Guess what?

ZEROES AND ONES has been shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year awards. Yeee-ha-balls. I’m so honoured…My funny history of computing is sharing space with a whole load of awesome and amazing books on that list!

Meanwhile, I’ve been exploring in north Queensland with my fam and we’ve had such a terrific time. We went hiking through the rainforest in Eungella every day we were there, averaging around 10 kilometres a day and approximately 47 million leeches on the days that it was wet.

If you’re not a fan of leeches, wait till the rain stops falling before you explore. If you do that, you won’t see a single one. If, like us, you decide you want to experience the rainforest in flooding rain, well, then, yes. What can I say?

We also went snorkelling on the reef off Airlie Beach and were lucky enough to see rays, turtles, whales and giant fish that behaved more like puppy dogs than fish.

It was the first time the kids had snorkeled in the deep and they did a marvellous job. They were scared but faced their fear and now they’re hooked on sharing space with tropical fish.

And I’ve just returned from the fabulous Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival, which was such an honour and a laugh.

So many wonderful people, flawless and friendly organisation, plus the buzz of sharing the green room and the general good times with a terrific bunch of fellow book creators. I feel SO lucky.

There were more than 5000 kids at the festival and they all had giant smiles on their faces all day. Love it!

Thank you too all the organisers and sponsors of this awesome event.