Richard Harland was born in Huddersfield and grew up in Devon, London, and Suffolk. After university in England, he moved to Australia on a postgrad scholarship and ended up settling there. Richard performed folk-rock music around Sydney for several years, then made a complete switch and became a lecturer at the University of Wollongong. After ten years, he resigned to follow his ultimate goal of becoming a full-time writer. He still lives in Wollongong with his wife Aileen, cat Habibi and dog Zoe. He has had fifteen novels published, all fantasy, science fiction or horror, and won five Aurealis Awards, including a Golden Aurealis for Best Novel in any genre of speculative fiction. Visit Richard at www.worldshaker.info.