Thank you to my teachers, who made me love learning, who made me literate, who made sure I knew I could do whatever I wanted with my life. Thank you for taking notice of a little girl with a messy desk, a pile of novels too old for her and a notebook full of stories, and nurturing the skill you found there.
The biggest and most heartfelt thanks, of course, must go to my loving family, from my beloved grandparents who have loved me and supported my ambitions without a moment of doubt, through to the extended family who have always let me talk about my future as an author like a given. Thanks to Graham for acknowledging your own curse, whereby fantasy authors seem to immediately die once you start reading their unfinished series, and for refusing to read anything of mine until I get the Elm Stone Saga done. And for love and support and stuff, too. Reegan, I’ll never have another brother and I’m so grateful to have you around to keep me grounded. Thanks for being reasonable about sharing the computer, and thanks for the countless times I’ve stayed up too late writing and you’ve been the only person awake to help when I’ve found spiders in my room. Mum and Dad, I don’t have enough pages to thank you for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve sacrificed, everything you’ve put up with from me, so I can be here today writing an acknowledgements page to my first novel, so please just know that I am grateful for it all and that I know I wouldn’t have any of it without you, and that I love you both so very much. Lastly I need to thank Matthew, the deuteragonist of my life’s story, for all these years of unconditional love, for putting up with my craziness, for reading your then-eighteen-year-old girlfriend’s ‘book’ even though you were convinced it’d be terrible, for getting hooked on the story, for endless days and nights of detailed discussion about the story, for your patience as I bounce ideas, for inspiring me…I love you, and thanks, always.
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