Boop.

I'm still here, I promise.

Writers and procrastinators, hear ye:

Hello, writer. Yes you, writer-person there. Have you written anything yet this year? Have you got a darling little piece of unfinished something that's been jostling around in your heart but isn't yet actually on the page? Are you sitting about waiting for a deadline to kick you into gear? I might have just the thing.

Tabor Adelaide, the college that gave me my BA in Creative Writing and said, "go, little bird, and off you fly into the big wide grown up world!*" has launched a literary award this year which looks exciting. The award is open to Australians over the age of 16, and offers prizes for a work of short fiction or poetry on the theme of 'Homecomings.'

Entry is free and the works will be judged by a great panel of authors, including Roseanne Hawke, a beautiful YA author whose work is incredible and which you should totally go read right now. Actually, you should go read it after you submit your entry, because the deadline is this Friday.**

All the details you'll need to know are here. Now make some words.

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*no one actually said this. I just have a vivid imagination.
**I hope no one wonders why I didn't post this sooner. I'm going to go with: "posting such information late in the game leaves everyone with no room for procrastination" and not "my blogging schedule is shot to pieces lately."

February book haul:

Just a little book-haul month for me. I have a lot of expenses coming up and am on a student-with-part-time-work budget, so I kept it very trim. But I absolutely had to get Burn, the final in Julianna Baggott's Pure trilogy (which I wrote about super briefly here). I also have kind of a life-law which decrees that if I visit an independent bookstore, I have to pick up something new. That something was Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher and I'm not going to lie: I picked it up entirely because of its glorious cover design. Just look at those beautiful red birds flying across the fore edge. I know, I know. We're not supposed to judge books by their covers. But surely we can pick them up because of the covers? I also grabbed ebooks of The Rosie Project, which I've heard good things about, and Shatter Me, which I know little about and am mainly excited because Tahereh Mafi is adorable and married to an equally adorable writer-husband, Ransom Riggs. I mean, just look at them!

Did you pick up any books in February?