Talk:Richard Harland

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 3 one external links on Richard Harland. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080727113933/http://extranet.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/LLAE/viewpoint/au01bo.shtml to http://extranet.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/LLAE/viewpoint/au01bo.shtml
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090131011141/http://aurealisawards.com:80/Winners.htm to http://www.aurealisawards.com/Winners.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090303123717/http://aurealisawards.com:80/Winners.htm to http://www.aurealisawards.com/Winners.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 22:50, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

COI tag (June 2023)
A user claiming to be the subject has been editing the article in June 2023, making unsourced changes that may violate Wikipedia's policy on biographical articles Grachester (talk) 05:29, 4 June 2023 (UTC)


 * Hi Grachester! As an ex-academic myself (now retired), I always thought that Wikipedia entries should be done by scholars with no input from me (Richard Harland). I don't even remember the name of the person who volunteered to put up the article on me long ago, except that he was doing the same for several Australian spec fic writers. So I was completely hands off, until a few weeks ago when I discovered the source of misinformation that had been circulating about, e.g. that I'm a British author (I've been Australian for over 30 years). The article hadn't been updated since around 2010 - but even that doesn't explain some of the errors. I was horrified and desperate to put things right - because naturally everyone accepts Wikipedia information as accurate information - and mistakes like 'British author' have come into publisher listings and catalogue information about me. Just an example - but obviously when an error like that becomes widespread it affects submissions for awards, grants, etc etc, and is almost impossible to eradicate. As I say, I was desperate, and took the easy route, since I don't have the name of the original writer of the article. Nor do I have any current contact with academia; my contacts are all publishers, editors, agents, etc - all people who have an 'interest' in my writing career. Of course, I should have known the easy route was too easy. I updated and corrected facts, and never contemplated changing interpretations I merely disliked - but a self-editor could have done that. Can you please tell me what to do?  I need to get this sorted out as soon as absolutely possible.  Thank you, Richard Harland 58.110.68.181 (talk) 07:59, 8 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Find independent, published sources that list you as Australian. Add them as a comment here and I or another uninvolved editor can adjust the article from the sources. Grachester (talk) 08:24, 8 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi Grachester! Here are 2 sources: Fantastic Fiction: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/richard-harland/ and the brief bio of me in the National Library of Australia catalogue:
 * https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Search/Home?lookfor=author:%22Harland%2C%20Richard%2C%201947-%22&iknowwhatimean=1
 * When I went searching, there were many bios and interviews describing how I fell in love with Australia when I arrived in 1970, but almost no references to my becoming naturalised about 20 years later. Not a dramatic event in my life story, more of an official stamp on what had long been a practical fact. My Aurealis Awards are another proof of my nationality, since the awards are only given to Australian authors, e.g. https://aurealisawards.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/aurealis-1995-2017-compiled-lists.pdf (I was looking up a citation for "The Fear", my Horror Short Story winner in 2010). Would you be able to adjust the article from the sources? 58.110.68.181 (talk) 12:11, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

PROPOSED FOOTNOTES AND CITATIONS FOR RICHARD HARLAND ARTICLE ?
> in Section Other children’s fiction >> sub-section Sassycat: the Night of the Dead (2005) AT END OF SUB-Section … invading their territory from a nearby cemetery. INSERT 2 footnotes and 2 citations (a)http://www.scool.scholastic.com.au/schoolzone/toolkit/assets/pdfs/Sassy_Cat.pdf (b) https://www.booktopia.com.au/sassycat-richard-harland/book/9781862916708.html

> in Section Worldshaker, Liberator and Song of the Slums >> AT END OF FIRST PARAGRAPH … for a substantial advance. INSERT footnote and citation https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Worldshaker/Richard-Harland/9781416995531 >> AT END OF THIRD PARAGRAPH … published globally by the same publishers as Liberator. INSERT footnote and citation https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Liberator/Richard-Harland/9781442423343 >> AT END OF FINAL PARAGRAPH … Astor’s relationship with the enigmatic Errol. INSERT footnote and citation https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Richard-Harland-Song-of-the-Slums-9781743310052/

> in Section: Shorter works of fiction AFTER … magazines and anthologies in the US, Australia, Canada and France. INSERT 2 footnotes and citations (a) The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (b) AustLit Database, https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/search2/page?query=Richard+Harland&token=ywqyncy&facetSampleSize=0&facetValuesSize=0&blendMax=y&count=50&sortBy=date

> in Section Awards AFTER    Richard Harland has won the following awards: INSERT 4 footnotes and citations: (a) AustLit database: https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A21008?mainTabTemplate=agentAwards (b) The Internet Speculative Fiction Database: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/eaw.cgi?5718 (c) Aurealis Awards archive: https://aurealisawards.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/aurealis-1995-2017-compiled-lists.pdf (d)   https://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Prix+Tam-tam+du+Livre+de+Jeunesse --Richard Harland (talk) 23:30, 1 July 2023 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Richard Harland (talk • contribs) 05:08, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

Reply 2-JUL-2023
Regards, Spintendo  21:41, 2 July 2023 (UTC)
 * 1) The bookseller is not the best source to be used as a reference. They would only be used to establish the publication of a book, a process more efficiently done by providing the  ISBN  number. To establish other claims about the publication, such as details within the publications and/or analysis, references to high quality journalistic sources are preferred.
 * 2) Per WP:BLPAWARDS, to list awards that the subject has received, please ensure that only awards which are independently notable in Wikipedia are included. If the award has its own Wikipedia page, please include the Wikilink for the page with the award's text in your request. More information about this process can be found here.

Edit request
In the introductory paragraph, there's a reference to '15 full-length works of fiction'. Could this be changed to '17'? The evidence is in the rest of the article: by paragraphs - (2 books) Vicar, Black Crusade (3) Eddon and Vail 'series of three science fiction novels' (3) Heaven and Earth 'trilogy' (4) Wolf Kingdom series - '4 illustrated fantasies' (1) Walter Wants To Be a Werewolf (1) Sassycat (3) Worldshaker, Liberator, Song of Slums I suspect the mistake came from counting the Heaven and Earth trilogy as a single book. --Richard Harland (talk) 23:16, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Reply 3-JUL-2023
Spintendo 01:08, 4 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Belatedly, thanks, Spintendo! Richard Harland (talk) 11:05, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

Edit request: update books with content summary

 * I'm hoping someone can help me with this update to published books by Richard Harland (self). "FERREN AND THE ANGEL" came out in 2023, and content descriptions can be found on Amazon, Goodreads, the IPG website (US and global book distributor) and the publisher's website, IFWG Publishing. The book has been reviewed in several US review journals, most notably Kirkus Reviews. The material I'd hope to have added is the content summary from the Kirkus Review, which was published online on August 26, 2023, then appeared in the more serious and restricted print issue of September 15, 2023. All but the first sentence below comes from that source; the bald facts in the first sentence can be checked in any of the other sources.
 * So my request is: to insert after the 4 paragraphs under the title "Worldshaker, Liberator and Song of the Slums" and before the paragraph titled "Shorter Works of Fiction" the following:
 * Ferren and the Angel
 * Harland's latest book is a dystopian YA fantasy published globally by IFWG Publishing International in 2023. Fifteen-year-old Ferren has only known life as one of the People, a “primitive” population on a post-apocalyptic Earth, continually threatened by the war waged by the armies of Heaven. As part of their alliance with the militaristic Humens that Ferren’s community in Australia lives in fear of, they are expected to surrender a member each year. First Ferren’s parents were taken by the Humens, and then his older sister was selected, leaving him with a lonely existence. Ferren isn’t close with any of the People; most think he is odd. After a particularly brutal fight between the Humens and angels, the People’s sworn enemies, Ferren stumbles upon Miriael, a wounded angel “in the feminine mode” whom he is fascinated by and restores to health. From Miriael, Ferren comes to a new and shocking understanding of the truth.

Hopefully that's acceptable. It's verbatim after the first sentence, meaning that it counts as an extract, so I'd feel obliged to request permission from Kirkus. (Ironically, they want to prevent publicists dishonestly extracting positive snippets of praise - I'm doing the opposite!) Alternatively, I could rewrite all the same facts of content in a new, equally neutral presentation.

~ Richard Harland (talk) 10:58, 23 February 2024 (UTC)
 * @, instead of an extract, would you be willing to provide an original summary? We usually try to avoid long quotations of copyrighted text like this. ARandomName123 (talk)Ping me! 13:43, 23 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Hi ARandomName! Thanks for the advice - I think I was overcompensating, borrowing a whole content summary that no one could possibly say was my work. But I'll very willingly produce an original summary that's no less neutral and non-evaluative, drawing on various sources in the public domain. Thanks again!~ Richard Harland (talk) 05:19, 24 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Hi ARandomName123!
 * I'm all at sea with Wikipedia editing etiquette - I guess that's obvious! So I'm sending this as a reply to you as well as putting up an Edit Request. Please excuse/ignore if I'm doing the wrong thing.
 * Trying to remain perfectly factual and impartial, I've produced this content summary, along with a list of sources:
 * Ferren and the Angel
 * Harland’s latest novel is a dystopian YA Fantasy, the first book in The Ferren Trilogy.
 * The setting is the far future, when only scattered ruins remain from the civilization of the present. While artificially created beings called ‘Humen’ conduct an endless war against Heaven, descendants of the original human beings have been reduced to a degraded existence, surviving in ignorance in isolated tribes.
 * Fifteen-year-old Ferren belongs to a tribe called ‘the People’. Like other tribes, the People consider themselves allies of the Humen, although they go in fear of them. Especially terrifying are the black-clad Selectors who select one tribal member for ‘military service’ each year.
 * Ferren’s life changes when he sees a ‘Celestial’  shot down and crashing to the Earth. Unusually bold, he investigates and finds the angel Miriael, semi-conscious and awaiting extinction. Feeling pity for his tribe’s supposed enemy, he feeds her mortal food and thereby ‘corrupts’ her spiritual purity, even as he enables her to live in the terrestrial atmosphere.
 * From Miriael, Ferren learns truths about the nature of his world. Then, after being temporarily exiled by the People, he ventures into the military-industrial complex of the Humen Camp and learns the truth about ‘military service’. In the end, his relationship with Miriael proves crucial in protecting his tribe through the cataclysmic violence of a great terra-celestial battle.
 * Ferren and the Angel is a rewritten version of the novel first published in The Heaven and Earth Trilogy over two decades earlier. It came out worldwide from IFWG Publishing International in 2023.
 * ______________________
 * I'm hoping that fits the bill for a Wikipedia entry.
 * Richard Harland~ Richard Harland (talk) 01:18, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

Update Content Request
Following the advice of ARandomName123, I've produced the following content summary for insertion in the Richard Harland Wiki entry, to go after the paragraphs on Worldshaker, Liberator and Song of the Slums and before the paragraph on Shorter Works of Fiction. Although I've used my own words, I've tried to keep it completely objective. I've followed it with a list of sources which, taken together, should provide evidence for all the content facts.

Requested insertion:

Ferren and the Angel

Harland’s latest novel is a dystopian YA Fantasy, the first book in The Ferren Trilogy.

The setting is the far future, when only scattered ruins remain from the civilization of the present. While artificially created beings called ‘Humen’ conduct an endless war against Heaven, descendants of the original human beings have been reduced to a degraded existence, surviving in ignorance in isolated tribes.

Fifteen-year-old Ferren belongs to a tribe called ‘the People’. Like other tribes, the People consider themselves allies of the Humen, but go in fear of them. Especially terrifying are the black-clad Selectors who select one tribal member for ‘military service’ each year.

Ferren’s life changes when he sees a ‘Celestial’  shot down and crashing to the Earth. Unusually bold, he investigates and finds the angel Miriael, semi-conscious and awaiting extinction. Feeling pity for his tribe’s supposed enemy, he feeds her mortal food and thereby ‘corrupts’ her spiritual purity, even as he enables her to live in the terrestrial atmosphere.

From Miriael, Ferren learns truths about the nature of his world. Then, after being temporarily exiled by the People, he ventures into the military-industrial complex of the Humen Camp and learns the truth about ‘military service’. In the end, his relationship with Miriael proves crucial in protecting his tribe through the cataclysmic violence of a great terra-celestial battle.

Ferren and the Angel is a rewritten version of the novel first published in The Heaven and Earth Trilogy over two decades earlier. It came out worldwide from IFWG Publishing International in 2023.

______________________

Evidence for the above can be found in many reviews, interviews and catalogue entries. The reviewers have clearly read the book, the interviewers probably have, and the catalogue entries … well, at least they have a reputation to maintain!

Reviews that include content summaries, e.g.

Independent Book Review

https://independentbookreview.com/2023/08/31/starred-book-review-ferren-and-the-angel/

Kirkus Reviews. Printed review in the September 15, 2023 issue

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/richard-harland/ferren-and-angel/

MidWest Book Review.

http://www.midwestbookreview.com/mbw/sep_23.htm  Scroll down to Diane Donovan’s Bookshelf

ReaderViewsKids

https://www.readerviewskids.com/ferren-and-the-angel-harland/

The Reading Life

https://thereadinglifeblog.com/2023/11/16/ferren-and-the-angel-by-richard-harland-review/

NetGalley Reviews (see content summaries in reviews by Tracy Wood, Morgana L and Jane Barnaby

https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/288544

Interviews – here are a couple from the many I’ve done which include some content summary

Paul Semel - answer to first question

https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-ferren-and-the-angel-author-richard-harland/

ReaderViews(Kids) – answer to second question

https://www.readerviewskids.com/meet-the-author-harland-ferren-and-the-angel/

Bookshop, publisher and distributor content summaries

GoodReads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/137225996-ferren-and-the-angel

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZB4QVHL?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_8CPPAQVYYP1TTDMH5HBT

Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ferren-and-the-angel-richard-harland/1006121907?ean=9781922856296

IPG catalogue entry (international distributor)

https://www.ipgbook.com/ferren-and-the-angel-products-9781922856319.php

Thanks,

Richard Harland Richard Harland (talk) 01:34, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

Edit request
I'm asking for editorial help - I seem to have asked in the wrong place last time. I'm the subject of this "Richard Harland" article, so I need to avoid COI. But the article is out of date re a very important publication of 6 months ago, and, following advice, I've produced a content description in my own words rather reproducing a content description from Kirkus. However, I have kept it absolutely factual.

The insertion would need to go after the several paragraphs on Worldshaker, Liberator, Song of the Slums, ending "relationship with the enigmatic Verrol" - and before the next section on Shorter Works of Fiction. Hope someone can help me out - the original author of this article has seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth!

______________

Ferren and the Angel

Harland’s latest novel is a dystopian YA Fantasy, the first book in The Ferren Trilogy.

The setting is the far future, when only scattered ruins remain from the civilization of the present. While artificially created beings called ‘Humen’ conduct an endless war against Heaven, descendants of the original human beings have been reduced to a degraded existence, surviving in ignorance in isolated tribes.

Fifteen-year-old Ferren belongs to a tribe called ‘the People’. Like other tribes, the People consider themselves allies of the Humen, but go in fear of them. Especially terrifying are the black-clad Selectors who select one tribal member for ‘military service’ each year.

Ferren’s life changes when he sees a ‘Celestial’  shot down and crashing to the Earth. Unusually bold, he investigates and finds the angel Miriael, semi-conscious and awaiting extinction. Feeling pity for his tribe’s supposed enemy, he feeds her mortal food and thereby ‘corrupts’ her spiritual purity, even as he enables her to live in the terrestrial atmosphere.

From Miriael, Ferren learns truths about the nature of his world. Then, after being temporarily exiled by the People, he ventures into the military-industrial complex of the Humen Camp and learns the truth about ‘military service’. In the end, his relationship with Miriael proves crucial in protecting his tribe through the cataclysmic violence of a great terra-celestial battle.

Ferren and the Angel is a rewritten version of the novel first published in The Heaven and Earth Trilogy over two decades earlier. It came out worldwide from IFWG Publishing International in 2023.

______________________

EVIDENCE for the above can be found in:

Reviews that include content summaries, e.g.

Independent Book Review

https://independentbookreview.com/2023/08/31/starred-book-review-ferren-and-the-angel/

Kirkus Reviews. Printed review in September 15, 2023 issue

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/richard-harland/ferren-and-angel/

MidWest Book Review.

http://www.midwestbookreview.com/mbw/sep_23.htm   (Scroll down to Diane Donovan’s Bookshelf)

ReaderViewsKids

https://www.readerviewskids.com/ferren-and-the-angel-harland/

The Reading Life

https://thereadinglifeblog.com/2023/11/16/ferren-and-the-angel-by-richard-harland-review/

NetGalley Reviews (see content summaries in reviews by Tracy Wood, Morgana L and Jane Barnaby

https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/288544

Interviews – here are a couple from the many I’ve done which include some content summary

Paul Semel - answer to first question

https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-ferren-and-the-angel-author-richard-harland/

ReaderViews(Kids) – answer to second question

https://www.readerviewskids.com/meet-the-author-harland-ferren-and-the-angel/

Bookshop, publisher and distributor content summaries

GoodReads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/137225996-ferren-and-the-angel

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZB4QVHL?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_8CPPAQVYYP1TTDMH5HBT

Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ferren-and-the-angel-richard-harland/1006121907?ean=9781922856296

IPG catalogue entry (distributor)

https://www.ipgbook.com/ferren-and-the-angel-products-9781922856319.php

I admit these aren't sources you'd rely on for evaluation, but they're accurate and consistent as regards content description!

Richard Harland Richard Harland (talk) 04:47, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Hello! I saw this edit request (among the others made previously here) on the list of outstanding requests and implemented the first suggested summary along with the Independent Book Review and Kirkus Reviews citations. Some changes were made to the first sentence to front-load relevant publication information. I hope these are acceptable alterations to the text. Recon  rabbit  12:53, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Many thanks for your help, Reconrabbit! And the alterations are absolutely appropriate and acceptable. Richard Harland (talk) 06:13, 26 June 2024 (UTC)