It’s been a while since my last blog – one year and one day, actually!

I was thrilled to travel to Canberra in August to attend the CBCA Awards 2025, where I’M NOT REALLY HERE won the Book of the Year Award for Older Readers. A highlight for me from the event was when students and young people who represented the youth shadow-judging each provided reviews of the shortlisted books. It was a real thrill to try and not be emotional while a young reader spoke about my book at the podium. I want to extend a big congratulations to my fellow shortlistees on your success.

I never really know how to express myself when I receive accolades or praise, let alone when my books win awards. All I can say is I’m extremely grateful to the CBCA judges and I’m very proud that as a young person, I maintained my determination to improve and grow my writing skills and that I always kept my eyes set on a dream to one day be a published author. Awards are really just nice extras that come with the fact I am able to write stories that get shaped into books and sit on bookshelves, that they get picked up and purchased by readers who form opinions about them. My dream was always just to be an author who hopefully was able to make a bit of money from my writing. The ultimate dream of being a full-time author is still quite far away, but I do hope to get there one day.

I’ve had a quieter year in 2025 in regards to events and school visits, but I do feel like I needed to step back from public commitments for a while. It’s also really hard to balance maintaining a full-time day job (which actually requires a lot of mental strength) with trying to exercise more and eat healthier, all the while trying to write books and nurture story ideas, on top of trying to visit schools and deliver workshops and talks and attend literary events.

In the background, I have been working on my fourth young adult novel, which is due to be published in early 2026. I can’t say too much about it just yet, but it is called GOOD YOUNG MEN, and I think it might just be my favourite story I’ve written. In between editing phases for this book, I’ve been drafting a new manuscript, which I hope will be my fifth book! I’m about three-quarters through the first draft, so fingers crossed I can finish a draft before the end of the year.

Finally, there’s a very special book coming out later this year, called Rivers Flow: Reflections on the songs of Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter, which is Edited by Kim Scott and Casey Mulder. I’ve contributed a short story to this anthology – a short story inspired by the Archie Roach song, Place of Fire.

Keep an eye out!