The best news I've received this year arrived via a phone call two days after we lost our beautiful Charli ‘Bubbles’. This week alone has been a rollercoaster, and I would like to thank Hachette and the Emerging Writers Festival for giving me one of the highs.

I missed a call, and the text-to-speech message said 'from Hasheth'. I thought, hasheth... hasette... hachette?? Lo and behold, my passion project Harvest got longlisted for the Richell Prize from Hachette (AU) and Emerging Writers Festival.

I hate question marks in dialogue. Yes, I am a tertiary educated writer, and I still fucking hate question marks. There’s always been this strange, inherent resistance in me whenever I reach a line that is, technically, a question. I hesitate. I stall. My fingertip hovers shakily above the curly (?) menace. It dares me to skip it. So, I do. Sometimes, I simply refuse to use the question mark at all.