Interviewing Heather Child
Hellooo!
I recently hugely enjoyed reading The People’s Republic of Love by Heather Child a timely story exploring the dark side of influencing and how power can corrupt even in a tropical paradise. I’ve been a huge fan of Heather’s work so it was a pleasure to invite Heather to the blog to discuss the book and a few other things.
How do you like to booktempt The People’s Republic of Love?
The People’s Republic of Love is set in a newly formed country. There are no politicians – the person with the most followers makes the rules. Charlotte is thrilled to have become a contestant on a hot new reality tv series being filmed there, but her friend Tamsin – watching at home – sees the dreadfulsecret behind the show. Unless she acts fast, the finale will be the end of Charlotte.
It’s a playful, genre-crossing read exploring the “glamorous highs and horrifying lows” of a society where visibility is all that matters.
What drew you towards a tale of influencers?
There’s an oddness about the whole idea of influencers - they’re strangers treated like friends, back-door policy-makers, shapers of identity. As the book evolved I became interested in how it might affect an individual to curate a self for public display. Does that mean unshared experiences become ghostly, as though they never happened? What does this divide, at its most extreme, do to a person?
Researching this world what was the biggest surprise to you?
There were so many. The People’s Republic of Love is made up of private and artificial islands, and I discovered that there are 680 billion islands on earth… or are there? Nobody knows because islands are currently being made and destroyed faster than at any other time in history. A lot of artificial islands are built as paradises for the rich – like the People’s Republic of Love.
As an author how do you see social media?
If a social media post could be 300 pages long and entirely about invented people, that would be ideal! But to be serious, it’s a necessary part of book marketing and a nice way of meeting bookish people, even if I’d rather be doing that over a pint somewhere IRL.
What else can we look forward to from you in the future and where can we find out more?
I have a couple of side projects that I’m using to distract myself from a rather ambitious metafiction that involves a woman being press-ganged into the navy. Readers of my newsletter Picaresque can expect a few seafaring snippets to be coming your way!
What great books have you read recently?
I was impressed by the unexpected twists of The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson. It keeps you on your toes, never knowing if there’s any truth to the cartomancy. I like books that hover between the real and the fantastic.
