Kelso, Sylvia (2011) The time seam. Blackston Gold, 2 . Five Star, United States.

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Abstract

In Inisville, Australia, Doran Wild is a junior lawyer at the firm of Lewis and Cotton. Her idyllic life takes an ugly turn with the death of boyfriend geologist Chris Keogh who dies in a car crash while also being accused of criminal wrong doing. She meets time traveling North Queensland Minor reporter and mine safety activist Jimmy Keenighan. Dorian and Jimmy team up to prove he was innocent and murdered while falling in love (see Blackston Gold, Book 1 The Solitaire Ghost).

She and Jimmy continue their inquiry as they want to know what Pan-Auric has in mind as they bought the field under the town and above the famous Solitaire mine that Chris found and died for. However, the pair begins to believe there is another time traveling anomaly who if real, they fear will prove destructive as this ghost is unconcerned with collateral damage.

Research Statement

Research Background	What constitutes an Australian (settler) narrative is a major topic in Australian literary criticism. Overall views such as Graeme Turner's or specific studies of areas like the evolution of mateship in the 1900s Sydney Bulletin abound. Creative Writing MA and the ensuing article ,“Geeks and Battlers: Intersections of Generic Specificity and National Narrative in Writing Australian Science Fiction” (2004), inflected the topic to SF, where the generic tropes are well-discussed, but rarely related to nationality. The Solitaire Ghost shifted genres to ask, What, apart from author-origin, makes a specifically Australian fantasy? I had considered some of my own high fantasy in a paper, “Re(a)d Centre: Spirituality and Aridity in Non-Realist Australian Fiction” (2001). This novel explored the question in a contemporary (Australian-set) fantasy.
Research Contribution	The Novel absorbed elements of thrillers, the time-travel sub-genre, such as Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, and (supernatural) female romance. All these worked in a local setting, and easily incorporated the “battler narrative” distinguished by Turner as specifically Australian. The time-travel element ennabled a non-didactic juxtaposition of 19th and 21st Century views on hot-points such as racism, while reader reactions demonstrated the attitude to violence was also specifically Australian.
Research Significance	The novel contributes to the critical debate on modern fantasy's escapism, which Samuel Delany resolved as, “[It's] a document of our times, thank you very much!” The Solitaire Ghost proved so, voicing current Australian views on gender, race and ecological issues. A Mississippi librarian's query about sequels indicates it reached an international audience.
Item ID:	36915
Item Type:	Book (Creative Work)
ISBN:	978-1432825478
Keywords:	suspense; time romance; fantasy; heroic; villains; Australian author; North Queensland author
Related URLs:	Publisher
Date Deposited:	10 Jul 2017 23:42
FoR Codes:	19 STUDIES IN CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING > 1904 Performing Arts and Creative Writing > 190499 Performing Arts and Creative Writing not elsewhere classified @ 100%
SEO Codes:	95 CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING > 9502 Communication > 950203 Languages and Literature @ 100%
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