Following Bliss (The Quest series) (2 page)

Shelby sent
Laney a quick “pick-me-up” text.

Got u some
celebration goodies. Altho may consume it all due 2 my cray cray editor.
Excited 2 hang w-u! Xo

Laney didn’t
take long to reply. She was always good like that when it came to Shelby. Since
they were the only two sisters living in the city, they agreed they had to look
out for each other.

Honor the flo
sis. Besides, all ed r cray cray. Don’t sweat it. Mayb time 2 bring ur jewelry
2 the world?  Love u! xo

Shelby had to
laugh. Laney was right, crazy editors were par for the course in the writing
world.  Complaining about her boss and allowing him to ruin her day was just
making her a stereotypical staff writer. Laughing—even to herself—eased her
tension and she felt lighter. Her blonde, shoulder-length hair bounced as she
picked up her stride, making her way out to her blue Acura TSX, cupcakes in
hand. Besides, she was only 29 years old; this wasn’t going to be her life
forever. She had big plans. Plans to be a successful jewelry designer. Plans
that not even Dillion Turkin and his ridiculous requests could deter.

Chapter 1

Daniel stood at
the entrance of the Willamette Writers Conference feeling two things—fear and
excitement. He had taken Option C, working non-stop since Tuesday, and felt
both giddy by what had been created and fearful that Ms. Kaley Hamilton would
tear it to pieces once she read it. That was the problem with being a writer,
Daniel thought, all you can think about is writing and then when you do write,
all you can think about is whether people will like it or not.

Even so,
something had come over him for the past few days in such an intense way that he
could almost say he didn’t write the novel that was in his hands now. He had
read a few books on the Law of Attraction (which says that like attracts like) and
felt like he had some kind of surrender moment. Like all the intensity of
having to complete the manuscript and show it to Kaley became so overwhelming
that he had no choice but to surrender. And when he did, it was as if some
other power or force had flowed through him. While he had a few brief moments
of stuck-ness, all in all things flowed, and now in his hands was his completed
historical novel,
Shannon Town
. His goal had been to get the first three
chapters solid, but instead he took his outline with a few paragraphs for each
chapter written and completed the entire story.

It was like some
magical Law of Attraction meets surrender spell had been cast on him and it
allowed him to write more easily than before. Almost as though he was meant to
write this book, no matter what.

Well, here I
am. And here it is.
Daniel took a deep breath.
Let’s do this.

Daniel checked
his registration. He wasn’t set to meet with Ms. Hamilton until 12:30 p.m. He
had a lecture to attend before that—giving him some time to settle into the
atmosphere of the conference before having to give the performance of a
lifetime to one of the best literary agents for his genre.

Daniel chuckled.
At least he wasn’t putting any pressure on himself. This was ironic, of course,
because all he ever did was put pressure on himself. As an only child, Daniel
felt tremendous pressure to be his parents’ “everything,” and so ever since he
could remember, he was always pushing himself to do more and then berating
himself for not doing it perfectly.

Oh wait,
Daniel
remembered,
That was my dad pushing and then berating me, I just picked up
where he left off.
He sighed, internally getting himself back on track.
Save
that for therapy, Daniel, you are here on a mission to launch your career as a
historical fiction author. The berating can wait.

Daniel checked
the room number for his first lecture on character development, which was
taking place in the St. Helens room at the Sheraton Hotel at the Portland
Airport. All of the rooms were given Portland-esque names. Clever, Daniel
thought, as he meandered his way through the conference halls, dodging writers
who had come from all over the state and the West Coast to attend the
conference. The energy throughout the hotel was somber as many, like Daniel,
knew they would only have a couple of shots (or one) at this year’s conference
to garner the attention of a powerful agent or publisher. People were speaking
in hushed tones, clinging to their binders and bags, which possibly contained
the world’s next great book. Daniel couldn’t help but strain his ears a time or
two to overhear a few conversations as he passed people in the halls.

“You know,
everyone is saying eBooks are the wave of the future. Soon we won’t even need
hard copy books.”

Daniel couldn’t
imagine a world without libraries and bookstores, or not being able to curl up
on the couch with a book in his hands, feeling the pages between his fingers. But,
he also knew that the tides were shifting and with e-readers, iPads and larger
than life smartphones, anything was possible. Besides, the format of the work
didn’t really matter—what mattered was getting his words and his message to as
many people as possible.

“He said not to
waste my time. That there are thousands of other young adult novelists out
there trying to make it after J.K. Rowling’s success.”

That woman had
already met with an agent, and he told her not to waste her time? Yikes. Daniel
could only hope Kaley Hamilton would be more gentle with him.

Daniel realized
he had circled the conference area twice now. He had been so captivated by the
people-watching and eavesdropping that he had yet to find his lecture. Just
then he walked by two men huddled together and overhead:

“Yeah, they say
some of the agents are going incognito and sitting in on lectures to scope out
authors ahead of time.”

Daniel froze.

She wouldn’t.
Would she?
Kaley Hamilton probably hadn’t become the best agent in her genre by playing by
the rules. Daniel wished he would have paid more attention to her photo
beforehand. He would have no idea if she was in the room. Suddenly, his khaki
pants and white polo seemed insufficient for making the right first impression
with an agent as accomplished as Kaley Hamilton. He looked down at his
messenger bag with his manuscript. And what if she laughed when she heard his
pitch? He imagined Kaley Hamilton dressed in white silk, looking down at him,
asking that he not waste his and the rest of the world’s time writing
historical fiction.

Beads of sweat
began forming on Daniel’s forehead. He swallowed hard, clenched his fists, took
a deep breath and turned back around. He was going to have to get it together
(and possibly Google Kaley Hamilton’s picture) before he could walk into that
lecture.

As Daniel made a
bee-line for the restroom to search Google on his smartphone, he locked eyes
with an old writing friend, Gregory LaTour.

“Hey Gregory!
Long time, how are you doing?”

“Daniel, it’s so
great to see you here. Seems as though we’re both still living the writer’s
dream, eh?”
Daniel chuckled. Gregory was in his mid-sixties and after retiring from a long
career as an electrician, he was now pursuing his desire to write novels about
World War I and II, two of his long-time passions. Daniel had met Gregory at a
Powell’s Books writing group two winters ago.

“Yes, most
definitely living the dream, Gregory, although I’m hoping to create a much
better dream here shortly. Are you still involved with the writing group?”
Daniel inquired, as he wiped his forehead. He hoped Gregory didn’t notice how
nervous he was.
“Nah, I left it shortly after you did. I felt like it was a lot of ego-stroking
and competition, and way too much coffee drinking. I had to give up caffeine, and
decaf just didn’t taste as good,” Gregory laughed.

“Didn’t you have
to give up smoking too? What’s left?” Daniel always enjoyed Gregory’s outlook
on life, always the optimist and jokester. He felt himself beginning to relax
as he focused more on Gregory and less on the nervous tension he had been
feeling.
Gregory nodded. “Yep, giving up the bad stuff so I can enjoy more of the good
stuff, like writing. Speaking of, I just ran into a few friends who did pitches
already this morning. One got in with that historical fiction gal, you know her,
Kaley Hamilton. I guess she’s a real spitfire, but totally harmless. In fact,
my friend Cal and she hit it off grandly. Cal isn’t sure if she’ll represent
his work, but said they had a blast chatting about writing and their love of
historical fiction. Who knew? I thought all those fancy pants agents were a
little stuck up. Have you met with anyone yet?”

“Gregory, god bless
you. I meet with Kaley later on today and I was starting to get nervous. I
heard some agents were even sneaking in on lectures to scope authors out. I
wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to go into my lecture, I was so worried
about running into her and making the wrong impression.”

“Oh yeah, I
heard about that, too. But really, who cares? If it’s meant to happen, it’s
gonna happen. I’m just glad to hear there are some nice ones out there. Well, I
better be going—good to see you again, Daniel.”

Gregory gave him
a hug and went on his way.

Daniel couldn’t
help but smile. Not only was it odd to run into Gregory after not seeing him in
so long, but for him to mention the same agent Daniel was worried about seeing and
to give her a glowing review—well, that was exactly the kind of magic Daniel
was hoping for. And it was most definitely the reminder Daniel needed.

He turned right
back around and headed for the lecture. Whether Kaley Hamilton was spying on
authors or not, he suddenly didn’t care to know. His confidence had returned from
the interaction with Gregory.

As Daniel walked
up to the lecture door, he felt his nervous energy rise again. Only this time
it was feeling nervous that she
wouldn’t
be there. After talking with
Gregory, Daniel was reminded that the Universe was looking out for him, and now
he felt ready to see Kaley, and impress her so much she would offer to be his
agent right there on the spot.

The conference
room was pretty full, with about 100 people jammed into the room. Daniel found
a spot along the wall to stand, and then began scoping out who was in
attendance. As he gazed over the crowd of people, a blonde woman caught his
eye. She was talking to someone else, but something about her pulled his
attention in. He couldn’t stop looking at her. Her eyes caught his gaze and she
gave him a half smile. Daniel felt as if an electrical cord was connecting them
together.

“Welcome to ‘Character
Development for All Genres.’”

A woman’s voice
echoed across the room. Daniel had brought a notebook and pen to take notes for
the conference lectures, but something about the blonde woman across the room
made it very difficult to focus. He kept trying to re-center himself and pay
attention, but it was almost like the electrical zap he felt from her kept
pulling his attention over to her.

It made the
lecture’s 45 minutes seem like an eternity.

All Daniel knew
was that as soon as it was over, he had to talk to that woman.

# # #

As the crowd
began to leave the conference room, Daniel attempted to make his way over to
where the woman was. He didn’t take his eyes off of her, sure that if he did
she might vanish and he would never see her again. He noticed though, that for
whatever reason, she was staying put, saying good-bye to a few folks, but not
leaving the room. Maybe she had felt the electrical zing as well.

When he finally
made his way over to her, she was talking with someone that she seemed to know
rather well, so Daniel stood off to the side while staying in her peripheral
vision. She looked over at him and smiled. He took this as a good sign. She
said her good-byes and turned to face him.

“Well hello,”
she said, grinning from ear to ear.
“Hello,” Daniel said, matching her smile.
“We seem to have noticed each other even from clear across this crowded room,” she
said.

“We did. And I
was intent on getting over here or I’d never forgive myself. So, thank you for
not leaving.”

“Well, I have to
confess, I had the same intention. I’m Shelby, by the way,” she said, extending
her hand to him.

“Shelby, great to
meet you,” Daniel said as he took her hand in his, shaking it lightly, but
focusing more on the feel of her skin. “I’m Daniel. So…do you come here often?”

They both broke
into laughter, relaxing more.
“Oh, all the time. I just
love
to hang out at the Sheraton Hotel. Such
great ambiance, I find that it really inspires me.” Shelby teased.

“Ah, I see. What
sort of inspiration are we talking?”

“Yeah, well,
let’s see—I’ve already mentally written two fantastically successful feature
pieces for
Hello Portland,
as well as designed a complete line of
jewelry during my time here.”

Daniel was
enjoying their exchange. This Shelby, whomever she was, with her bright green
eyes, luscious blonde hair, beautiful lips and delicious curves (yes, it was
true, he had spent most of the conference finding ways to check her out), was
also really fun. He couldn’t help but hear a voice that whispered,
“And fun
is exactly what you need right now Daniel.”
He wasn’t sure where the voice
was coming from, but he was enjoying himself too much to care.

“Turns out, you
are in great company, because I too am wildly successful. The proud author of a
series of historical fiction novels…”

With the mention
of his books, Kaley Hamilton and the pitch popped into Daniel’s awareness.  

“Oh wow, I am so
sorry. I just realized I’m supposed to be pitching to an agent in like 10
minutes. Do you want to walk over to the agents’ ballroom with me?”

Shelby smiled, happy
he hadn’t just ended the conversation, but wanted to spend some more time with
her.

“So, you’re also
embellishing about your success right now?” she teased back. “Don’t worry, in
my current reality I’m a staff writer for
Hello Portland,
but my dream
is to be a world-famous, or actually, I would settle for making an awesome
living as a jewelry designer.”

“Writing for
Hello
Portland
isn’t too shabby, Shelby. That’s practically two steps away from jewelry
super-stardom. And yes, I was embellishing a bit. I’m a writer working to have
my first historical novel published. But someday, yes, someday it will be a
series, a renowned series—it may even make it into the school library systems,
to be read by future writers and book lovers everywhere.”

Daniel added
dramatic flair to his story taking his right arm and spreading it out and
around as he described his high hopes for his novels.  Shelby burst into
laughter, covering her mouth with her hand.

“I’m so sorry! I’m
not laughing at you, I swear. I love that you have a vision for what you want
to create. You know, that’s really important and it’s the only way we create—by
having the vision first.”