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THRILL SEEKERS: Thrill Seekers is a collection of linked short stories about growing up in 80s Brisbane - a young boy struggles with the death of his father, a girl longs for a different mother, a gang of boys slide from doing stunts in the backyard to adolescent experimentation with drugs and alcohol. Through these and other stories the lives of a group of central characters, Russ and Ray, Brian and Dougie, and Beck are seen to intersect and change. It is a book about loss and madness, addiction and guilt, and most importantly, about survival and resilience. IN SEARCH OF A GENRE or WHAT EXACTLY IS IT THAT LYE WRITTEN? This critical essay explores the genre of linked short stories. It discusses the many names which have been given to the form, including novel-in-stories, short story cycles and, most recently, composite novels. It gives examples of how the stories in such collections are linked using contemporary Australian works and examines the process of writing in this genre with particular reference to the works of Frank Moorhouse, Tim Winton's The Turning and my own experience writing Thrill Seekers.
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