A Dark and Starless Forest

by Sarah Hollowell

  Thank you to Ian, who came into my life around the same time as the idea for this book, and never doubted that I’d make it this far. Thank you for loving me, and thank you for distracting our terrible cat sons when I need to write.

  Thank you to my family—Mom, Dad, Jessica, Timothy, everyone—for a lifetime of love and support. Aunt Teri, I still have every book you gave me, and I wish you were here to see this. Oliver, Genevieve, you absolutely won’t be old enough to read this book when it comes out but if you eventually do, I hope you like it. (PS, Gen—you share a birthday with this book.)

  Thank you to Sarah Gailey, my Other Sarah. I started writing this book because I wanted to impress you. So, I guess that worked out as far as motivations go? Anyway hi, ilu. I couldn’t have done any of this without you.

  Thank you to the communal tantrum hole. I wish I could put a meme in here instead of having to use my human words to express how much I love all of you. Brittany, stop being so talented. Jeff, stop being so handsome. Jackson, stop being so ethereally perfect. Ian, you already got a whole paragraph, but I love you.

  Thank you to Julie Daly and Nicole Brinkley, who know way more about publishing than I do and have held my hand along the way. Thank you to Summer Heacock and Dahlia Adler, without whom I would never have survived the query process. Thank you to Christine Lynn Herman, Shveta Thakrar, Karuna Riazi, and Racquel Marie, for being my friends and for everything you’ve done for me. Thank you to the writing Discord—I know my attendance is spotty at best, but you’re all wonderful. Thank you to all of my many, many Indiana friends who have supported me along the way (even if you left Indiana)—Bex, Katy, Melody, John Carter, and Chelce, to name a few.

  Thank you to Team Thao. We’re going to take over the world.

  Thank you to the teachers and mentors who helped me keep going even though this is not an easy dream to pursue. Mrs. Williams got me through elementary school and Mrs. Wetherald got me through high school. Audrey Brown, thank you for convincing me to switch my major to creative writing. Angela Jackson-Brown, thank you for seeing me for who I was and who I could be when I was your student, and for being my friend now.

  Thank you to my therapist, who will one day convince me to accept that maybe I made this happen in part with my own hard work and talent, instead of just luck. Maybe. I’m trying!

  Carlos and Podrick—I’m sorry for calling you our terrible cat sons in Ian’s paragraph. It’s true, you’re terrible, but you’re also why I’m alive today, and anyway, you can’t read. I love you so much it hurts.

  Finally, thank you to my readers. I can’t really wrap my head around the idea of having readers, but ideally you will exist, and I’m grateful for each and every one of you. Especially the fat girls. I wanted to write a book where we could be the protagonist and we could be magic. More than anyone, I hope you love this book.

  About the Author

  Author photo by Ian Holt

  SARAH HOLLOWELL is a fat, queer Hoosier writer aiming to up the magic quotient of Indiana. Her day job involves endless spreadsheets. Her free time also involves a suspicious number of spreadsheets. She volunteers with teen writers through the Alpha Workshop, raises small aliens in the shape of cats, and repeatedly makes the mistake of watching horror movies alone at night.

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