Who is Richard Harland?
I’m still living in Figtree, near Wollongong, still writing every day, and still planning to live to 100 so I can complete all the projects lined up in my head. My latest project is huge, very exciting and very hush-hush. I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you …
My most recent novel to hit the bookshelves was Song of the Slums, published in Australia by Allen & Unwin. It’s another steampunk fiction set in a different part of the same alternate history world as Worldshaker and Liberator. New characters, new storyline, a stand-alone novel. New appeals and interests too – it goes back to the middle of the Victorian era and the invention of rock ‘n roll a hundred years before Elvis Presley! Astor, the main character, falls out of respectable society and winds up in the slums, where she joins Granny Rouse’s gang, who have developed a new kind of music, loud and raw with an irresistible rhythm, played on steampunk instruments. Astor becomes the drummer for Granny’s band, and the rest is (alternate) history!
Where can I read more about this fabulous author?
My author website is at www.richardharland.net + I’ve added some new bits to my huge free guide for spec fic writers at www.writingtips.com.au
What music do they like?
Particular lines of particular songs inspire Richard with ideas, and he listens to a selection of music for general relaxation (not inspiration). Music he listens to for relaxation include (not in order of preference): REM, The Cars, Velvet Underground, Hunters & Collectors, Falling Joys, Stone Roses, Stones, Dylan, Springsteen, Go-Betweens, Eurythmics, Bo Diddley.
“I know they’re favourites because I have more than half a dozen songs by each of them on my iPod. I guess I’m odd like that – I’m quite happy with a few hundred songs in total that I listen to over and over – they’re sort of timeless for me. So my favourite music now is a kind of distillation over the several decades I’ve been listening to rock/pop/folk/etc.”
