Kim Kelly likes nothing better than to trawl through old papers and find linkages between past and present.
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Hours will happily pass as stories and photos from years ago jump from pages to fill her mind with questions, imagery and ideas.
“I then start thinking what would that person be like,” the author says. “What were they like at home, what was it like to live in that particular time?”
A book editor for more than 20 years, in her ‘spare time’ Kelly pens Australian historical fictional novels, with a touch of romance. Her fourth offering, Paper Daisies, published by Pan Macmillan, is now on shelves. And, like the previous three, the novel explores Australian social and political history. It’s set at the turn of the 20th Century against the tumultuous backdrop of the Australian Federation and the coming of the Women’s Vote and involves murder, misogyny and, of course, love.
Incidentally, it was another national event that inspired Kelly to write the novel, the infamous misogyny speech by Australia’s first woman Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
“I heard the speech and it made me stop and think, how as a society can we not have advanced,” she says. “That speech resonated with me and inspired a character.”
Describing herself as a “woman of strong emotional intelligence”, Kelly says it would be an injustice if she didn’t create characters with as much mental toughness.
“For me it hasn’t been easy, I have had to work at it. But I am proud to say that I am strong and have survived some tough emotional times,” she adds.
Being a writer can be a selfish profession as you become absorbed in what you are doing.
- Kim Kelly, author of Paper Daisies
Seeking inspiration for her novels, Kelly likes to ‘visit’ the National Library of Australia’s online database, Trove. When in research mode, hours, days and weeks are spent absorbed in scanning and reading old newspapers, photos and magazines. With blogs and websites making it easier than ever to research historical events, Kelly says it's added pressure for authors to check and triple check information and to create a realistic backdrop.
“There might just be a snippet from an event or person. So I delve a little more to find out about them. The characters’ voices start emerging and take over, which prompts me to take a deeper look at other articles to find out more about people. Hunting around in newspapers gives such a wealth of how people lived, their homes and what society was like at a certain time. Newspapers are the first generation of information. I like to follow the breadcrumbs.”
For Kim, home is six acres of sweeping hills nestled between major properties in New South Wales’ central west. Her research and writing days happen in what she describes as “a large shed on a small property” overlooking hills and bush.
“It’s blissful here. It’s so peaceful and yet we are so close to things. I like to say that the ghosts are friendly and the wild colonial veranda poles are excellently preserved,” she laughs loud. She digresses a lot and is openly warm and chatty. Our interview is like catching up with an old friend. She asks questions, wanting to know as much about the person interviewing her.
Kelly, 46, lives on the property in Millthorpe with her husband Dean. “The love of my life”, she enthuses. The mother of two lads in their early 20s, Kelly says she had almost given up on finding love after an early marriage left her emotionally scarred and wary of “giving myself to someone else”.
“I went online and saw this profile, It was something I hadn’t done before, but I had to make contact with this man.” Dean, who hadn’t looked at his profile on the online dating site for years, was intrigued when he received a message. Weeks after chatting via email and on the phone they decided to meet.
“Dean is a geotechnician, so he took me on a tour of this underground mine. We have been together since, We fell in love and I think it was meant to be. He is my one true love.”
The family of three soon became four with the couple marrying in 2012, four years after meeting. However, there have been challenges, with Dean suffering acute renal failure in 2013, following a long battle with an hereditary illness. Last year, a selfless Kim donated a kidney to him. “We were surprised that we were a match, it was quite unexpected, but when it gave us a chance of extending our life together, I knew I wanted to do it,” she says.
Five months after the transplant both are doing well, Kelly says. “Dean is doing extremely well, and it hasn't made a difference to me. I am glad I could help him. He is my hero.”
It was Dean’s strength of character that inspired Kelly’s hero in Paper Daisies, she says. “He backs me at every turn and inspires me to do my best. It makes a difference when you have someone like that in your life. He has opened my world. Writing the novel helped me (during his illness), it was a form of escape.”
A longtime fan of romance and history, Kelly turned to writing after years as a book editor. Otherwise known as Kim Swivel and ghostwriter of the World War 2 memoir of Ernest Brough, Dangerous Days, putting words on paper and forming a story isn’t always easy, she says, but she’s always up for a challenge.
“I backed myself, it took time and thankfully I have a wonderful editor, and Dean, to help me stay on track and tease out sections where needed.
“Being a writer can be a selfish profession as you become absorbed in what you are doing and need to get those ideas rattling around in the head onto paper. When you are that absorbed at times nothing else matters, so it takes special people to put up with you when you are writing.
“And when readers find a connection with one of my characters I am thrilled.”