Kim Kelly – July 28 2019

Donate Life Week – July 28 – August 4 2019

Kim is an editor (writing as Kim Swivel), literary consultant and author. Her other novels include Black Diamonds, This Red Earth, The Blue Mile, Wild Chicory, Lady Bird & The Fox and Sunshine. Kim’s writing explores themes of bigotry, class conflict, disadvantage and violence, shining a light on some forgotten corners of the past and telling tales of ordinary people living through extraordinary times. She signs off her biography with “Dream large and love larger” (https://kimkellyauthor.com/about/), and it was love that saw her donate a kidney to her husband to save his life.

Jewel Sea
Pantera Press, 2016; ISBN 9781925700176
Based on the true story of the loss of SS Koombana, along with 150 passengers and crew, during a cyclone in March 1912, Jewel Sea is a tale of fatal desire, theft and greed – a story of kindred spirits searching for courage and redemption. A sultry Indian summer hangs over the west coast of Australia and aboard the luxury steamship SS Koombana, three tales entwine. Irene Everley longs to leave her first-class fishbowl existence, secretly penning a gossip column as her life spirals out of control into soulless liaisons and alcohol, the long shadow of a tragedy clouding her view. James Sinclair, an investor on his way to Broome is not the man he says he is, but can he be trusted? Abraham Davis, a wealthy dealer whose scandalous divorce is being dragged through the press, prepares to take the gamble of his life: to purchase an infamous, stolen pearl along the journey north. Perfectly round, perfectly pink, this pearl comes with a curse and with a warning – destroying all who keep it from returning to the sea.

Paper Daisies
Macmillan Publishers, 2015; ISBN 9781743536636
Berylda Jones has completed her university exams for entry to medicine and heads home to Bathurst for Christmas but tragically, ‘home’ is where she and her sister Greta live in terror, under the control of their sadistic uncle, Alec. But this summer Berylda has a plan to free herself and Greta for good, if she can only find the courage to execute it. Then, on New Year’s Eve, strangers arrive – botanist Ben Wilberry, in search of a particular native wildflower, and artist Cosmo Thompson. What follows is a journey that takes Ben and Berylda, Greta and Cosmo, out to the tumbledown gold rush town of Hill End in search of a means to cure evil and a solution to what seems an impossible situation. Against the tumultuous backdrop of Australian Federation and the coming of the women’s vote, Paper Daisies is a story of what it means to find moral courage, of a crime that must be committed to see justice done and a sweet love that grows against the odds. A haunting tale of love, murder and misogyny.