means, but it is an introduction to setting up a whole big world.

“What ‘The Ranger’ is inspired by is Lord of the Rings. I always loved Aragon, but you always got to see him later in his life, so I wanted to see what a young ranger would do.

“So the first image was seeing a young lad about 20 leaving the ranger school and heading into a town with the sun setting in the background. This is the beginning of the book, and from here I just started writing, and it grew from here.”

While Mr Bradley is a fan of fantasy and he looks forward to building upon this novel and its world, he has his switch tones for his next couple of books.

He is a major fan of Stephen King, with a look at horror and psychological thrillers, and so has pivoted in this direction for his next release expected in April 2025.

Mr Bradley said: “My next book is based in Derry. It is a horror book about four kids who go to school one day, and there is a big storm brewing, and they have an accident in school, and when they wake up, they start to see things no one else can see and begin to realise the world is not what we think it is, and slowly as it goes along, their worlds start to unravel.”