Time and Motion

Zine
Title:	Time and Motion
Publisher:	Nut Hatch Collective
Editor:
Author(s):	Jane of Australia
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	July 1994 (originally a 1991 story)
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Professionals
Language:	English
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Time and Motion is a slash 87-page Professionals novel by Jane.

See List of Professionals Fanworks by Jane of Australia.

Originally in Another Zine

It was originally a short story in the 1991 zine Beguiled where it had this summary:

A sort-of sequel to "Spy Probe." We all know from "Spy Probe" that Ray Doyle can run—quickly. Having demonstrated his speed and endurance in several races, Doyle finds himself being groomed for the Commonwealth Games. In the midst of his preparation for the race, CI5 business intervenes, sending Bodie to near-death in north country. Doyle indeed makes the run of his life—but the prize is far more valuable than he could have anticipated.

From the Nut Hatch Flyers

When Ray Doyle was given -- literally -- the royal run - around by a society of assassins, he discovered just how far and how fast he could run. But it was only later when Brian Macklin, always an aficionado of athletics, realised that the times and distances Doyle had set were not far outside Commonwealth records! Wanting to know if Macklin is kidding him with this news, Doyle drops into a local athletics association to check the record books ... and he finds his feet set on a path sure to lead him to the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia.

First comes training, with CI5's blessing, and before long Bodie can’t *not* notice Doyle’s activities! Their relationship blossoms along the way, and with Bodie’s full support Doyle seems set to chase gold. Until Bodie is given a CI5 assignment that takes him to Manchester, into the midst of an IRA gun-running operation...

Until the assignment goes horribly wrong, high in the Welsh hill country, and his only chance for survival is his partner’s ability to run ... run far, and run very, very fast. This short-novel appeared for the first time in *Beguiled*. Since the zine is not out of print, with no plans for a reprint, we have lifted *Time and Motion* out, reset the type and repackaged the text under its own covers.

85pp. Reduced type, A4, photocopy, coil bound

This is the short-novel that appeared in BEGUILED many years ago, where Doyle very nearly qualifies to run in the 1982 Commonwealth Games, in Australia, and would have made it there, if "Fate" hadn't inervened in the Welsh highlands, and Bodie had not been literally paddling in blood. His own blood. It's a thriller, a romance, a mystery, all rolled into one, and springboards off an offhand remark Doyle made to Macklin ... how far he'd run, in what time, between phone boxes, where a terrorist is jerking CI5's strings. Remember the show?! Well, here's the sequel! A lot of novel in a small space

A perenniel favorite — It's here somwehere...

90pp, compressed type, with photos.

Reactions and Reviews

I don't have any idea, these days, what I'm going to get when I begin reading a story by Jane, although there are definite themes that run through her work. Sometimes I like what she does, other times I'm cringing my way as far as I can into it, and I must admit that there are some I've given up on entirely. She's a tendency to lecture, and a tendency to show off as an author rather than to make the reader feel good, and sometimes while she's saying one thing out loud it seems as though I'm not quite sure whether she means it - a tendency to protest too much, perhaps, upon occasion.

And, for me, Time and Motion did all of those things, although it picked up somewhere past half-way through (I was forcing myself at that time, unfortunately) and there was a moment towards the end where I really did want to find out what happened - although of course, deep down, I already knew.

In the mean time we learned What It Takes To Be A Serious Runner, and How Nutrition Works, that there are maps of England available to the author, and that African runners will always beat European runners as a result of their genes. (See what I mean - a touch dodgy of opinion at times) There is also the apparently standard lecture on how sex is about Love Not Pain, and anything above a bit of a spanking implies a seriously disturbed individual.

Apart from all that - Doyle finds out that he's got what it takes to be an Olympic-class runner, and begins to train seriously. Cowley and Macklin are both behind him and prepared to give him all the time off he needs, and Bodie of course is there too. Only, as ever, there are bad guys to be beaten, villains to be fought, and the path of love to be cleared...

Personally, I couldn't read it again, and I'm not sure I'm happy that I read it the first time, but it's Jane - and I go into Jane stories, these days, prepared for anything.