diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3a6a824..833b8b8 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,9 +1,14 @@
-### v0.1.5 released - 2023-08-TODO
+### v0.1.5 released - 2023-09-01
 
 #### Major
 
-* changed query-reference selection to ...
-* robust now uses the learned ANI debiasing procedure
+Improved "N" character support: 
+
+* changed query-reference selection method slightly via a slight hack, using marker seeds to estimate reference length instead. This makes it so NNN characters are not counted. 
+* Now seeds with "N" characters present are no longer indexed. 
+
+#### Minor
+* --robust now uses the learned ANI debiasing procedure by default. 
 
 ### v0.1.4 released - 2023-06-14
 
diff --git a/src/parse.rs b/src/parse.rs
index 08b7d57..f674092 100644
--- a/src/parse.rs
+++ b/src/parse.rs
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ pub fn parse_params(matches: &ArgMatches) -> (SketchParams, CommandParams) {
 
     if ref_file_list.is_some() {
         let ref_file_list = ref_file_list.unwrap();
-        let file = File::open(ref_file_list).unwrap();
+        let file = File::open(ref_file_list).expect("-l specified file could not be opened properly. Make sure this file exists. Exiting.");
         let reader = BufReader::new(file);
         let mut temp_vec = vec![];