Rhiannon Wilde has been telling stories for as long as she can remember – inside her head, as well as through working as a journalist, terrible barista, and high school English teacher in Brisbane’s inner north. Rhiannon’s particular interests are caffeine, characters both real and imaginary, and the power of well-strung words to challenge and change us. Her second-person short story inspired by urban Brisbane, You Deserve Nothing, was longlisted for the Queensland Young Writer’s Award in 2014. Henry Hamlet’s Heart is her first novel, and won the Queensland Literary Awards Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer in 2019.
Today, Rhiannon Wilde is on the blog to take on our Ten Terrifying Questions. Read on …
Rhiannon Wilde
1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
I was born in Manly in Sydney, where my dad worked in newspapers. Then we moved further up the NSW coast, before eventually relocating to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
I later moved to Brisbane for Uni, and now go back and forth between there and the Sunshine Coast.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
When I was twelve I wanted to be a writer, because it was the thing I loved most in the world. When I was eighteen I decided I needed to be practical and enrolled in a teaching degree, because I thought getting published was too much of a long shot. I’m twenty-six now and about to release my debut novel. At thirty I think I’ll still be a writer, because it’s the only thing that makes sense to me.
3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you don’t have now?
I had quite traditional ideas of what my life trajectory should be – marriage, career, children, etc. It took me until my early twenties to figure out that almost none of it fit with who I am as a person, at all!
4. What are three works of art – this could be a book, painting, piece of music, film, etc – that influenced your development as a writer?
I’ve loved Sylvia Plath’s collected poetry since I was a teenager – the way she carefully injects every line with beauty continues to be a huge influence on how I approach description in my prose.
Jane Austen was also a game-changer for young me. I reread Emma recently, and still think Austen’s sudden switch in POV to Mr. Knightley’s perspective is genius.
Music is a massive part of my writing process. I can’t pick just one, but I love the way a song can give me the feeling or image that inspires an entire scene or sequence. Case in point, you can listen to my Henry Hamlet’s Heart playlist here.
5. Considering the many artistic forms out there, what appeals to you about writing a young adult novel?
I love writing YA because it’s the time in a person/character’s life when they’re figuring out who they are and how they see the world. And the angst! The immediacy and depth of emotion in teenagerhood is second to none.
‘Henry Hamlet is a character who very much doesn’t have his life or himself figured out yet; and I hope readers, particularly younger ones, take away from my work that it’s completely okay to feel that way.’
6. Please tell us about your latest book!
My latest book is a queer YA love story about best friends called Henry Hamlet’s Heart. It’s a sometimes-funny, sometimes-sad coming-of-age story set in Brisbane, at an all-boys’ school, in 2008.
7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
A sense of happy-hope, I suppose! Henry Hamlet is a character who very much doesn’t have his life or himself figured out yet; and I hope readers, particularly younger ones, take away from my work that it’s completely okay to feel that way, and things will still always work out the way they’re meant to eventually.
8. Who do you most admire in the writing world and why?
Maggie Stiefvater. I love how original and ridiculously talented she is, the genuine way she connects with her fans while still keeping some aspects of her life private, her candidness about her writing process and journey, and the fact that she continually releases books that are unlike anything else.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
I’d love it if Henry were made into a film or TV series one day, because I’ve always seen it play out like one in my head. There’s also a sequel to the book floating around in my mind, from the character Len’s POV.
I’ve set myself the challenge to craft at least one successful novel for adults in my lifetime.
And I want to try my hand at a YA fantasy series, in the not-too-distant future.
10. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Just keep going! The more you write, the more you’ll learn, and the better you’ll become.
Write the story you really want to read that doesn’t exist yet.
And try not to think too much that you’re writing ‘a book’ – in a first draft I like to pretend I’m just getting to know characters and writing scenes for fun!
Thank you for playing!
—Henry Hamlet’s Heart by Rhiannon Wilde (University of Queensland Press) is out now.
Henry Hamlet's Heart
Limited Signed Copies Available!
I'm losing it because I kissed you / Because I kissed you I might lose you.
Henry Hamlet doesn't know what he wants after school ends. It's his last semester of year twelve and all he's sure of is his uncanny ability to make situations awkward. Luckily, he can always hide behind his enigmatic best friend, Len. They've been friends since forever, but where Len is mysterious, Henry is clumsy; where Len is a heart-throb, Henry is a neurotic mess. Somehow it's always worked. That is, until Henry falls. Hard. For the last person he imagined...
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