Acknowledgements

My first and foremost thanks must go to everyone involved in the Sony Young Movellist of the Year competition. Charlotte and Yvonne, thank you for your tireless work and prompt replies to my incessant emails. Thank you to everybody who read all the entries and formulated the shortlist, narrowing down the entries to the top three.

A huge thank you must go to Skye Melki-Wegner. Thank you for finding the potential in my story and for your kind words.

I have been beyond fortunate to have the expert team at Random House behind me. Thanks is not enough for what you have all done. Particular thanks to Zoe Walton and Bronwyn O’Reilly, without whom this book would not exist. Or if it did, it would be a thousand per cent worse than it is now. Your talents have not gone unnoticed.

Thanks also to my fantastic agent, Rick Raftos.

Special thanks to Emma Hall, Kate Glenister and Gabi Minutillo for being the best workshopping partners. Sorry for being the worst person ever while working on the edit of Coasting. I promise I have things to talk about other than my writing.

Thanks must also go to my mum and first reader, Leanne Connell, and my brothers, Matt, Adam and Josh.

Thanks to Greg, Chelsea, Ali and Simon Barker, and to Phil van der Klift.

And finally, a massive thank you must go to the beautiful Elly Spiteri. Thank you for keeping me grounded, dealing with my stressed-out rants and being the best support I could ask for.