On the weekend I piled into the car with hubby and the girls for the 3.5 hour drive to Albury. We stopped along the way in Euroa, my favourite country town and stocked up on books from the fabulous second bookshop. When we got to Albury we had enough time to do some op-shopping before the main event.

We were in town for the Elyne Mitchell Writing Awards presentation. Elyne Mitchell is the author famous for the Silver Brumby books. I had sent in a piece that I had written about my nan without expecting very much. But you've got to give things a shot, hey? I found out a few weeks ago that my entry, This Country, had made the shortlist.

I was stoked to make the shortlist and figured it would be fun to go to the presentation. And I was right - it was fun. There was a great speaker (Robin Cadwallader author of The Anchoress), yummy afternoon tea and friendly people to meet and chat to.

Well I was even more stoked when they called out my name as the winner of the best non fiction award! There were so many great entries and I honestly hadn't expected to win. I was a bit of a mess when I was talking about my piece and got all teary talking about my nan, but no-one seemed to mind. I even had someone tell me that my speech reminded her of her nana and she got teary too!

I have to send out a big thank you to Megan Waters my creative writing teacher who told me about the competition and also to Sharon Herbert and Nuwan Wellalage, my writing buddies for their suggestions and comments on the piece which made it so much better. Thanks guys!