The Sound of Consequence (Puget Sound ~ Alive With Love Book 1) by Susan Ann Wall

look? Not that she needed his approval. In fact, a man’s approval was the last thing Stacie was seeking. But she wondered if he’d gaze at her with that fire in his eyes. So far he’d seen her in jeans. Jeans at Starbucks, jeans at the club, jeans on the ferry. He’d also seen her naked, so maybe clothes were irrelevant. The memory of him without his clothes was burned into her brain and it was something she had thought about on the ferry this morning despite the thick coat and loose slacks he wore. Had he been thinking about their night together too?
    “You look fab,” Jenny said, pulling Stacie out of the brewing fantasy. It was perfect timing. Stacie needed to get the man out of her head if she was going to convince an editor at a publishing house that she was a writer worth taking a chance on.
    “Thanks,” Stacie said, grabbing her bag. “Let’s go.” Before she chickened out.

Chapter 4                        
    Meeting CC wasn’t as scary as Stacie had anticipated. She was actually a human being, friendly and warm, thrilled to meet Jenny’s best friend and excited to see Stacie’s work.
    With little effort and no anxiety, Stacie had told CC about the eight stories she’d already written and that the first two had storyboard sketches for the illustrations. CC asked to see the storyboards. Stacie hesitated, explaining they were raw sketches in her traveling notepad, but CC didn’t care. At Jenny’s urging, Stacie handed the notebook over and the editor asked if she could make copies.
    “Of course you can,” Jenny answered, to which CC laughed.
    “I always thought you’d make a great literary agent, Jen, but I need Stacie’s permission, not yours.”
    “What will you do with the copies?” Stacie asked, hoping she didn’t sound too naïve. This whole publishing business was new to her. Yes, her best friend had been marketing for a publisher for years, but that didn’t translate to usable knowledge on Stacie’s part.
    “I’m going to be honest, Stacie. I love this. Your stories sound fantastic and your ideas here for the illustrations are great. Series are popular and a writer who illustrates is an editor’s dream. It’s one less person to coordinate and negotiate with. I want to take this to the acquisition team. How soon can you get me an actual illustration?”
    Stacie’s mouth dropped open, a fact she realized only when Jenny reached over and lifted her chin. Apparently CC had a sense of humor because she laughed at them.
    “I, uh, I wasn’t expecting things to move this quickly.” It took years, didn’t it, for a writer to catch a break?
    “It usually doesn’t,” CC acknowledged. “But you’ve got two things going for you. I owe Jenny. She’s done some miraculous marketing on books that were on the brink of flopping. I trust her, which is why I agreed to meet you.”
    Jenny had told her that networking was just as important as talent, but Stacie didn’t want to be accepted based on someone else’s reputation. Her work, her art, was important to her. Stacie needed to be accepted based on her skill, not Jenny’s fast talking.
    CC came around the desk and stood in front of Stacie, a broad smile on her slender face. “This work, Stacie, it’s incredible. You’re talent is obvious, both in the writing and the sketches. With this series, you have long term potential and it’s been a long time since I’ve worked with an author as passionate as you. I think we should go for it. I can’t take you on without bringing this to the A-Team, but I can count on one hand the number of times in nine years when they haven’t accepted one of my pitches. They’ll want to see an actual illustration, though.”
    “I’m painting the illustrations. Oil on canvas.”
    “Another reason I want you. That’s unique. We get watercolors, drawings, computer graphics, but we don’t see a lot of oil on canvas. It’s a unique presentation for fresh stories.” CC pointed to