If you thought TV’s Nurse Jackie told it like it was, then Get Well Soon! is one hell of a revelation.

Falling into the nursing profession, Kristy Chambers has spent almost a decade working as a nurse, with patients ranging from drug addicts through cancer patients to those in Emergency. Along the way she met some wonderfully brave people. As for others, well, you’ll need to read her book to really believe it.

Chambers is a new and idiosyncratic voice in memoir writing. Her tone is dark, her humour black, but there is honesty, heart and compassion in Get Well Soon! She shows us more than ever the incredible work done by nurses and the challenges they face.

‘My quest for a career started early, when I was four years old and gave myself a haircut to see if I liked that sort ...

Today I had the honour of being the person who writes the 'Best and Worst' over at Mamamia.

It's a really surreal feeling to be writing something that is so well-known around the MM traps, something that tonnes of people comment on - it's all about sharing the best and worst of your week.

My best? MM for sure. Mamamia is amazing, Mia even more so.

My worst? Realizing I can't do everything. I had a mini (okay huge) attack of the hysterics last night when it became obvious not everything was going to get done.

It was hard, I'm not going to lie. And my best friend Beck found a million ways to say the same thing: calm down.

Something gave and while I'm still not happy about it, nothing can be done about it and so I have to live with it.

It's a huge ...

...And the winner is Tomorrow, When the War Began!

In third place: Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody

Your runner up: Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

And the winner is: Tomorrow When The War Began by John Marsden

What a great list!

And what a great month of discussion too.

Check it all out on the Kill Your Darlings site.

Anddddd, you all can read my short story from the residency! It's gone up super-quickly, so thanks Yarra Plenty Libraries! Check it out - tell me what you think! (There's some spacing issues so bare with it!)

I feel very disconnected from the literary world lately.

Like within the last month or so.

I've been living, breathing and eating media for the past two days at Mamamia, before that the residency, the USA Consulates Office, then Bendigo Writers Festival...

August has been my insane month. 

Melbourne Writers Festival starts this week, and I'm crying ...

I have to let you guys in on a little secret, something that’s been killing me to keep to myself but now I can finally shout it from the roof tops!!

Firstly: it’s no secret, however, that I idolise Mia Freedman. I write about her often, stalked her at the Family Life Forums, practically memorised her books, articles – everything. You all know that.

So it’s with great pleasure that I can finally announce that currently – as I type! – I’m in Sydney interning for Mamamia, Mia’s website!

When I got the email saying that my application had been successful, I was at a shopping centre with my sister. We were in line, waiting for a juice, and I started jumping up and down. (There may or may not have ...

And so yesterday my residency finished, a sad mix of feelings.

I'm really proud of the story I wrote. It started to do with abandoned suitcases, and then evolved into something to do with fire water tanks (the abandoned suitcase now playing a minor but important role). I have to give a HUGE shout-out to my Uncle Ross, and Peter, one of the artists' other halves who gave me such insight into the world of farming, irrigation and fire water tanks, which I knew nothing about: but I know heaps now!

The other three artists did an amazing job, it was so exciting to be with them working in such insane quarters. Everyone produced such high-quality work and it was such an honour to be a part of it.

It was also slightly terrifying at times: we had members of the public stream in ...