Michael Scott (Irish author)

Michael Scott (Irish author)
Michael Peter Scott (born 28 September 1959) is an Irish writer of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and, under the name Anna Dillon, romance novels. He is also a collector and editor of folklore. Scott is best known for his The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel book series.
Career
Early career
Scott traveled across Ireland as a dealer of rare and antique books before beginning his writing career.
Writing
Scott has produced over 100 books in more than 30 years of active writing. He has written short stories and novels for adults, young adults, and children, in many genres including science fiction, fantasy, horror, folklore, and romance.
His first book (inspired by his fascination with Irish mythology), Irish Folk and Fairy Tales, volume 1, was published in 1983 and became part of a trilogy documenting a large number of Irish folk tales that had, in some cases, only been told verbally prior to his collection. The Irish Folk and Fairy Tales volumes were the culmination of Scott's extensive travels across Ireland whilst working as a book dealer, documenting the tales he found along the way.
When reviewing Scott's The De Danann Tales, the Irish Times described him as "the King of Fantasy in these Isles," and the Irish Children's Book Trust in their Definitive Guide to Children's Books recognized him, for his "unparalleled contribution to Children's Literature". The De Danann Tales was scheduled to be a series of five books but only three were ever published. He also co-authored two books of a projected trilogy with Morgan Llywelyn, and one standalone book.
He is best known for his six-book young adult series, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.
Scott is also an experienced scriptwriter for stage and screen, having written for a number of projects including documentaries and drama. He once headed up the drama department in Tyrone Productions, the creators of Riverdance. While working there he scripted high-profile events such as the 2003 Special Olympics which were held in Ireland, and the Irish Film and Television Awards. Michael Scott was the Writer in Residence during Dublin's tenure as the European City of Culture in 1991 he featured in the 2006 edition of Who's Who in Ireland as one of the 1,000 "most significant Irish".
Scott has also written a number of drama/romance novels under the pseudonym Anna Dillon.
Doctor Who
On 5 February 2013 Michael Scott was announced as the author of The Nameless City, a short story commissioned by the BBC to celebrate the 50th anniversary year of the TV series Doctor Who. The story features the second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton and his companion Jamie McCrimmon. It was released on 23 February 2013 as an ebook initially, and featured a special celebratory printed anthology which was released alongside the final e-story on 23 November 2013 by Puffin Books
Styles and genres
Scott's stated first love is mythology. He says that his background, growing up in Ireland with its rich mythology, led him to be naturally drawn to myths. Irish mythology emerged through history relatively unscathed and uninfluenced as they were not invaded by the Romans or Greeks. History also has a strong impact on his style, as it was his favourite subject in school. However, while he has a special taste for mythology, Scott writes what purely interests him, which has led him to write across many genres and styles. He doesn't restrict himself with genre labelling - he says is only interested in being a writer, not a writer of any specific genre.
Nicholas Flamel
Books
The first book in Scott's The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel six book series, The Alchemyst, reached #2 on the New York Times Best Seller, Children's list on 26 August 2007 and as of 24 March 2008 it had sold in excess of 150,000 copies. The second book in that series, The Magician, reached #4 on the New York Times Best Seller list on 13 July 2008. The series has to date been printed in 20 languages and is available in 37 countries. He wrote the entire series out of fascination with history and inspiration from other places.
Online games
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series has spawned online games, the first related online game to be launched was The Codex Master The game is to guess a secret code consisting of a sequence of coloured orbs by inputting various sequences and using logic. When a sequence is entered, indicators show when the player has the right colour and also when a colour is in the right or wrong position to enable them to apply logic and guess the correct sequence.
To celebrate the release of The Sorceress an online game was created. It was called The Challenges of the Elder and launched on 21 April 2009. Players are guided through the game, which is a set of four challenges, by video scenes featuring Michael Scott. The first task, the Alchemyst's challenge, required players to assemble a moving jigsaw of the series' logo against a countdown clock. The second task, the Magician's challenge, required players to turn over two books from a series of books and find matching symbols, when a matching pair was found both books burst into flames and disappeared. The task was complete when all the books had been matched. The third task, the Sorceress' challenge was a colour sequencing game where players chose coloured flasks and would have to repeat the sequence that they were shown in. Players then advanced to meet The Elder, who asked them a set of knowledge questions about the books and were given a 'coloured aura ranking' calculated from their scores and time taken to complete the tasks.
Film adaptation
The film rights to The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series became available in late 2009, and on 19 November 2009 it was announced in Variety Magazine that Lorenzo di Bonaventura had bought the film rights to the series. Michael Scott and Barry Krost will be the executive producers. The script writer has yet to be announced.
IMDb now lists The Alchemyst film as "in development"
Award nominations
Scott's The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series has thus far garnered him 10 literary award nominations. The Alchemyst was the winner of the 2008 Rhode Island Book Award (Teens) after beating 200 other nominated titles.
The Alchemyst was nominated for:
Irish Book of the Year 2008
Kentucky Bluegrass Book Award
Maine Student Book Award
Nevada Young Readers Award
NCSLMA YA Book Award - 2010
Rhode Island Book Award 2008– (Winner)
The Magician was nominated for:
2009 Irish Book of the Year Award — The Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children's Book of the Year — Snr Category.
The Sorceress was nominated for:
Amazon - Best Books of 2009, Top 10 Children's Books: Middle Readers.
Cybills (Children and Young Bloggers Literary Awards) - 2009 Nominations, fantasy & science-fiction: Elementary/Middle Years.
Bibliography
Young readers
Illustrated
The Piper's Ring (illustrated by Ian Deuchar, 1992) ;
Fungie and the Magical Kingdom (illustrated by Steve Simpson, 1994) ;
Science Fiction
Doctor Who: The Nameless City (2013)
Young adult books
Fantasy
Tales from the Land of Erin 1: A Bright Enchantment (1985) ;
Tales from the Land of Erin 2: A Golden Dream (1985) ;
Tales from the Land of Erin 3: A Silver Wish (1985) ;
The De Danann Tales 1: Windlord (1991) ;
The De Danann Tales 2: Earthlord (1992) ;
The De Danann Tales 3: Firelord (1994) ;
The De Danann Tales 4: Sealord was scheduled (and its cover published) and apparently written (with possibly even a fifth volume), but nothing was released and the series storyline was never completed.
The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (2007) ;
The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (2008) ;
The Sorceress: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (2009) ;
The Necromancer: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (2010) ;
The Warlock: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (2011) ;
The Enchantress: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (2012) ;
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: The Lost Stories Collection (2021) ;
Folk Tales
Song of the Children of Lir (Dublin: De Vogel Ltd, 1983) ; ; also published as The Children of Lir: An Irish Legend (Magnet, Methuen Children's Books, 1986) ;
The Last of the Fianna (Pied Piper, Methuen Children's Books, 1987); also published as The Last of the Fianna: An Irish Legend (Dublin: O'Brien Press, 1992) ;
The Quest of the Sons (a.k.a. The Seven Treasures, 1988) ;
Green and Golden Tales: Irish Hero Tales (collection, 1988) ;
Green and Golden Tales: Irish Fairy Tales (collection, 1988) ;
Green and Golden Tales: Irish Animal Tales (collection, 1989) ;
Saint Patrick (1990)
Magical Irish Folk Tales (collection, 1995) ;
Teen Adventure
Judith and The Traveller (as Mike Scott, 1991) ;
Judith and Spider (as Mike Scott, 1992) ;
Good Enough for Judith (as Mike Scott, 1994) ;
Science Fiction
Gemini Game (1994) ;
Illustrated
The Story of Ireland (illustrated by Hemesh Alles) (collection, 1990) ;
Adult books
Horror
October Moon (1992) ;
Wolf Moon (1995) ;
House of the Dead (1993) ;
Vampyre (1995) ;
Vampyres of Hollywood (with Adrienne Barbeau, 2008) ;
19 Railway Street (with Morgan Llywelyn, 1996) ;
Banshee (1990) ;
Image (1991)
Reflection (1993) ;
Imp (1993) ;
The Hallows (Creed) (1995) ;
Mirror Image (2016) with Melanie Ruth Rose;
Fantasy
A Celtic Odyssey (a.k.a. The Voyage of Maildun, 1985) ;
Tales of the Bard 1: Magician's Law (1987) ;
Tales of the Bard 2: Demon's Law (1988) ;
Tales of the Bard 3: Death's Law (1989) ;
The Culai Heritage (collection of the Tales of the Bard novels, 2001) ;
The Arcana 1: Silverhand (with Morgan Llywelyn, 1996) ;
The Arcana 2: Silverlight (with Morgan Llywelyn, 1996) ;
The Arcana 3 (with Morgan Llywelyn) The projected third volume was never released and the series storyline never concluded.
Etruscans (with Morgan Llywelyn, 2000) ;
The Thirteen Hallows (with Colette Freedman, 2011)
Folk Tales
Irish Folk & Fairy Tales 1 (collection, 1983)
Irish Folk & Fairy Tales 2 (collection, 1983) ;
Irish Folk & Fairy Tales 3 (collection, 1984) ;
Magical Irish Folk Tales (collection, 1985) ;
Irish Folk & Fairy Tales Omnibus (collection, 1989) ;
The Navigator (with Gloria Gaghan, a.k.a. The Voyage of St. Brendan, 1988) ;
River Gods (collection, 1991) ;
Irish Myths and Legends (collection, 1992) ;
Irish Ghosts & Hauntings (collection, 1994) ;
Adventure
The Quiz Master (2004) ;
Science fiction
The Merchant Prince (with Armin Shimerman, 2000) ;
Non-fiction
The Book of Celtic Wisdom (1999) ;
Celtic Wisdom for Business (2001) ;
Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? (2001) ;
Ireland (Photopocket) (2004) ;
Illustrated
Ireland — a Graphic History (graphic novel, with Morgan Llywelyn, illustrated by Eoin Coveney, 1995) ;
As Anna Dillon
Seasons (1988) ;
Another Time, Another Season (a.k.a. Another Season, 1989) ;
Season's End (1991) ;
Lottery (1993)
Lies (1998) ;
The Affair (2004) ,
Consequences (2005) ;
As editor
Hall's Ireland (1984)
An Irish Herbal (1986)
Contributions to other books
The BFI Companion to Horror
Ireland
Making Contract
Lifelines 3
The Lion and the Unicorn
Maths 100 Odyssey 1
Maths 100 Odyssey 2
Maths 100 Odyssey 3
Irish Buildings
Irish Pubs
Irish Castles
Ireland
Ulster Medicine
Trinity College Portfolio
References
External links
Michael Scott at House of Legends
Questions and Answers with Michael Scott at Hortorian.com
Anna Dillon at LC Authorities, with 5 records
1959 births
Living people
Irish novelists
Irish folklorists
Irish fantasy writers
Irish science fiction writers
Irish children's writers
Writers from Dublin (city)
Irish male novelists