Maiden of Midnight

Acknowledgments

I’m not sure where to start. Maybe with my parents, who let me watch plenty of mythical movies when I was a kid- and certainly started the madness that has ensued to this very day, and no doubt forever onwards. So, thank you for watching movies with me over and over, and unknowingly helping me when you would say something downright hilarious that I would have to work into the story! And to Jack Maloney, who, without his help, I would have hit a writers’ block many times over, and this book would never have happened, and, despite all the stories I have written or read, my favorite would have to be our own together. Not to mention he helped photoshop the gorgeous cover! (Photoshop King that he is). To my English teacher, Miss Rowley, who took time out of her holidays to edit this version, helping to make it absolutely perfect. And my little sister Jorden Batchelor, who I had to bribe with two bags of chocolate and the promise that she would be famous, to pose for the cover! I paid up on at least one of these.

To all my other teachers from primary school, who encouraged me to keep writing, (even though I’m sure my constant chatter of book ideas drove you all mad) and to my peers the past few years, especially Tama and Huey, who contributed with concepts for the Demons in this book and even a few characters that are still to come!

There are lots of people to thank - too many to thank by name, but you all know who you are. So thank you! Without your help, this book wouldn’t have been as great as it is! Not to mention you, reader. Without you choosing to pick up this book, it wouldn’t have gone anywhere. I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it.

About the author

My name is Kelsey Batchelor, and I am a sixteen-year-old girl from Townsville, Australia. I have grown up in Townsville for most of my life, apart from a few years in various other towns, but I was born in Mackay.

I have been writing odd little stories since I was five, when I began making Power-points using cartoon characters and writing backstories to each of them. Since then, I have been writing small stories, or even sometimes just paragraphs, with characters that I have now worked into this story. Such as Dell, who I created when I was eight-years-old, and in the ‘Fairy phase’ that many young children go through, which, to be honest, I still haven’t entirely left. When I began seriously thinking of writing this story, I was ten-years-old and decided to incorporate many of my previous characters in, using the backstories that I had already created for them to add smaller details to them, such as Dell’s link to Tatiana, or Jason’s mysterious exile from Lamia. It wasn’t easy, but I had already enjoyed writing, so it was great fun, (although I can promise that this particular story has about a hundred drafts behind it). As for inspiration behind ‘Maiden of Midnight’, I had always enjoyed stories that use smaller details to make up a bigger picture and I have recreated this in my story to the best of my ability. There are details in this story that will help open the bigger picture in the next book, so to speak. Thank you, reader, for reading ‘Maiden of Midnight’ and I sincerely hope you enjoy reading it.