What's yours is yours for a reason. Luck has nothing to do with it.Some people get exactly what they deserve. And, as it turns out, I deserve to be called Persephone. No simple-to-sound-out Pride-and-Prejudice-style name like Elizabeth or Jane for me. Nope. Demi had to go Greek. Define Persephone. Bringer of destruction. That pretty much sums it up.Persephone is angry. Angry that her life revolves around finger-prick tests, carbohydrate counts and insulin injections. Angry at Alexander Manson. Angry with her mum for lots of things, for nothing and for everything.But most of all, she's angry with herself. For deserving it all. Because one year ago she did something and her dad died.But then Persephone finds a body on a bush path, a young woman she doesn't know but feels a strong connection to. And as she tries to find out what happened to Sylvia, Persephone begins to understand her own place in the complex...

Shortlisted for the 2017 Text PrizeToday would have been an ordinary Saturday, except that two things happened:1) The peacocks escapedand2) I started writing this story.Dad says if you want to write a story you should start by choosing a topic that you know a lot about. That's why this is a story about peacocks. I know a lot about peacocks because:(a) Two peacocks live in the holiday flats across the road from meand(b) I'm good at finding them when they go missing.The last time William Shakespeare and Virginia went missing Cassie found them sitting on a coiled hose behind the fire station, and Dad called her 'Cassie Andersen, Peacock Detective'. So this time she knows what to do—she'll look for clues and track them down. But the clues lead her in an unexpected direction and Cassie finds herself investigating a confusing mystery about her family.The Peacock Detectives is a warm and engaging story...