I washed my hands while it boiled, then made a coffee and took it and my phone outside onto the back porch. Charlie made a beeline for the water—he didn’t care that it was now freezing—as I sat down on the back step and watched him frolic. It’d be hard to say which one of us was more in love with Ragged Point and having the beach on our back doorstep. I still couldn’t understand how the kids didn’t share my passion, but I guess their lives and friends were in the city.

No longer worried about Charlie running away, I picked up my phone to check Facebook and saw a notification for an email. A slight chill filled my heart as I silently prayed it wasn’t bad news from the school. Saxon had been resentful when we’d banned him from screens, but after a few days’ detox from The Tournament, by the time I’d left for Ragged Point I could already see early signs of the child I knew and loved slowly returning to us.

I sucked in a breath as I opened my mail app, but almost fell off the step as I registered the sender of the email.

Not Perth Selective after all, but FamilySpot magazine.

My fingers shook as I opened it, not wanting to get my hopes up. It had been almost two weeks since I’d submitted the article—they were probably finally getting around to rejecting it.

‘Oh my God,’ I shrieked, jumping up and knocking over my coffee mug as I read the words on the screen.

Dear Ashling

Thank you for submitting ‘The Family Nest’ to FamilySpot—it was both enlightening and a joy to read and we would love to publish it on our website. We can offer you a payment of $250. Please sign the attached document and send it back to us if you would like to go ahead.

Kind regards

Loretta—Features Editor

‘Oh my God!’ It appeared I’d lost the ability to formulate any other words. But could this day get any better? It might only be one article, but it was a very encouraging start.

At my shrieking, Charlie dashed back up the beach to see what was wrong. Laughing as he stepped into the spilled coffee, I dropped back down onto the step and ruffled the wet fur around his neck. ‘I’m going to be published! My work is going to be in print!’

Unable to stop beaming, I took a screenshot and immediately messaged it to Dan and Jedda. Thank you both for giving me the confidence and encouragement to do this. Come over for dinner to celebrate. xx

Jedda’s reply came within seconds and consisted of about fifteen emojis, mostly streamers and champagne bottles.