Elemental (29 page)

To my betas, Victoria and Carol, thank you
for putting up with me. I realize my rants and boohoo moments were
pretty difficult to take sometimes. And I also realize I’m just
about the most stubborn person when it comes to changing
anything
in my book, but you were patient and helped me to
see the truth. I couldn’t have gotten to the place I’m at today
without the two of you.

Victoria, thank you especially for your
astounding abilities. I am
still
in love with my cover and I
consider myself very blessed for ever having met you. And I am so
glad we both got over our shyness and decided to call each other
and take our friendship past the online phase. I hope to meet you
both in person some day. We can sip tea and eat crumpets!

Thank you to Kelly for taking the pictures
of the very beautiful model on my cover. You got it just the way
I’d always envisioned it.

And of course I can’t forget all the
wonderful people at Spencer Hill Press for giving me a chance and
making me feel like a part of the family.

Kate, you are
amazing. I still sometimes can’t believe my good fortune. When I
think about how I came to work with SHP, I just have to sit back
and go “wow.” And if it weren’t for you and all the awesome support
you showed me by reaching out to help me in my career, I don’t know
where I’d be today. When I met you in person for the first time,
every good feeling I had about working with you was absolutely
confirmed. Your energy and excitement was addictive. We need to get
together more often.

And to Kendra, you are an editing ninja. You
and Kate have saved me from certain humiliation. And while some
writers might take it as a bad sign that they need two editors, I
knew I was exceedingly lucky. Let’s face it, I need all the help I
can get. And you are awesome. Thank you for catching all that you
did. I can honestly say that, after reading your edits and
suggestions, I didn’t need the few hours to think them over. They
were so dead-on and perfect, I saw immediately how right you were.
Thanks also to Kathryn Radzik, Danielle Ellison, Patricia Riley and
Rich Storrs for copy-editing.

To Dan, Lisa, and Jennifer, thank you for
welcoming me to the family. Your emails, Twitter support, and
comments on my blog have been the highlight of many long, stressful
days.

And finally, thank you to Adonai for
blessing me with the skill to write. I realize that it most
definitely didn’t come about from my own doing. And thank you for
sending all these people my way to help me become the writer I am
today.

About the Author

Emily White lives in NY, wedged between two
of the Great Lakes and a few feet of snow and ice. She’s spent most
of her life running away from the cold, and even spent a year in
Iraq, but now contents herself with writing her characters into
warm, exotic places in faraway galaxies. When not tapping away at
her computer keys, she can be found reading, reading, and reading
some more. And when she’s not doing that, she’s usually playing
video games with her husband, peek-a-boo with her kids, or walking
through her garden, wondering why the bugs insist on eating
all
her vegetables. Emily writes Young Adult Science
Fiction.

emilytwhite.blogspot.com

Copyright © 2012 by Emily White

Sale of the paperback edition of this book
without its cover is unauthorized.

Spencer Hill Press

This book is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

All rights reserved, including the right to
reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Contact: Spencer Hill Press, PO Box 247,
Contoocook, NH 03229, USA

Please visit our website at
www.spencerhillpress.com

First Edition: May 2012.

White, Emily. 1980

Elemental : a novel / by Emily White – 1st
ed.

p. cm.

Summary:

Ella has been imprisoned for most of her
life. Once she escapes, she needs to figure out who she is and why
she was taken. Is she the prophesied

Destructor... or will she be the one who is
destroyed?

Cover design by Victoria Caswell.

ISBN 978-1-937053-04-8 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-937053-05-5 (e-book)

Printed in the United States of America