About Riley Chance

If you’re looking for a genius, a thought leader, a transformational change agent or societal visionary, then you’re on the wrong site. Be careful though, as Tarantino’s character in Reservoir Dogs Nice Guy Eddie observed - ‘just because they say it, now that don't necessarily make it fucking so’.

I live, work and write in the lower half of New Zealand’s North island. I’m a parent, friend and confidant to two cool, now adult children.

Like most writers, I struggle to keep the bank’s grubby hands off my home so I’m a forced member of the precarious workforce (like some of the slightly-bitter characters wandering around in my books). My goal is to write a series of popular fiction books set in Aotearoa New Zealand. I intend to entertain readers with great stories while challenging their thinking about the society in which we live.

I’m not a fan of social media; I’ve tried most flavours. I remember when I left twitter, I got back a few hours a week and I was far less enraged. Social media algorithms are designed to needle you into responding and spending more time on their platform so they can sell your eyeballs to advertisers. It’s a grim business model based on human misery. I think history will not treat the platforms and billionaires kindly.

We’re proud that New Zealand, and the Western World generally, is an egalitarian, multi-cultural, democratic society . . . but is it? Really? The books I write take aspects of society and hold them up for scrutiny. The first, Surveillance, looked at our privacy and freedom - what would Aotearoa New Zealand look like under mass surveillance? The success of political parties fronted by populist leaders (Think Trump, Bolsonaro, Johnson etc) made me think – what would it look like if it happened in New Zealand? If The Democracy Game was played here? My latest book - Weeping Angels, looks at family violence and why the justice system watches on as a bored spectator.

If you’re interested in my random thoughts on writing, click here.