Paula Xiberras
• TT has two free copies of Coolibah Creek ( And a copy of Vanishing Villages and Vanishing Cellulite ) to give away. Simply email, [email protected] . As usual, first in, best dressed!x
From the beginning of Kelsey Neilson‘s novel ‘Coolibah Creek’, when her main protagonist encounters a snake sitting atop her fridge, complete with two eggs containing similarly, slithery serpents you can bet this rugged rural romance is a little different than others you may have encountered, or as Kelsey says’ it juxtaposes the brutal with the romantic’.
Kelsey Nelson, novelist and deputy mayor on her local council, is a Renaissance woman, not least of which is her ability to buckle down and concentrate on writing in a time when her district is deep in drought. I spoke to this amazing woman late last year about her novel ‘Coolibah Creek’. Kelsey says that if her part of the world ever gets over the drought she would love to visit Tasmania. As Kelsey jokes, she has been to ‘the other island’ that is New Zealand!
Kelsey continues to search for stories that tell the reality of the bush and rural living but always provide the opportunity for romance. Her writing concerns itself with the big issues, as ‘Coolibah Creek’ does, with climate change and educating people about where food actually comes from.
In this novel, Kelsey tackles the sensitive subject of how rural life can stretch people to the limit of their endurance, leading to depression, represented by the character of Maggie, who feels trapped in her rural landscape.
The situations in the novel are sometimes so realistic they are confronting, including episodes of treating someone with a tracheotomy after a bee has been breathed in lodging in their throat and dealing with excessive blood loss after a traumatic goring in the leg by a bull’s horn.
For Kelsey writing began when a local short story project she took part in was well received, ironically the basis of the story was ‘the snake on the fridge’ which she extended (pardon the pun) and developed for her novel. Kelsey says sometimes writing is like ‘pushing through glad wrap’ but it’s worth it to actually have your book ‘out there’. The monetary benefits are just a bonus.
Coolibah Creek is out now published by Allen and Unwin.
