Richard Harland is an author of fantasy and science fiction novels, short stories, poems and academic books.

Has your interaction with fans, for example, at conventions, affected your work? I came to cons (conventions) late, after The Vicar Of Morbing Vyle and The Dark Edge were already published. (Can't think how I passed the time before - like a social hermit, I guess!). Fans in general influence me a lot - I wrote The Black Crusade because fans insisted on a sequel To The Vicar, for example.

photograph, Richard Harland

When someone first told me I was a very visual writer, I was gobsmacked, because that was the last thing I ever thought I could be. The best praise is the kind you never expect!

Do you have a favourite author or book (or writer or film or series) that has influenced you or that you return to?

My list of favourites would go on forever - I'd need a top fifty at least. But writers who've influenced me - that's a special different kind of love, and I can narrow it down to three biggest influences.

Edgar Allan Poe rocked my socks when I was about 13; Fyodor Dostoevsky blew my mind when I was about 17; and Mervyn Peake got into my dreams, I don't know how many years later.

I've never mentioned Dostoesvky before, because it sounds pretentious for a fantasy writer to name a famous literary author. And yeah, that was my literary period - but out of all the authors I read around that age, it was Dostoevsky who stayed with me, because he's dark and strange like Poe and Peake.

Julie Delpy, the French actress who co-stars in Before Sunset and Before Sunrise. OK, maybe she's not the same in real life as the movies, but I can't help thinking of her as the most stimulating and fascinating person to talk to, for hour after hour after hour. Perhaps it's that French conversation thing … or maybe it's just the French accent...

Here's the amazing cover for the UK edition of Worldshaker - I am SO proud of this image, and the fact that the famous Ian Miller did it!

Who is the person you would most DISlike to be trapped in a lift with? Or a spaceship? You think I'm going to name someone living and make an enemy for life? No, I'll name someone dead - in fact, I'll name everyone dead, because all corpses would be equally boring in a lift or a spacecraft. Smelly too. What would you pack for space? (Is there a food, beverage, book, teddy bear, etc that you couldn't do without?) My iPod shuffle. It's got my 80 all-time favourite songs on it, many I've never had recorded before, and I can't get enough of them.

I'd love to create an explosion of the imagination and change the nature of human dreams. But in the meanwhile, I'll be happy if I can tell stories that suck readers in and keep them turning the pages.

What is the special satisfaction of your work?

I love the planning time, when ideas combine and build up together into a world and a story; and I love the later stages of writing, when everything's been set up right and the story takes over and tells itself. I call that stage the toboggan ride, when I'm just getting towed along and hanging on - exhilarating!

Usually, the toboggan ride kicks in somewhere about three quarters of the way through, but with Liberator, which is the sequel to Worldshaker, I've been hanging on since about a third of the way through.

Just the facts: Born: In Yorkshire, in England, a long time ago. Resides: In Figree, near Wollongong, 85 km south of Sydney - between the green cliff of the escarpment and a string of golden beaches.

Author site: www.richardharland.net www.worldshaker.info (site for the US and UK editions of Workdshaker) www.writingtips.com.au (my free downloadable 145-page guide to writing fantasy and SF) Wikipedia

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