![\"DSC02100trimmd\"](\"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/DSC02100trimmd.jpg\")
<\/a>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 \u2026<\/p>\nMy most recent novel to hit the bookshelves was Song of the Slums, <\/em>published in Australia by Allen & Unwin. It’s another steampunk fiction set in a different part of the same alternate history world as Worldshaker <\/em>and Liberator.<\/em> 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\u2019s 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\u2019s band, and the rest is (alternate) history!<\/p>\n My author website is at www.richardharland.net<\/a> + I\u2019ve added some new bits to my huge free guide for spec fic writers at www.writingtips.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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 \u2013 I’m quite happy with a few hundred songs in total that I listen to over and over \u2013 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.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2026<\/p>\nWhere can I read more about this fabulous author?<\/h3>\n
What music do they like?<\/h3>\n