The Room Beyond (36 page)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephanie Elmas was born in Hong Kong to an English father and Czech mother but spent most of her childhood in Bristol. She studied English at university in London. She has worked as a head hunter, taught English in Japan and returned to university to complete a Masters in Victorian fiction. It was here that she developed her interest in the dark dangerous world of Victorian sensation writing. Stephanie now lives in a chaotic house in Surrey with her husband and three highly energetic but wonderful children.

Reviews

If you have enjoyed my writing, I would
be very grateful if you wrote a review on the last page of this book. Reviews
and social networking sell books and, as a new author, I would appreciate your help.
My success as an author will come from the quality of my writing and my
readers' support.

Coming Up

The Curious Life of Walter
Balanchine

(working title)

During the writing of The
Room Beyond I fell so in love with the character of Walter Balanchine that I
felt he deserved a story of his own. And so my next novel plunges into the
labyrinthine alleyways of the Victorian East End to find Walter in his youth.
It is told through the eyes of Tom Winter, Walter’s old workhouse friend, and
how together the two men turn a simple conjuring show into a mystical sensation
that will rock the very pillars of London society.

Stephanie Elmas

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my family and friends for their
unfailing encouragement over the long period of time it has taken me to write this
book. I am also so grateful to hhb agency for being a powerhouse of support,
know-how and empathy throughout this process. Thank you Heather Holden-Brown,
Elly James, Celia Hayley and Claire Houghton-Price. Celia, I could not have
made The Room Beyond what it is without your editorial skills. I would never
have found hhb agency without the help of Clarissa Dickson Wright. Thank you
for pointing me in the right direction. My heartfelt thanks go to Jennie
Rawlings for her beautiful cover design. Finally I would like to acknowledge my
husband Alpaslan and mother Jarmila for reading all those rewrites and always
encouraging me to follow my dream. This book is for both of you.